Lau here, writing from Poland, a short drive from the Czech border.
We left Slovenia yesterday, and I’m writing this from a hotel room with a coffee going cold next to the laptop. We’re about to hit the road again, so today’s letter will be a short one.
In between all the research and writing last week (all linked below), I’ve been following one story out of New York rather more closely than it probably deserves. It’s, of course, Mayor Mamdani’s government-run grocery stores. Call it a personal interest (I blame the Soviet childhood).
In case you haven’t, they really are happening, by the way. Five of them, one per borough, with $70 million set aside in the capital budget and a promised 30% off what the city calls a basket of fresh produce, meat, seafood and pantry staples. The first is meant to open in Hunts Point in the Bronx by the end of next year.
And while we’re on the subject, you may or may not have seen this video that’s been doing the rounds on X. In it, one of the lead officials behind Mamdani’s NYC Groceries says on camera that the city may hand out grants to local grocers worried about competition from the city-run stores. Watch it for yourself.
So let me get this straight.
They want to spend taxpayer money to subsidize communist grocery stores.
Then they want to spend taxpayer money to subsidize the private grocery stores those first stores put out of business.
And somehow, somehow, this saves taxpayers money.
All in the name of the greater good, naturally.
Our brilliant democratic socialists must have put both of their shared neurons to work on this one.
Watching this, I was immediately reminded of a quote from the great Thomas Sowell:
The political left has long had a remarkable lack of interest in how wealth is created. As far as they are concerned, wealth exists somehow and the only interesting question is how to redistribute it.
And that’s really it, isn’t it? Anybody who has ever had a 10-minute conversation with a socialist will recognize it right away. It’s all about how to divide up the pie, without ever stopping to wonder how it got on the table in the first place.
And this, of course, is exactly why these policies are always doomed to fail.
As I put it on my Substack the other day, give Mamdani’s grocery stores enough time and scale, and this is roughly where the experiment ends up:
Though I really doubt it’ll take until 2046. A few years should do it.
(In case you're not familiar, that's an actual photo of Boris Yeltsin, then one of the Soviet Union's top politicians and later president of Russia, in a Texas supermarket in 1989. More on it, and on what Soviet grocery shopping was really like, here.)
On that note, let me leave you with a Soviet joke that fits the occasion. Hopefully good for a chuckle on a Monday morning, and a bit of food for thought besides.
Last week’s pieces are linked below (in case you missed either of them).
China Just Pulled the Plug on Paper Silver
Last month, ICBC, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the largest bank in the world by assets, suspended retail leveraged precious-metals margin trading on the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE).
The U.S. Has a Plan for the Next Yen Rescue. You're Funding It.
Last week, I wrote to you about the operation in which the United States and Japan went into the currency market together to prop up the falling yen, the first coordinated action of its kind since 1998.
From the Comments
One of the things I’ve come to appreciate most about writing here is the conversation that happens in the comments. Here are five that stood out last week, for different reasons. Each one links back to the piece it appeared on, so you can click through if you’re interested in the context.
Thanks again to everyone who left a comment last week. I read all of them, even the ones I don’t get a chance to reply to individually.
See you in the comments this week.
Regards,
Lau Vegys