Tidbits
Political Quotations
To Accompany the November 12, 2015 edition of Tidbits
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2015/tidbits111215.htm
Bob Jensen at
Trinity University
Election Information ---
http://www.rockthevote.com/get-informed/elections/
Cross-Over Gaming Primary Elections: Voting for a Sure Loser Rather
Than a Candidate That Might Win in a Race to the Botton
Cross-Over Gaming Primary Elections: Voting for a Sure Loser to Knock
Out Winning Candidates
Based upon a comment I heard on CBS News there are signs that the poll
support and crowds supporting Donald Trump are largely members of the Democratic
Party intent on messing up the Republican Party primary outcomes. These Trump
supporters have no intent to vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 general election
if he should be nominated. Something similar may be happening among the
supporters of Bernie Sanders who are really Republicans in sheeps' white wool.
The USA system of selecting nominees in primary elections that precede general
elections possibly are becoming a vicious game.
Election Gaming "Fraud" in Primary Elections in the USA:
Making Sure Your General Election Opponent is a Real Loser
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudulentElections.htm
FlackCheck.org ---
http://www.flackcheck.org
Headquartered at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the
University of Pennsylvania, FlackCheck.org offers resources that help students
"recognize flaws in arguments in general and political ads in particular"
RealClearPolitics: Election 2016 ---
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/elections/2016/
Bloggingheads.tv (political commentary ---
http://bloggingheads.tv/
OpenSecrets (money and politics blog) ---
https://www.opensecrets.org
It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.
Babe Ruth,
And he wasn't
even thinking about
Jihads in those days but I am thinking Jihads these days
Tort lawyers prosper by
rounding up potentially injured plaintiffs in class actions, and sometimes the
plaintiffs don’t even have to be injured to qualify. On Monday the Supreme Court
will consider whether the trial bar can put together class actions seeking
hundreds of millions of dollars in damages without showing that anyone was
harmed.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/inventing-class-actions-1446416470?mod=djemMER
Only those who
will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
T.S. Eliot
Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.
Margaret Wheatley,
We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life
that is waiting for us.
Joseph Campbell
If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.
George S. Patton
Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude
you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly
on your shoulder.
Henry David Thoreau
It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.
Babe Ruth,
And he wasn't
even thinking about
Jihads in those days but I am thinking Jihads these days
UPI: Sweden facing 'collapse' because of
refugees, foreign minister says
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2015/11/02/Sweden-facing-collapse-because-of-refugees-foreign-minister-says/6781446474063/
Carly
Fiorina Responds to "The View" Hosts Who Made Fun of Her Appearance: "Let's See
If They Say That to My Face" Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina
responded to the jokes the ladies of "The View" made at her expense after the
last GOP debate - particularly regarding her appearance - Sunday morning. "It
will not stop me, it will not scare me, and maybe the ladies of 'The View,' if I
come back on again, let's see if they have the guts to say that to my face,"
Fiorina said. ---
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/11/01/carly-fiorina-responds-to-the-view-hosts-who-made-fun-of-her-appearance-lets-see-if-they-say-that-to-my-face/
According to the view Carly has a "demented face." It's sad when Whoppie's
beautiful face sets a better standard if beauty.
Voting in the Senate is not important for a Senator
Presidential candidate Marco Rubio
rationalizing why he missed more Senate votes than any other member of the
Senate ---
http://www.politicususa.com/2015/10/25/marco-rubio-falls-asked-missed-votes-senate.html
The Atlantic: Truth: A Terrible, Terrible Movie
About Journalism: James Vanderbilt's directorial debut gets almost
everything wrong about its putative subject
Christopher Orr, The Atlantic,
October 23, 2015 ---
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/10/truth-a-terrible-terrible-movie-about-journalism/412036/
AP FACT CHECK: GOP
candidates flub some figures in debate ---
http://townhall.com/news/politics-elections/2015/11/11/ap-fact-check-gop-candidates-flub-some-figures-in-debate-n2079025
Obamacare: Health
insurers lost a total of $2.5 billion, or on average $163 per consumer enrolled,
in the individual market in 2014
Anna Wilde Mathews,
The Wall Street Journal, November 1, 2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/health-laws-strains-show-1446423498?mod=djemCFO_h&alg=y
We are witnessing
the shift of power to athletes on college campuses. The University of Missouri
football team is the main force that toppled the president plus the chancellor
of the university.
On the other hand the University of North Carolina top administers who provided
fake courses and A grades to athletes were protected for 20 years by the
athletes.
Bob Jensen
To some observers, the
resignations demonstrated that athletes have outsize collective power, even
absent formal bargaining rights. John Paul (Sonny) Vaccaro, a retired Adidas and
Nike executive, described the events at Missouri as watershed. "This is what
I’ve believed could happen for 30 years and what I think is the deepest fear for
the NCAA — athletes control what happens on campus," Mr. Vaccaro told Yahoo
Sports. "This is an unbelievable step forward for athletes."
Jack Stripling ,
Chronicle of Higher Education
http://chronicle.com/article/Thrust-Into-a-National-Debate/234131?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elq=5d9ac63b9cd0452986769a3ffcb21aca&elqCampaignId=1797&elqaid=6828&elqat=1&elqTrackId=a2c66509e54f4a98a8f670bb1c084c8e
Health and Human
Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell announced recently that she expects 10 million
people to be enrolled in health-care coverage through ObamaCare’s exchanges by
the end of next year. What she didn’t mention was that in March of last year the
Congressional Budget Office predicted that 21 million people would be enrolled
in 2016—more than double the new estimate.
Andy Puzder ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-slow-motion-implosion-of-obamacare-1446417104?mod=djemMER
The uninsured “also
know they can receive medical care at the emergency room. And if they fall ill,
they can always purchase insurance during the next enrollment period, because
ObamaCare eliminated existing conditions as a justification for denying
coverage. Our employees are smart enough to figure this out. Of our company’s
5,453 eligible employees, only 420 enrolled,” reports Mr. Puzder.
James Freeman ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/obamacares-failure-a-case-study-1446466932
We're old enough to remember when advocates for the
Affordable Care Act promised that it would "bend the cost curve" and reduce
expensive hospital visits, particularly at emergency rooms. So far, the opposite
is occurring.
James Freeman, "There Goes Another
ObamaCare Argument," WSJ, August 6, 2014 ---
http://online.wsj.com/articles/there-goes-another-obamacare-argument-1407242712?tesla=y&mod=djemMER_h&mg=reno64-wsj
It's also
terrible for climate change. So far this year, these fires have released more
greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than all the fossil fuels burned annually
in Germany. On at least 38 days in September and October, Indonesia's fires were
spewing more daily emissions than the entire United States economy.
Brad Plumer ---
http://www.vox.com/2015/10/30/9645448/indonesia-fires-peat-palm-oil
A new
study out of Tennessee is indicating that the
universal preschool program in the state may be a complete waste of money that
doesn't actually benefit the children enrolled and may actually harm them. This
study has
similar conclusions as
one in Quebec that examined low-cost daycare programs, as well as studies that
suggest that Head Start has little to no academic
benefits for the children who enroll in the program.
Christine Rousselle
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/christinerousselle/2015/10/27/another-study-indicates-that-universal-preschool-is-essentially-useless-n2071715?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=
Jensen Comment
Call it what it is --- day care for working parents. Perhaps this should be
funded, but don't make it out to be what it isn't.
http://daily.jstor.org/universal-pre-k-help-working-mothers
Bacon report serves up baloney
by Tom Shattuck, The Boston Harold, October 27, 2015 ---
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/tom_shattuck/2015/10/shattuck_bacon_report_serves_up_baloney
The rise in popularity of Ben Carson causes
unprofessional desperation in the media
Ben Carson holds combative press conference to denounce
media reports about him ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/ben-carson-press-conference-west-point-politico-cnn-2015-11
You can't always trust the liberal bias of
Snopes
Snopes falsely says, “The Obama administration didn’t
sue on behalf of Muslim truck drivers who refused to transport alcohol.”
https://danfromsquirrelhill.wordpress.com/2015/11/05/snopes/
United
Nations: Iran to Execute Thousands For Crimes Like Poetry, Practicing
Journalism and Other "Offenses"
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2015/10/28/iran-to-execute-thousands-for-crimes-like-poetry-practicing-journalism-and-other-offenses-n2072337?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=
After the last GOP debate,
the "women" of The View pulled out their dragon-nails and said that Carly
Fiorina looked "demented" and her face was worthy of a Halloween mask.
http://townhall.com/columnists/douggiles/2015/11/08/if-carly-is-ugly-then-what-is-whoopi-n2077538?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=
Whoppy Goldberg's response when Fiorina was hurt by those catty remarks was that
Carly could not take a joke.
NASA says
Antarctica is actually gaining ice. Does this mean climate is fine?
http://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/nasa-says-antarctica-is-actually-gaining-ice-does-this-mean-climate-is-fine/ar-BBmHQF3?ocid=spartandhp
Jensen Comment
There seems to be a big difference between the East Antarctica where ice is
gaining faster than expected and
West Antarctica where ice is
melting faster than expected (in part due to underground volcanic activity)
---
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/west-antarctic-ice-melt-could-raise-seas-by-3-meters/ar-BBmLIjW?ocid=spartandhp
No, Bernie Sanders, health care in Cuba is Not a Socialist Utopia
http://townhall.com/columnists/humbertofontova/2015/10/24/bernie-sanders-hails-castroite-education-healthcare-n2070141?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=
Jensen Comment
In reality there are two health care systems in Cuba. A perfectly awful system
for the proletariat and a good system for the .bourgeoisie in the military and
upper levels of the Communist Party.
Bernie Sanders is more
American than Ayn Rand: Democratic socialism will always trump free-market
selfishness ---
http://www.salon.com/2015/11/02/bernie_sanders_is_more_american_than_ayn_rand_democratic_socialism_will_always_trump_free_market_selfishness/
We'd rather be obese on
benefits than thin and working.
Janice and Amber Manzur
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11347454/Mother-and-daughter-weigh-a-total-of-43-stone-and-get-34k-a-year-handouts-but-refuse-to-diet.html
Man claims severe
disability, gets caught using a ladder ---
http://news.yahoo.com/man-claims-severe-disability-gets-caught-using-ladder-160413018.html
Among his 30 lawsuits is a claim for additional food stamps for his dog.
She's shoplifted
goods worth £2m, has SIX children by four fathers - and lives off benefits ---
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3355779/posts
Moocher Hall of Fame ---
https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/the-moocher-hall-of-fame/
Election Gaming "Fraud" in Primary Elections in the USA:
Making Sure Your General Election Opponent is a Real Loser
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudulentElections.htm
Table of Contents
Funding Losers
Communications Juggernauts in Crossover Voting Frauds
Funding Opponent Scandals
The Week In Congress ---
http://theweekincongress.com/
Did The Democratic Debate Change The Odds? ---
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/did-the-democratic-debate-change-the-odds/
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership
This is a "trade deal" being actively pushed by President Obama but opposed by
Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump
. . .
In December 2014 Senator
(I-VT) Bernie Sanders denounced the TPP,:
"Let’s be clear: the TPP
is much more than a “free trade” agreement. It is part of a global race to
the bottom to boost the profits of large corporations and Wall Street by
outsourcing jobs; undercutting worker rights; dismantling labor,
environmental, health, food safety and financial laws; and allowing
corporations to challenge our laws in international tribunals rather than
our own court system. If TPP was such a good deal for America, the
administration should have the courage to show the American people exactly
what is in this deal, instead of keeping the content of the TPP a
secret.[91]"
Jensen Comment
In class discussions we've all experienced students who talk so much that they
reveal not having done their assigned homework
The GOP on Economics: The good, the bad, and
the ugly at the fourth presidential debate ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-gop-on-economics-1447224376?mod=djemMER
. . .
Mr. Trump called it a
“terrible deal,” though it wasn’t obvious that he has any idea what’s in it.
His one specific criticism was its failure to deal with Chinese currency
manipulation. But it took Rand Paul
to point out that China isn’t
part of the deal and would be happy if the agreement collapsed so the U.S.
would have less economic influence in Asia.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
Contrary to what he claims I don't think Donald Trump knows a whole lot about
economics or management having thrown four of his biggest corporations into
bankruptcy.
"This Budget Is No Deal, It's A Spending Spree," by
Stephen Moore, Investors Business Daily, October 27, 2015 ---
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-viewpoint/102715-777718-stephen-moore-stop-the-budget-deal-spending-spree.htm#ixzz3prJbnJY6
No wonder Nancy Pelosi and the White House are
bursting with glee. The budget deal is the biggest spending blitz in years.
Let's start with an amazing and depressing
statistic. Federal spending in 2016 was already expected to climb by more
than $250 billion — or close to $1 billion extra spending each day. This was
to be a 6% rise in outlays in a year when inflation is running at slightly
less than 2%.
But the budget deal adds to the orgy of spending.
The plan raises spending by at least $100 billion over two years and busts
through the spending caps for two years.
And it raises the debt ceiling by about $1 trillion
for the next year and a half so that Washington doesn't have to deal with it
anymore.
What a calamity.
The only victory Republicans have had in six years
under Obama is the spending caps, and now they want to punt those away?
Obama dangled the bait of cuts in the long-term
income-transfer programs like Medicare and Social Security.
Sure. These are the same Democrats who show TV ads
of Republicans shoving grandma over the cliff with her wheelchair. Are
Republicans really dumb enough to fall for that Lucy-and-the-football trick
again?
Families Need A Raise
If the spending caps are blown open, federal
spending may rise by more than $300 billion in 2016 and $500 billion over
two years. In 2016 alone spending will rise by close to 8% in 2016. (See
chart.)
So we get a short-term spending blowout paid for by
some obscure promises of future cuts in entitlements and the sale from oil
in the petroleum reserves, which is stupid because the price of oil is so
low.
Once the spending caps are blown away for two
years, the GOP has zero leverage for real and substantial entitlement
reforms, including the establishment of personal retirement accounts as a
voluntary alternative to the Social Security program for tens of millions of
young workers.
This is a bad deal on every level. It makes
Republicans look like hypocritical frauds when they say they are the party
for fiscally accountable and cost-efficient government.
Families haven't had a raise in nearly a decade,
and now the Depublicans are going to give government an 8% raise?
This only reinforces the sentiment of voters that
the two parties in Washington are Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. With the
emphasis on "dumb." Obama and his liberal friends who feast on government
are laughing all the way to the bank.
Reforms in entitlement programs — which are
ravaging the federal budget and are expected to grow by another trillion
over the next decade — make sense.
But these reforms should be on top of the budget
caps and sequester, not a replacement. Even with the caps, the government is
expected to continue borrowing between a half billion and $1 trillion a
year.
Obama has run up the debt by about $7 trillion
already, and now he won't have to ask for another debt limit rise before he
leaves office.
Broken Promise
There is much joy in the Oval Office and on K
Street from lobbyists who feast off government spending.
For the rest of us: The deal is the opposite of
everything Republicans promised when voters elected them to the majorities
in the House and Senate last year.
The bet by the GOP political pundits in Washington
is that voters don't know or don't care about this bipartisan fiscal jail
break.
But they do know. And they are angry as hornets
about it. Just ask any Trump voter.
From the CPA Newsletter on October 29. 2015
The budget
deal forged between the White House and congressional leaders includes a
number of policy changes that would affect businesses and individuals. Among
other things, the bill would seek to prevent a cut in Social Security
Disability Insurance benefits, limit a hike in Medicare premiums and make it
easier for the IRS to audit large partnerships.
The Washington Post (tiered subscription model)
(10/27),
The Wall Street Journal (tiered subscription
How to Mislead With Statistics
Bacon report serves up
baloney
by Tom Shattuck, The Boston Harold, October 27, 2015 ---
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/tom_shattuck/2015/10/shattuck_bacon_report_serves_up_baloney
"Don’t Blame Encryption for ISIS Attacks," by Tom Simonite, MIT's
Technology Review, November 16, 2015 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/543566/dont-blame-encryption-for-isis-attacks/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20151117
Fired Muslim Truck Drivers Who Refused to Deliver Beer Over Religious
Beliefs Win Lawsuit ---
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2015/10/29/muslim-truck-drivers-refuse-to-deliver-beer-win-240000-lawsuit-n2072722?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=
Jensen Comment
Can you imagine where this precedent could lead. Muslim religion and history
professors can refuse to teach any part of religion and history that is
non-Muslim. Muslim finance and accounting professors can refuse to teach
anything about the calculation of interest in finance and accounting. Should we
be required to have choices on ballots of candidates who do not drink or eat
pork or go bare headed?
Where's the ACLU when we really need to leave religion out of government and
work.
"Over half of psychology studies fail
reproducibility test." "Study delivers bleak verdict on validity of psychology
experiment results." "Psychology is a discipline in crisis."
"How to Fix Psychology’s Replication Crisis," by Brian D. Earp and Jim
A.C. Everett, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 25, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/How-to-Fix-Psychology-s/233857?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elq=ffdd5e32cd6c4add86ab025b68705a00&elqCampaignId=1697&elqaid=6688&elqat=1&elqTrackId=ffd568b276aa4a30804c90824e34b8d9
Journalism Should Also Be More Concerned
About Replication Issues
"The New York Times’ Nail Salons Series Was Filled with Misquotes and
Factual Errors. Here’s Why That Matters: Reporter Sarah Maslin Nir's
investigative series violated the standards of responsible journalism," by Jim
Epstein, Reason Magazine, October 27, 2015 ---
https://reason.com/blog/2015/10/27/new-york-times-nail-salon-unvarnished
"NYT Public Editor: 'New York Times's Nail Salon Exposé 'Went Too Far',"
by Michele Gorman, Newsweek, November 6, 2015 ---
http://www.newsweek.com/new-york-times-nail-salon-too-far-391498
An exposé published
earlier this year by The New York Times that
detailed hazardous working and health
conditions and mistreatment of workers in
nail salons in and around New York
City "went too far in generalizing about an
entire industry," the newspaper's public
editor, Margaret Sullivan, wrote
Friday
in a column.
The two
stories—"The
Price of Nice Nails" and
"Perfect
Nails, Poisoned Workers,"
written by
Sarah Maslin Nir and published on
consecutive days in May—were widely
discussed after they were published in
English, Chinese, Korean and Spanish. Almost
immediately, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo
ordered emergency measures to address the
reported mistreatment of the workers.
Sullivan said she agrees that the final stories had
"admirable intentions" in speaking for underpaid or abused workers and
calling for reform. However, she said, "in places, the two-part
investigation went too far in generalizing about an entire industry. Its
findings, and the language used to express them, should have been dialed
back—in some instances substantially."
Continued in article
Politico Admits Fabricating A Hit Piece On Ben
Carson. Politico‘s Kyle Cheney admitted that he fabricated a negative story
about Ben Carson. At least, according to his own standards, he admitted the
grievous journalistic sin ---
http://thefederalist.com/2015/11/06/politico-admits-fabricating-a-hit-piece-on-ben-carson/
There were at least
five major problems with the story:
- The headline
was completely false
- The subhed
was also completely false
- The opening
paragraph was false false false
- The substance
of the piece was missing key exonerating
information
- The article
demonstrated confusion about service academy
admissions and benefits
Hollywood
Should Also Be More Concerned About Replication Issues
"The Atlantic: Truth: A Terrible, Terrible Movie About Journalism:
James Vanderbilt's directorial debut gets almost everything wrong about its
putative subject." Christopher Orr, The Atlantic, October 23, 2015 ---
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/10/truth-a-terrible-terrible-movie-about-journalism/412036/
Late in the movie Truth, the former 60 Minutes
Wednesday producer Mary Mapes (played by Cate Blanchett) offers a Big Speech
about the state of journalism, decrying the fact that all that people want
to read or watch on television these days is “conspiracy theories.” The
irony apparently lost on her (or at least on the writer-director James
Vanderbilt) is that she makes this charge while she herself is in the midst
of presenting a conspiracy theory.
The film concerns 60 Minutes’s 2004 pre-election
reporting on George W. Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard. Two
documents central to the news program’s contention that Bush was granted
preferential treatment were subsequently revealed to be almost certainly
fraudulent. This error ultimately resulted in the retirement from CBS of Dan
Rather (played here with likable understatement by Robert Redford) and the
firing of Mapes and others. It’s in the midst of her “conspiracy theory”
speech that Mapes suggests that the fraudulent documents were a cunning ploy
by pro-Bush forces—immaculately sophisticated in some respects, but
childishly certain to be recognized as fake in others—intended to discredit
further reporting into his military record. Could this be true? Stranger
things have happened, I suppose. But it’s pretty much the definition of a
conspiracy theory.
This is, alas, of a piece with Truth, one of the
worst films about journalism (and there have been plenty of bad ones) to
come down the pike in a long while. The movie loudly, hectoringly stresses
the importance of always “asking questions”—my notes include, among others,
the lines “Questions help us get to the truth,” “You stop asking questions,
that’s when the American people lose,” and “You’re supposed to question
everything, that’s your job”—and yet the very quality it celebrates in its
protagonist is that she never questions whether or not her reporting might
have been wrong. This is a film in which acknowledging error is treated as
some terrible surrender and betrayal of trust; in actual journalism, it’s
considered a moral obligation—one that, sadly, most people in the field have
had some experience with, in one capacity or another.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's Fraud Updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
NY Times: 1/3 Of Law Schools Admit Entering Classes With 25% Or More
Students At Risk For Failing The Bar Exam ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/10/ny-times-13-of-law-schools-have-entering-classes-with-at-least-25-of-students-at-risf-for-failing-th.html
Jensen Comment
Having only 25% of the entering class at risk for passing the CPA examination
would probably make that program the top program in the USA. I don't know of any
accounting program that comes even close to that high standard. There are
probably some masters of accounting programs that do this well, but keep in mind
those masters programs are only admitting the cream of the crop accounting
graduates from undergraduate programs.
In fairness, many graduates of undergraduate accounting programs do not take
the CPA examination. However, most seeking masters degrees in accounting do so
because of the 150-credit requirement to sit for the CPA examination. Accounting
graduates who do not sit for the CPA examination most likely do so, in my
opinion, because of the cost and effort needed by taking prep courses in
addition to having degrees in accounting.
In fairness, passing the bar exam is probably more important for a law career
vis-a-vis passing the CPA examination for an accounting career outside of public
accounting. Many accounting graduates without CPA credentials find accounting
careers in government (e.g., the IRS) and business firms.
Kickback (bribery) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kickback
"U.S. Sen. Warren: ‘Kickbacks’ Create Conflicts for Annuity Sales Agents,"
by Leslie Scism, The Wall Street Journal, October 27, 2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-sen-warren-kickbacks-create-conflicts-for-annuity-sales-agents-1445961871?mod=djemCFO_h
Jensen Comment
I always thought that "kickback" was a form of bribery to non-employees such as
kickbacks to customers and government agents such as bribing a government agent
or paying or paying a customer's purchasing agent under the table to agree to
make a purchase. Kickbacks are common, albeit often illegal, when vendors pay
under-the-table to sell such things as military equipment and supplies to the
Pentagon. A common and illegal or unethical type of kickback arises when
pharmaceutical companies off free cruises and condos as incentives for
physicians to prescribe branded merchandise that is usually overpriced relative
to generic alternatives.
In this context, what Sen. Warren calls
"kickbacks" to employees really are just other forms of compensation such as
giving out prizes in lieu of cash bonuses to sales employees for outstanding
performances. Such prizes are taxable to employees and must be reported at fair
values to the IRS. There are some advantages to paying non-cash prizes such as
vacation hotel rooms. Employers can often negotiate lower prices for such prizes
due to such deals as volume discounts from hotel chains and block purchases of
cruise liner tickets. By "lower price" I mean less that an employee would pay
for such a prize if purchased separately out of a cash bonus. It'sis quite
traditional to give non-cash prizes to sales staff in most industries.
As long as this non-cash compensation is all
above board and satisfies IRS requirements I see nothing unethical or illegal
about it.
The risk lies more with incentives the employees have to act unethically when
selling products and services that are overpriced and/or inferior. However, such
risk is perhaps even greater if the compensation is in the form of cash bonuses
rather than non-cash prizes to employees.
Sometimes non-cash prizes become hedonistic with
lavish parties in luxury hotels where premium whiskey and wine encourages
inebriation while very expensive bands and singers perform, Sometimes things get
out of hand with added alternatives for prostitutes that are not likely to be
reported on W-2 forms. Perhaps Sen. Warren is being influenced by reported
hedonism of non-cash prizes to annuity sales agents.
When I bought various lifetime annuities from
TIAA I was not even offered a free lunch, and the TIAA representative was a
young mother who did not seem likely to be wanting lavish parties and
prostitutes.
This Building Acts as Its Own Air Conditioner (a hotel that
generates all of its own electricity) ---
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/this-building-acts-as-its-own-air-conditioner/ar-BBmHhR1?ocid=spartandhp
Jensen Comment
It's not clear how efficient this building is in the dark of windless night or
whether it has to be connected to the grid for supplemental power.
Laffer Curve ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffer_curve
Between 1979 and 2002,
more than 40 other countries, including the United Kingdom, Belgium,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, and Sweden cut their top rates of
personal income tax. In an article about
this,
Alan Reynolds, a
senior fellow with the
right-libertarian
think tank
Cato Institute,
wrote, "Why did so many other countries so dramatically reduce marginal tax
rates? Perhaps they were influenced by new economic analysis and evidence
from... supply-side economics. But the sheer force of example may well have
been more persuasive. Political authorities saw that other national
governments fared better by having tax collectors claim a medium share of a
rapidly growing economy (a low marginal tax) rather than trying to extract a
large share of a stagnant economy (a high average tax)."[38]
Japanese government raised the sales tax in 1997 for the purpose of
balancing its budget, but the government revenue decreased by 4.5 trillion
yen because consumption stumbled. The country recorded a GDP growth rate of
3 percent in 1996, but after the tax hike the economy sank into recession
(although this was also the time period of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.)[39]
The tax revenue reached a peak of 53 trillion yen in FY 1997, and declined
in subsequent years, being still 42 trillion yen[40]
(537 billion US dollars) in 2012.
Continued in article
"Israel, the Laffer Curve, and Market-Based Reform," by
Daniel J. Mitchell, Townhall, November 17, 2015 ---
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/danieljmitchell/2015/11/17/israel-the-laffer-curve-and-marketbased-reform-n2081727
Since I’m a big fan of
the
Laffer Curve,
I’m always interested in real-world examples
showing good results
when governments reduce marginal tax rates on productive activity.
Heck, I’m equally
interested in
real-world results when governments do the wrong
thing
and increase tax burdens on work, saving, investment, and entrepreneurship
(and, sadly,these
examples
are more common).
My goal, to be sure,
isn’t to maximize revenue for politicians. Instead, I prefer the
growth-maximizing point
on the Laffer Curve.
In any event, my modest
hope is that politicians will learn that higher tax rates lead to less
taxable income. Whether taxable income falls by a lot or a little obviously
depends on the specific circumstance. But in either case, I want policy
makers to understand that
there are negative economic effects.
Writing for Forbes, Jeremy Scott of Tax Notes
analyzes
the supply-side policies of Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu
Netanyahu…argued that the Laffer curve worked, and that his 2003 tax cuts
had transformed Israel into a market economy and an engine of growth. …He
pushed through controversial reforms… The top individual tax rate was cut
from 64 percent to 44 percent, while corporate taxes were slashed from 36
percent to 18 percent. …Netanyahu credits these reforms for making Israel’s
high-tech boom of the last few years possible. …tax receipts did rise after
Netanyahu’s tax cuts. In fact, they were sharply higher in 2007 than in
2003, before falling for several years because of the global recession. …His
tax cuts did pay for themselves. And he has transformed Israel into more of
a market economy…In fact, the prime minister recently announced plans for
more cuts to taxes, this time to the VAT and corporate levies.
Pretty
impressive.
Though
I have to say that rising revenues doesn’t necessarily mean that the tax
cuts were completely self-financing. To answer that question, you have to
know what would have happened in the absence of the tax cut. And since that
information never will be available, all we can do is speculate.
That being said, I have
no doubt there was a strong Laffer Curve response in Israel. Simply stated,
dropping the top tax rate on personal income by 20 percentage points creates
a
much more conducive environment
for investment and entrepreneurship.
And cutting the
corporate tax rate in half is also
a sure-fire recipe
for improved investment and job creation.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
Note that there's likely to be a relatively long lag between tax cuts and
increases in tax revenues even in circumstances that are likely to have a Laffer
Curve impact. For example, Bill Clinton allegedly was able to balance the budget
due to lags in the Regain tax cuts.
The circumstances were not decent for the George W. Bush tax
cuts because he was the most spendthrift president in USA history. Tax cuts do
not necessarily have a Laffer Curve impact when spending is significantly
increased alongside the tax cuts. The George W. Bush veto pen was still full of
ink at the end of his term of office as President of the USA.
The circumstances of Laffer Curve impact are also not good if
the economy is heading for a deep recession. Too many other variables come into
play, especially global variables.
The Miracle of Chile ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_Chile
"Clinton’s Accidental Transparency: Let down by her
overconfidence that the homebrew server would remain secret," by L. Gordon
Crovitz, The Wall Street Journal, October 22, 2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/clintons-accidental-transparency-1445806001?mod=djemMER
No wonder Hillary Clinton feels aggrieved by her
congressional grilling on Benghazi. She had the hard luck to be secretary of
state in the Internet era, when digital secrets escape despite the best
efforts to keep them hidden. Unintended transparency is better than none.
In an earlier era, the American public would never
have learned Mrs. Clinton knew during the attack that it was a planned
operation by terrorists and not a spontaneous protest as the administration
insisted.
Mrs. Clinton kept her more than 60,000 emails off
the State Department’s server. They came to light only because the House
Select Committee on Benghazi discovered her secret email system. Those
emails—not Mrs. Clinton—were the star witness at last week’s hearing,
disclosing with precision who knew what when.
Publicly, Mrs. Clinton issued a statement at 10:32
p.m. Sept. 11, 2012, the evening of the attack, blaming the YouTube video.
But the committee disclosed that at 11:12 p.m., she told her daughter,
Chelsea, by email: “Two of our officers were killed in Benghazi by an Al
Qaeda-like group.” At 11:49 p.m., according to a State Department email, she
told the president of Libya: “There is a gun battle ongoing, which I
understand Ansar [al] Sharia”—the local al Qaeda affiliate—“is claiming
responsibility for.”
The day after the attack, Mrs. Clinton gave two
public comments again blaming the video. The White House press secretary
declared: “We have no information to suggest that it was a planned attack.”
But the same day, Mrs. Clinton told the Egyptian
prime minister by phone: “We know that the attack in Libya had nothing to do
with the film. It was a planned attack—not a protest.” In other words, we’re
not so naïve as to believe what we’re telling American voters to further the
re-election claim that we’ve put “al Qaeda on the run.”
Two weeks later, the administration was still
blaming the video. “There is no video that justifies an attack on an
embassy,” President Obama told the United Nations General Assembly Sept. 25.
“The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” On
Sept. 27 federal agents arrested the Egyptian-born Coptic Christian who made
the video, supposedly for violating his parole. (Earlier this year, Islamic
State terrorists beheaded 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians on a Libyan beach.)
Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) summed up his view of
the administration’s and Mrs. Clinton’s motives: “You can live with a
protest about a video. That won’t hurt you. But a terrorist attack will. So
you can’t be square with the American people. You tell your family it’s a
terrorist attack, but not the American people. You can tell the president of
Libya it’s a terrorist attack, but not the American people. And you can tell
the Egyptian prime minister it’s a terrorist attack, but you can’t tell your
own people the truth.”
The email saga is not over. The facts are coming
out only now because it took almost a year for Mrs. Clinton to produce a
fraction of the emails from her homebrew server. The FBI is reportedly
investigating whether the setup constituted criminal “gross negligence” in
handling classified information. Cybersecurity experts say her unprotected
emails were almost certainly hacked by the Chinese and Russians. If so,
foreign intelligence agencies possess emails the State Department has
withheld from Congress, as well as those Mrs. Clinton withheld from the
State Department.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
Having always been disrespectful of Bill and Hillary Clinton I must admit that
any Democratic or GOP alternative to having the Clintons back in the White House
scares the beejeebers out of me. I mean the other alternatives at this stage in
the game are scarier than anything Hollywood can dream up for Halloween. Yeah
the scariest Halloween mask is a Donald Trump mask! Where's Mitt Romney when we
need him the most?
"Inside the Secretive World of Tax-Avoidance Experts," by Brooke
Harrington, The Atlantic, October 26, 2015 ---
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/10/elite-wealth-management/410842/
A sociologist realized that if she were ever going
to understand global inequality she would have to become one of the people
who helps create it. So she trained to become a wealth manager to the
ultra-rich.
Shakespeare said that all the world’s a stage, but
the sociologist Erving Goffman added that most of the interesting stuff lies
behind the scenes, in what he called the “backstage” areas of everyday life.
Having spent the past eight years doing research on
the international wealth-management profession, I have to agree with Goffman:
The most revealing information comes from the moments when people stop
performing and go off-script. Like the time one of the wealth managers I
interviewed in the British Virgin Islands lost his composure and threatened
to have me thrown out of the country. His ire arose from an unexpected
quarter: He took offense to my use of the term “socio-economic inequality”
in the two scholarly articles I had published on the profession. I thought
the articles were typically academic, which is to say, the opposite of
sensationalizing and of little interest to anyone outside my field. But my
suggestion that wealth managers might be connected to inequality in any way
seemed alarmingly radical to this gentleman.
I was lucky that he merely threatened me. A journalist
from Newsweek actually
was deported from a
different tax-haven island (Jersey) for her reporting there, and was banned
from re-entering the island, or any part of the U.K., for nearly two years.
Even though
her story was unrelated to the financial-services industry,
it was expected to bring negative publicity to the island, threatening its
reputation as a place to do business. The message was therefore quashed by
banishment of the messenger. The wealth-management industry does not mess
around.
Wealth
management is a profession on the defensive. Although many people have never
heard of it, it is well known to both state revenue authorities and
international agencies seeking to impose the rule of law on high-net-worth
individuals. Those individuals—including the 103,000 people classified as
“ultra-high-net-worth” based on having $30 million or more in investable
assets—pay wealth-management professionals hefty fees to help them avoid
taxes, debts, legal judgments, and other obligations the rest of the world
considers part of everyday life. The general public doesn’t hear much about
these professionals, since there are only a few of them worldwide (just
under 20,000 belong to the main professional society) and they strive to
keep a low profile, both for themselves and their clients.
Continued in article
"Why Free Markets Make Fools of Us," by Cass R. Sunstein,
nybooks.com, October 22, 2015 ---
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/oct/22/why-free-markets-make-fools-us/
This is a very positive review of the following book by two
Nobel economists:
by George A.
Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller
Princeton
University Press, 272 pp., $24.95
Jensen Comment
The book is a cheerleading book for government regulation. In this regard the
following negative review I found on Amazon seems somewhat relevant:
This book consumed five hours of my
life that I’ll never get back. I think these two respected academics are
reputation-mining with this mediocre offering. I’ve just been Phished for a
Phool! I found the basic concept interesting and potentially
entertaining—that the free market incentivizes cheating in unique ways. But
the execution made an inherently entertaining story boring and obvious. Some
of the examples which are discussed in detail are painfully obvious and
without nuance—Advertising isn’t always true (Say it isn’t so!!),
transaction costs in real estate deals are more than they should be (Whaaaaaaatt?!?!),
and car salesman are shysters (NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!). As one of the other
reviews pointed out, this book functions more as an advertisement for a
certain political position than a convincing argument or an entertaining
read. There are good arguments to be made in favor of financial reform, and
the book touches briefly on some of these—chief among them the idea that
information asymmetry and conflicts of interest in the markets for complex
securities make informed choice impossible. But the authors constantly
return to the supposition that people don’t know what is really good for
them and need someone else to coerce them into doing what is “best.” That’s
going to be a tough sell, and I doubt that many people are buying.
I will probably buy it, skim it, and use it as an aid if I have
trouble sleeping. Apparently the book has many illustrations --- I think I will
like that aspect of it to help me stay awake while reading the book.
Bob Jensen
Finding and Using Health Statistics ---
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/usestats/index.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on economic statistics and databases ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#EconStatistics
Health Insurance Coverage: Early Release of
Estimates From the National Health Interview Survey, January-March 2015 (PDF)
---
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/insur201508.pdf
MedlinePlus: Drugs, Herbs, and Supplements ---
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginformation.html
Obamacare: Health insurers
lost a total of $2.5 billion, or on average $163 per consumer enrolled, in the
individual market in 2014
Anna Wilde Mathews, The Wall
Street Journal, November 1, 2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/health-laws-strains-show-1446423498?mod=djemCFO_h&alg=y
Health and Human
Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell announced recently that she expects 10 million
people to be enrolled in health-care coverage through ObamaCare’s exchanges by
the end of next year. What she didn’t mention was that in March of last year the
Congressional Budget Office predicted that 21 million people would be enrolled
in 2016—more than double the new estimate.
Andy Puzder ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-slow-motion-implosion-of-obamacare-1446417104?mod=djemMER
The uninsured “also know they can receive medical care
at the emergency room. And if they fall ill, they can always purchase insurance
during the next enrollment period, because ObamaCare eliminated existing
conditions as a justification for denying coverage. Our employees are smart
enough to figure this out. Of our company’s 5,453 eligible employees, only 420
enrolled,” reports Mr. Puzder.
James Freeman ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/obamacares-failure-a-case-study-1446466932
We're old enough to remember when advocates for the
Affordable Care Act promised that it would "bend the cost curve" and reduce
expensive hospital visits, particularly at emergency rooms. So far, the opposite
is occurring.
James Freeman, "There Goes Another
ObamaCare Argument," WSJ, August 6, 2014 ---
http://online.wsj.com/articles/there-goes-another-obamacare-argument-1407242712?tesla=y&mod=djemMER_h&mg=reno64-wsj
It's also
terrible for climate change. So far this year, these fires have released more
greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than all the fossil fuels burned annually
in Germany. On at least 38 days in September and October, Indonesia's fires were
spewing more daily emissions than the entire United States economy.
Brad Plumer ---
http://www.vox.com/2015/10/30/9645448/indonesia-fires-peat-palm-oil
"Health Law’s Strains Show: As third
enrollment season kicks off, insurers move to curb costs, boost premiums,"
by Anna Wilde Mathews, The Wall Street Journal, November 1, 2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/health-laws-strains-show-1446423498?mod=djemCFO_h&alg=y
. . .
But much of that growth has
been unprofitable. Health insurers lost a total of $2.5 billion, or on
average $163 per consumer enrolled, in the individual market in 2014,
McKinsey found. A number are also expecting to lose money on their
marketplace business for 2015.
Now, a lot of insurers are
recalibrating their approach for 2016, with changes visible at all levels of
the industry—from pricing to product design.
"The Decline of ObamaCare: Fewer enrollees and rising loss ratios
will force a rewrite in 2017," The Wall Street Journal, October 25,
2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-decline-of-obamacare-1445807092?mod=djemBestOfTheWeb
ObamaCare’s image of invincibility is increasingly
being exposed as a political illusion, at least for those with permission to
be honest about the evidence. Witness the heretofore unknown phenomenon of a
“free” entitlement that its beneficiaries can’t afford or don’t want.
This month the Health and Human Services Department
dramatically discounted its internal estimate of how many people will join
the state insurance exchanges in 2016. There are about 9.1 million enrollees
today, and the consensus estimate—by the Congressional Budget Office, the
Medicare actuary and independent analysts like Rand Corp.—was that
participation would surge to some 20 million. But HHS now expects enrollment
to grow to between merely 9.4 million and 11.4 million.
Recruitment for 2015 is roughly 70% of the original
projection, but ObamaCare will be running at less than half its goal in
2016. HHS believes some 19 million Americans earn too much for Medicaid but
qualify for ObamaCare subsidies and haven’t signed up. Some 8.5 million of
that 19 million purchase off-exchange private coverage with their own money,
while the other 10.5 million are still uninsured. In other words, for every
person who’s allowed to join and has, two people haven’t.
Among this population of the uninsured, HHS reports
that half are between the ages of 18 and 34 and nearly two-thirds are in
excellent or very good health. The exchanges won’t survive actuarially
unless they attract this prime demographic: ObamaCare’s individual mandate
penalty and social-justice redistribution are supposed to force these
low-cost consumers to buy overpriced policies to cross-subsidize everybody
else. No wonder HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said meeting even the
downgraded target is “probably pretty challenging.”
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
Obamacare should have been a national health plan, however modest, from get go.
I favor a combination of a national plan coupled with private options modeled
after the German system ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm
"Why ObamaCare Is Failing," by James Freeman, The Wall Street
Journal, October 26, 2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-obamacare-is-failing-1445858647?mod=djemBestOfTheWeb&alg=y
“ObamaCare will almost inevitably be reopened in
2017, whoever wins the election,” notes a Journal editorial. That’s because
young and healthy people continue to steer clear of this wealth-transfer
scheme. The result is that in 11 states in 2014, the average plan paid more
in claims than it collected in premiums. “This month the Health and Human
Services Department dramatically discounted its internal estimate of how
many people will join the state insurance exchanges in 2016,” writes the
editorial board, adding that “for every person who’s allowed to join and
has, two people haven’t.”
“ObamaCare liberals pose as
what-works-and-what-doesn’t technocrats. So perhaps they’d care to explain
what it says about their creation that so many rational adults are willing
to pay a fine of $695 or 2.5% of their earnings, whichever is higher, for
the privilege of not buying an ObamaCare-compliant health plan,” says the
Journal.
Continued in article
The average Canadian family pays $11,000 extra for "free" health care ---
http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/true-cost-of-health-care-to-average-family-is-11k-per-year-report-1.2525114
"Actually, Canada, health care isn’t ‘free’," by André Picard, The
Globe and Mail, June 14, 2015 ---
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/actually-canada-health-care-isnt-free/article4230286/
. . .
Canada’s state-funded insurance program, informally
known as medicare, ensures a measure of universality and equity in
health-care delivery. It is, for better or worse, often held out as this
country’s defining feature, our pride and joy. This despite the fact that
medicare coverage is far less comprehensive than any other universal health
system
. . .
Last year in Canada, we spent an estimated
$200.5-billion on health services. About 70 per cent of the total,
$141-billon, was paid from public coffers and the other $59.5-billion with
private insurance and out-of-pocket.
The “free” part, presumably, is the public piece of
the pie.
While they don’t get doctor and hospital bills,
Canadians are all-too-aware that these services are paid for through taxes
just as they are aware that the “benefits” deductions from their paycheques
pay for things like drug insurance.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
Health care coverage also varies by province in Canada. It is not a "national"
plan in this sense.
Actually Erika and I pay over $20,000 per year for our "free" Medicare and
Supplemental insurance in the USA.
Secret IRS policy hides identity theft from
victims ---
http://www.wthr.com/story/30389540/secret-irs-policy-hides-identity-theft-from-victims-illegal-immigration
Jensen Comment
I agree. When I tried to file my 2014 tax return the IRS refused to accept it
and indicated that my return had already been filed. However, out of fear I
mailed in a paper copy of my return that had all the important 1099 forms
attached. The IRS accepted this paper return and doubled my refund. Never once,
however, did the IRS inform me that I was a victim of identity theft. Who knows
for sure? I think an ID thief did steal my SS Number and IRS Pin in the big
breach of 2013 Turbo Tax users who filed electronically via TurboTax in 2014.
"Bernie Sanders is more American than Ayn
Rand: Democratic socialism will
always trump free-market selfishness," by Paul Buchheit,
Salon, November 2, 2015 ---
http://www.salon.com/2015/11/02/bernie_sanders_is_more_american_than_ayn_rand_democratic_socialism_will_always_trump_free_market_selfishness/
Jensen Comment
Paul Buchhheit claims socialism will always trump capitalism but
provides not one example of a nation where this
is the case. North Korea? Venezuela? Cuba? Yeah right!
Where's one illustration of to support the
adjective "always?"
Nations like India, Cuba, and China are moving
away from socialism to improve their economies. Poverty that remains is more due
to corruption and to overpopulation than to the business model.
Denmark is not truly socialist but does operate
with many cooperatives and relatively high taxation. Danes use public
transportation and bicycles because most of them cannot afford to own cars. They
tend to criticize themselves for a poor work ethic ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/SunsetHillHouse/SunsetHillHouse.htm
For a very brief time Sweden had a 100% marginal
tax rate on the highest incomes, but it was an economic disaster and was quickly
rescinded.
France recently raised the marginal tax rate on
high income people. Look at how that worked for the economy of France before
being rescinded?
There's no such thing as a totally free market
system, but the most prosperous nations outside the USA have fewer business
regulations and lower business taxes --- nations like Switzerland and Singapore.
Marginal
Tax Rate Declines in the World ---
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/MarginalTaxRates.html
Table
1 Maximum Marginal Tax Rates on Individual Income
Only selected nations of the total Table 1 are shown here
To see all nations to to
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/MarginalTaxRates.html
or
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/SunsetHillHouse/SunsetHillHouse.htm
Denmark |
1979
73 |
1990
68 |
2002
59 |
Finland |
71 |
43 |
37 |
Norway |
75 |
54 |
48 |
Sweden |
87 |
65 |
56 |
United Kingdom |
83 |
40 |
40 |
United States |
70 |
33 |
39** |
Table 1
Maximum Marginal Tax Rates on Individual Income |
*.
Hong Kong�s
maximum tax (the
�standard
rate�)
has normally been 15 percent, effectively capping the marginal rate
at high income levels (in exchange for no personal exemptions). |
**.
The highest U.S. tax rate of 39.6 percent after 1993 was reduced to
38.6 percent in 2002 and to 35 percent in 2003. |
I repeat my question.
Where has socialism trumped any version of capitalism, recognizing there is
never such a thing as totally free markets?
I could go on knit picking claims by Paul
Buchheit. For example, he claims most innovations attributed to business are
simply assembling discoveries made in public research. It is actually almost
impossible to trace the seminal discoveries that led to product and service
innovations because there are so many chicken versus the egg issues. I would
argue that our most seminal discoveries and innovative applications were made by
individuals seeking to benefit economically from their discoveries such as the
inventions and applications of Thomas Edison and Alexander Bell Public
research also benefits greatly by discoveries made in the private sector. And
the private sector has funded many of the discoveries made in the public sector.
Give credit where credit is due.
There also is the implication that corporations
like Apple, Microsoft, Caterpillar, and Starbucks divert profits to offshore tax
havens to avoid the USA corporate tax. What Buchheit fails to mention is that
the profits being kept offshore were really earned offshore and are being kept
their to avoid paying additional USA tax above and beyond the tax that was paid
in nations where they were earned.
I repeat my question.
Where has socialism trumped any version of capitalism, recognizing there is
never such a thing as totally free markets?
Bob
Jensen's universal health care messaging ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on
medicine ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2-Part2.htm#Medicine
The Atlantic: Health: Family ---
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/category/family/
Bob Jensen's Tidbits Archives ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbitsdirectory.htm
Bob
Jensen's Pictures and Stories
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
Summary of Major Accounting Scandals ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting_scandals
Bob Jensen's threads on such scandals:
Bob Jensen's threads on audit firm litigation and negligence ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm
Current and past editions of my
newsletter called Fraud Updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Enron ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudEnron.htm
Rotten to the Core ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm
American History of Fraud ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudAmericanHistory.htm
Bob Jensen's fraud
conclusions ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on
auditor professionalism and independence are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001c.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on
corporate governance are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm#Governance
Shielding
Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
·
With a Rejoinder from the 2010 Senior Editor of The Accounting Review
(TAR), Steven J. Kachelmeier
·
With Replies in Appendix 4 to Professor Kachemeier by Professors Jagdish
Gangolly and Paul Williams
·
With Added Conjectures in Appendix 1 as to Why the Profession of Accountancy
Ignores TAR
·
With Suggestions in Appendix 2 for Incorporating Accounting Research into
Undergraduate Accounting Courses
Shielding
Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
By Bob Jensen
What went
wrong in accounting/accountics research? ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong
The Sad State of Accountancy Doctoral Programs That Do Not Appeal to Most
Accountants ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
AN ANALYSIS OF THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE ACCOUNTING REVIEW:
1926-2005 ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm#_msocom_1
Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm
Tom Lehrer on Mathematical Models and Statistics
---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZWyUXn3So
Systemic problems of accountancy (especially the vegetable nutrition paradox)
that probably will never be solved
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#BadNews
Bob
Jensen's economic crisis messaging
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/2008Bailout.htm
Bob
Jensen's threads ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
Bob
Jensen's Home Page ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/