In 2017 my Website was migrated to the clouds and reduced in size.
Hence some links below are broken.
One thing to try if a “www” link is broken is to substitute “faculty” for “www”
For example a broken link
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
can be changed to corrected link
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
However in some cases files had to be removed to reduce the size of my Website
Contact me at 
rjensen@trinity.edu if you really need to file that is missing

Tidbits Political Quotations
To Accompany the January 31, 2018 edition of Tidbits
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2018/tidbits013118.htm             
Bob Jensen at
Trinity University




USA Debt Clock --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/ ubl

In September 2017 the USA National Debt exceeded $20 trillion for the first time ---
http://www.statedatalab.org/news/detail/national-debt-surpasses-20-trillion-for-the-first-time-in-us-history

How Your Federal Tax Dollars are Spent ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c4eab53ef01b7c8ee6392970b-popup

To Whom Does the USA Federal Government Owe Money (the booked obligation of $20+ trillion) ---
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/politicalcalculations/2016/05/25/spring-2016-to-whom-does-the-us-government-owe-money-n2168161?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
The US Debt Clock in Real Time --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 
Remember the Jane Fonda Movie called "Rollover" --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollover_(film)
One worry is that nations holding trillions of dollars invested in USA debt are dependent upon sales of oil and gas to sustain those investments.

To Whom Does the USA Federal Government Owe Money (the unbooked obligation of $100 trillion and unknown more in contracted entitlements) ---
http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/15/news/economy/entitlement-benefits/
The biggest worry of the entitlements obligations is enormous obligation for the future under the Medicare and Medicaid programs that are now deemed totally unsustainable ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Entitlements.htm

How Americans Get Health Insurance ---
http://ritholtz.com/2017/08/americans-get-health-insurance/

Quartz:  What we learned from that new Donald Trump book ---
https://qz.com/1173363/fire-and-fury-the-new-trump-bannon-book-by-michael-wolff-the-main-takeaways/
Jensen Comment on What We Learned From Micael Quartz
Quartz provides a pretty good summary or what Michael Woolf writes but overlooks the controversial history of Michael Woolf's integrity as a writer other than to point out that "Wollf's fact checking is nonexistent."
Reviews of the book are pretty skeptical of Wolff's accuracy and integrity but highly positive from liberal media outlets intending to drive Trump out of office ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_and_Fury#Reviews
Personally I hope Trump does not get a second term in office.
But should we drive him out by overlooking our worship for academic integrity and rigor?
The book is an obvious challenge to courses in journalism, history, and political science where "fact checking" should be of highest priority rather than a
wink wink.
The real question to ask is whether Michael Woolf would've had more journalism integrity had be been an insider at the Obama White House or even better --- at the Bill Clinton White House!
I think Michael Wolff would paint the Pope to be a pedophile to make $10 million.
But then there are probably enough facts mixed with fiction in Fire and Fury to make the book fascinating reading.
Like I said, I'm really interested in how much fact checking is a priority in the halls of academe.

 

 

Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side because it's been fertilized with more bullshit.
Anonomous

 

Shoot for the space in between, because that's where the real mystery lies.
Vera Rubin
https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/12/28/remebering-vera-rubin/?utm_source=Brain+Pickings&utm_campaign=f053a9c4e2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_01_07&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_179ffa2629-f053a9c4e2-234390133

 

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
T.S. Eliot

There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.
Leonard Cohen

Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.
Margaret Wheatley
Even conversations that are not politically correct.

Why, we grow rusty and you catch us at the very point of decadence --- by this time tomorrow we may have forgotten everything we ever knew. That's a thought isn't it? We'd be back to where we started --- improvising.
Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Act I)

It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.

Babe Ruth, Historic Home Run Hitter
What's sad is to witness what Syria has become because nobody will give up.

And "because they're nonstate actors, it's hard for us to get the satisfaction of [Gen.] MacArthur and the [Japanese] Emperor [Hirohito] meeting and the war officially being over," Obama observed, referencing the end of World War II. 
President Barack Obama when asked if the USA of the future will be perpetually engaged in war.
http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-on-americans-being-resigned-to-live-in-a-perpetual-war-2016-7

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

If you don't know where you're going, you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

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

You can get a lot farther with a smile and a gun than you can with just a smile.
Al Capone

Everything we know about inflation may be wrong ---
https://qz.com/1155975/if-youre-a-central-banker-inflation-can-be-hard-to-agree-on/

The (London) Times:  Denzel Washington on prejudice, black power and why America needs to get behind President Trump (not that he necessarily voted for Trump) ---
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/magazine/the-sunday-times-magazine/interview-denzel-washington-oscar-winner-misogyny-black-power-america-should-get-behind-trump-hcxcqdpsh

. . .

Does he think the current regime is inspiring? “Is it not?” he replies. He seems determined to remain ambiguous on politics, and although he’s sitting in front of me, in his head he’s already left the room. But after we meet, I notice he looked mesmerised while watching Oprah Winfrey at the Golden Globes. Ostensibly it was the acceptance speech for her Cecil B DeMille award, but many are viewing its galvanising passion as a bid to run for the presidency in 2020. In response to the #MeToo audience all wearing black, she said that speaking your truth is the most powerful thing to do and warned the abusers: “Time is up.”

In the end, before our time is up, Washington comes back to explain his position on the US presidency. “There’s a pastor who talked about this. I think his name is AR Bernard and it’s Daniel, chapter 10. He says that God puts kings in a place for a season and reason, and we don’t always know the reason, so this is what it is right now. There’s a reason behind it and I say to people that, if nothing else, we should be more unified. All the more reason to work together.

 

Boiling lobsters alive — a common practice for cooks transforming the popular crustaceans into a meal — will soon be illegal in Switzerland ---
http://time.com/5103892/switzerland-boil-lobsters/?utm_source=time.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-brief&utm_content=2018011618pm&xid=newsletter-brief
Jensen Comment
The question is whether lobster meat can be imported and boiled. Erika and I buy the meat already cooked for our favorite lobster stew.

'Economic blackmail': Zara, Qantas, Marriott and Delta Air Lines reverse position on Taiwan for fear of angering China ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/zara-marriott-qantas-apologized-to-china-listing-taiwan-as-country-2018-1

For the First Time in History Atheism Overtakes Religious Faith in Norway ---
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/03/22/for-first-time-in-history-atheism-overtakes-religious-faith-in-norway/

This Siberian village's thermometer broke (at -62F)  last night because of how cold it was. Oymyakon, in the Siberian region of Yakutia, is the coldest inhabited village on Earth ---
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/oymyakon-coldest-settlement-earth-hit-62c-then-thermometer-broke-1655252

Temperatures in Yakutia, Russia, dropped Tuesday to minus 88.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Students routinely go to school there when it’s 40 below zero, but minus 88 was enough for a snow day.---
http://time.com/5104412/extreme-cold-temperatures-yakutia-russia/

Apple's now free to bring home its overseas cash — here's what it might do with it ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/dividends-taxes-investments-top-possible-uses-of-apples-cash-2018-1

NPR:  Turning Soybeans Into Diesel Fuel Is Costing Us Billions ---
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/01/16/577649838/turning-soybeans-into-diesel-fuel-is-costing-us-billions

What the 2018 farm bill means for urban, suburban and rural America ---
https://theconversation.com/what-the-2018-farm-bill-means-for-urban-suburban-and-rural-america-89605

The best border wall is a legal marijuana market ---
https://qz.com/1180763/mexico-border-wall-dont-tell-jeff-sessions-but-legal-medical-marijuana-decreased-drug-crime-in-us-states/

WSJ:  Venezuela’s oil output is collapsing, making it unlikely the South American country can benefit from rising global prices for oil and increasing the chances of a debt default this year that could turn its economic crisis into a humanitarian disaster ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuelas-oil-industry-takes-a-fall-1516271401

Swedish ‘No Go Zone’ Police Station Bombed ---
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/01/18/swedish-no-go-zone-police-station-bombed/

40 Percent Of Kids Now Born To Single Moms—Up 700 Percent Since 1960 ---
https://nationaleconomicseditorial.com/2018/01/16/single-motherhood-rise/

The Washington Post on Grade Inflation
More than 1 of every 10 students receiving a diploma from a D.C. public high school last year missed most of the academic year, according to an investigation released Tuesday that casts a shadow on a district that has trumpeted improvements in graduation rates. The report, commissioned by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, portrays a school system riddled by student absenteeism and teachers who feel pressured to push chronically absent high school seniors across the graduation stage regardless of whether they earned their diplomas -
--
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-schools-increasingly-graduating-chronically-absent-students-report-finds/2018/01/16/a1722404-bf01-44bc-a8c7-e9d9e3b3e9df_story.html?utm_term=.0426f54f39ed
Bob Jensen's threads on grade inflation ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#RateMyProfessor

The Washington Post
Fact-checking President Trump’s ‘Fake News Awards’ ---
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/01/17/fact-checking-president-trumps-fake-news-awards/?utm_term=.84924c170eab&wpisrc=nl_az_most&wpmk=1

The Guardian:  Sexual harassment and assault rife at United Nations, staff claim ---
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jan/18/sexual-assault-and-harassment-rife-at-united-nations-staff-claim

Harvard:  Sexual Harassment Is Pervasive in the Restaurant Industry. Here’s What Needs to Change ---
https://hbr.org/2018/01/sexual-harassment-is-pervasive-in-the-restaurant-industry-heres-what-needs-to-change?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=dailyalert&referral=00563&spMailingID=18857691&spUserID=MTkyODM0MDg0MAS2&spJobID=1181254502&spReportId=MTE4MTI1NDUwMgS2

The Atlantic:  The World Has Never Seen an Oil Spill Like the Latest Spill from an Iranian Tanker ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/01/the-oil-spill-that-wasnt/550820/

Yahoo Finance has a plan to become the Uber of saving money ---
https://qz.com/1183768/yahoo-finance-has-a-plan-to-become-the-uber-of-saving-money/

New evidence reportedly puts North Korean hackers behind a list of high-stakes bitcoin heists ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-lazarus-group-behind-cryptocurrency-cyber-attack-wannacry-sony-2018-1

Tennessee's Haircut Cops Bust Barbers Who Lack High School Diplomas ---
http://reason.com/archives/2018/01/19/barber-cops-bust-high-school-dropouts

Trump's Base Hates the Civil Rights Movement
Joy Reid, MSNBC
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3624351/posts

Jensen Comment
That does not explain why so many of the people who voted for Trump earlier voted for eight years of Barack Obama as President of the USA. Joy just cannot let go of the fact that many Obama supporters did not support Hillary Clinton, expecially in some of the battleground states. A vote against Hillary Clinton was not a vote against the Civil Rights movement.

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s wild-child niece has finally coughed up the $100,000 she owed from a 2016 stolen-credit-card binge at a posh Greenwich Village pharmacy. Caroline Biden, 30 — whose financier dad, James, is the ex-veep’s brother — had racked up bills totaling $110,810.04 at Bigelo ---
https://nypost.com/2018/01/19/joe-bidens-niece-finally-pays-up-for-100k-credit-card-scam/

The economy has gotten so bad in socialist-ruled Venezuela, that people are simply throwing their money away because it has become so worthless due to rampant inflation ---
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3623730/posts

Stalin's Glorious Army With Studebakers and Dodges
The Soviet armies advancing into East Prussia in January 1945, in huge, long columns, were an extraordinary mixture of modern and medieval: tank troops in padded black helmets, Cossack cavalrymen on shaggy mounts with loot strapped to the saddle,
lend-lease Studebakers and Dodges towing light field guns, and then a second echelon in horse-drawn carts. The variety of character among the soldiers was almost as great as that of their military equipment. There were freebooters who drank and raped quite shamelessly, and there were idealistic, austere communists and members of the intelligentsia appalled by such behaviour ---

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/may/01/news.features11

International Monetary Fund Says Global Economic Growth To Spike Thanks To Trump Tax Bill ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2018/01/22/trump-effect-goes-international-imf-says-global-economic-growth-to-spike-thanks-n2438125?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

Trump’s Right: China’s Trade Policy Is Predatory ---
https://finance.townhall.com/columnists/williamholland/2018/01/22/trumps-right-chinas-trade-policy-is-predatory-n2437927?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

The 10 safest countries in the world for women (USA makes it, but not the UK or Scandanavia  since the latest waves of immigrants arrived) ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-safest-countries-in-the-world-for-women-2018-1

NFL Rejects Super Bowl Ad From Veterans Asking People to Stand For the National Anthem ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2018/01/23/nfl-rejects-super-bowl-ad-asking-people-to-stand-n2438388?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=

Forbes:  Democratic Party Leaders Lobby To Save Brazil's Ex-President Lula From Prison ---
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2018/01/21/democratic-party-leadership-lobbies-to-save-brazils-ex-president-from-prison/#284950ee3dd8

Democrat State Senate leadership is failing in their duties to execute an impartial and fair investigation into the alleged sexual misconduct allegation that happened on and around Beacon Hill ---
https://commonwealthmagazine.org/the-download/the-confidentiality-question/

Inflation:  The core CPI index excludes goods with high price volatility, such as food and energy. This measure of core inflation systematically excludes food and energy prices because, historically, they have been highly volatile and non-systemic. More specifically, food and energy prices are widely thought to be subject to large changes that often fail to persist and do not represent relative price changes. In many instances, large movements in food and energy prices arise because of supply disruptions such as drought or OPEC-led cutbacks in production ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Consumer_Price_Index

Williams has long insisted that federal economic statistics do not tell the whole story. For years, he explains, the government has been gaming the numbers. Not only is inflation understated; given current trends, it’s only going to get worse ---
http://www.freemarketcentral.com/post/11948/free-market-central-interview-this-noted-statistics-expert-says-inflation-in-2018-is-way-higher-than-theyre-telling-usand-its-going-to-get-worse-listen

In all, some 1.4 million Americans will lose their jobs to technological change in the next eight years, including 70 percent whose job type will just disappear ---
https://www.axios.com/workers-automation-lost-jobs-skills-2d944533-3f51-40ee-b2c0-b65e4644a9db.html

CNN's $25 million Bet on the Beme App Failed ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/casey-neistat-leaves-cnn-beme-shuts-down-2018-1

No Accounting for Cost
It's going to cost $24 million to replace two refrigerators on Air Force One ---
http://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/air-force-one-boeing-747?utm_source=time.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-brief&utm_content=2018012611am&xid=newsletter-brief

Day 1772, The IRS Apologizes for Targeting Tea Party Group (but lets Lois Lerner's personally off the hook) ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2018/01/the-irs-scandal-day-1722-irs-apologizes-for-targeting-tea-party-group.html#more
Read the comments --- we still don't have evidence of Obama's White House staff involvement

The Guardian:  The kill chain: inside the unit that tracks targets for US drone wars ---
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/23/the-kill-chain-inside-the-unit-that-tracks-targets-for-us-drone-wars

The real Adam Smith: He might be the poster boy for free-market economics, but that distorts what Adam Smith really thought ---
https://aeon.co/essays/we-should-look-closely-at-what-adam-smith-actually-believed
Capitalism is much more complicated in terms of types and advocates ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism

After Billions of Dollars in Aid
Recently we were forced to review all of our relations with the American administrations in recent years, and not just the Trump administration. We assessed that nothing good will come from them for the Palestinian people and the nation, and this is completely clear.
Ungrateful Palestinian Leader
http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2018/01/27/abbas-fatah-deputy-u-s-has-never-given-anything-of-substance-to-palestinians-nothing-good-will-come-from-them/

 

 

 

 

 




A Generational Shift in Religious Identity ---
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/are-white-evangelicals-sacrificing-the-future-in-search-of-the-past/

. . .

This may help explain why the religious profile of young adults today differs so dramatically from older Americans. Only 8 percent of young people identify as white evangelical Protestant, while 26 percent of senior citizens do.

After dominating much of American politics for the past 40 years, white evangelical Protestants are now facing a sharp decline. Nearly one-third of white Americans raised in evangelical Christian households leave their childhood faith.2 About 60 percent of those who leave end up joining another faith tradition, while 40 percent give up on religion altogether. The rates of disaffiliation are even higher among young adults: 39 percent of those raised evangelical Christian no longer identify as such in adulthood. And while there is always a good deal of churn in the religious marketplace — people both entering and leaving faith traditions — recent findings suggest that membership losses among white evangelical Protestants are not being offset by gains.

As a result, the white evangelical Protestant population in the U.S. has fallen over the past decade, dropping from 23 percent in 2006 to 17 percent in 2016. But equally troubling for those concerned about the vitality of evangelical Christianity, white evangelical Protestants are aging. Today, 62 percent of white evangelical Protestants are at least 50 years old. In 1987, fewer than half (46 percent) were. The median age of white evangelical Protestants today is 55.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
The shift is even more dramatic in Europe where younger people are significantly abandoning churches outside the Islamic regions ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Europe

Especially note the Gallop Poll survey responses in
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Europe#Gallup_survey_2008–2009


No Strings Attached:  Stockton, California Will Give its Poorest Residents $500 Per Month ---
http://time.com/money/5114349/universal-basic-income-stockton/?utm_source=time.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-brief&utm_content=2018012419pm&xid=newsletter-brief

Jensen Comment
But there have to be "strings attached" or Stockton will become a sink hole for the USA's junkies and otherwise unemployable poor people deep in debt. It's similar to, but still different, when junkies from all over Europe packed their bags for Holland after Holland legalized hard drugs on the streets.

Defining "poorest" residents is difficult since having zero income may be a bar too high for those deep in debt.

In the meantime, unemployed graduates having over $100,000 in student debt that cannot be excused by bankruptcy might consider being unemployed in Stockton rather than San Diego or New York City.

And those rejected by the Social Security Administration for disability payments (real or faked) should consider relocating in Stockton.

To make matters worse, Stockton already is one of the most dangerous cities, if not the most dangerous California city, for hard crimes. Stockton is noted for not having enough police officers after significant budgetary layoffs. Getting $500 per month in Stockton beats holding up convenience stores and possibly is frosting on the cake for active prostitutes, car jackers, and home invaders.

The first string attached should probably be losing the monthly stipend when arrested for felonious crime.

The second string attached will probably an established prior period of residence.

The third string attached will probably be make it a necessary condition to have children.

The fourth string is taxability, although people getting only $500 per month probably are not paying any income tax anyway unless they are dependents of another taxpayer,

The fifth string entails complications. Suppose a single parent in Stockton is legally entitled to $1,400 in child support from another parent who can't be found. What happens when that parent is eventually found and coughs up, out of fear of prison, all the back child support plus interest. Does the parent who got $500 per month for a few years have to repay the city?

The article mentions the experiments of having people in Finland and Canada getting a minimum income in UBI programs. But the benefits in Finland terminate in two years or less and are limited to 2,000 recipients picked at random across the entire country. The most populated province in Canada limits the UBI to 4,000 people chosen from among three Ontario communities.

Most importantly note that the USA, more than Finland and Canada, has an enormous underground cash economy such as cleaning inside houses for cash or fixing cars in the back yard. A benefit of $500 per month may encourage seeking employment in the underground economy rather than seeking out legitimate employment with payroll deductions.

I might add that I'm not opposed to a UBI program such as a negative income tax that's paid for in large measure by offset reductions in other safety nets such as reductions in welfare benefits, unemployment benefits, and Medicaid.


Although proponents of making the SAT optional hoped it would expand college access for low-income and minority students, research shows that hasn't happened ---
https://theconversation.com/if-you-thought-colleges-making-the-sat-optional-would-level-the-playing-field-think-again-89896

Jensen Comment
Possibly sample selection bias distorted the outcomes. The sampled "selective liberal arts colleges" perhaps are not reflective of the population of the many colleges and universities in the USA. Many top student  applicants want preparation for the professions (think nursing, pharmacy, engineering, and accounting). Predominantly black institutions like Florida A&M attract business students with internship programs in some of the most prestigious business firms in the world. Liberal arts colleges may not be competing well in areas of professional studies and internships.

There are many factors that affect choice of a college, including financial aid tuition pricing, room and board pricing, distance from home, day care services, etc. Some colleges are finding success with special accommodations for single parents, but these experiments are still limited in number. One huge problem with low-income and minority students is that they often become parents before finishing high school.

An even bigger problem is that a higher proportion of low-income and minority students across the USA graduate from inferior high schools that aren't competitive in preparation for rigors of college. Colleges might attract more low-income and minority students if they had better college preparation offerings accompanied by generous financial aid for more than four years of undergraduate study.


The payoff from a master’s degree varies vastly by field of study.
Census Bureau data for 2009 shows that for social science majors, the master’s degree earnings advantage was less than $100 monthly, but it was more than $3,000 monthly in business administration
---
https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2018/01/masters-degrees-janitorial-science/

. . .

This study shows the dangers of looking at broad aggregate statistics. The field of study typically is as important in determining earnings as the level of degree earned, and labor market location importantly matters as well. Additionally, there are important gender differences. While on average the payoff to earning a master’s declined for men after 2005, it rose significantly for women.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
Geography is also a factor. In states that do not have large cities (think New Hampshire and Vermont) jobs for those high paying masters degrees just aren't available like they are in New York and California.


State Grades on K-12 Education: Map and Rankings ---
https://www.edweek.org/ew/collections/quality-counts-2018-state-grades/report-card-map-rankings.html?cmp=eml-enl-eu-news2&M=58346322&U=2290378

Jensen Comment
Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Jersey are top ranking with high sales and income taxes. New Hampshire is high ranking with low taxes (no sales or income taxes). Go figure!
All the top five states and most other USA states fund schools heavily with property taxes.
There's more to school performance than high salaries. High ranking Vermont and New Hampshire have relatively low teacher salaries compared with many parts of the USA.
Having high rates of two-parent homes seems to help schools a lot, but large cities in New Jersey are not noted for two-parent households. Go figure!

 

Nation's K-12 Schools Stuck in 'Average' Range on Annual Report Card  ---
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/01/17/nations-schools-stuck-in-average-range-on.html?cmp=eml-enl-eu-news1&M=58346322&U=2290378


Cuomo Seeks New York Tax Revisions to Thwart Federal Changes ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-16/cuomo-says-new-york-to-alter-tax-law-to-thwart-federal-changes

Governor plans to replace state income tax with employer levy
Trump plan launched ‘an economic missile’ at N.Y., Cuomo says

New York state would end income taxes on wage earners and make up the revenue with an employer payroll tax that’s federally deductible as part of a restructuring plan that Governor Andrew Cuomo is recommending to mitigate harmful effects of the new U.S. tax code.

The new federal law limits deductions for individuals’ state and local taxes -- raising levies 25 percent on all New Yorkers, no matter where they live, Cuomo said Tuesday. The federal changes could push residents and businesses out of state, the Democratic governor said as he presented a budget for the next fiscal year.

“We’re doing everything we can to thwart the effects of the federal plan,” Cuomo said. “This is going to be the most difficult challenge that we’ve had to take on because it’s the most complicated, but I have no doubt that this is the fight of New York’s future.”

Earlier this month, Cuomo said his administration would file a lawsuit seeking to repeal the new federal tax law, arguing that it discriminates against states with high local and state taxes. In his budget speech, Cuomo for the first time fleshed out his plan to further reduce the impact of the federal law by changing the way the state taxes wage earners’ income.

In the tax-overhaul legislation that President Donald Trump signed last month, the Republican-controlled Congress cut income-tax rates on businesses and individuals across the board. But it also limited the deductions that individuals can take for state and local taxes -- including income and property levies -- to $10,000.

That so-called SALT provision is widely viewed as an attack on Democratic-leaning states, which tend to have higher taxes. On Tuesday, Cuomo called the SALT cap “ an economic missile” aimed at New York, which he said pays $48 billion more to the federal government than it gets back each year. The changes will add $14 billion more to that tally this year, Cuomo said.

 Jensen Questions

What happens to investment income tax that makes up a large share of the NY tax revenue?

Since employers will now pay the income taxes for employees, does this mean that employees will take home less pay or are employers expected to take the hit and raise prices for customers?

What happens to not-for-profit employers who pay no state income taxes now?  Will they have to start paying income taxes for their employees?

How will employers deal with all the tax code items that create differences in what taxpayers owe such as enormous medical expense deductions for a spouse on a joint return?

When the rubber hits the road on Cuomo's plan there seem to be enormous pot holes that remain to be filled in.


Connecticut Supreme Court Strikes Down School-Funding Case ---
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/state_edwatch/2018/01/conn_supreme_court_strikes_down_school_funding_case.html?cmp=eml-enl-eu-news2&M=58349441&U=2290378

Connecticut's supreme court hastruck down a lower court ruling that deemed the state's school spending formula and several associated education policies unconstitutional.  

That September 2016 ruling rocked the state's political system for its sweeping condemnation of the state's teacher quality standards, special education spending, and the dwindling academic performance of the state's poor, black, and Hispanic students.  In the ruling, Superior Judge Thomas Moukawsher used flamboyant language that animated the state's teachers, administrators and politicians alike (read that entire ruling here).  

But the state's appointed supreme court said Wednesday it was not it's place to dictate how the legislature spends its money on schools.  

"The plaintiffs have not shown that this gap is the result of the state's unlawful discrimination against poor and needy students in its provision of educational resources as opposed to the complex web of disadvantaging societal conditions over which the schools have no control," Chief Justice Chase Rogers wrote.  

That language is similar to language used by Texas' elected supreme court last year that also said that while that state's schools had deeply entrenched problems,  it wasn't the court's role to mingle in state spending.  

The Connecticut lawsuit was brought in 2005 by the Connecticut Coaltion for Justice , a coalition of parents, teachers, school administrators and local officials. It argued that the state's school funding formula left behind the state's growing black and Hispanic communities.  

In response to the state supreme court's ruling, the group said they will continue to "pursue all legal remedies" in order to have the case "reconsidered and overturned," according to the Associated Press.  

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, a Democrat, said while the latest ruling marks the end of the constitutional fight over school funding, it doesn't end the political fight to more evenly distribute the state's school spending. The state is experiencing a financial crisis caused, in part, by ballooning pension costs.  

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
Connecticut has the distinction of being among the five worst fiscally-managed states in the union ---
https://www.statedatalab.org/
Connecticut faces the daunting problem of having lost the headquarters of some major corporations that, in part but not wholly, is attributable to the heavy tax burden of being a business headquartered in Connecticut. Adding pain to misery the insurance industry largely headquartered in Connecticut is now under the burden of enormous losses in revenue and faces a long-term gloomy future. Adding more pain is the impact of the Trump's enacted income tax law that hurts states reliant on personal income tax revenue.

Time and time again egalitarian efforts by courts to subsume powers of legislatures fail.


Muni (tax-exempt interest) Bond --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipal_bond

That said, the U.S. municipal bond market is unique for its size, liquidity, legal and tax structure and bankruptcy protection afforded by the U.S. Constitution.

Question
If USA tax-exempt bonds (e.g., municipal bonds often called munis) are not tax exempt in Europe why are European investors attracted to them for some reason other than tax exemption that attracts USA investors?

European Insurers Find Yield in U.S. Municipal (Muni) Bond Market ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-19/european-insurers-find-yield-in-u-s-municipal-bond-market

Jensen Comment
I found the monthly after-tax cash flow returns on my long-term Vanguard tax free mutual fund to be a great thing after the USA economy and interest rates crashed in 2006. The economy recovered, but interest rates available to investors from things like bank CDs and corporate bonds are still miserable compared to monthly after-tax returns on my muni investments.

Investors like me into munis for the monthly after-tax cash yields and savings liquidity should not be upset by ups and downs in investment value that takes place in muni bond markets. I do not intend to sell 99+% of my muni investments and am, therefore, not so concerned about transitory ups and downs in market values of my muni fund shares. For me my muni investments are long-term rainy day investments and will be sold only in unlikely emergencies. I'm willing to take the value gains or eat the value losses at the time of such unlikely emergencies.

Note that I'm retired living on lifetime fixed-rate TIAA annuities and no longer, due to age, worry so much about inflation like I did decades ago when I was living on a salary and saving for retirement. In my working years I had almost all my savings in stocks and real estate (including an Iowa farm) that provided inflation protection. Munis do not protect well against long-term inflation even though they are great for tax savings and yield (with value risk). In retirement my muni investments are highly liquid funds that provide me with relatively high-yield monthly after-tax cash flows.

And I also like the fact that my muni investments are providing badly-needed funds for local governments and schools rather than paying the salaries and sex hush money of scoundrel elected officials in Washington DC.


BBC Trending:  The (Almost) Complete History of Fake News ---
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-42724320

Jensen Comment
This article does not cover the much longer history of fake news in the financial media that dates back hundreds of years. Think of the 1720 South Sea Bubble fraud that cost Sir Isaac Newton over $3 million ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Sea_Company

How Isaac Newton Lost $3 Million Dollars in the “South Sea Bubble” of 1720: Even Geniuses Can’t Prevail Against the Machinations of the Markets ---
http://www.openculture.com/2018/01/how-isaac-newton-lost-3-million-dollars-in-the-south-sea-bubble-of-1720-even-geniuses-cant-prevail-against-the-machinations-of-the-markets.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29


MIT’s New Master’s Program (onsite and not free) Admits Students Without College and High School Degrees … and Helps Solve the World’s Most Pressing Problems ---
http://www.openculture.com/2018/01/mits-new-masters-program-admits-students-without-college-and-high-school-degrees.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Jensen Comment
The program is making a global outreach to attract promising students from virtually everywhere in the world. Language barriers must be huge for some unless they are fluent in English.

What is not clear is the rigor of this program in terms of academic standards. One purpose seems to be to identify students with great promise who can move into more rigorous MIT programs.

Only a prestigious university like MIT can probably pull this off.

Obviously there are some of the "world's most pressing problems" that require some technical background. Probably the most significant economic development problem in the world is corruption in interactions between the public and private sectors. Is there an African or Latin American  nation where corruption is not a barrier to outside investors? Seemingly, understanding the intricacies of fraud and corruption and laws pertaining to such corruption requires more technical background (think of the frauds taking place in Cryptocurrencies at the moment). In other words, I don't see how this can be more of a color book program identifying issues rather than preparing students to go deeply into issues.

This program is a real test of whether minimal standards in core knowledge (think math, law, history, economics, technology, behavioral science, etc.) are not prerequisites for graduate studies about the "world's most pressing problems."

I think much success of this program depends upon de facto admission standards.


More U.S. states eye donations to evade Trump tax changes ---
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-states-legislation-explainer/explainer-more-u-s-states-eye-donations-to-evade-trump-tax-changes-idUSKBN1FD35D

Jensen Comment
This is such a blatant work-around it's not clear that the GOP-Controlled Congress won't put an end to it before it gets started. Some states are even working it so property taxes can be deducted as charitable contributions.
This could hurt charities, including universities, if the total cash donations for legitimate charity donations, state income taxes, and property taxes exceed 50% AGI, and the donor decides to reduce amounts given to charities to avoid the 50% AGI cap.

If property taxes in excess of $10,000 can be deducted in this manner what's to stop all states, including those without income taxes, to allow wealthy home owners to deduct enormous property taxes in this same charity-donations gimmick?

Red and blue states alike may spend a lot of time and resources re-writing tax codes that President Trump can put an end to with a five-second stroke of a pen.


How public libraries are reinventing themselves for the 21st century ---
http://www.macleans.ca/society/how-public-libraries-are-reinventing-themselves-for-the-21st-century/

Jensen Comment
Not mentioned are services for the homeless such as fumigation tanks in each room along with lice powder in the bathrooms. Balconies for cigarette and marijuana smoking add nice touches.
Locked cages where tents, sleeping bags, coats, and blankets can be checked make the floors less cluttered.
Adults-only porn rooms are thoughtful protections for children.


Automation Takes Over Food Packaging, Sales, and Delivery to Cars or Homes or Tables or Bed

Amazon is opening its first cashier-less retail store in Seattle ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-go-first-retail-store-in-seattle-2018-1

China:  Wheelys tests a 24-hour store run entirely by technology (no workers whatsoever) ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608104/in-china-a-store-of-the-future-no-checkout-no-staff/?utm_source=newsletters&utm_medium=newsletters&utm_content=2018_01_27&utm_campaign=weekend_reads&utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=3c6e41a016-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_01_19&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-3c6e41a016-153727301
Jensen Comment
I doubt that any retail stores that are more than glorified vending machines can operate without security guards. Of course in a mall security could patrol multiple stores while video cameras observe every move of customers inside stores.

Online Sales Order Filling Store in England
Ocado claims that its 350,000-square-foot warehouse (with lots of perishable frozen foods) ...  is more heavily automated than Amazon’s warehouse facilities.
Once an order is packed, it’s hauled off in a large truck and taken to a distribution center to be quickly loaded into a delivery van.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603229/the-robotic-grocery-store-of-the-future-is-here/?utm_source=newsletters&utm_medium=newsletters&utm_content=2018_01_27&utm_campaign=weekend_reads&utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=3c6e41a016-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_01_19&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-3c6e41a016-153727301

Autonomous, self-driving, grocery vans are making deliveries in London ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608188/autonomous-grocery-vans-are-making-deliveries-in-london/?utm_source=newsletters&utm_medium=newsletters&utm_content=2018_01_27&utm_campaign=weekend_reads&utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=3c6e41a016-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_01_19&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-3c6e41a016-153727301

Automated Restaurant --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_restaurant

Forbes:  Restaurants Look To Automation To Cut Labor, But Will Consumers Buy What The Drone Is Serving?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/darrentristano/2017/05/16/restaurants-look-to-automation-to-cut-labor-but-will-consumers-buy-what-the-drone-is-serving/#1c2f27a3039b

Remember that new, fully-automated restaurant? Um, about that…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-small-business/wp/2017/10/25/remember-that-new-fully-automated-restaurant-um-about-that-/?utm_term=.29fef560be29

Jensen Comment
I don't know about automated restaurants, but I still think there's a market for neighborhood convenience stores (think Seven Eleven) that are expanded in size to store groceries and other items (including cooler and frozen items) shipped from larger supermarkets. On the way home from work nearby residents will pick up, for a small fee, the items they've previously ordered by computer or phone to be delivered to their closest convenience stores. Fewer and fewer shoppers will have to take the time and trouble to physically shop in giant supermarkets. Shoppers might even order from their homes and apartments and then make only a short trip to pick up a carload of items ordered from superstores (that contain much more than just groceries). Think Super Walmart with a network of Seven Eleven distribution centers!

UPS and Fed Ex will love it because instead of doorstep delivery (where packages are often stolen) their drivers can merely deliver to the Seven Eleven convenience stores that hold the items for you to pick up along with your bacon and blue berries from a Super Walmart or Safeway.

The convenience store warehouses could have drive through designs so that robots load the back of your self-driving car while you're home in bed. And your home robot can unload the car, cook the food, and bring you breakfast in bed.

This all works great unless you were a recently laid off cashier at Walmart or Safeway.

 

 

 




Bob Jensen's health care messaging --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm

World Wealth & Income Database --- http://wid.world/

OECD Health Statistics 2016 --- http://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/health-data.htm

Facts and statistics (Fast Facts) --- http://gwu.edu/~gprice/handbook.htm 

Bob Jensen's links to data and statistics ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#EconStatistics

Bob Jensen's World Library ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm


 


 


Bob Jensen's threads on health coverage are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm

United Kingdom:  Millions denied an NHS dentist ---
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/millions-denied-an-nhs-dentist-xfhbgzlz0

 

Bob Jensen's Tidbits Archives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbitsdirectory.htm 

Bob Jensen's Pictures and Stories
http://faculty.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://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm

Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud Updates ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

Enron --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudEnron.htm

Rotten to the Core --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm

American History of Fraud --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudAmericanHistory.htm

Bob Jensen's fraud conclusions ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on auditor professionalism and independence are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001c.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on corporate governance are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm#Governance 

 

Shielding Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
http://faculty.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://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
By Bob Jensen

What went wrong in accounting/accountics research?  ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong

The Sad State of Accountancy Doctoral Programs That Do Not Appeal to Most Accountants ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms

AN ANALYSIS OF THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE ACCOUNTING REVIEW: 1926-2005 ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm#_msocom_1

Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm

Systemic problems of accountancy (especially the vegetable nutrition paradox) that probably will never be solved ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#BadNews

Bob Jensen's economic crisis messaging http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/2008Bailout.htm

Bob Jensen's threads --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm

Bob Jensen's Home Page --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/