Tidbits
Political Quotations
To Accompany the April 26, 2019 edition of Tidbits
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2019/Tidbits042619.htm
Bob Jensen at
Trinity University
My Latest Web Document
Over 400 Examples of Critical Thinking and Illustrations of How to Mislead With
Statistics ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/MisleadWithStatistics.htm
Animated Visualization of the United States’ Exploding Population Growth
Over 200 Years (1790 – 2010) ---
A Visualization of the United States’ Exploding Population Growth Over 200 Years
(1790 – 2010)
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
Human Population Over Time on Earth ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUwmA3Q0_OE
While a
move is underway to destroy the American Dream of rags to riches (by taxing away
the riches) the Chinese dream is on the rise.
The Chinese Dream
How a Chinese billionaire went from making $16 a month in a factory to being one
of the world's richest self-made women with an $8.3 billion real-estate empire
---
https://www.businessinsider.com/worlds-richest-self-made-woman-wu-yajun-net-worth-2019-2
Top 50 Billionaires in China ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_by_net_worth
Jensen
Comment
The question for students to debate is why a supposed
communist country allows so many billionaires to rise up from poverty.
That's supposed to happen in the USA where a child growing up in deep
poverty (think Oprah Winfrey or Howard Shultz) became a multi-billionaires.
But is it also supposed to happen under communism? If
so, why?
One reason is that many billionaires can afford to pour lots of money into high risk ventures. When's the last time you heard about a high risk (think Silicon Valley) venture in Europe?
Wikiquote from Wikipedia --- https://www.wikiquote.org/
History will prove former President Donald
Trump was correct about Mexico one day funding an impenetrable wall --- to keep
out over 2 billion starving green immigrants seeking to enter Mexico from the
north.
Bob Jensen
The Young
Left’s Anti-Capitalist Manifesto: Its goal is to remake our economic system —
and the Democratic Party ---
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-young-lefts-anti-capitalist-manifesto/
"In
Praise of Cheap Labor," by Paul Krugman,
Slate, March 21, 1997 ---
https://slate.com/business/1997/03/in-praise-of-cheap-labor.html
Corruption in general has a deleterious effect
on the readiness of economic agents to invest. In the long run, it leads to a
paralysis of economic life. But very often it is not that economic agents
themselves have had the bad experience of being cheated and ruined, they just
know that in this country, or in this part of the economy, or this building
scene, there is a high likelihood that you will get cheated and that free riders
can get away with it. Here again, reputation is absolutely essential, which is
why transparency is so important. Trust can only be engendered by transparency.
It's no coincidence that the name of the most influential non-governmental
organization dealing with corruption is Transparency International.
A Conversation with Karl Sigmund: When Rule of Law is
Not Working
https://www.edge.org/conversation/karl_sigmund-when-the-rule-of-law-is-not-working
Mortgage Backed Securities are like boxes
of chocolates. Criminals on Wall Street and one particular U.S. Congressional
Committee stole a few chocolates from the boxes and replaced them with turds.
Their criminal buddies at Standard & Poors rated these boxes AAA Investment Grade
chocolates. These boxes were then sold all over the world to investors.
Eventually somebody bites into a turd and discovers the crime. Suddenly nobody
trusts American chocolates anymore worldwide. Hank Paulson now wants the
American taxpayers to buy up and hold all these boxes of turd-infested
chocolates for $700 billion dollars until the market for turds returns to
normal. Meanwhile, Hank's buddies, the Wall Street criminals who stole all the
good chocolates are not being investigated, arrested, or indicted. Momma always
said: '"Sniff the chocolates first Forrest." Things generally don't pass the
smell test if they came from Wall Street or from Washington DC.
Forrest Gump as quoted at
http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Rec/rec.sport.tennis/2008-10/msg02206.html
It is not that machines are going to replace
chemists. It’s that the chemists who use machines will replace those that don’t
---
Derek Lowe
Gallup: Americans Say No. 1 Problem is
'Government,' No. 2 is 'Immigration' ---
https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/survey-americas-no-1-problem-government-no-2-problem-immigration
"If you open the borders, my God, there's a
lot of poverty in this world, and you're going to have people from all over the
world. And I don't think that's something that we can do at this point."
Bernie Sanders
https://www.businessinsider.com/bernie-sanders-says-he-does-not-support-open-borders-2019-4
Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em, And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so on ad infinitum ---
Augustus De Morgan
Prior to 1980 what was unique about the year of his birth in 1871?
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/De_Morgan.html
12 inspiring quotes from Martin Luther King
Jr.---
https://www.businessinsider.com/inspiring-martin-luther-king-jr-quotes-2017-1
21 oustanding Warren Buffet quotations ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-21-best-quotes-2019-2
The Atlantic: The Swiftly Closing
Borders of Europe ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/12/europe-france-italy-immigration-border/578179/
Italian Minister tells NGO Italy doesn’t want migrants: “Our ports are closed!”
---
https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/12/italian-minister-tells-ngo-italy-doesnt-want-migrants-our-ports-are-closed/#.XB6WCZMs_Xo.twitter
The
enemy is fear
We think it's hate
But, it's fear
Gandhi
13 of the (alleged) most famous last words in
history ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/famous-last-words-in-history-2017-10
21 of Michelle Obama's most inspiring quotes
on work, success, and relationships ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/michelle-obama-most-inspiring-quotes-advice-becoming-2019-1
19 unforgettable quotes from legendary Marine
Gen. Jim 'Mad Dog' Mattis, who quit as Trump's defense secretary ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/general-mattiss-best-quotes-2016-11
Here are the Ten Best Pieces of Advice from
2018 Commencement Speakers ---
Click Here
Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side because it's been fertilized
with more bullshit.
Anonomous
The Lucretius Problem is a mental defect where
we assume the worst case event that has happened is the worst case event that
can happen ---
https://www.fs.blog/2015/04/lucretius-problem/
The worst form of inequality is to try to make
unequal things equal.
Aristotle
The Economic Ignorance of Bernie Sanders ---
http://reason.com/archives/2018/08/09/the-economic-ignorance-of-bernie-sanders
Bernie Sanders’ New Campaign Advisor David Sirota Once Touted
Hugo Chavez’s ‘Economic Miracle’ in Venezuela ---
http://reason.com/blog/2019/03/19/bernie-sanders-david-sirota-venezuela
How many times have we heard ‘free
tuition,’ ‘free health care,’ and free you-name-it? If a particular good or
service is truly free, we can have as much of it as we want without the
sacrifice of other goods or services. Take a ‘free’ library; is it really free?
The answer is no. Had the library not been built, that $50 million could have
purchased something else. That something else sacrificed is the cost of the
library. While users of the library might pay a zero price, zero price and free
are not one and the same. So when politicians talk about providing something
free, ask them to identify the beneficent Santa Claus or tooth fairy.
Walter Williams
Every great cause begins as a movement,
becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.
Eric Hoffer.
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal
sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of
miseries.
Winston Churchill
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
In honor of his centennial, the Top 10 Feynman
quotations ---
https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/context/top-10-richard-feynman-quotations
Thomas Sowell (controversial
conservative black economist) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sowell
The 30 Best Thomas Sowell Quotes ---
https://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/the-30-best-thomas-sowell-quotes/
Be brave enough to start a
conversation that matters.
Margaret Wheatley
Even conversations
that are not politically correct.
That government is best which governs the least,
because its people discipline themselves.
Thomas Jefferson
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 gave up earlier.
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
And many writers have imagined for themselves
republics and principalities that have never been seen or known to exist in
reality; for there is such a gap between how one lives and how one ought to live
that anyone who abandons what is done for what ought to be done learns his ruin
rather than his preservation: for a man who wishes to profess goodness at all
times will come to ruin among so many who are not good.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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
Today, humanity fabricates 1,000 times more
transistors annually than the entire world grows grains of wheat and rice
combined ---
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2018/12/11/energy_and_the_information_infrastructure_part_3_the_digital_engines_of_innovation_jevons_delicious_paradox_110368.html
I learned long ago never to wrestle with a pig.
... You get dirty and besides the pig likes it ---
George Bernard Shaw
You can get a lot farther with a smile and a
gun than you can with just a smile.
Al Capone
21 quotes from self-made billionaires that
will change your outlook on money ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/self-made-billionaire-quotes-that-will-change-your-outlook-on-money-2016-12
The Best Advice from 2018's Celebrity
Commencement Speakers ---
https://moneyish.com/heart/the-best-advice-from-2018s-celebrity-commencement-speakers/
If the end brings me out all right, what is
said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten
angels swearing I was right would make no difference.
Lincoln on How to Handle Criticism ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2019/03/27/abraham-lincoln-criticism/?mc_cid=855d203b71&mc_eid=4d2bd13843
The Economist: A new kind of left-wing
doctrine is emerging. It is not the answer to capitalism’s problems ---
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/02/14/millennial-socialism?cid1=cust/ednew/n/bl/n/2019/02/14n/owned/n/n/nwl/n/n/na/202273/n
The Bernie Sanders Paradox: When Socialism Grows
Old ---
https://libcom.org/library/bernie-sanders-paradox-when-socialism-grows-old
Fed up cystic fibrosis patients are threatening
to move out of Britain since the health service won't cover a $272,000 drug ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-26/they-can-t-get-their-meds-so-they-re-moving-to-scotland?cmpid=BBD022619_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=190226&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily
Socialism: A Track Record Of Failure ---
https://finance.townhall.com/columnists/danieljmitchell/2019/04/15/socialism-a-track-record-of-failure-n2544787?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says the botched Green
New Deal rollout was her biggest mistake yet in Congress ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-green-new-deal-rollout-biggest-mistake-2019-4
While the use of federal grants in Warren’s bill
may help reduce exclusionary zoning, it’s other provisions would reduce the
supply of rental housing ---
http://marketurbanism.com/2019/04/14/homeownership-and-the-warren-housing-bill/
The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life
(a great book) ---
https://www.amazon.com/Second-Mountain-David-Brooks/dp/0812993268/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=second+mountain&qid=1554937998&s=gateway&sr=8-1/marginalrevol-20
NYT: NY Times: Although Trump Cut
Taxes For Most Americans, Democrats Convinced The Public That They Paid More
Taxes ---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2019/04/ny-times-although-trump-cut-taxes-for-most-americans-democrats-convinced-the-public-that-they-paid-m.html
Jensen
Comment
I had a conversation with a surgeon last week who complained that he normally
gets a tax refund of about $2,000 but this year was hit with a $15,000
shortfall. I did not get into details about his finances. But it would seem that
the main culprit is the $10,000 limit for property tax deductions that were
previously fully deductible on his expensive home and vacation home. High
earners in other states (think Vermont) were also hit by caps on state income
tax deductions. Everybody makes a big deal on how high income folks benefited
most from the tax changes. That is not necessarily the case for all high income
folks.
Fox News Hosts Ask Bernie Sanders A Question That
Left Him A Bit Tongue-Tied ---
Click Here
Sanders Campaign Launches 'Emergency' Fundraiser
to Combat NYT Report ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2019/04/16/sanders-campaign-launches-emergency-fundraiser-to-combat-nyt-report-n2544862?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
The retail apocalypse has claimed 6,000
US stores in 2019 so far, more than the total number to shut down in all of 2018
---
https://www.businessinsider.com/retail-apocalypse-start-of-2019-more-store-closures-all-of-2018-2019-4
South Africa’s Decline Is Worst Among Nations Not
at War, Model Shows ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-17/south-africa-s-decline-worst-of-nations-not-at-war-model-shows?cmpid=BBD041719_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=190417&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily
Eskom is the state-owned utility that supplies
95% of South Africa’s electricity. At least one-third of its power stations are
broken or shut for maintenance. Over recent months the talk of the country has
been of “load-shedding”: a euphemism for blackouts because Eskom cannot meet
demand ---
https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2019/04/20/how-to-solve-south-africas-energy-crisis
Inside the hottest job market in half a
century ---
https://www.wsj.com/news/collection/inside-the-job-market-703ffa07?mod=djcm_howamericaworks_email
Amazon has 10,000 job openings in Seattle alone and none in NYC thanks to local
politics that shunned Amazon's HQ2 even after Amazon promised union jobs but not
enough kickbacks
California’s cap-and-trade program may vastly
overestimate emissions cuts ---
Click Here
Mind-blowing facts about Russia's economy ---
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/russia-economy-facts-2019-4-1028116037#russia-s-economic-output-plummeted-45-in-the-decade-after-the-soviet-union-broke-up-3
Jensen Comment
Given the serious decline in population why doesn't Russia offer to take in more
immigrants (think Latin American families).
Politically Correct Middlebury Cannot
Keep Conservative Speakers Safe ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/04/18/middlebury-calls-lecture-conservative-polish-leader-amid-threats-protests?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=779d04ade1-DNU_2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-779d04ade1-197565045&mc_cid=779d04ade1&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Jensen Comment
What conservative would want to join this faculty or join the student body?
Is Middlebury so against diversity?
An Oxford philosopher who's inspired Elon Musk
thinks mass surveillance might be the only way to save humanity from doom ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/nick-bostrom-mass-surveillance-could-save-humanity-2019-4
Meer on the Minimum Wage ---
https://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2019/04/meer-on-minimum-wage.html
The Atlantic: The president of the
United States is not a traitor. That’s a good thing ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/04/be-grateful-mueller-found-no-us-russia-collusion/587602/
Chicago’s pension funds looking more like a
collapsing Ponzi scheme ---
https://www.statedatalab.org/news/detail/chicagos-pension-funds-looking-more-like-a-collapsing-ponzi-scheme
New Chicago mayor faces same old financial crisis ---
https://www.statedatalab.org/news/detail/new-chicago-mayor-faces-same-old-financial-crisis
The Estate Tax Is Unconstitutional ---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2019/04/the-estate-tax-is-unconstitutional.html
CNN’s ratings continue to TANK as anti-Trump
hysteria reaches fever pitch after Mueller report ---
https://thenationalsentinel.com/2019/04/21/garbage-in-garbage-out-cnns-ratings-continue-to-tank-as-anti-trump-hysteria-reaches-fever-pitch-after-mueller-report/
Mapped: The median age of the population on
every continent ---
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-the-median-age-of-every-continent/
Between 1982 and 2015, for example, the US saw
the launch of 719 new drugs, the most of any country in the sample; Israel had
about half as many launches ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/04/peter-thiel-on-medicine-and-longevity.html
Jensen
Comment
Makes you wonder why all those nations with national health care and controlled
medication prices are inventing more new drugs?
Strong earnings send S&P 500, Nasdaq to record
closing highs ---
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/stocks-set-for-subdued-action-as-quartet-of-dow-components-delivers-earnings-2019-04-23
Jensen Comment
I don't offer investment advice, but if you're close to retirement age you might
think about what the 2020 election vote buying is going to do to equity (stock)
prices with enormous corporate taxes looming for green initiatives,
Medicare-for-All, forgiveness of student debt, guaranteed annual income, $25,000
raises for all teachers in the USA, reparations for African and Native
Americans, and huge increases in housing subsidies. By sheer luck, I managed to
get great TIAA deals on lifetime fixed annuities before interest rates
crashed in 2007. However, interest rates have not recovered like stock prices
since 2008 such that fixed annuities are not such a good deal these days. On the
other hand, spending over $100 trillion on those social programs is bound to
cause inflation, and equity stocks tend to be among the best inflation hedges.
Real estate is no longer such a good deal since the new law capped property tax
deductions at $10,000.
Then again the candidates proposing $100+ trillion for social programs could
lose and stock prices could continue to flourish!
These are really uncertain times for financial planning. There are 100+ reasons why I won't give investment advice. Sigh!
CBS News: 130 New York and New Jersey Boy
Scout leaders accused of sexual abuse ---
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/boy-scouts-of-america-sexual-abuse-cases-in-new-york-and-new-jersey-press-conferences-live-stream/
Video: Joe Biden Drops Out Of 1988
Presidential Race Apologizes For Plagiarism And Lying About Grades ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUmFHU1dBEg
Jensen Comment
I respect Biden's "coming clean" admissions. In my opinion, his best strategy
would be to make the theme of his 2020 campaign "Achievable Goals" that make his
opponents look like dreamers buying votes.
Saudi Arabia beheads 37 citizens, pins one
headless body to pole ---
Jensen Comment
This is not acceptable in the 21st Century.
A New York Times article claiming that Jesus “was
most likely a (non-Jewish) Palestinian man with dark skin” is generating a
fierce push-back from the Jewish community ---
https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/04/23/new-york-times-claims-jesus-was-likely-a-palestinian/?fbclid=IwAR0KEYTwWpnvWOQL801X7O8ArphZ5aNQ6ZePY6QKsvTzaCvL-210c4yR3nc
Jensen Comment
Academics enter into this debate?
Elizabeth Warren Proposes Eliminating Student Debt for 42+ Million of
Americans ---
http://time.com/5575243/elizabeth-warren-student-debt/?utm_source=time.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-brief-pm&utm_content=2019042217pm&xid=newsletter-brief
Jensen Comment
It's important to note that most of Europe's nations (think Finland, Germany, Norway, Denmark, etc.) have free education and training, but they limit the free support to the top 1/3 of high school graduates and don't have college capacity to admit nearly 2/3 of all high school graduates. The USA wants to make it free for anybody who wants it. This is a lovely thought that the nation just cannot afford. Here's how Europe and other OCED nations support college and training realistically ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tertiary_ education_attainment
Kamala Harris’s plan to dramatically increase teacher salaries by $25,000 for
every teacher in the USA
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/3/26/18280734/kamala-harris-2020-election-policies-teachers-salaries
Bernie Sanders: "You’re Damn Right We’re Going to Destroy Private Health
Insurance" ---
Click Here
And he will limit the number of doctors by regulating what they're allowed to
earn.
Virtually all the 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidates are proposing spending trillions on green initiatives, free health care, free college or training for anyone wanting it, guaranteed annual income, reparations for African and Native Americans, more food stamps, and vastly increased housing subsidies for any resident of the USA.
The proposed spending is over $100 trillion dollars and rising daily before the November 2020 election. It's a political race to see who can spend the most.
**How to Mislead With Statistics
Larry Summers ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Summers
Larry Summers and Natasha Sarin:
The Washington Post: How Much Would a Wealth Tax Raise? Maybe 1/8 of Democratic Party estimates?
So you want to tax the rich ---
https://theconversation.com/so-you-want-to-tax-the-rich-heres-which-candidates-plan-makes-the-most-sense-111945
Jensen Comment
To be honest I like most of this article, because it correctly raises doubts
about the AOC (income) and Warren (wealth) tax proposals. However, I think it
oversimplifies the Sanders' (inheritance) tax proposals. Firstly, it ignores how
wealthy estates can maneuver to greatly reduce Bernie Sanders' projected income
from the estate tax changes. Just like high income people can maneuver to avoid
the AOC income tax proposal, wealthy people can maneuver to protect themselves
from estate taxes. The first and most obvious ploy is to leave the USA just like
the wealthiest billionaire in the UK just moved to Monaco. The second ploy is to
move the bulk of the estate into Tax-Free Foundations like the moves of Bill
Gates, Warren Buffett, George Soros, and virtually all super wealthy
individuals. By the way these foundations do wonderful things that might get
bogged down in politics. For example, rather than donate so much of Bill Gates'
wealth to reducing diseases and improving sanitation worldwide Congress might be
more inclined to divert that money domestic causes. Also Congress might be less
inclined than Bill Gates to fund technology such as worm toilets that conserve
water worldwide.
Thirdly, it does not take all that much of a family farm or ranch or other family business to be valued at $3.5 million. This could further strike a blow to family businesses that are the backbone historically of the USA economy. For example, families clinging to a $5 million family farm might be forced because in inheritance taxes to sell to foreign corporations.
The bottom line is that all the 2020 candidates are advocating spending $100+ trillion dollars on such newer initiatives as free healthcare, free college education, guaranteed income, $25,000 per year teacher raises (Harris), reparations for American and Native Americans, etc. in addition to maintaining or increasing existing safety nets such as food stamps, housing subsidies, and financial aid for open border immigrants. All are good causes, but none of the candidates has proposed a viable way to fund the new initiatives without destroying the economic engine of the USA. Whereas Nancy Pelosi has pleaded for setting of achievable goals none of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are listening to her.
Robert Redford: Don’t Fall for Political Distractions. Saving Our Planet
Must Come First ---
http://time.com/5574056/earth-day-2019-climate-change-politics/?utm_source=time.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-brief-pm&utm_content=2019042217pm&xid=newsletter-brief
The Atlantic: The Democratic Party Is Radicalizing ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/04/progressivism-making-democrats/586372/
AOC says paying for all these good things is no problem. She proposes simply printing money for any worthy program.
The Democratic Party is intent on destroying the economic engine of the USA.
Listen to Big Rock Candy
Mountain' performed by Burl Ives ---
Big Rock Candy Mountain' Burl Ives
Earther: The Dirty Truth About Green Batteries ---
Click Here
Sabotage --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabotage
How the Joint Venture of Tesla and Panasonic Works in the Nevada
Gigafactory and the Risks of Sabotage ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/panasonic-battery-cell-operations-tesla-gigafactory-chaotic-2019-4
Jensen Comment
This is a nice summary of how battery production works in Tesla's Nevada
gigafactory. The article is stresses the production waste and accident risks at
this huge plant.
What struck me is how vulnerable the plant is to sabotage from disgruntled workers to Al-Qaeda..
Jensen Comment
This suggests a new line of research for both managerial and financial
accounting --- the risks of accidents and sabotage.
One risk is putting crucial production in one plant. Oil companies and automobile companies typically protect themselves with multiple plants rather than concentrating the plant in one place. Electric companies are part of a grid of multiple production sources. Tesla seems to have put all its battery eggs in one basket.
The Slow Burn of Cash Forces N.Y. Companies to seek Alternate Locations ---
https://stpeteedc.com/delocation-the-slow-burn-of-cash-forcing-n-y-companies-to-seek-alternate-locations/
According to recent data from the US Census Bureau, businesses and residents are exiting New York in droves, as the state lost more of its population than it gained between July 2017- July 2018. The Empire State lost 180,306 people— the biggest decrease of any U.S. state, with Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Delaware not far behind.
How to mislead with statistics
Harvard Research: When Airbnb Listings in a City Increase, So Do Rent Prices ---
https://hbr.org/2019/04/research-when-airbnb-listings-in-a-city-increase-so-do-rent-prices?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=dailyalert_not_activesubs&referral=00563&deliveryName=DM34433
Jensen
Comment
The article itself pretty well points out how this correlation can be misleading
due to missing variables.
Italy's 'perma-recession' could trigger a €2
trillion financial crisis that threatens the eurozone itself ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/italy-perma-recession-systemic-crisis-threatens-eurozone-2019-4
- Italy has entered a "perma-recession" and there is no obvious way out, analysts told Business Insider.
- European Union rules prevent the kind of government deficit spending that might grow the economy.
- At the same time, Italy's debt-to-GDP load has reached heights not seen since World War II.
- There is now a growing risk of a systemic financial crisis, these analysts told Business Insider.
- The scale of such a collapse would be magnitudes greater than the Greek debt crisis of 2015, and thus harder to contain.
- The problem illustrates the contradictory rules of the EU and the European Central Bank, which prevent countries from investing in growth and make it impossible to leave the eurozone without triggering the crisis they're seeking to avoid.
Continued in article
Why Economists Love Property Taxes and You Don't ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2017-11-28/why-economists-love-property-taxes-and-you-don-t?fbclid=IwAR3suQ83jAN4L4jFTbB23ZbSnqSDQbreeghXVV8Wpos32Yhcc4QJdXOxMiI
Jensen Comment
California's Proposition 13 putting a cap on tax valuation for longer-term
residents enables folks to remain in their homes.. Otherwise most would've been
forced to move through no fault of their own. Without such relief folks in the
other 49 states are often forced to move, and many choose to leave states like
NY, NJ, Connecticut, Illinois, and elsewhere, thereby depriving those states of
income taxes, estate taxes, sales taxes, etc.
Property taxes discourage building new homes or making improvements to existing homes.
The article above discusses other aspects of property taxes that are now used in many states like New Hampshire and Vermont for funding of schools. Property taxes work better in New Hampshire because home owners find tax relief by not having to pay income taxes and sales taxes. Property taxes don't work well in Vermont due to Vermont's taxes on everything imaginable, taxes that discourage moving into the state and encourage moving out of the state. This is creating a crisis for economic development and retaining a work force in Vermont. Exhibit A is the exit of physicians who set up practices just across the border in New Hampshire. On any given day I see as many or more Vermont license plates as NH license plates in NH parking lots. Those Vermont folks come to NH for shopping, medical services, etc.
There is also a lot of cheating. I had a conversation in a barbershop with a man who claims residency in a modest dilapidated house in Woodsville, NH just across the Connecticut River that separates Vermont from New Hampshire. He says his neighbor collects his mail while he and his wife live in more of the year in an expensive retirement home on the Vermont side of the river. For both homes he pays property taxes, but by declaring NH residency he avoids paying Vermont income tax in his retirement. His Amazon purchases are sent to NH to save on sales taxes.
Health Insurance
Vox: The Bernie Sanders national
medical plan has lots of details about what single-payer would cover. It has
less information on how to pay for it (well over $3 trillion per year and
growing for more generous coverage than all other national health plans)
---
https://www.vox.com/2019/4/10/18304448/bernie-sanders-medicare-for-all
. . .
Medicare, employer coverage, and these other countries show that nearly every insurance scheme we’re familiar with covers a smaller set of benefits with more out-of-pocket spending on the part of citizens. Private insurance plans often spring up to fill these gaps (in Canada, for example, vision and dental insurance is often sponsored by employers, much like in the United States).
The reason they went this way is clear: It’s cheaper to run a health plan with fewer benefits. The plan Sanders proposes has no analog among the single-payer systems that currently exist. By covering a more comprehensive set of benefits and asking no cost sharing of enrollees, it is likely to cost the government significantly more than programs other countries have adopted
. . .
But who pays how much more is a key question this Sanders bill doesn’t answer yet. Until there is a version that does, we can’t know whether the health system the Vermont senator envisions could actually become reality.
Jensen Comment
The Sanders plan eliminates all private-sector medical insurance companies and
eliminates Medicare and Medicaid.
The good news for us retired folks is that long-term care insurance that is not covered presently under Medicare will cover us retired folks. Hooray for Bernie! I can eat, drink, and be merry on my long-term care savings.
Two things Bernie does not like to discuss is the impact on doctors and hospitals. At present many (most?) of the top physicians and hospitals refuse Medicaid patients because of caps placed on fees. Many also reject Medicare patients, but more of them are covered because of supplemental private insurance benefits that can be added to Medicare insurance. Presently Erica and I pay over $1,200 for supplemental benefits that will not be allowed under the Sanders' plan.
I think Sanders does not like to discuss caps that will be placed on physician billings and hospital rates because the medical profession would otherwise crank up an huge lobbying effort against his plan. The medical profession has only begun to fight.
Also Sanders does not like to discuss the shortage of physicians and hospital services that will arise when bringing tens of millions of people into his plan (think nearly 20 million undocumented residents that will be covered in rural areas already underserved with doctors and hospitals).
Also Sanders does not like to discuss the transition costs in creating the vast government bureaucracy that does not exist for processing medical insurance claims. At present Medicare and Medicaid outsource claims processing to the private sector. Bernie plans to kill that outsourcing sector.
Bernie Sanders: "You’re Damn Right We’re Going to Destroy Private Health
Insurance" ---
Click Here
And he will limit the number of doctors by regulating what they're allowed to
earn.
And Bernie plans on taxing high income earners in the USA by taking away 70% or more of what they now earn. What will be the incentive for spending years of misery to become a physician good at a craft that will be taxed to death rather than rewarded after all those years of misery?
The problem with becoming a physician is not just the cost of medical school. The problem is the ordeal --- those years of education and training needed to become masters of their crafts. The time needed varies with specialties, but you don't become a neurosurgeon without years of ordeal in training before you can bill your first paying patient. And there's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in those training years. Even worse is that there's a lot of weekly tension and risk of burn out in the years of practice that follow. Tell that to the advocates of Medicare-for-All combined with soaring taxes!
Why did Cuba
abandon its socialist/communist dream of equality for everybody?
The Guardian: This was the
egalitarian dream of Cuba in the 1960s: For years in Cuba, jobs as varied as
farm workers and doctors only had a difference in their wages of the equivalent
of a few US dollars a month.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jun/12/cuba
Jensen Comment
Only now is Cuba backtracking from its egalitarian dream by uncapping wages and
legalizing profits while liberals in the USA want to return again to the 1960s
Cuban dream.
But is Denmark socialist? …Denmark doesn’t at
all fit the classic definition of socialism, which involves government ownership
of the means of production. It is, instead, social-democratic: a market economy
where the downsides of capitalism are mitigated by government action, including
a very strong social safety net. …The simple fact is that there is far more
misery in America than there needs to be. Every other advanced country has
universal health care and a much stronger social safety net than we do.
Paul Krugman
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/19/opinion/something-not-rotten-in-denmark.html
Jensen Comment
What Krugman does not mention is that Denmark is mostly a homogeneous (white)
nation of less than 6 million people. It's much more difficult and expensive to
afford and maintain a similar safety net with over 300 million highly diverse
people located on top of a very porous border with thousands trying to sneak in
daily to enjoy the safety nets.
Welfare Leads to Slower Growth in the Nordic
Nations ---
https://mises.org/wire/paul-krugman-learns-wrong-lesson-denmark
The Swedish Welfare State Leads to Poor
Immigrant Assimilation ---
https://mises.org/wire/swedish-welfare-state-leads-poor-immigrant-assimilation
Ending Jensen Comment
But don't get me wrong! Erika and I will vote for Bernie Sanders since our
possible expensive long-term health care not funded by Medicare will soon be
free. To hell with the future economic engine of the USA. Bring on the Bernie
Sanders' socialism since I'm too old to witness the chaos and economic
destruction that follows in its path. Since Democrats are promising free
everything why shouldn't Erika and I get in on the free everything?
Listen to Big Rock Candy Mountain' performed by Burl Ives ---
Big Rock Candy Mountain' Burl Ives
"But (American) virtuous
feelings have been played on by some facts with more fiction; they have been the
dupes of artful maneuvers, and made for a moment to be willing instruments in
forging chains for themselves.”
Thomas Jefferson
PS from Bob Jensen
I'm not really going to vote for socialist Bernie Sanders (who was and still is
a hard core socialist at heart). I don't want my country to crash and burn like
Venezuela
Finland’s government collapses over failed health care reform ---
https://www.politico.eu/article/finlands-government-collapses-over-failed-health-care-reform/?fbclid=IwAR3ZUM2rsGzcoIVMFVHwwTfE15MAxpo_9poClu2d7pjzFdrz84WORKZTSX0
Bernie Sanders: "You’re Damn Right We’re Going to Destroy Private Health
Insurance" ---
Click Here
And he will limit the number of doctors by regulating what they're allowed to
earn.
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/