Tidbits Political Quotations
To Accompany the November 28, 2019 edition of Tidbits
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2019/Tidbits112819.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/
The published national debt is a lie
Here's the real federal debt ---
https://www.truthinaccounting.org/about/our_national_debt

In September 2017 the USA National Debt exceeded $22 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 



 

Thomas Piketty +++ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Piketty

Billionaires (and millionaires)  hurt economic growth and should be taxed out of existence, says bestselling French economist ---
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/12/billionaires-should-be-taxed-out-of-existence-says-thomas-piketty.html

 

Here's a humorous TED talk that seriously argues why the world needs billionaires

https://www.ted.com/talks/harald_eia_where_in_the_world_is_it_easiest_to_get_rich

 

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 

 

Here's a somber and serious Guardian article on why the Cuban model of income equality for all is a disaster ---
Fidel Castro says his economic system is failing ---

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/09/fidel-castro-cuba-economic-model

 

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/

 

Excellent, Cross-Disciplinary Overview of Scientific Reproducibility in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ---
https://replicationnetwork.com/2018/12/15/excellent-cross-disciplinary-overview-of-scientific-reproducibility-in-the-stanford-encyclopedia-of-philosophy/

[Researchers] are rewarded for being productive rather than being right, for building ever upward instead of checking the foundations.---
Decades of early research on the genetics of depression were built on nonexistent foundations. How did that happen?

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/05/waste-1000-studies/589684/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_content=20191022&silverid-ref=NTk4MzY1OTg0MzY5S0

Bob Jensen:  My take on research validation or lack thereof is at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm

 

Tom Lehrer on Mathematical Models and Statistics ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZWyUXn3So
You must watch this to the ending to appreciate it.

 

And nevertheless conclude that the optimum amount of restriction of immigration is zero point zero, zero, zero? Amazing. Economics are generally skeptical models that yield corner solutions ---
https://www.econlib.org/do-you-talk-about-it-in-open-borders-yes/
Jensen Comment
To the list of questions I would add "Do your talk about the Tragedy of the Commons?"
The problem with open borders is somewhat related to the economic problem of "The Sharing of the Commons" where giving everybody the right to use a free resource leads to everybody losing that resource. At what point will allowing billions of people share in the free medical care, free college, and other scarce resources ruin it for everybody ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

 

Open immigration can’t exist with a strong social safety net; if you’re going to assure healthcare and a decent income to everyone, you can’t make that offer global ---
Paul Krugman
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/724654-open-immigration-can-t-exist-with-a-strong-social-safety-net

 

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

 

Some Fatherly Words of Wisdom from Jack Bogle, Founder of Vanguard Investments, to My Sons ---
https://jborden.com/2019/06/16/some-fatherly-words-of-wisdom-from-jack-bogle-founder-of-vanguard-investments-to-my-sons/

 

Milton Friedman:  The Lesson of the Spoons ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/08/spoons-are-in-aisle-9.html
Chopsticks would be even better

 

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/

 

I have a complaint about America today, and it is simple: we don’t love business enough ---
Tyler Cowen
https://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2019/Klingbigbusiness.html

 

The Amazon Rain Forest Is Nearly Gone ---
https://time.com/amazon-rainforest-disappearing/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-brief&utm_content=20190914&xid=newsletter-brief
Amazon rainforest fires: Everything we know and how you can help ---
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/amazon-rainforest-fire-whats-happening-now-and-how-you-can-help-update-indigenous-tribes/
There Are More Fires Burning in Africa Than Anywhere on Earth ----
https://time.com/5665794/africa-forest-fires-amazon/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-brief&utm_content=20190901&xid=newsletter-brief
If forests go up in smoke, so can carbon offsets ---
https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/13/20859156/forests-fires-carbon-offsets-amazon-california

 

"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

Also see
 

Hermann Weyl born in Hamburg, Germany. He wrote, "One may say that mathematics talks about the things which are of no concern to men. Mathematics has the inhuman quality of starlight---brilliant, sharp, but cold ... thus we are clearest where knowledge matters least: in mathematics, especially number theory." ---
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Weyl.html
Also see Mathematical Analytics in Plato's Cave
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm#Analytics

 

Georges Simenon wrote nearly 200 novels. Hitchcock telephoned one day and was told, "Sorry, he’s just started a novel." "I’ll wait,’ came the reply
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/08/if-only-georges-simenon-had-been-a-bit-more-like-maigret/

 

12 inspiring quotes from Martin Luther King Jr.---
https://www.businessinsider.com/inspiring-martin-luther-king-jr-quotes-2017-1

 

21 outstanding Warren Buffet quotations ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-21-best-quotes-2019-2
Also see
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-25-best-warren-buffett-quotes-in-one-infographic/

 

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

 

Walter E. Williams --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_E._Williams

Walter E. Williams:  Who Are the Racists?
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2019/11/27/who-are-the-racists-n2557042?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=11/27/2019&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

Walter E. Williams:  Youth and Ignorance ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2019/09/25/youth-and-ignorance-n2553511?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=09/25/2019&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

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

From John F. Kennedy to Oprah and Steve Jobs, here are 20 of the best commencement speeches of all time ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/the-best-graduation-speeches-of-all-time-2016-6

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

 

Walter E. Williams --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_E._Williams
Walter E. Williams:  Young People Ignorant of History
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2019/11/13/young-people-ignorant-of-history-n2556294?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=11/13/2019&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

Walter E. Williams:  Who Cares About You?
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2019/10/02/who-cares-about-you-n2553910?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=10/02/2019&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

Walter E. Williams --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_E._Williams
Racist Exam Questions?
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2019/09/18/racist-exam-questions-n2553173?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=09/18/2019&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

Walter E. Williams:  Gun Grabbers Misleading Us ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2019/10/30/gun-grabbers-misleading-us-n2555471?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=10/30/2019&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

Daniel Burns on Liberal Practice v. Liberal Theory ---
https://blog.supplysideliberal.com/post/2019/11/20/daniel-burns-on-liberal-practice-v-liberal-theory

Florida:  99% of companies pay no corporate income tax — with lawmakers’ blessing ---
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-ne-florida-corporate-tax-avoidance-20191113-sx37z4l3d5b6viugtl4thlqxem-story.html#nws=true

South Dakota:  The Great American Tax Haven ---
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/14/the-great-american-tax-haven-why-the-super-rich-love-south-dakota-trust-laws

 

Wisconsin facing retiree health care crisis ---
https://www.statedatalab.org/news/detail/wisconsin-facing-retiree-health-care-crisis

 

Maps show 500 suspected 're-education' camps and prisons where China is locking up and torturing its Muslim minority ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/china-uighur-prison-camp-suspected-locations-maps-2019-11

 

The Russia Hoax was never about Russia. It was always a cover story to unleash a legal assault on Team Trump, the sole aim of which was to look for, and create, secondary crimes ---
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/11/the_real_reason_for_the_russia_hoax_and_ukraine_and_impeachment_and_the_next_thing.html
Also see
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/attorney-general-barr-left-systemic-sabotage

 

America’s public-sector pension schemes are trillions of dollars short ---
https://www.statedatalab.org/news/detail/americas-public-sector-pension-schemes-are-trillions-of-dollars-short
Jensen Comment
The Sanders-Warren plan to destroy the stock markets will only make matters worse.

 

Former President Barack Obama on Friday warned the Democratic field of White House hopefuls not to veer too far to the left, a move he said would alienate many who would otherwise be open to voting for the party’s nominee next year . . . Though Obama did not mention anyone by name, the message delivered before a room of Democratic donors in Washington was a clear word of caution about the candidacies of Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders
https://apnews.com/517d82ffc0954fd69958c437b20cb856
Jensen Comment
Remember how President Obama deported over one million undocumented immigrants. Free medical care, free college, and guaranteed annual income would attract over one billion "refuges."

 

Obama warns Democrats against going too far left: ‘We have to be rooted in reality’ ---
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/16/obama-warns-democrats-against-going-too-far-left.html

 

Elizabeth Warren Signals She Would Consider a Universal Basic Income ---
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/11/18/elizabeth-warren-signals-she-would-consider-a-universal-basic-income/
Jensen Comment
UBI is not the same as the "negative income tax" favored by conservative Milton Friedman. The UBI would be an income guarantee above and beyond other social welfare programs such as free medical care and free college. Friedman wanted the negative income tax to replace other social welfare programs.

 

Left-Leaning Vox:  Gordon Sondland and Kurt Volker were not telling the whole truth ---
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/11/21/20976009/impeachment-hearing-hill-holmes-volker-sondland-burisma-biden

 

FBI has 1,000 investigations into Chinese intellectual property theft ---
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3019829/fbi-has-1000-probes-chinese-intellectual-property-theft-director

 

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu charged with bribery and fraud ---
https://qz.com/1753498/israels-netanyahu-charged-with-bribery-and-fraud/

 

$250 Trillion in Global Debt:  Chinese and European banks are in far worse shape than US banks. European banks are getting hammered by negative rates ---
https://finance.townhall.com/columnists/mikeshedlock/2019/11/21/250-trillion-in-global-debt-how-can-that-be-paid-back-n2556861?bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&utm_campaign=nl&utm_medium=email&utm_source=thdaily

 

DoD's second financial audit uncovers 1,300 new deficiencies ---
https://www.statedatalab.org/news/detail/dods-second-financial-audit-uncovers-1300-new-deficiencies

 

Newspaper publisher McClatchy, which owns the Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star, The Sacramento Bee, and the Charlotte Observer, among other publications, is seeking a bailout of its pension fund. The company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it is in discussions with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) for help ---
https://www.statedatalab.org/news/detail/strapped-mcclatchy-seeks-pension-bailout

 

Rhode Island Supreme Court allows city to cut pension benefits to avoid bankruptcy ---
https://yankeeinstitute.org/2019/11/18/rhode-island-supreme-court-allows-city-to-cut-pension-benefits-to-avoid-bankruptcy/

 

The Atlantic:  Stop the Ethanol Madness ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/ethanol-has-forsaken-us/602191/

 

The 2020 Front-Runners Aren’t As Well-Liked As Past Contenders ---
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-2020-front-runners-arent-as-well-liked-as-past-contenders/

 

A campaign event for former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who launched a late Democratic presidential bid last week, reportedly was canceled Wednesday evening when only two people showed up ---
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/deval-patrick-cancels-campaign-event-at-atlanta-college-after-only-2-people-show-up

Were they his two daughters?

 

The Atlantic:  Public Housing Becomes the Latest Progressive Fantasy ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/public-housing-fundamentally-flawed/602515/

 

Describing the FBI’s actions as “gross incompetence and negligence,” the Justice Department’s inspector general laid out his findings on the bureau’s probe into Trump campaign links to Russian election meddling ---
https://www.ozy.com/presidential-daily-brief/pdb-255365/?utm_source=pdb&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=December%2012%2C%202019&variable=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&utm_term=OZY#article255837

However the IG concludes the investigation itself was justified at the beginning
 

University of Pennsylvania
Elizabeth Warren's proposed wealth tax will raise $1 trillion less than expected and slow the economy, study finds ---
https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2019/12/12/senator-elizabeth-warrens-wealth-tax-projected-budgetary-and-economic-effects

Jensen Comment
As of December 12, 2019 those of us in New Hampshire are being bombarded with television advertisements for Bernie Sanders and none (as far as I can tell) from Elizabeth Warren. It would seem that she's already conceded to losing to Bernie Sanders in the New Hampshire primary. Maybe she's concentrating her money on the larger and more important states. Bernie is still being very ambiguous about how he will finance his socialism takeover of the USA. He's less ambiguous about spending plans ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Bernie_Sanders

Bernie probably stands the least chance of defeating Trump because his political positions are the most radical of all the Democratic Party presidential candidates. His new alliances with AOC and Omar probably hurt rather than help his quest to defeat Trump.
The latest Quinnipiac University Scientific Poll found that any of the 2020 Democratic Party candidates (including Bernie Sanders) will almost certainly clobber Trump in 2020 ---
https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/video/all-top-democrats-beat-trump-in-new-quinnipiac-poll-67668549781

Blast from the Past
August 25, 2016:  New Quinnipiac University Scientific Poll shows we're 'starting to hear the faint rumblings of a Hillary Clinton landslide' ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/quinnipiac-poll-clinton-trump-landslide-2016-8





December 12, 1901
Guglielmo Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless communication, the three code dots signifying the letter "S." Already well known, Marconi, at age 27, became world-famous overnight ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_of_radio#Marconi.27s_work

 


Media Retract Stories After Realizing The Report Actually Cites How Many Children The Obama Administration Detained ---
https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/706263-outlets-retract-stories-after-realizing-the-report-actually-cites-how-many-children-the-obama-administration-detained-special?utm_source=c-alrt&utm_medium=c-alrt-email&utm_term=c-alrt-GI&utm_content=5iEzoSRA3OwmMZouDYnIqL3RgHsaffHcB6hB5DcjF-f0.A

Outlets including Reuters, Agence France-Presse (AFP), NPR and Aljazeera jumped on a report from the United Nations, writing Monday that the country has the world’s highest rates of detained children.

 

The outlets reported that there are currently more than 100,000 children in immigration-related custody, which violates international law. A day later, Reuters and AFP deleted their stories after the U.N. clarified the numbers were from 2015, when President Barack Obama was in office. Neither outlet immediately responded to a request for comment on why they deleted the entire story, instead of issuing corrections and updating to reflect the numbers were from 2015.

 

The page where the article was featured now has a retraction on Reuters.

 

Continued in article

 


Caplan responds to Garett Jones on open borders ---
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwGBmtwFMgDWBCXxSGdPsmVkRhV
Jensen Comment
What these IQ arguments avoid is the obvious gaming that will take place with open borders if anybody can enter for free medical care, free medicines, free education, free everything needed for welfare. For example, if a nation is not providing free long-term care for dementia patients by all means ship them to the USA faster than the Mayor De Blasio in New York City is now shipping hundreds of homeless people all over the USA with free prepaid rent for a a year at their destinations. If their homelands are not providing dialysis treatments for indigent patients ship them thru the open borders of a nation that will provide free dialysis to all patients.

 

The Scandinavian nations now make it very difficult for resident refugees to attain citizenship due to the expense of all the free medical, education, and social services those nations provide to citizens. Instead they are denying citizenship and paying refugees to leave.

 

Don't believe the wild claims of open border advocates that most of the people are now crossing the borders in fear of their lives. Many are indeed crossing the USA border illegally because of this fear, but even more are crossing because of their economic, medical, and education needs. With open borders there will be no limit to how many stream into the USA from virtually everywhere on earth.

 


Al Sharpton Sells His Life Story Rights for Over Half a Million (some reports say a million) Dollars To His Own Charity ---
http://www.michellesmirror.com/2019/11/a-true-bags-to-bitches-story-real-al.html#.XdQCw3dFznt

Jensen Comment
People gave money to that charity thinking it would be redistributed to the poor, not to Al Sharpton's pockets.

Of course Donald Trump also treated his charity like his personal piggy bank.

This is common in the world of politician owned charities.


How to Mislead With Statistics

Is China Actually Stealing American Jobs and Wealth?
by John L. Graham and Benjamin Leffel
Harvard Business Review
https://hbr.org/2019/11/is-china-actually-stealing-american-jobs-and-wealth?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_monthly&utm_campaign=finance_not_activesubs&referral=00209&deliveryName=DM57237

Jensen Comment
It's hard to believe that the authors can conclude that China is not hurting USA incomes or jobs without ever mentioning the balance of trade between the two nations and the so-called "China Shock"  ---
https://hbr.org/2019/11/is-china-actually-stealing-american-jobs-and-wealth?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_monthly&utm_campaign=finance_not_activesubs&referral=00209&deliveryName=DM57237

. . .

Some Democratic lawmakers, labor groups, and manufacturers also criticize the deficit on the grounds that some foreign countries—especially China—have used unfair practices like currency manipulation, wage suppression, and government subsidies to boost their exports, while blocking U.S. imports. Some economists argue that China’s competitiveness stems from its protectionism and state involvement in the economy, giving its exports an unfair edge and violating global trade rules. Research by Peterson Institute economists C. Fred Bergsten and Joseph E. Gagnon blames China’s “massive and sustained” currency manipulation from 2000 to 2010 for widening the trade deficit to historic levels.

Though such aggressive manipulation has eased since then, CFR Senior Fellow Brad Setser, a former Treasury official, writes that there is still an East Asian “savings glut,” in which exceptionally high savings rates in the region, partially due to government policy, drive large trade surpluses, which must be absorbed by deficit countries, like the United States.

Meanwhile, the deficit’s concentration in the manufacturing sector has heightened concerns among some economists over job losses and their repercussions in local communities. (Of the $891 billion goods deficit, over $650 billion consisted of [PDF] manufactured consumer goods and automobile parts.) Research by the Economic Policy Institute suggests that the surge in Chinese imports has lowered wages for non-college-educated workers and cost the United States 3.4 million jobs from 2001-2015, while research published by the University of Chicago put that number [PDF] at closer to 2 million over a similar period (1999-2011). Many economists fear that import-related job losses are driving a populist backlash to trade and globalization that will cause political volatility.

Some economists worry about the consequences of large and persistent imbalances. The Peterson Institute’s Gagnon warns that the debt necessary to finance the deficit is heading toward unsustainable levels. Former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and Jared Bernstein, an economic advisor to Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, have argued that the large inflows of foreign capital that accompany trade deficits can lead to financial bubbles and may have contributed to the U.S. housing crash that began in 2006. Others note that a growing deficit has been associated with a weak economy, as in the early 2000s, which they say is evidence of the potential for a large deficit to drain demand from the domestic economy and slow growth when the economy is performing under its potential.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
The above article points out that it's possible to put too much emphasis on the trade deficit when setting trade policy with China. However, Graham and Benjamin Leffel clearly leave out the unfair trade practices of China in their article, especially the blocking of imports from the USA to the detriment of fair trade between the two nations.

This is a political article rather than a scholarly article.


How to Mislead With Statistics

11 mind-blowing facts about China's economy ---
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/china-economy-facts-2019-5-1028172022#china-imports-more-us-agricultural-products-than-canada-and-mexico1
The article fails to mention the impact of China's terrible record on human rights affecting millions of poor people, particularly its minority Muslim population.
The article also fails to mention the enormous economic corruption.

Jensen Comment
The claim that "With a much bigger population, China has fewer poor people than the US" is misleading because different definitions of "poor" are used. The World Bank defines being poor in China as living on less than $1.90 per day ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_China

The USA has many more safety nets for the poor such as Medicaid coverage of poor people, including those in nursing homes, as well as much more generous welfare programs ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare

There are wider differences in quality of medical care and education in China relative to the USA ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_China

In fairness, China has done spectacularly in reducing poverty. But it's far better to be poor in the USA relative to China ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States
Also poverty is significantly overstated in the USA by failing to factor in the $2+ trillion underground economy where cash wages of poor people are never recorded.


NY Times: Warren Wealth Tax Would Slow Economic Growth By 13% According To Penn Wharton Budget Model ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/14/business/warren-wealth-tax-economy.html

Larry Summers --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Summers

Summers on the Wealth Tax ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/10/summers-on-the-wealth-tax.html

Larry Summers is my favorite liberal economist because even while maintaining his liberal values he never stops thinking like an economist. That makes him suspect among the left but it means that he is always worth listening to. The video below with Saez, Summers and Mankiw (with Rampell moderating) is excellent throughout. I cribbed a number of points from Summers:

“I have studied last week’s twitter war very carefully and I have to say that I am 98.5% convinced by the critics that the Zucman-Saez data are substantially inaccurate and misleading.”

The arguments around political power are not persuasive. Most of what is wrong with politics is because that is what the people want (I’m filling in a bit here from comments throughout). A wealth tax does nothing about corporate lobbying and would increase the incentive to give to political organizations. If you cut wealth at the top by 30% that wouldn’t change relative political power in the slightest.

Wealth is up in large part because interest rates are down which means that permanent income hasn’t increased.

Forced savings programs like social security and unemployment insurance mean that people at the bottom need to save less and thus their wealth falls even as their welfare increases.

A wealth tax increases the incentive to consume instead of save and invest.

On employee stock ownership plans: “When you put workers in control of firms and you give them substantial control–see Israeli kibbutz’s, see Yugoslav cooperatives, see universities where faculties have a powerful voice–the one thing you do not get is expansion. You get more for the people who are already there. That does not seem to be an attractive position for progressives.”

In the Q&A Summers just goes to town on Saez when Saez claims 90% tax rates are a great American invention. “The people who were around in the Kennedy administration who were at least as progressive as you are were united in the belief that 90% tax rates were a bad idea….The number of people who paid those 90% tax rates was trivial and it wasn’t because there weren’t a lot of rich people.”  Greg Mankiw, who gives a nice parable in his remarks, has to stifle a laugh as Summers lets rip.

Jensen Comment

I've no objection to a modest wealth tax that does not badly destroy the wealth tax. But to raise $20+ trillion annually needed to fund Democratic Party spending proposals (Green Initiative, free medical care, free medicines, free college, guaranteed annual income for 350+ million USA residents, reparations, open borders, etc.) would wipe out the stock markets. That, in turn, would wipe out most pension funds in the USA and make it impossible for business firms to raise capital. In short it means the destruction of capitalism where business firms raise capital from the private sector.

**How to Mislead With Statistics

The Wealth Tax Runs Counter to the Objectives of Its Advocates
Comment on “Progressive Wealth Taxation” by Saez and Zucman prepared for the Fall 2019 issue of Brookings Papers on Economic Activity
----
http://www.columbia.edu/~wk2110/bin/BPEASaezZucman.pdf

Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman offer a discussion of rationale for, implementation and implications of introducing wealth taxation in the United States. In my comments, I will primarily focus on three topics: economic arguments for having this form of taxation, practical issues in implementing it, and a few aspects of underlying data and assumptions that authors rely on in evaluating the impact of this proposal.

A general wealth tax does not exist in the United States. However, the U.S. has a highly progressive estate tax and it taxes capital income through a mix of (1) personal income taxes on dividends, interest, capital gains, royalties and business incomes, and (2) corporate taxation. Bases of all these taxes overlap with the base for wealth taxation, although they are not economically or administratively identical. Thus, the right question in my mind is whether a wealth tax is desirable given existence of these other instruments. In my view, as elaborated below, the case for wealth taxation over capital income taxation in general is quite weak and rests on either desirability of one time ,ideally unexpected, taxation or on the presence of externalities from wealth concentration (that ideally should be treated using instruments tailored to specific problems). From the administrative point of view, even then the challenging and ambitious solutions that could make wealth tax feasible apply equally well to (otherwise preferred) capital income taxation.

The case that authors make is not helped by optimistic empirical assumptions that do not highlight uncertainty, which is likely to run mostly in one direction; that may be a plus for public presentation of the plan, but not for an economist. I discuss these issues at the end of the comment.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
Along with destruction of pension fund investments in failed stock markets.

 

Taxing The “Rich” Won’t Pay For Politicians’ Promises ---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2019/10/taxing-the-rich-wont-pay-for-politicians-promises.html

 

Hillary Clinton Is Not a Fan of Bernie’s or Warren’s Wealth Taxes ---
Click Here
She thinks they’re “unworkable” and would be “incredibly disruptive.”

 


 

Not every campus is a political battlefield ---
https://theconversation.com/not-every-campus-is-a-political-battlefield-128196

 

Jensen Comment
My own experience across 40 years of teaching full time at four universities is that students are more concerned about grades than politics. Their knowledge of government budgets, taxation, and personal finance is very limited.

 

Last night I saw a New Hampshire television add featuring Presidential candidate Andrew Yang and his wife. Yang claimed that instead of taxing people "We're going to fund Medicare-for-All by making big companies like Amazon pay for it."

 

Are students really naive enough to believe this? I think the answer is YES! Students don't ask where Amazon and Walmart get the money to pay for the $39+ trillion Medicare-for-All tax?
 

Urban Institutue: From Incremental to Comprehensive Health Reform: How Various Reform Options Compare on Coverage and Costs ---
https://www.urban.org/research/publication/incremental-comprehensive-health-reform-how-various-reform-options-compare-coverage-and-costs

 


 

Three of the Big Four multinational accounting firms are among the very top companies of the the world for working moms at Ranks 4/100, 5/100, 8/100
And all four are in the 15-year Hall of Fame for working moms ---
https://www.workingmother.com/working-mother-100-best-companies-winners-2019

The Big Four firms are among the very best companies to work for in general at Ranks 26/100, 34/100, 36/100, and 44/100 ---
https://fortune.com/best-companies/

 


While wind power leaps ahead in the UK, Denmark, and offshore elsewhere it hits a stumbling block after soaring in Germany---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/11/germany-wind-power-fact-of-the-day.html

 

Jensen Comment
Off shore wind power is the most effective wind power but not necessarily the most efficient in terms of offshore costs. There's increased interest in wind power along the USA's Pacific coast ---
https://www.enr.com/articles/44672-us-offshore-wind-power-is-blowing-on-west-coast
Wind power still requires transmission lines which scientists hope will be less important with development of fuel cells like hydrogen fuel cells that can generate electricity on site and even in vehicles. Norway plans to have 500,000 hydrogen vehicles on the road in less than a decade. Germany is already running a hydrogen train. China has the most wind power of any nation but is betting on hydrogen for the long run ---

Preview: The hydrogen economy in China ---
https://www.gasworld.com/preview-the-hydrogen-economy-in-china/2017616.article

Germany Turns to Hydrogen in Quest for Clean Energy Economy --- 
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-02/germany-turns-to-hydrogen-in-quest-for-clean-energy-economy

 

Empowering Accountants:  Shrinking the Tax Gap Approaches and Revenue Potential
by Natasha Sarin and Lawrence H. Summers
https://www.taxnotes.com/special-reports/compliance/shrinking-tax-gap-approaches-and-revenue-potential/2019/11/15/2b47g

In this report, Sarin and Summers argue that more resources for conducting IRS examinations (particularly of high-income earners), increasing cross-party reporting requirements, and overhauling outdated IRS technology would enable the agency to shrink the tax gap by around 15 percent in the next decade.

Jensen Comment
The downfall of gangster Al Capone is one of the many examples where accounting power wins when other forms of law enforcement are failing.
 

Weak tax law enforcement and government corruption go hand in hand in promoting private sector corruption.

 

It will be interesting to see if obscure tax accountants succeed in bringing down Trump when the Pelosi's coup attempt fails.

 


 

Report: War on Terror Will Cost the US About $6.4 Trillion by Fiscal 2020’s End

http://www.airforcemag.com/Features/Pages/2019/November 2019/Report-War-on-Terror-Will-Cost-the-US-About-64-Trillion-by-Fiscal-2020s-End.aspx

 

Jensen Question
Is this a continuing taxpayer obligation that's never mentioned by the 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidates? What does it entail and what's its priority?

 

Exhibit A is the never-ending wars with Al-Qadea, the Taliban, and ISIS. Exhibit B is the never-ending occupation in Korea. Exhibit C is how the war on terror becomes entangled in the ceaseless drug wars against vicious cartels.

 

The War on Terror with boots on the ground and ships at sea is one of the many enormous expenses that make the USA brand if capitalism different than capitalism in smaller nations like Scandinavian nations, Switzerland, and Canada that live in the umbrella of USA protections. Like it or not the USA became a police force of the world long before Trump became president. The War on Terror continues to be an on-going drain on taxpayers. And with cyber warfare and robotics it's becoming more and more expensive.

 


 

Opioid deaths are not mainly about prescription opioids ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/11/opioid-deaths-are-not-mainly-about-prescription-opioids.html

A recent study of opioid-related deaths in Massachusetts underlines this crucial point, finding that prescription analgesics were detected without heroin or fentanyl in less than 17 percent of the cases. Furthermore, decedents had prescriptions for the opioids that showed up in toxicology tests just 1.3 percent of the time.

Alexander Walley, an associate professor of medicine at Boston University, and five other researchers looked at nearly 3,000 opioid-related deaths with complete toxicology reports from 2013 through 2015. “In Massachusetts, prescribed opioids do not appear to be the major proximal cause of opioid-related overdose deaths,” Walley et al. write in the journal Public Health Reports. “Prescription opioids were detected in postmortem toxicology reports of fewer than half of the decedents; when opioids were prescribed at the time of death, they were commonly not detected in postmortem toxicology reports….The major proximal contributors to opioid-related overdose deaths in Massachusetts during the study period were illicitly made fentanyl and heroin.”

The study confirms that the link between opioid prescriptions and opioid-related deaths is far less straightforward than it is usually portrayed. “Commonly the medication that people are prescribed is not the one that’s present when they die,” Walley told Pain News Network. “And vice versa: The people who died with a prescription opioid like oxycodone in their toxicology screen often don’t have a prescription for it.”

Jensen Comment
Yeah, but a whole lot of phony prescriptions were written by a whole lot of fraudulent physicians and filled by greedy pharmacies who knew that what they were doing was against the law.

 


How to Mislead With Statistics

 

The Wealth Tax Runs Counter to the Objectives of Its Advocates
Comment on “Progressive Wealth Taxation” by Saez and Zucman prepared for the Fall 2019 issue of Brookings Papers on Economic Activity
----
http://www.columbia.edu/~wk2110/bin/BPEASaezZucman.pdf

 

Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman offer a discussion of rationale for, implementation and implications of introducing wealth taxation in the United States. In my comments, I will primarily focus on three topics: economic arguments for having this form of taxation, practical issues in implementing it, and a few aspects of underlying data and assumptions that authors rely on in evaluating the impact of this proposal.

 

A general wealth tax does not exist in the United States. However, the U.S. has a highly progressive estate tax and it taxes capital income through a mix of (1) personal income taxes on dividends, interest, capital gains, royalties and business incomes, and (2) corporate taxation. Bases of all these taxes overlap with the base for wealth taxation, although they are not economically or administratively identical. Thus, the right question in my mind is whether a wealth tax is desirable given existence of these other instruments. In my view, as elaborated below, the case for wealth taxation over capital income taxation in general is quite weak and rests on either desirability of one time ,ideally unexpected, taxation or on the presence of externalities from wealth concentration (that ideally should be treated using instruments tailored to specific problems). From the administrative point of view, even then the challenging and ambitious solutions that could make wealth tax feasible apply equally well to (otherwise preferred) capital income taxation.

 

The case that authors make is not helped by optimistic empirical assumptions that do not highlight uncertainty, which is likely to run mostly in one direction; that may be a plus for public presentation of the plan, but not for an economist. I discuss these issues at the end of the comment.

 

Continued in article

Larry Summers --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Summers

Summers on the Wealth Tax ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/10/summers-on-the-wealth-tax.html

Larry Summers is my favorite liberal economist because even while maintaining his liberal values he never stops thinking like an economist. That makes him suspect among the left but it means that he is always worth listening to. The video below with Saez, Summers and Mankiw (with Rampell moderating) is excellent throughout. I cribbed a number of points from Summers:

“I have studied last week’s twitter war very carefully and I have to say that I am 98.5% convinced by the critics that the Zucman-Saez data are substantially inaccurate and misleading.”

The arguments around political power are not persuasive. Most of what is wrong with politics is because that is what the people want (I’m filling in a bit here from comments throughout). A wealth tax does nothing about corporate lobbying and would increase the incentive to give to political organizations. If you cut wealth at the top by 30% that wouldn’t change relative political power in the slightest.

Wealth is up in large part because interest rates are down which means that permanent income hasn’t increased.

Forced savings programs like social security and unemployment insurance mean that people at the bottom need to save less and thus their wealth falls even as their welfare increases.

A wealth tax increases the incentive to consume instead of save and invest.

On employee stock ownership plans: “When you put workers in control of firms and you give them substantial control–see Israeli kibbutz’s, see Yugoslav cooperatives, see universities where faculties have a powerful voice–the one thing you do not get is expansion. You get more for the people who are already there. That does not seem to be an attractive position for progressives.”

In the Q&A Summers just goes to town on Saez when Saez claims 90% tax rates are a great American invention. “The people who were around in the Kennedy administration who were at least as progressive as you are were united in the belief that 90% tax rates were a bad idea….The number of people who paid those 90% tax rates was trivial and it wasn’t because there weren’t a lot of rich people.”  Greg Mankiw, who gives a nice parable in his remarks, has to stifle a laugh as Summers lets rip.

Jensen Comment

I've no objection to a modest wealth tax that does not badly destroy the wealth tax. But to raise $20+ trillion annually needed to fund Democratic Party spending proposals (Green Initiative, free medical care, free medicines, free college, guaranteed annual income for 350+ million USA residents, reparations, open borders, etc.) would wipe out the stock markets. That, in turn, would wipe out most pension funds in the USA and make it impossible for business firms to raise capital. In short it means the destruction of capitalism where business firms raise capital from the private sector.

 

Taxing The “Rich” Won’t Pay For Politicians’ Promises ---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2019/10/taxing-the-rich-wont-pay-for-politicians-promises.html

 

Hillary Clinton Is Not a Fan of Bernie’s or Warren’s Wealth Taxes ---
Click Here
She thinks they’re “unworkable” and would be “incredibly disruptive.”

 

Who wins New York’s landmark climate change lawsuit against Exxon Mobil is now up to a judge, but a dozen more climate lawsuits are pending, with trillions of dollars potentially in the balance ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-13/exxon-s-climate-trial-is-over-but-the-legal-war-is-just-beginning?cmpid=BBD111319_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=191113&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily

Jensen Comment
I can tell you who might eventually lose --- people buying fuel at the pumps, people buying airline tickets, people heating their homes with oil or gas, people buying food that farmers produce, etc.
Remember that big corporations like Exxon Mobil don't pay taxes and fines. They pass them on to customers in the form of higher prices. If they aren't allowed to raise prices they go out of business. That in turn hurts pension funds holding the stocks and bonds.


 

Why is Capitalist Finland so Rich?
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2011/03/why-is-finland-so-rich.html

Read the comments --- Finland encourages wealth incentives

 

Education in Finland, recipe for success?
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2004/04/education_in_fi.html

Jensen Comment
One of the key differences between Finland and the USA, in my opinion, is that Finland has a greater proportion of two-parent homes --- sounds so old fashioned

 

Honest Finland ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index
The USA is dragged down by so much corruption in city, state, and federal government, although business firms are often partners in this corruption

 

Demographics in Finland ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Finland
Low on racial diversity and immigration

 

Healthcare in Finland ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Finland
The Dark Side (funding and sustainability) --- https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/15/world/finland-health-care-intl/index.html

 

Religion in Finland ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Finland#targetText=Finland is a predominantly Christian,, Judaism, folk religion etc.
On the decline following a general trend in Europe

 

Sex in Finland  ---
https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/study_more_finns_opting_for_solo_sexual_satisfaction/9090220
Is this a trend among all developed nations?
 




Updates on Medical Insurance

 

The Prescription Escalator ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/11/the-prescription-escalator.html

 

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

 


 

Los Algodones, in Mexico, isn’t very big. Just 14 miles from Yuma, Arizona, it has fewer than 5,000 permanent residents. But Los Algodones has approximately 600 dentists, and they do huge business each year serving thousands of Americans and Canadians looking to save 40 to 60 percent on dental services ---
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/welcome-to-molar-city-mexico-the-dental-mecca-americas-health-care-costs-built_n_5dc5772ae4b0fcfb7f651721?1jg

 


 

NY Times: Democratic Presidential Tax Plans Would Hit Blue States The Hardest ---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2019/11/ny-times-democratic-presidential-tax-plans-would-hit-blue-states-the-hardest.html

New York Times, How Democrats Would Tax High-Income Professionals (Not Just the Mega-Rich):

Moody’s data shows that higher taxes would be paid disproportionately in Democratic-leaning states.

Much of the Democratic primary race has focused on taxes aimed at the billionaire class — policies devised to reduce inequality and fund progressive goals on health care and education.

But there’s also a less discussed tax increase in leading Democratic policy proposals that would affect not just a tiny sliver of the ultra-wealthy, but also millions of high-income workers. For these people, many of them affluent professionals in Democratic strongholds, it would be the biggest tax increase in recent memory.

This year, American workers and their employers owe a combined 12.4 percent on Social Security payroll taxes for income up to $132,900 (rising to $137,700 in 2020). They owe nothing on earnings above that level.

Some Democrats in the thick of the presidential race and on Capitol Hill now seek to change or eliminate that cap — potentially placing a new double-digit tax on high earners, with several plans focusing on earnings above $250,000. ...

Moody’s data also shows that the higher taxes would be paid disproportionately in Democratic-leaning states. The 12 states with the highest share of earners who would owe higher taxes all voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, led by New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Jensen Comment
The most liberal candidates spending plans for green initiatives, medicare-for-all, free college, guaranteed income, reparations, and open borders will also destroy stock markets, real estate markets, and pension savings

 


From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on November 21, 2019

Hospitals are pushing back against the Trump administration’s new health-pricing disclosure rule, with the industry planning a legal challenge to block it.

 


 

From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on November 26, 2019

Good morning. The uncertainty of a tax on pricey health coverage hangs over finance chiefs as they aim to cut costs and prepare for the levy despite its possible repeal, CFO Journal's Mark Maurer reports.

The federal government in 2022 is scheduled to begin collecting the 40% tax on U.S. employer benefit plans whose values exceed government-set thresholds. The so-called Cadillac tax, which is a part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, has been delayed twice, feeding doubts that it will ever come to fruition.

The tax was developed to help fund the provisions of the Affordable Care Act and battle rising health-care costs. It is projected to record gross collections of $96 billion between 2022 and 2029, according to a May report from the Congressional Budget Office. 

But some aspects of the plan remain unresolved. Some executives say they don’t have enough information from the U.S. Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service to know whether their efforts to reduce plan costs will be enough to dodge the tax. The Treasury requested feedback from companies in 2015 and 2016, but hasn’t released guidance since.

It is also unclear whether benefits such as retiree medical coverage, dental and vision plans and on-site medical clinics will be subject to the tax. If they are, it could bring the total cost of company health plans closer to “busting through the tax threshold,” according to J.D. Piro, a senior vice president at Aon, a professional-services firm.

 




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/