Tidbits Political Quotations
To Accompany the November 16, 2020 Edition of Tidbits
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2020/Tidbits111620.htm             
Bob Jensen at
Trinity University




The Jewish Express:  A Brief History of Antifa: Part I ---
https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/a-brief-history-of-antifa-part-i/2020/06/14/

The Jewish Experess:  A Brief History of Antifa:  Part II ---
https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/a-brief-history-of-antifa-part-ii-antifa-in-the-united-states/2020/06/24/

FBI director calls Antifa 'a real thing' ---
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/516911-fbi-director-wray-calls-antifa-a-real-thing

According to The New York Times, potentially 90 percent of those who have tested positive for COVID-19 have such insignificant amounts of the virus present in their bodies that such individuals do not need to isolate nor are they candidates for contact tracing ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/29/health/coronavirus-testing.html

My Latest Web Document
Over 600 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

Debt to GDP Ratio by Country 2020 ---
https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/countries-by-national-debt/

Human Population Over Time on Earth ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUwmA3Q0_OE 

MIT's Links to Covid-19 Trackers Around the World ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/05/07/1000961/launching-mittr-covid-tracing-tracker/

Johns Hopkins University:  Updated Map and Table on the Number of Coronavirus Cases for Every Nation ---
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
Accuracy is subject to wide margins of error for every nation and varies greatly between nations.

Covid019 in New Hampshire ---
https://www.nh.gov/covid19/

The best maps for comparing counties and towns in your state are provided by your state. For example, here's the map showing the distribution of cases for New Hampshire counties and towns ---
https://www.wmur.com/article/new-hampshire-coronavirus-map/32009329#
 


 

Beautiful News Daily (news and statistics to offset all of today's bad news) ---
https://informationisbeautiful.net/beautifulnews/

 

 Here's a humorous and serious 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

 

Miracle of Chile --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_Chile
Movie:  The Chicago Boys of Chile ---
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/chicagoboysenglish

 

Cuba’s Dubious Miracle ---
https://www.hoover.org/research/cubas-dubious-miracle

 

The Singapore Dream:  How Singapore's richest man went from welding in a factory for $14 per hour to owning a $17 billion hotpot restaurant chain ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/life-of-singapore-richest-man-from-welder-to-hotpot-billionaire-2020-1

 

After 40 years of capitalism, China’s income is divided almost as unequally as America’s ---
https://qz.com/1591961/thomas-pikettys-new-research-shows-rising-inequality-in-china/
China has more billionaires than any other country in the world (and generating more at a higher rate than any other nation) ---
https://qz.com/1919974/china-created-a-record-number-of-billionaires-despite-covid-19/

 

What's Wrong With a Wealth Tax?
https://www.manhattan-institute.org/whats-wrong-with-a-wealth-tax

 

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?

 

Here's a humorous and serious 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

 


 

Wikiquote from Wikipedia --- https://www.wikiquote.org/

 

I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write ---
Voltaire

 

"This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House, with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone"
John F. Kennedy at a White House party

 

Harper's:  A Letter on Justice and Open Debate --- |

https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/thomas-chatterton-williams-on-race-identity-and-cancel-culture

 

The Guardian:  American classics among most ‘challenged’ books of the decade in US (protesters want them removed from libraries and schools) ---
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/28/classics-books-most-often-challenged-and-banned-in-us-banned-books-week-to-kill-a-mockingbird
Bob Jensen's threads on banned books
 

In 1785 the state legislature of Virginia unanimously rejected a proposal from evangelicals to free the state’s slaves ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/09/virginia-fact-of-the-day.html

 

When the Great Scorer comes to write against your name, one unforgiveable sin (racial profiling) outweighs all the good you've done in life.

Bob Jensen

 

Kobe Bryant:  We need to make the most of every minute we have ---
https://www.newsweek.com/i-wont-take-see-you-later-granted-148449

 

It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment.

Carl Friedrich Gauss

 

Taiwan’s Crowdsourced Democracy Shows Us How to Fix Social Media ---
https://wearenotdivided.reasonstobecheerful.world/taiwan-g0v-hackers-technology-digital-democracy/

Germany and Merkel at Crossroads ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/gilgutknecht/2020/10/04/germany-and-merkel-at-crossroads-n2577429

 

James Baldwin Talks About Racism in America & Civil Rights Activism on The Dick Cavett Show (1969) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2020/08/james-baldwin-talks-about-racism-in-america-civil-rights-activism-on-the-dick-cavett-show-1969.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+OpenCulture+(Open+Culture)

 

Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose. And it’s an unreliable guide to the future

Bill Gates, “The Road Ahead”

 

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

 

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

 

A short history of corruption in Illinois ---
https://www.data-z.org/news/detail/a-short-history-of-corruption-in-illinois

 

History of United States Immigration Laws ---
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwGCkZzrvQkcFbRplBPwBFwmFDs

 

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

 

Wherever they burn books, they will also, in the end, burn human beings ---
Heinrich Heine
https://thecritic.co.uk/in-defence-of-knowledge/

 

It is by now well known that some of the greatest modern philosophers held racist views ---
https://aeon.co/essays/racism-is-baked-into-the-structure-of-dialectical-philosophy  ---

Also see
https://aeon.co/essays/racism-is-baked-into-the-structure-of-dialectical-philosophy

 

Assorted Charlie Munger Quotations ---

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/warren-buffett-berkshire-hathaway-charlie-munger-12-best-quotes-2020-5-1029210949

 

Walter E. Williams:  Insults to Black History ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/06/24/insults-to-black-history-n2571095?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=06/24/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

Walter E. Williams:  The Leftist Effort to Revise American History ---

https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/08/05/the-leftist-effort-to-revise-american-history-n2573650?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=08/05/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

Walter E. Williams:  Disgusting Professorial Teachings ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/10/21/disgusting-professorial-teachings-n2578378?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=10/21/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

Walter E. Williams:  The True Plight of Black Americans

https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/06/10/the-true-plight-of-black-americans-n2570249

 

 

Walter E. Williams:  Institutional Racism ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/08/26/institutional-racism-n2574936?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=08/26/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

Walter E. Williams: The Fight for Free Speech
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/10/07/the-fight-for-free-speech-n2577499?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=10/07/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

Walter E. Williams:  Back to Academic Brainwashing ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/08/19/back-to-academic-brainwashing-n2574500?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=08/19/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167


Walter E. Williams:  The Devil and Karl Marx ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/09/16/the-devil-and-karl-marx-n2576177?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=09/16/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

Is Racism Responsible for Today's Black Problems? ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/07/29/is-racism-responsible-for-todays-black-problems-n2573212?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=07/29/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

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/

 

Walter A. Williams:  The Nation's Report Card
How are K-12 schools doing under President Trump versus President Obama?
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/05/06/the-nations-report-card-n2568167?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=05/06/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

Jensen's Comment
Most K-12 schools were probably doing better when I was a child than they're doing today. The downhill slide is greatest in the gang-ridden schools, drug-infested urban schools like Chicago and New Orleans. Throwing money at such schools is not the answer until life at home recovers. Finland knows this, which is why Finland's dads spend more time with school children than the moms or the teachers.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/dec/04/finland-only-country-world-dad-more-time-kids-moms

 

Walter E. Williams:  Insane News Tidbits ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2020/05/27/insane-news-tidbits-n2569329?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=05/27/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

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

 

Rep. Ilhan Omar Calls For “Dismantling” of US “Economy and Political Systems” (VIDEO) ---
https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/944250-radical-seattle-city-councilmember-kshama-sawant-vows-to-overthrow-the-united-states-and-replace-with-a-socialist-world?utm_source=c-alrt&utm_medium=c-alrt-email&utm_term=c-alrt-GI&utm_content=1Cugtgg08BDw-1AwBlaN1Qmmriw..A
Jensen Comment
Republicans are most grateful that Omar played a huge role in getting Biden nominated

 

University of Wisconsin-Madison Student Government Votes Unanimously to Remove Statue of Abraham Lincoln ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bronsonstocking/2020/10/30/university-of-wisconsinmadison-student-govt-unanimously-voted-to-remove-statue-of-abraham-lincoln-n2579141?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=10/31/2020&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167

 

A (warning) Letter to My Children Regarding Bernie Sanders by Andrew E. Busch ---
https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/digital/a-letter-to-my-children-regarding-bernie-sanders/

 

Don’t write off Big Oil: The geopolitics of energy and security ---
https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2020/1013/Don-t-write-off-Big-Oil-The-geopolitics-of-energy-and-security

 

Police in Oregon reportedly arrested at least two people after several protesters broke windows at Portland State University’s public safety office and a nearby Starbucks and threw a "flammable liquid" inside ---
https://www.foxnews.com/us/protesters-break-windows-throw-flammable-liquid-into-business-at-portland-state-2-arrested

 

Covid cases have soared in the US, but Europe is worse ---

https://www.thestreet.com/mishtalk/economics/sweden-tops-us-in-covid-cases-per-million-people

 

Oregonians have made their state the first in the United States to decriminalize use of all drugs, including cocaine and heroin, after voting to approve Measure 110 ---
https://www.vox.com/2020/11/3/21514828/oregon-drug-decriminalization-measure-110-results

 

Denmark to Kill 17 Million Mink After Covid Mutation Found ---

https://www.thestreet.com/mishtalk/economics/denmark-to-kill-17-million-mink-after-covid-mutation-found

 

Ant Group --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant_Group
Ant was heading for a record-breaking $37 billion IPO before its dreams were dashed by Chinese regulators
---
https://www.businessinsider.com/what-happened-ant-group-ipo-jack-ma-alipay-2020-11

Illinois’ proposed ‘fair tax’ gets its just deserts ---
https://www.data-z.org/news/detail/illinois-proposed-fair-tax-gets-its-just-deserts

Economics for Beginners:  What is Capitalism? ---
https://mises.org/economics-beginners?utm_source=Mises+Institute+Subscriptions&utm_campaign=5f583f41fd-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_05_15_02_03_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8b52b2e1c0-5f583f41fd-228708937

Trump's biggest accomplishments and failures from his 1-term presidency ---
Click Here
Jensen Comment
One of the biggest problems in a list like this is that what one reader views as a failure/accomplishment may be viewed by another reader as an accomplishment/failure. It is clear that good or bad President Trump achieved a lot of his campaign promises and that failure to do so in some instances went beyond his control such as funding of a border wall.
One of my criticism is the way he treated his staff leading to many firings and resignations --- not a good attribute of a great leader

 

Colorado’s New Family Leave Law Could Transform Fatherhood ---
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/colorados-new-family-leave-law-could-transform-fatherhood/?utm_source=Reasons+to+be+Cheerful&utm_campaign=77f310e24c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_11_10_03_13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_89fb038efe-77f310e24c-389499692
Jensen Comment
This could have great impact on teachers who essentially can get a term off in addition to summer term relief from teaching.
What happens when babies are born in May for faculty who normally are not contracted to work during the summer terms? Will May's new parents get the fall terms off just like parents of babies born in September?
What's the impact on students who have different teachers for two parts of a term? For example, what happens when the three months splits up two successive terms?
How will this impact tenure clocks?
How will this impact research expectations in general?
Can one parent get paid parental leave and do research in Kenya while the other parent stays home in Ft. Collins?

What adjunct and/or temporary faculty are eligible? For example, does a CPA working full time for Deloitte and teaching one tax course for the University of Denver get paid leaves from both employers?
What happens when parents are no longer living together such as when one divorced parent works in Denver and and the other parent works in Grand Junction? One parent may be getting paid leave while doing virtually nothing in the home care of a new born.

 




 

How to Mislead With Statistics

Statistical Anomalies in Biden Votes, Analyses Indicate ---
https://www.theepochtimes.com/statistical-anomalies-in-biden-votes-analyses-indicate_3570518.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2020-11-08-5

Jensen Comment
Be aware that the above article is published by a conservative and highly biased media outlet. In spite of this the article raises some interesting questions such as Benford's Law commonly used by accountants (think IRS)  in search of fraud in financial data. Benford's Law is also a common component of forensic accounting education ---
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/63099/irss-favorite-mathematical-law

I want to claim that I do no support the long delay in the the GOP concession that Trump lost to Biden. But it is interesting how data analysts are identifying and analyzing statistical anomalies. Readers can be confused by false claims of statistical anomalies and true anomalies that are not due to fraud or error ---
https://www.kdnuggets.com/2020/09/diy-election-fraud-analysis-benfords-law.htm

Having said this I don't think there's probably sufficient evidence to overthrow the 2020 election results. Investigations of fraud should proceed to improve the integrity of future elections. But the Biden team should not be delayed in their efforts to take over the leadership of the USA.

Election fraud analysis becomes increasingly important as the margins of difference vote counts shrink like they did in the November 2020 election.  Some fraud controls in live voting are lost when votes are accepted by mail. For example, it's much harder for the dead to show up at the voting centers.


 

How to Mislead With Statistics

 

Nate Silver thinks the polls weren't all that bad --- Yeah Right 

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/politics-podcast-why-polls-were-off-in-2020-and-why-they-werent-that-bad/

 

NY Times:  A Black Eye’: Why Political Polling Missed the Mark. Again ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/12/us/politics/election-polls-trump-biden.html

Senator Susan Collins did not lead in a single publicly released poll during the final four months of her re-election campaign in Maine. But Ms. Collins, a Republican, won the election comfortably.

Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, trailed in almost every poll conducted in his race. He won, too.

And most polls underestimated President Trump’s strength, in Iowa, Florida, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin and elsewhere. Instead of winning a landslide, as the polls suggested, Joseph R. Biden Jr. beat Mr. Trump by less than two percentage points in the states that decided the election.

For the second straight presidential election, the polling industry missed the mark. The miss was not as blatant as in 2016, when polls suggested Mr. Trump would lose, nor was the miss as large as it appeared it might be on election night. Once all the votes are counted, the polls will have correctly pointed to the winner of the presidential campaign in 48 states — all but Florida and North Carolina — and correctly signaled that Mr. Biden would win.

 

But this year’s problems are still alarming, both to people inside the industry and to the millions of Americans who follow presidential polls with a passion once reserved for stock prices, sports scores and lottery numbers. The misses are especially vexing because pollsters spent much of the last four years trying to fix the central problem of 2016 — the underestimation of the Republican vote in multiple states — and they failed.

Continued in article

 


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, free medical services, free medications, free nursing homes, free college, free preschool, free housing, free food, guaranteed annual income, reparations, open borders, legalized prostitution, etc. to the tune of over $10+ trillion per year.


How to Mislead With Statistics

To combat the COVID-19 economic downturn, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy passed a millionaire's tax. Here's why he says that's good for everyone ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/nj-gov-phil-murphy-millionaires-tax-will-help-middle-class-2020-11

This year, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and the state legislature agreed on a deal to raise the income tax by 2% on incomes over $1 million per year to address the budget crisis brought on by the pandemic. Not only will this tax help administer coronavirus relief to the communities and small businesses that need it most, but it will also help rebalance a regressive state tax code which puts a bigger tax burden on poorer households.

In this week's episode of Pitchfork Economics, David Goldstein and Nick Hanauer interview Governor Murphy about his decision to tax the rich.

Murphy, a millionaire former Goldman Sachs executive, wants to be very clear that he's not fomenting class warfare.

"We don't begrudge people's success," Murphy began. "Whether you're a wealthy individual or a large corporation — we want more of each in New Jersey."

But Murphy says he raised the tax because "I got elected to stand for a stronger, fairer New Jersey that works for not just some, but for everybody." That meant asking the wealthiest New Jerseyans to "help us rebuild our middle class."

From the beginning, Murphy laid out the conditions for the tax very clearly: "Anyone earning a million dollars and up, we're asking you to pay a few pennies more, and we'll put every dime of that into the middle class."  

Continued in article

Taxes are about to rise for New Jersey millionaires. There aren’t many ways to duck the levies ---
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/24/taxes-are-about-to-rise-for-new-jersey-millionaires.html

. . .

“New Jersey is one of the more painful states to really tax plan for,” said Albert J. Campo, CPA and managing partner at AJC Accounting Services in Manalapan, New Jersey.

“Anyone who’s $1 million and up is getting substantial benefits (tax breaks) at the federal level, but they’re somewhat limited at the state level.”

The Garden State is known as a “gross income” state, and that means certain exclusions and deductions are off the table on state tax returns.

For instance, contributions you make to a workplace retirement plan reduce your taxable income on your federal return.

In New Jersey, only contributions to 401(k) plans are excludible from wages. Amounts you divert to a deferred compensation plan or any other retirement plan – including 403(b) or 457 plans -- are not excludible from your pay.

Another quirk: People who itemize on their federal income tax return can claim a write-off for charitable giving. New Jerseyans, however, can’t do this on their state return.

Earlier this year, Garden State legislators put forth a proposal to allow a gross income tax deduction for contributions made to certain New Jersey-based charitable organizations during the pandemic. That measure is pending.

See here for a list of items that can’t be excluded from wages in New Jersey.

There are a few moves high-income households can take to lower their income if they’re close to the margins and a couple of thousand dollars away from the steeper tax rate, according to Alan Sobel, CPA at Sobel & Co. in Livingston, New Jersey, and president of the New Jersey Society of CPAs:

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
But in both the federal and state jurisdictions, millionaires often defer more income tax than they report due to capital gains and losses, often value changes that are highly volatile and highly subjective in measurement. For example, owners of Tesla shares can see the values of their unsold shares bounce up and down like a basketball.

Ten different real estate appraisers may give you ten highly different value estimates of a 100 acre parcel of land on the outskirts of Newark, the value of which may be highly dependent upon where locations of future roads, road exits, train tracks, and bridges are built. Ups and downs in values of such investments are unknown in amount until sales transactions actually take place.

For the same reason, it's virtually impossible to compare total wealth of most millionaires and billionaires. The estimated wealth of such persons vary widely in the eyes of different appraisers. In estate value disputes it's often the courts that have to set values, and the courts do not have magical measurement wands any better than the wands all disputing appraisers. The courts merely have the power to set values when disputing value appraisers cannot agree.

My best example of where the court resolved highly varying value estimates of finance models is:
Questrom vs. Federated Department Stores, Inc.:  A Question of Equity Value," by University of Alabama faculty members by Gary Taylor, William Sampson, and Benton Gup, May 2001 edition of Issues in Accounting Education ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/roi.htm

One thing is certain is that the federal government under Biden and Harris will soon impose heavy new taxes on the same "millionaires" in New Jersey and millionaires in all the other 49 states. This will soon become a taxing time for high earners and wealthy people in the USA.

I think the Governor of New Jersey overstates the case that his proposed "millionaires" tax will not lead to exodus of a significant number of high earning citizens to move elsewhere or be a barrier to such citizens that might move into New Jersey. New Jersey already has nearly the highest state taxes for citizens at all levels of income. The problem with the causal factors that inspire movements of households is that there are many such factors that are highly interactive.

Consider me as an example, although my income is way too low to qualify for the new millionaire tax in New Jersey. When I retired in San Antonio, Texas my wife and I wanted to move out of the heat, humidity, and congestion of a big city. We also wanted to be closer to family. We have two children living in northern California, one living in Wisconsin, and two in northern Maine. Almost like New Jersey, those three states are among the highest taxing states in the USA. Having family within driving distance was the primary consideration for where to move, but environmental beauty and state taxation were interactive causal factors in choosing where to retire. We thus narrowed our search down to northern Nevada next to California or northern New Hampshire next to Maine. We found a mountain cottage in northern New Hampshire that is within five hours of driving to where two of our children live in Maine ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm

State taxation was not the primary causal factor for choosing to retire in New Hampshire, but the fact that New Hampshire has no income tax and no sales tax was an interactive causal factor that led us to choose New Hampshire over California, Wisconsin, and Maine. If we had children in New Jersey we probably would've retired in a nearby state with lower taxes. Never New Jersey!

My point here is some people will avoid living in a state with very high taxes being the main reason. Others, like my wife and I, left Texas primarily for reasons not affected by taxation. But when choosing where to retire taxation became an interactive causal factor --- along with other factors like not wanting to live in a city, having nice surroundings like mountains, and having nearby family in an adjoining state.

New Jersey's enormous state taxes have primarily or interactively been a factor in keeping many people from wanting to live there. Adding more taxes to already high taxes may be hurting more than helping revenue taxes in New Jersey, the second highest taxing state in the USA. People who can now work remotely are leaving New York, New Jersey, and Silicon Valley in droves.

NYSE and Nasdaq threaten to leave New Jersey if transaction tax goes ahead ---
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/nyse-and-nasdaq-threaten-leave-new-jersey-if-transaction-tax-goes-ahead/

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has threatened New Jersey lawmakers it will move its data operations out of state if taxes are imposed on electronic trades.

Nasdaq has also come out against the tax, saying it is in talks with Texas as a future home.

New Jersey is proposing a hundredth-a-cent tax on every financial transaction processed in the state. The transaction tax won favor amongst politicians and also of Governor Phil Murphy and Senate President Steve Sweeney back when it was introduced in July. At the time it was set to charge a quarter-of-a-cent ($0.0025), but has been scaled back due to the stock markets' resistance.

If implemented, New Jersey’s financial transaction tax would be a flat-rate levy imposed per instrument, not per trade. Lawmakers believe it could harvest about $500m each year or $1bn over the tax’s two year lifetime.

The securities industry in New Jersey employs about 38,000 people and pays nearly $1.4bn in state and local taxes.

The Assembly of Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee held a virtual public hearing on Monday, as reported by NJ.com. The tax would be paid by companies operating data centers specializing in financial trades. Many such facilities are based out of New Jersey's suburban districts like Mahwah, Secaucus, and Carteret.

In the past, proximity to Wall Street made it sensible for data centers to be nearby for low latency trading, however, the market has now been testing whether it can operate out-of-state.

Back in September and earlier this month, the NYSE simulated a trading day using its backup data center in Chicago. This was a practice for any possible relocation of the market to data centers out of New Jersey. The co-head of government affairs for the NYSE, Hope Jarkowski, said: “From Sept 28 to Oct 2, we moved our production servers for our NYSE Chicago exchange out of New Jersey to our secondary data center… Proximity to New York City is no longer relevant in today’s trading environment."

She added: “We understand why a financial transaction tax, or FTT as it’s commonly known, may be perceived as a silver bullet that can remedy or offset financial hardship with little effect on the financial markets themselves, impacting perhaps only big corporations or wealthy individuals. In reality, this tax would be imposed on a processor of transactions but would be passed along to a purchaser or seller.

"That said, these harms will never come to pass," she added, "because those with obligations to their investor clients will simply move their business out of New Jersey to avoid harm, leaving no transactions in New Jersey to tax and undermining the revenue-generating aim of an FTT.”

Nasdaq also threatened to leave if any transaction tax was put in place and said it is currently in talks with Texas Governor Greg Abbott about relocating trading systems to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Several other unnamed states are also said to be talking to Nasdaq.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy revealed he has been in talks with market representatives to get them on side. At a Covid-19 briefing on Monday, he said: “We’ve had - I thought - constructive discussions with Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange. They’ve expressed their concerns. I can’t read their minds. But the fact that we are in an hour of need, this is not a 'forever and always' consideration. I think our side of the argument is also reasonable... we shall see. This is something we still are studying and we still like what we see, but it’s complicated, there’s no question about it.”

Continued in article

 


 

How Eugenics Shaped Statistics:  Exposing the damned lies of three science pioneers ---
http://nautil.us/issue/92/frontiers/how-eugenics-shaped-statistics

University of Wisconsin-Madison Student Government Votes Unanimously to Remove Statue of Abraham Lincoln ---
https://www.poliscirumors.com/topic/univ-of-wisconsin-madison-just-voted-unanimously-to-remove-lincoln-statue

 

Jensen Comment
Hopefully scholars will come to their senses by not demanding that all great contributors to our accumulation of important knowledge be flawless.
We should not erase the contributions of great men and women who pioneered discoveries of great value in spite of their other "damned lies."
Examples include Flannery O'Connor, James Watson, Francis Galton, Karl Pearson, and Ronald Fisher
Didn't the "white supremacist" Abraham Lincoln also sign the Emancipation Proclamation?

Wherever they burn books, they will also, in the end, burn human beings ---
Heinrich Heine
https://thecritic.co.uk/in-defence-of-knowledge/

 


The American Dream is Not Dead
From flipping burgers at McDonald's to a self-made multimillionaire: How Willie Mandrell leveraged a simple real-estate investing strategy to acquire 40 units and achieve financial freedom ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/buy-and-hold-real-estate-investing-from-mcdonalds-to-multimillionaire-2020-11

Growing up, Willie Mandrell, the owner of The Mandrell Co. and founder of Wealth Builder Nation, witnessed the merits of real-estate investing firsthand.

"My grandmother was waiting tables, working nightclubs, doing random jobs, and she stumbled upon it," he told Business Insider. "Someone had encouraged her to buy a rental property, which was a brownstone at the time."

In the 1950s, Mandrell's grandmother purchased a boarding house in the South End of Boston. At that moment, the South End was a neck of the woods synonymous with trouble. Still, as the years passed and she collected rents, her property started to appreciate as an influx of newly found businesses cropped up in the once desolate neighborhood.  

Soon she was pulling money out of that property to purchase others in the area. The South End was now booming.

"This was a woman — while my grandfather was in the military, working in Boston, with a sixth-grade education — able to build a significant amount of wealth for herself through real estate," he said. "And when my brothers and I came along, she had told us all about the business."

But grandma's know-how didn't come for free; Mandrell would have to earn it.

Mandrell would spend his days sweeping stairs, collecting rents, and vetting apartments. In exchange, he'd receive a top-notch real-estate acumen. Something that has proved priceless today.

"She said that this business isn't difficult," he said. "It's one of the oldest businesses in the world."

Today Mandrell is sitting atop 40 units and helping others achieve financial freedom through coaching and mentoring. His portfolio is valued in excess of $10 million and primarily made up of two- and three-unit multifamily properties in Boston.

Here's how he did it.

The first deal

From the get-go, Mandrell knew his real-estate investment strategy of choice would be to buy and hold multifamily properties. He'd seen his grandmother reap the benefits of a similar course of action and knew he was only one astute purchase away from following in those footsteps. If he could get that first purchase under his belt, build equity, and leverage the property, that initial deal could snowball into a formidable empire.

And that's exactly what he did.

Continued in article



THE IMPACT OF NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOL CHOICE: EVIDENCE FROM LOS ANGELES' ZONES OF CHOICE ---
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kf8j3g1yeau2jjm/jmp_zoc.pdf?dl=0

This paper evaluates the Zones of Choice (ZOC) program in Los Angeles, a school choice initiative that created small high school markets in some neighborhoods but left traditional attendance zone boundaries in place throughout the rest of the district. We leverage the design of the program to study the impact of neighborhood school choice on student achievement, college enrollment, and other outcomes using a matched difference-in-differences de-sign. Our findings reveal that the ZOC program boosted test scores and college enrollment markedly, closing achievement and college enrollment gaps between ZOC neighborhoods and the rest of the district. These gains are explained by general improvements in school effectiveness rather than changes in student match quality, and school-specific gains are concentrated among the lowest-performing schools. We interpret these findings through the lens of a model of school demand in which schools exert costly effort to improve quality.The model allows us to measure the increase in competition facing each ZOC school based on household preferences and the spatial distribution of schools. We demonstrate that the effects of ZOC were larger for schools exposed to more competition, supporting the notion that competition is a key channel driving the impacts of ZOC. In addition, demand estimates suggest families place a larger weight on school quality compared to peer quality, providing schools the right competitive incentives. An analysis using randomized admission lotteries shows that the treatment effects of admission to preferred schools declined after the introduction of ZOC, a pattern that is explained by the relative improvements of less-preferred schools. Our findings demonstrate the potential for public school choice to improve student outcomes while also underscoring the importance of studying market-level impacts when evaluating school choice programs.

 


Cryptocurrency --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency

Retirement funds and other institutions are gradually warming to cryptocurrencies ---
https://www.ai-cio.com/in-focus/market-drilldown/wild-crazy-bitcoin-may-become-pension-portfolio-fixture/

Bitcoin blazed past $15,500 this week. Here's why one strategist says it's the best safe-haven out there ---
https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/bitcoin-biden-divided-government-best-safe-haven-now-2020-11-1029777380

 

Bitcoin leapt 17% this week to cross the $15,000 mark, nearing a 3-year-high.

The digital token's latest surge came as Joe Biden's election lead edged up higher. He is projected to defeat incumbent President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

A divided Congress would be great for Bitcoin because the dollar can expect a substantial decline under a gridlocked government, Bill Noble, chief technical analyst at Token Metrics, told Business Insider.

That's because the Federal Reserve would be forced to print more money to support the economy, which depresses the value of the dollar and lowers US borrowing costs.

That would, in theory, fuel inflation, forcing investors to seek alternative safe-haven investments, he said.

Bitcoin soared past $15,500 this week, hitting its highest level since January 2018, fueled by a cocktail of a weak dollar and acute uncertainty over the US political and economic outlook.

The rally coincided with Democratic nominee Joe Biden steadily gaining the lead in critical battleground states in the 2020 presidential election. He is projected to defeat Trump in the 2020 election.

Bitcoin has risen 17% in the past week, hitting $15,527 as of 09:00 am ET on Friday. The price has gained almost 60% since the end of August and is up nearly 300% so far this year.

Why is its price soaring?

Biden in the White House and a Republican Senate is great for cryptocurrencies, because his presidency would probably drive the dollar lower, according to Bill Noble, a chief technical analyst at Token Metrics.

Projections of a declining dollar suggest that investors are looking to alternative investments — and that is fueling demand for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, he said. It has also pumped up the likes of gold, silver and other hard commodities, although not by nearly as much.

If it is harder for the Democrats to push larger stimulus bills for households and businesses past a majority of Republican lawmakers in the Senate, it could fall to the Federal Reserve to take more action to support the economy, which would depress the value of the dollar and keep interest rates low - making it cheaper for anyone looking to borrow money that they want to invest

Continued in article

 


CPA Journal:  How long will it take for Federal interest on the debt costs over $1 trillion annually?
https://www.cpajournal.com/2020/10/29/icymi-the-trillion-dollar-annual-interest-payment/

Jensen Comment
The year will probably be sooner than the above article estimates as we take on huge new budget items for:

Various green initiative programs ($2 trillion)
Bailouts of bankrupt states and cities
National healthcare and medicines for everybody, including a tidal wave of undocumented immigrants
Free or highly subsidized vaccines (including billions already being spend for the Corona-19 vacine)
Free preschool
Forgiveness of most of the $1.5 trillion student loans outstanding
Free college and free training schools

Reparations for descendants of wronged minorities
Guaranteed annual income for everybody
Free public transportation
Housing for all

Additional campaign promises

$1.3 trillion for infrastructure
$100 billion for investments in public school buildings that are already included in the infrastructure plan)
$750 billion for higher education (other than free college and training)
$700 billion for Biden’s “Buy American” plan
$125 billion for Biden’s opioid plan
$30 billion for criminal justice reform
$30 billion for small business opportunity funding
Between $270 billion and $380 billion for paid family leave

The point in this tidbit is that it's literally impossible to raise enough tax revenue to fund all the new spending programs promised by Biden and Harris. Borrowing will have accelerate beyond the growth rate assumed at
https://www.cpajournal.com/2020/10/29/icymi-the-trillion-dollar-annual-interest-payment/

And when borrowing and tax increases cannot pay the bills the Federal government will increase the $1 trillion the Fed already printed ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing

It won't be long before interest on Federal government debt is the 800-lb gorilla in the annual budget. America's world-wide credit rating is at stake. Disaster will hit if and when the biggest investors in this debt (think China and Japan) decide not to roll over their investments in our debt. Remember the Jane Fonda/Kris Kristofferson movie "Rollover" ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollover_(film) 

Never fear. It won't be long before the Federal Reserve owns most of the Federal government debt. Try to explain to student how borrowing from yourself works


Here’s what a President Joe Biden would mean for Americans’ retirement savings ---
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-what-a-president-joe-biden-would-mean-for-americans-retirement-savings-11604767234

Jensen Comment
Leave it to the New York Times not to say anything negative about the Biden and Harris victory. No mention is made of how inflation risk is made much greater from the proposed trillions of increased annual government spending for their new social programs.

How can you discuss what Biden and Harris will mean for Americans' retirement savings without once mentioning the word "inflation."

 


 




Updates on Medical Insurance

 

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

 

COMMON SUBSTANCE USE DISORDERS (DRUG ADDICTION) ---
https://www.addictiongroup.org/resources/faq/sud/

 

Bob Jensen's threads on health insurance ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm

 




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 homepage --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/