Tidbits on November 16, 2020
Bob Jensen
at Trinity University
Wes Lavin's 2020 Autumn Foliage Part 2
http://cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Lavin/2020-7/Part2.htm
Tidbits on November 16, 2020
Scroll Down This Page
Bob Jensen's Tidbits ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
For
earlier editions of Fraud Updates go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
For earlier editions of New Bookmarks go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Bookmarks for the World's Library ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
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
Bob Jensen's search helpers --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm
Bob Jensen's World Library --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm
Animated Visualization of the United States’ Exploding Population Growth
Over 200 Years (1790 – 2010) ---
A Visualization of the United States’ Exploding Population Growth Over 200 Years
(1790 – 2010)
USA Debt Clock --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/ ubl
In September 2017 the USA National Debt exceeded $20 trillion for the first time
---
http://www.statedatalab.org/news/detail/national-debt-surpasses-20-trillion-for-the-first-time-in-us-history
Human Population Over Time on Earth ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUwmA3Q0_OE
Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio
Video: ARE YOU CONFUSED ABOUT HEALTH INFORMATION? YOU'RE NOT ALONE ---
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x6DLqtaK2g
Watch the Making of Japanese Woodblock Prints, from Start to Finish, by a
Longtime Tokyo Printmaker ---
https://www.openculture.com/2020/11/watch-the-making-of-japanese-woodblock-prints-from-start-to-finish.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Experience the Bob Ross Experience: A New Museum Open in the TV Painter’s
Former Studio Home ---
https://www.openculture.com/2020/11/bob-ross-experience.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
The Five Minute Museum: A Stop Motion Animation Shows the History of
Civilization at Breakneck Speed ---
Click Here
Theranos, whistleblowing and speaking truth to power ---
https://www.ted.com/talks/erika_cheung_theranos_whistleblowing_and_speaking_truth_to_power?utm_source=recommendation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=explore&utm_term=newest-talks-1
Aerial View of Sugar Hill, NH --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ATDjsJUi7M
Foliage in Sugar Hill, NH --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOPSUMWbclU
Foliage at the Sunset Hill House Hotel in Sugar Hill, NH --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RowlAA9XIno
History of the Sunset Hill House Resort in Sugar Hill, NH 000 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3uqK8T1ZDc
Lupines in Sugar Hill, NH --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7-1jCk4Ak0
Lupines in New Hampshire --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOR1vTHZjPo
Four Seasons at the
Sunset Hill House Hotel (near our cottage)
---
https://www.thesunsethillhouse.com/
Watch the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5cqUX0LcbU&t=9s
Free music downloads ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and video available
free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
CLASSICS FOR KIDS (MUSIC) --- www.classicsforkids.com
Top Wedding Songs --- https://jborden.com/2020/11/09/music-monday-top-wedding-songs/
Bob Jensen's Links to Free Music
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Music.htm
Photographs and Art
The Meticulous, Elegant Illustrations of the Nature Observed in
England’s Countryside ---
https://www.openculture.com/2020/11/the-meticulous-elegant-illustrations-of-the-nature-observed-in-englands-countryside.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Watch the Making of Japanese Woodblock Prints, from Start to
Finish, by a Longtime Tokyo Printmaker ---
https://www.openculture.com/2020/11/watch-the-making-of-japanese-woodblock-prints-from-start-to-finish.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Trips on the World’s Oldest Electric Suspension Railway in 1902
& 1917 Show How a City Changes Over a Century ---
https://www.openculture.com/2020/11/trips-on-the-worlds-oldest-electric-suspension-railway-in-1902-1917-show-how-a-city-changes-over-a-century.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Bob Jensen's threads on art history ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#ArtHistory
Bob Jensen's threads on history, literature and art ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#History
Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various
types electronic literature available free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on libraries --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#---Libraries
Sean Connery (RIP) Reads C.P. Cavafy’s Epic Poem “Ithaca,” Set to the Music
of Vangelis ---
https://www.openculture.com/2020/10/sean-connery-rip-reads-c-p-cavafys-epic-poem-ithaca-set-to-the-music-of-vangelis.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Free Electronic Literature ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Free Online Textbooks, Videos, and Tutorials ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Free Tutorials in Various Disciplines ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials
Edutainment and Learning Games ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
Open Sharing Courses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Now in
Another Tidbits Document
Political Quotations on November 16, 2020
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2020/TidbitsQuotations093020.htm
Free Ebook entitled Transitioning to Effective Online Learning: The
Playbook ---
https://www.rev.com/blog/transitioning-to-effective-online-learning-the-playbook?utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=education-ebook&utm_content=102
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.
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."
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/
Book Reviews
Best Non-fiction Books in
2020 ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/11/best-non-fiction-books-of-2020.html
‘Relationship-Rich Education’
Authors discuss their new book on the importance of the human connection in
higher education ---
https://teachinginhighered.com/podcast/relationship-rich-education/
Charles Lyell, Principles
of Geology
From the 1830s, this remains one of the great scientific classics. I had never
known how well-reasoned or beautifully written it was, a big positive surprise
for me. Not just a bunch of crusty old rocks, though it is also about...a bunch
of crusty old rocks
Tyler Cowen
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/11/what-ive-been-reading-179.html
Gregory M. Collins, Commerce
and Manners in Edmund Burke's Political Economy.
Burke is underrated as an economist, and also more generally. This very
thorough and thoughtful book goes a long way toward setting the record
straight. In the meantime, it is not sufficiently well known just how much
Keynes was influenced by Burke.
Tyler Cowen
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/11/what-ive-been-reading-179.html
Charles Camic, Veblen:
The Making of an Economist Who Unmade Economics.
It makes sense that a biography of Veblen should be...somewhat verbose.
Nonetheless this is a valuable contribution for anyone interested in the topic.
To me the main question is why the libertarian right takes Veblen more seriously
these days than does the Left, perhaps it is because they read Veblen and
immediately think of Wokeism?
Tyler Coiwen
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/11/what-ive-been-reading-179.html
Worst Book Reviews ---
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/review/worst-book-reviews
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
About Nabokov: Eat
butterflies with me?
https://lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n21/patricia-lockwood/eat-butterflies-with-me
Verifiable Truths: The
thinkers who tried to strip metaphysics from philosophy ---
https://theamericanscholar.org/verifiable-truths/
A review of Crisis of the
Strauss Divided, by Harry V. Jaffa ---
https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/a-giving-of-accounts/
The Seamus Heaney Experience
---
http://www.drb.ie/essays/the-seamus-heaney-experience
Jensen Comment
In one of my very early years on the faculty of Trinity University, I think the
readings of some of his poems by Seamus Heaney were perhaps the only
presentations in my life where I did not look at my watch at some time or
another. I was totally mesmerized for over an hour.
Good News Tidbits
Microsoft OneNote ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_OneNote
Four ways to unleash the power of OneNote ---
https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2020/nov/microsoft-onenote.html?utm_source=mnl:cpald&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=12Nov2020
Nanoparticles create
‘miracle’ treatment for deadly brain tumors ---
https://www.studyfinds.org/nanoparticles-miracle-treatment-brain-tumors/
WSJ: Applications to
American M.B.A. programs increased 21% in the latest admissions cycle ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/applications-to-u-s-business-schools-rise-for-first-time-in-five-years-11605034179?mod=djm_dailydiscvrtst
Employer-Funded College
Programs Here to Stay (as fringe benefits) ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/11/05/employers-boosting-programs-cover-tuition-amid-pandemic?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=f3837a4d38-DNU_2020_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-f3837a4d38-197565045&mc_cid=f3837a4d38&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Bob Jensen's threads on employer-funded college and training programs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#Partnerships
MIT: AI has cracked a
key mathematical puzzle for understanding our world ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/10/30/1011435/ai-fourier-neural-network-cracks-navier-stokes-and-partial-differential-equations/
Temple University:
Spring 2021 course delivery and testing plan ---
https://news.temple.edu/announcements/2020-11-01/spring-2021-course-delivery-and-testing-plan
City growth can be viewed as
good news and bad news
The 12 Texas cities everyone in the country is moving to ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-cities-everyone-is-moving-to-2019-11?nr_email_referer=1&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Business_Insider_select&pt=385758&ct=Sailthru_BI_Newsletters&mt=8&utm_campaign=Insider%20Select%202020-11-03&utm_term=INSIDER%20SELECT%20-%20ENGAGED%2C%20ACTIVE%2C%20PASSIVE%2C%20DISENGAGED%2C%20NEW
01 Austin Metro (20.7%)
02 Midland (17.3%)
03 San Antonio Metro (12.1%)
04 Sherman-Denison (11.6%)
05 Dallas-Ft. Worth Metro (10.7%)
06 Houston Metro (10.2%)
07 Odessa (9.9%)
08 College Station-Bryan (8.7%)
09 Tyler (6.6%)
10 Lubbock (5.4%)
11 San Angelo (3.6%)
12 Waco (3.3%)
Jensen Comment
Estimates are lower than actual growth in southern border states due to
additional influx of undocumented immigrants.
Bad News Tidbits
Schools Struggling to Stay
Open Get Hit by Ransomware Attacks ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/my-information-is-out-there-hackers-escalate-ransomware-attacks-on-schools-11605279160?mod=djm_dailydiscvrtst
As virus spikes, Europe runs
low on ICU beds, hospital staff ---
https://www.foxnews.com/world/virus-spikes-europe-runs-low-icu-beds-hospital-staff
New Tax Scam Uses Text
Message About Covid Payment ---
https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/tax-compliance/news/21161391/new-tax-scam-uses-text-message-about-covid-payment?oly_enc_id=2883F7313867A8G
Thank you Elliot Kamlet for the heads up
FBI Says COVID-19 Charity
Fraud is Increasing
https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20201101/fbi-says-covid-19-charity-fraud-is-increasing
Businessman Accused of Swindling University Hospitals Out of Millions --- Click Here
Friendly’s Restaurant Files
for Bankruptcy, Expect Many More ---
https://www.thestreet.com/mishtalk/economics/friendlys-restaurant-files-for-bankruptcy-expect-many-more
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/
A wave of ransomware hits US
hospitals as coronavirus spikes ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/10/29/1011436/a-wave-of-ransomware-hits-us-hospitals-as-coronavirus-spikes/
WSJ: On how state
governments have been fleeced by major consulting firms like McKinsey and
Deloitte ---
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/11/mckinsey-deloitte-charge-big-bucks-to-states-for-botched-covid-projects.html
A former Microsoft employee
is going to prison after stealing $10 million in store credit and buying a Tesla
and lakefront home ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-employee-stole-millions-gift-cards-bitcoin-purchased-tesla-home-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
For
earlier editions of Fraud Updates go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
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:
- Increase your 401(k) plan contributions: It’s the one retirement plan contribution that can let you lower wages on your New Jersey tax return.
- Drawing down portfolio income? Consider tax-exempt bonds: Garden State municipal bonds can create income that’s free from federal and state income tax.
- Gift assets to family members in lower tax brackets: “This way, the income is going to them and not you,” said Sobel. Be aware this is a long-term play. You should coordinate with your accountant, estate attorney and family members before making these gifts.
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 Controlled Digital
Lending Makes an Entire College Library Available to Everyone Everywhere ---
https://medium.com/everylibrary/how-controlled-digital-lending-makes-an-entire-college-library-available-to-everyone-everywhere-f4387450634
Jensen Comment
Even before computers and digitization, I made extensive use of my college's
interlibrary loan service where books are shared between libraries around the
USA.
Goldman Sachs --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldman_Sachs
In April 2016, Goldman Sachs launched a direct bank, GS Bank.[93] In October 2016, Goldman Sachs Bank USA started offering no-fee personal loans under the brand Marcus by Goldman Sachs.[94] In March 2016, Goldman Sachs agreed to acquire financial technology startup Honest Dollar, a digital retirement savings tool founded by American entrepreneur whurley, focused on helping small-business employees and self-employed workers obtain affordable retirement plans. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.[95] In May 2017, Goldman Sachs purchased $2.8 billion of PDVSA 2022 bonds from the Central Bank of Venezuela during the 2017 Venezuelan protests.[96]
In April 2018, Goldman Sachs bought Clarity Money, a personal finance startup, to be added to its Marcus by Goldman Sachs roster. This acquisition is expected to add over 1 million customers to the Marcus business.
The most exciting new tech
gadgets of 2020 are designed for the future, not today ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-iphone-12-xbox-series-x-ps5-launch-future-tech-2020-10
Goldman Sachs made Marcus
Insights available to anyone, including consumers who aren't existing customers
---
https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-opens-marcus-insights-to-all-consumers-2020-10?IR=T&utm_medium=email&utm_term=BII_Daily&utm_source=Triggermail&utm_campaign=BII
Weekender 2020.10.30 - Marketing
The free suite of personal finance management (PFM) tools dubbed Marcus Insights is now available to any iOS, Android, or web user, regardless of whether they are a customer of Goldman Sachs' digital-only offshoot, per an email sent to Insider Intelligence.
This marks an expansion from the initial September rollout to only Marcus customers on iOS. Users need only link their external bank accounts—including checking, saving, brokerage, or retirement accounts, among others—to create a dashboard of their finances and get insights into their spending per month; across categories like shopping, dining and drinks, and home; and, for iOS users only, with their most frequented merchants.
This enhanced PFM functionality could greatly increase the utility of the Marcus app for existing savings account or loan users. Marcus' flagship products are a high-yield savings account and personal loans of $3,500–$40,000, and its app was previously meant for little besides managing those accounts—like viewing account balances or making transfers.
But now with the wider launch of Marcus Insights, existing savings or loan customers can choose to aggregate their external account information and use Marcus to stay on top of their entire financial lives. This could drive engagement with Marcus and boost the app's importance to its users' lives, provided that customers like Marcus Insights better than the PFM options offered by their other primary bank or by fintechs that focus only on PFM tools, like Mint.
Offering Marcus Insights to noncustomers for free is also a bold customer acquisition strategy that could draw new clients into the Marcus fold. The features could attract consumers who currently don't have access to PFM tools that meet their needs or who are looking for a way to manage and view their financial accounts from a centralized hub.
And once those customers are using the Marcus platform to stay on top of their financial lives, the digital bank will have ample opportunities to cross-sell them on products like its high-yield savings account, or its upcoming checking or brokerage accounts, potentially driving revenues as well as engagement.
Continued in article
Sharpe Ratio --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpe_ratio
The Sharpe Ratio Broke Investors’ Brains ---
https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1p62z599ns4pd/The-Sharpe-Ratio-Broke-Investors-Brains
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
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 parental leaves from both employers?
What happens when parents are no longer living together such as when one
divorced parent works in Denver and the other parent works in Grand Junction?
One parent may be getting paid leave while doing virtually nothing for the home
care of a newborn.
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 sch
Stephen Wolfram: When
Computation Fails ---
https://www.edge.org/conversation/stephen_wolfram-computation-all-the-way-down
David Kaiser: The
Shifting Terrain of Scientific Inquiry ---
https://www.edge.org/conversation/david_kaiser-the-shifting-terrain-of-scientific-inquiry
The Ultimate Guide to
Personal Bankruptcy in America ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/storythreads/2020-11-11/the-ultimate-guide-to-personal-bankruptcy?cmpid=BBD111120_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=201111&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily
Thousands of Online Courses
from the World's Most Prestigious Universities
Coursera and edX are two popular online learning platforms — here's how they
compare in terms of price and programs offered ---
Click Here
As online learning platforms continue to grow, there are more and more options for more accessible education. Whether you're looking to switch careers, pick up a new skill for your current job, or take classes for fun, many e-learning platforms offer both free classes and paid certificate programs that can be budget-friendly alternatives to traditional college.
Among some of the biggest platforms are edX and Coursera, which collaborate with prestigious universities such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and MIT to provide free or comparatively affordable online courses. Each lets users audit at least some classes for free, pay to earn certificates to put on LinkedIn or your resume, and complete longer certificate programs that can be used as cheaper college credits to work towards a full degree.
Below is a comparison of both edX and Coursera's features, including the pricing for each.
edX vs. Coursera
Founded by Harvard and MIT in 2012, edX is a nonprofit, open-source learning platform designed to "increase high-quality education for everyone, everywhere." It has partnerships with over 120 institutions (from Ivy League schools to companies like IBM and Microsoft) and boasts over 20 million students.
Similarly, Coursera aims to make online learning more accessible in terms of money and time commitment, and access. It also partners with schools like UPenn and companies like Google to provide professional certificates and degrees at a fraction of the cost of grad and undergrad programs.
Course offerings
Both edX and Coursera offer a wide range of courses, from data science and machine learning to humanities and even personal development courses. Among edX's most popular courses are HarvardX's "Introduction to Computer Science (CS50)", an Excel visual data analysis course taught by an expert on the Excel Product team at Microsoft, and a class on English grammar and style from the University of Queensland in Australia.
Some of Coursera's highest-enrolled courses include a machine learning class from Stanford, "Learning How to Learn," which equips students with mental tools to break down complicated learning tasks, and "The Science of Well-Being," Yale's most popular online class.
Both platforms offer combinations of videos, quizzes, readings, forums, and longer assignments for their courses. They also both include transcriptions of the video lectures and can offer options in languages other than English.
Free courses
All edX courses offer an option to either audit it for free or pay for a verified certificate. The free track gives you access to all the learning materials (including discussion forums), but you won't receive a grade, and access to the material will disappear after the class is over.
Coursera offers the free-or-paid-certificate option for some courses. For others, they're only free with a seven-day trial — afterward, you will have to pay a monthly fee to keep learning (but you can cancel anytime before the trial ends and not be charged). The free classes don't have a time limit and you can access the learning materials at any time.
Individual course certificates
edX's paid certificates vary in price and can range anywhere from $50 to $300 depending on the course or program. You can find this information in the right-hand column of every course's page. Even if a course is part of a longer certificate program, you can still take that course on its own and only pay for that certificate. For example, you could either pay $396 to finish a full program in US government, or opt to pay $99 for a certificate in just the foundations of the US government (the first course in the program).
Coursera's certificates work a little differently. Typically, if the course is a stand-alone class, like "The Science of Well-Being," you have the option to audit for free or pay for a certificate, which can range from $29-$100. If the course is part of a Specialization or longer program, you can take it for free with the seven-day Coursera Plus trial, which is $399 annually but lets you get free certificates for over 90% of its classes. If you just want to complete one Specialization, you'll have to pay $49-$79 a month to continue learning, so the faster you finish, the more money you save.
Longer certificate and degree programs
Both platforms offer longer, multi-course certificate programs, which can also double as college credits to help you work towards a full degree. Such programs can cost a few thousand dollars, depending on the course and platform.
Coursera and edX both also have full degree programs, which are more affordable than regular degrees due to being fully online.
edX's offerings include:
Continued in article
Bob
Jensen's threads on other free online courses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
CPA Journal: The
Enrollment Cliff, Mega-Universities, COVID-19, and the Changing Landscape of
U.S. Colleges ---
https://www.cpajournal.com/2020/11/13/icymi-the-enrollment-cliff-mega-universities-covid-19-and-the-changing-landscape-of-u-s-colleges/
. . .
The Enrollment Cliff
Camtasia and Other Self-Made
Videos ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#NewTools
Privacy, Consent, and the
Virtual One-Shot ---
https://acrlog.org/2020/11/13/privacy-consent-and-the-virtual-one-shot/
. . .
I (article author) did teach two virtual guest lectures in May and thought nothing of the fact that the instructors recorded them—something we’d discussed in advance and which seemed important given the emergency outside of all of our apartments and the very real technology barriers that students at CUNY face.
Then in the summer when both courses ran again and the instructors emailed to ask if I could reprise my guest lectures, they both indicated they could also just use the recordings from spring if I was busy or away. I responded immediately that either was fine as though we all implicitly understood that in virtual education contexts, ourselves and our pre-recorded simulacra are basically the same. Aren’t they?
But then, upon further reflection, I felt a little odd and I began to wonder how many MP4s of me had been recorded or shared since the pandemic had started. I thought of a virtual conference panel I participated in, which I learned was being live-streamed to YouTube only after the session had commenced: “thousands of people are watching right now,” one of the organizers said, proudly. Then in June, I was asked by a faculty member who I’d worked with before to do virtual library instruction for a research-intensive course and was startled to join a Zoom session and see the red recording button blinking before I opened my mouth.
I wondered then, gloomily, if part of the natural progression of higher education in this moment is not only the loss of corporeality but the end of the ephemeral educational encounter altogether. Or perhaps we are all experiencing some kind of temporal implosion in which college exists both nowhere and everywhere, and classes are attended by black boxes on a screen, which may or may not represent the attention and presence of actual students, and the teacher might be ported in from another time and place.
. . .
I don’t know exactly what I’m worried will happen with the videos, which are not exciting and I can’t imagine many people rewatching. I certainly would never rewatch them, in part because they are, with some small deviations, almost identical. In the background are small personal details-—a framed May Day poster a friend designed, a dying succulent, my swimsuit drying on a door-knob, my husband walking by. Parts of the videos are potentially dangerous out of context in that they are mildly political; almost all students in first year composition courses are researching social and political issues. It’s unlikely but not impossible that pieces of the videos could be recontextualized and weaponized by alt-right cyber-trolls who spend their days harassing and doxxing liberal academics and students of color (the majority of students at the CUNY campus where I work are Black and Hispanic).
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
In my courses (not online) I made videos of the most technical aspects of my
courses (e.g., how to account for very technical derivative instrument contracts
as speculations versus as hedges under FAS 133 rules). The students watched and
rewatched these videos over and over before class as many times as needed,
because they knew they would have to demonstrate what they learned in front of
the class in subsequent class meetings).
My point is that there are many
types of videos that can be used for onsite or online teaching. My preference is
to make learning videos on very
technical topics that students learn at different rates.
Videos were a great way to level the
playing field on learning rates ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#BYUvideo
Thailand Bets on a New Rice
Grain to Feed the World ---
Click Here
A long—but soft—strain suits the globe’s changing appetite and might save the country’s declining export business. But experts miss the signature fragrance of traditional varieties.
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
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 investContinued in article
States Are Taxing
Nonresidents Who Barely Spent Time In Them This Year On Their Full 2020 Income
---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2020/11/states-are-taxing-nonresidents-who-barely-spent-time-in-them-this-year-on-their-full-2020-income.html
Some Americans will be facing big tax bills this year from states where they spent very little time living or working. Delaware, Nebraska, New York, and Pennsylvania have traditionally claimed income taxes from people who aren’t residents but work in offices there—and Arkansas and Massachusetts this year joined their ranks.
This has meant that some workers have had to pay state taxes in two states on the same income. The issue is even more acute this year as people working remotely because of the pandemic will have spent even less time in the states they’re having to pay taxes to.
This week New Hampshire accused Massachusetts of “attempting to pick the pocket of our citizens” and filed a case with the US Supreme Court over this issue. And New York updated its FAQ documents to make even clearer that it expects remote workers to pay up.
I spoke with Professor Edward Zelinsky of Cardozo Law School in New York City, a leading expert on double taxation.
Continued in article
Twelve ROI Options for
Promoting an Event Online ---
https://readwrite.com/2020/10/28/hosting-an-online-event/
How to Mislead With Statistics
Capitalized Value --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_capitalization
Zoom is Now Worth More Than
Exxon, I Have Ten Questions ---
https://www.thestreet.com/mishtalk/economics/zoom-is-now-worth-more-than-exxon-i-have-ten-questions
Jensen Comment
Capitalized value is a highly controversial way of valuing a company because
most of the shares outstanding are not traded on a daily basis such that prices
of the relatively few shares being traded are generally poor estimates of what
all outstanding shares would bring if they were suddenly made available. Share
trading prices are also subject to a lot market fluctuations that have little to
do with the company itself such as when a powerful world leader dies or is
overthrown.
Accountants argue that using capitalized value to estimate the total value of a company is usually nonsense since only equity is being valued rather than total asset value. Using share prices puts the carts before the accounting horses. The purpose of financial accounting is to help investors set their buy, sell, and hold decisions based upon accounting measurements and accounting disclosures such as contingencies.
Would all the owners of Exxon
shares pool their holdings and trade them for all the shares of Zoom? I
seriously doubt it!
Zoom's value is based upon a speculative balloon in the sky, whereas a lot of
Exxon's value lies in hard and soft assets like real estate, oil leases,
tankers, trucks, oil rigs, refineries, etc. Most of those assets have
alternative uses with great value. Zoom's value can pop in an instant, whereas a
great many of Exxon's assets can be put into alternative valuable uses. Also the
hundreds of millions of home and vehicle owners who rely of some type of Exxon
fuel cannot easily change to alternative energies. For example, it will take
decades for hundreds of millions vehicles relying on carbon fuel to be replaced
by carbon-free alternatives.
Zoom's customers can switch on short notice when some better technology emerges on the scene.
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
Netflix's streaming plans
cost $8.99 per month for the Basic plan, $13.99 per month for the Standard, and
$17.99 per month for the Premium ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-is-netflix?nr_email_referer=1&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Business_Insider_select&pt=385758&ct=Sailthru_BI_Newsletters&mt=8&utm_campaign=Insider%20Select%202020-10-31&utm_term=INSIDER%20SELECT%20-%20ENGAGED%2C%20ACTIVE%2C%20PASSIVE%2C%20DISENGAGED%2C%20NEW
Jensen Comment
Months ago I became so disappointed in the quality of movies available through
the Netflix streaming plan that I dropped the streaming plan and increased the
number of mailed rental Netflix disks. Most of the movies I really want to view
are not available for streaming.
More importantly I also started buying more used disks available for purchase, especially boxed disk sets, from Amazon. Sometimes there are good deals, and sometimes the used disks are nearly as expensive as new disks. Be careful that you avoid disks that will not play in the USA.
MicroStrategy could have gotten rid of its excess cash by paying a big
dividend or buying back a ton of stock. Instead, the company made a big digital
currency bet ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/cash-is-trash-so-lets-bet-425-million-on-bitcoin-11604070071?mod=djm_dailydiscvrtst
. . .
MicroStrategy’s revenues have barely grown over the past decade, from $455 million in 2010 to $486 million last year. Yet the company finished 2019 with $566 million in cash and short-term investments, up from $174 million a decade earlier. Even after shelling out $425 million for bitcoin and $61 million for stock buybacks since August, MicroStrategy still has $53 million in cash.
And the shares had been stagnant for years.
MicroStrategy had been one of the hottest stocks in the technology boom of the late 1990s, returning 567% in 1999. The company lost more than 90% the next year amid a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into its accounting. MicroStrategy restated its financial results and settled administrative reporting charges, without admitting or denying them.
Three managers, including Chief Executive Michael Saylor, also settled civil accounting-fraud charges with the SEC. The executives didn’t admit or deny the charges; Mr. Saylor disgorged more than $8 million and paid a $350,000 penalty. When we spoke this week, Mr. Saylor, who is still CEO, declined to discuss the case.
MicroStrategy never recovered its lost glory. From its initial public offering in June 1998 through the end of 2019, the stock returned an average of 1.4% annually. Over the same period, the S&P 500 gained 7.2% annualized, including dividends.
But 2020 has been a whole new story. In August, when MicroStrategy announced it had invested $250 million in bitcoin, the stock jumped 9% in a day. A month later, the company declared that it would continue to put most of its excess cash into bitcoin. The stock rose 23% in two days.
At their peak on Oct. 23, the company’s shares had doubled in price since their low in early March.
MicroStrategy’s Mr. Saylor says the primary objective of buying bitcoin isn’t to make the stock go up, but to keep the company’s purchasing power from going down.
Thanks to the Federal Reserve’s immense intervention in the economy, the U.S. monetary supply is soaring—by one measure, up more than 20% this year. Mr. Saylor expects that pace to continue at 10% or 15% annually, not just in the U.S. but globally.
“We realized that cash is trash,” he says, “and we needed either to shrink the capital structure or move our cash into something that is going to float on the flood of liquidity and not sink under the flood of liquidity.”
Of course, even as the monetary supply has doubled since late 2008 the Fed has struggled to lift inflation, as officially measured, anywhere close to 2%. While financial assets have soared and some items in the real economy have become more costly, many others have stayed flat or gotten cheaper.
Because the quantity of bitcoin is limited to 21 million, the digital currency can never be “debased,” Mr. Saylor argues, and is therefore bound to hold its value over the long run.
At this week’s price of about $13,500, MicroStrategy’s 38,250 bitcoins were worth more than $515 million, a third of the stock’s total market value. Bitcoin doesn’t only go up, though. In 2018 it bottomed below $3,200, down roughly 80% from a year earlier. (To be fair, five years ago it was about $300.)
I asked if Mr. Saylor was nervous about putting so much of his company’s capital into such an asset.
“What would I be nervous about?” he shot back. “If I had $500 million in cash, that would make me nervous because I think it would go to zero [in purchasing power] over five years. So what’s my choice? I think bitcoin is better than gold as a store of value.”
He added, “It’s not perfect, there’s risk. But I can’t find anything better, and the option of doing nothing is more risky.”
Continued in article
youtube-dl --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youtube-dl
RIAA Abuses DMCA to Take
Down Popular Tool for Downloading Online Video: Does this takedown impinge
on free speech?
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/riaa-abuses-dmca-take-down-popular-tool-downloading-online-video
"youtube-dl" is a popular free software tool for downloading videos from YouTube and other user-uploaded video platforms. GitHub recently took down youtube-dl’s code repository at the behest of the Recording Industry Association of America, potentially stopping many thousands of users, and other programs and services, that rely on it.
On its face, this might seem like an ordinary copyright takedown of the type that happens every day. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a copyright holder can ask a platform to take down an allegedly infringing post and the platform must comply. (The platform must also allow the alleged infringer to file a counter-notice, requiring the copyright holder to file a lawsuit if she wants the allegedly infringing work kept offline.) But there’s a huge difference here with some frightening ramifications: youtube-dl doesn’t infringe on any RIAA copyrights.
RIAA’s argument relies on a different section of the DMCA, Section 1201. DMCA 1201 says that it’s illegal to bypass a digital lock in order to access or modify a copyrighted work. Copyright holders have argued that it’s a violation of DMCA 1201 to bypass DRM even if you’re doing it for completely lawful purposes; for example, if you’re downloading a video on YouTube for the purpose of using it in a way that’s protected by fair use. (And thanks to the way that copyright law has been globalized via trade agreements, similar laws exist in many other jurisdictions too.) RIAA argues that since youtube-dl could be used to download music owned by RIAA-member labels, no one should be able to use the tool, even for completely lawful purposes.
This is an egregious abuse of the notice-and-takedown system, which is intended to resolve disputes over allegedly infringing material online. Again, youtube-dl doesn’t use RIAA-member labels’ music in any way. The makers of youtube-dl simply shared information with the public about how to perform a certain task—one with many completely lawful applications.
Continued in article
Journals published by the
Royal Society of Chemistry have retracted four articles by a researcher in China
for a range of misconduct, including manipulation of images, fabrication of
authors and more ---
https://retractionwatch.com/2020/11/02/nanoscience-researcher-loses-four-papers-for-image-manipulation-forged-authors/
Independent booksellers
write a new chapter during COVID-19 ---
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/independent-booksellers-write-a-new-chapter-during-covid-19/
November 3, 2020 message from Jagdish Gangolly
Hi all,
In my entire career spanning nearly fifty years I have never been as excited as when I saw and briefly read the following paper. It has become so viral on the internet that even the apparently well known rapper MC Hammer tweeted about the paper (not sure he read it). It will revolutionize a whole number of fields in Science. For many problems in science the methods suggested in the paper will make solutions of problems a thousand times faster than using current mathematical methods on existing technology including supercomputers. But my guess is that pseudosciences like Economics and Accounting will lose no sleep over it. But hopefully some doctoral student who has not yet been indoctrinated will dare to work in this area.
It does demand competence in a few areas (Fourier spaces, partial differential equations, Systems Dynamics,....) which unfortunately are not a part of the curriculum even in Economics. Some archivologists in accounting should at least attempt to try modeling accounting stuff using these techniques.
The paper, for those interested, can be found at
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2010.08895.pdf
Regards,
Jagdish
Jagdish S. Gangolly
Emeritus Associate Professor
Department of Informatics
Director (Retired), PhD Program in Information Science
State University of New York at Albany
1400 Washington Ave Albany, NY 12222
email: j.gangolly@albany.edu
Powell’s Books Unveils a New
Perfume/Cologne That Smells Like Old Books ---
https://www.openculture.com/2020/11/powells-books-unveils-a-new-perfume-that-smells-like-old-books.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Also see
https://www.newsbreak.com/oregon/portland/news/2099439626937/cologne-that-smells-like-old-books
Jensen Comment
Sprinkle a few drops around your monitor when reading old books and journal
articles.
Free Online Tutorials, Videos, Course Materials, and Learning Centers
Education Tutorials
OER TUTORIALS EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY ---
www.cccoer.org/about/members/member-activities/timely-oer-tutorials
TEACHING CHILDREN PHILOSOPHY ---
www.prindleinstitute.org/k-12-ethics-education/teaching-children-philosophy
AMOEBA SISTERS (teaching children biology) --- www.amoebasisters.com
Bob Jensen's threads on education links ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#EducationResearch
Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials
ICONIC SERVICE TO SCIENCE (International Space Station) --- https://iss.tass.com/
JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH RESEARCH --- www.jphres.org
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: HEALTH LITERACY ---
www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/disease-prevention/health-literacy
COVID-19 HEALTH LITERACY PROJECT --- https://covid19healthliteracyproject.com/
CDC TV --- www.cdc.gov/cdctv
Video: ARE YOU CONFUSED ABOUT HEALTH INFORMATION? YOU'RE NOT ALONE ---
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x6DLqtaK2g
HEALTH LITERACY TOOL SHED --- http://healthliteracy.bu.edu/
Bob Jensen's threads on free online science, engineering, and medicine tutorials are at --http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Social Science and Economics Tutorials
HOW RIGID IS THE MIDDLE CLASS IN THE US, REALLY? ---
https://pudding.cool/2020/08/income/
TEACHING CHILDREN PHILOSOPHY ---
www.prindleinstitute.org/k-12-ethics-education/teaching-children-philosophy
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
QUEER WORDS PODCAST --- https://queerwords.org/
THE LESBRARY --- https://lesbrary.com/
GLASGOW WOMEN'S LIBRARY: LGBTQ COLLECTIONS ONLINE RESOURCE ---
https://womenslibrary.org.uk/explore-the-library-and-archive/lgbtq-collections-online-resource/
UCLA HISTORY GEOGRAPHY PROJECT: AUDRE LORDE ---
https://ucla.app.box.com/v/hgp-audre-lorde
THE BI-BLIOGRAPHY --- www.librarything.com/profile/The_Bi-bliography
BRITISH LIBRARY: LGBTQ HISTORIES --- www.bl.uk/lgbtq-histories
Bob Jensen's threads on Economics, Anthropology, Social Sciences, and
Philosophy tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Law and Legal Studies
Bob Jensen's threads on law and legal studies are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Scroll down to Law
Math Tutorials
Stephen Wolfram: When
Computation Fails ---
https://www.edge.org/conversation/stephen_wolfram-computation-all-the-way-down
Moore Deductive Method of
Teaching Mathematics ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore_method
Incidentally and unrelated to the deductive method, Moore is known for "his
racist treatment of African-American mathematics students" ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lee_Moore
Hi all,
In my entire career spanning nearly fifty years I have never been as excited as when I saw and briefly read the following paper. It has become so viral on the internet that even the apparently well known rapper MC Hammer tweeted about the paper (not sure he read it). It will revolutionize a whole number of fields in Science. For many problems in science the methods suggested in the paper will make solutions of problems a thousand times faster than using current mathematical methods on existing technology including supercomputers. But my guess is that pseudosciences like Economics and Accounting will lose no sleep over it. But hopefully some doctoral student who has not yet been indoctrinated will dare to work in this area.
It does demand competence in a few areas (Fourier spaces, partial differential equations, Systems Dynamics,....) which unfortunately are not a part of the curriculum even in Economics. Some archivologists in accounting should at least attempt to try modeling accounting stuff using these techniques.
The paper, for those interested, can be found at
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2010.08895.pdf
Regards,
Jagdish
Jagdish S. Gangolly
Emeritus Associate Professor
Department of Informatics
Director (Retired), PhD Program in Information Science
State University of New York at Albany
1400 Washington Ave Albany, NY 12222
email: j.gangolly@albany.edu
Bob Jensen's threads on free online mathematics tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Scroll down to Mathematics and Statistics
Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
History Tutorials
The Five Minute Museum: A Stop Motion Animation Shows the History of
Civilization at Breakneck Speed ---
Click Here
NELSON-ATKINS AT HOME (Kansas City Museum) --- https://nelson-atkins.org/nelson-atkins-at-home/
The world's first cash register, "Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier," was
patented by James Ritty, Dayton, Ohio ---
https://www.thoughtco.com/cash-register-james-ritty-4070920
Watch the Making of Japanese Woodblock Prints, from Start to Finish, by a
Longtime Tokyo Printmaker ---
https://www.openculture.com/2020/11/watch-the-making-of-japanese-woodblock-prints-from-start-to-finish.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
JEWISH WOMEN'S ARCHIVE: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY ---
https://jwa.org/thisweek
MERCATOR: IT'S A FLAT, FLAT WORLD ---
https://mercator.tass.com/
Bob Jensen's threads on history tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Scroll down to History
Also see
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Language Tutorials
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings ---
https://folkways.si.edu/
Bob Jensen's links to language tutorials are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2-Part2.htm#Languages
Music Tutorials
CLASSICS FOR KIDS (MUSIC) --- www.classicsforkids.com
Bob Jensen's threads on free music tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Scroll down to Music
Bob Jensen's threads on music performances ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
Writing Tutorials
Bob Jensen's helpers for writers are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob3.htm#Dictionaries
Bob Jensen's threads on medicine ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2-Part2.htm#Medicine
CDC Blogs --- http://blogs.cdc.gov/
Shots: NPR Health News --- http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots
Updates from WebMD --- http://www.webmd.com/
November 2, 2020
Supersreaders Spur Record New U.S. COVID Cases
Antibodies Attack the Body In Some COVID Cases
COVID-19 Infection Fatality Ratio is About 1.15%,
Regeneron Says Its Treatments Lower Medical Visits
Shipping Container of Medical Gloves Stolen in FL
Grocery Workers at Risk for COVID Without Symptoms
Lies Spread on Social Media Hamper Vaccinations
November 3, 2020
Boy With Alzheimer's-like Illness Races For Time
Construction Workers at High Risk for COVID
Is It a Cold, the Flu, Allergies, or COVID-19?
Eighth Grader in Missouri Dies From COVID-19
Flu Shot May Shield You From Severe COVID
Chinese Americans Face COVID-based Discrimination
Patients Testing Positive for Both COVID and Flu
November 4, 2020
Depression Has Strong Ties to Stroke, Study Finds
No, Face Masks Don't Lower Oxygen Levels
Prince William Tested Positive for COVID in April
Hospitals Compete for Nurses Amid COVID-19 Surge
Hardest-Hit Communities May Have Vaccine Priority
For Some, 'COVID Toes,' Rashes Can Last for Months
Boy With Alzheimer's-like Illness Races For Time
November 5, 2020
Student Found Dead in Dorm After Positive COVID Test
New Drug Offers Hope Against MS
Nearly 1 in 5 Americans Follows 'Special' Diet
Clear Election Winners: State Marijuana Reforms
Election Day Didn’t Slow COVID’s Steady Advance
For Rural Youth, Mental Health Care Tough to Find
Heart Trouble From COVID Less Common Than Thought
November 7, 2020
Georgia Firefighter Dies of COVID-19
Al Roker Reveals Prostate Cancer Diagnosis
U.S. Sets Another COVID Record; Hospitals Scramble
COVID-19 Linked to Increased Risk for Parkinson's
1 in 6 COVID Patients Only Have Gastro Symptoms
Some COVID Patients See Faster Recovery, More Immunity
November 9, 2020
WebMD Poll: Vaccine, Experts Will Mark Pandemic’s End
Alex Trebek Dies After Battle With Pancreatic Cancer
Biden Victory: What It Means for COVID, Health Care
COVID in Minks Spreading to Humans
Georgia Firefighter Dies of COVID-19
Al Roker Reveals Prostate Cancer Diagnosis
November 11, 2020
Up Next for Obamacare: 1 of 4 Court Rulings Likely
U.S. Could Soon Hit 200,000 Daily COVID-19 Cases
COVID Survivors May Develop Mental Illness Later
Justices Question Case to Overturn Affordable Care Act
Marijuana Raises Post-Op Dangers After Heart Attack
November 12, 2020
Melatonin Could Potentially Treat COVID-19
Masks Protect Wearers and Others from COVID-19
TX Becomes First State With 1 Million COVID Cases
Flu Shots: Doctors, Pharmacies Report Higher Demand
UT Mask Rule Spurs Protests; CO Extends Mandate
5 Important Questions About Pfizer’s COVID Vaccine
NY State Closes Restaurants, Bars, Gyms at 10
November 13, 2020
Common Cold Antibodies Could Protect Against COVID-19
Half of COVID-19 Patients Report Ongoing Fatigue
Fauci Will Take an Approved Pfizer COVID Vaccine
Melatonin Could Potentially Treat COVID-19
Masks Protect Wearers and Others from COVID-19
TX Becomes First State With 1 Million COVID Cases
November 14, 2020
Is the Pandemic Harming Kids' Mental Health?
Fish Oil, Vitamin D Supplements Won't Prevent A-Fib
Annual Report Highlights Dangerous Toys
Restrictions Return As COVID Surges Across the U.S.
Study: New Mutation Sped Up Spread of Coronavirus
Biden COVID Task Force Weighs In On Lockdown
Common Cold Antibodies Could Protect Against COVID-19
List: Town-by-town coronavirus cases in New Hampshire (text-only) ---
https://www.wmur.com/article/new-hampshire-coronavirus-cases-by-town/32935912#
Gary Cornell: We are Unlikely to Have a (Covid-19) Vaccine that is Proven
Effective for Seniors for a Long Time Unless Dramatic Action is Taken Now! ---
https://blog.supplysideliberal.com/post/2020/11/5/gary-cornell-we-are-unlikely-to-have-a-vaccine-that-is-proven-effective-for-seniors-for-a-long-time-unless-dramatic-action-is-taken-now
New vaccine may prevent symptoms, spread of herpes virus---
https://www.studyfinds.org/vaccine-prevent-symptoms-spread-herpes/
Common painkillers don’t relieve back pain – they may make you worse,
study claims!
https://www.studyfinds.org/study-finds-back-pain-painkillers-aspirin/
World Vegan Day: What Does the Research Say?
https://blogs.edgehill.ac.uk/isr/world-vegan-day-what-does-the-research-say/
Trump tried to attribute the second wave of Corona virus statistics to
increased proportion of people tested. He's partly right but the main reason is
more frightening.
Coronavirus mutation made illness more contagious, causing nearly all U.S.
cases now ---
https://www.studyfinds.org/coronavirus-mutation-more-contagious/
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
Denmark's parliament later cancelled such a large cull of mink in Denmark
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/09/denmark-drops-plans-for-mass-mink-cull-after-covid-mutation-fears
Nanoparticles create ‘miracle’ treatment for deadly brain tumors ---
https://www.studyfinds.org/nanoparticles-miracle-treatment-brain-tumors/
Humor for November 2020
Forwarded by Auntie Bev
You buy your kid a book, and she asks where to put the batteries.
You can open the book without a password
Reading is how brains become updated with software
The best way to keep your car from being stolen is to buy one with a standard shift and clutch pedal
Explain to your child that he can send coded messages just by learning to write in cursive
Forward by Auntie Bev
How to Maintain a Healthy LevelOf Insanity in RETIREMENT...
1.
At lunch time, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on, point a hair dryer at passing cars and watch them slow down!
2.
On all your check stubs, write, "For Sexual Favors"
3.
Skip down the street rather than walk, and see how many looks you get.
4.
With a serious face, order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat.
5.
Sing along at The Opera.
6.
When the money comes out of the ATM, scream 'I Won! I Won!'
7.
When leaving the Zoo, start running towards the car park, yelling, 'Run For Your Lives! They're Loose!'
8.
Tell your children over dinner, 'Due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go....'
9.
Pick up a box of condoms at the pharmacy, go to the counter and ask where the fitting room is.
Humor October 2020 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book20q4.htm#Humor1020.htm
Humor September 2020 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book20q3.htm#Humor0920.htm
Humor August 2020 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book20q3.htm#Humor0820.htm
Humor July 2020 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book20q3.htm#Humor0720.htm
Humor June 2020 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book20q2.htm#Humor0620.htm
Humor May 2020 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book20q2.htm#Humor0520.htm
Humor April 2020 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book20q2.htm#Humor0420.htm
Humor March 2020 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book20q1.htm#Humor0320.htm
Humor January 2020 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book20q1.htm#Humor0120.htm
Humor December 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q4.htm#Humor1219.htm
Humor November 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q4.htm#Humor1119.htm
Humor October 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q4.htm#Humor1019.htm
Humor September 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q3.htm#Humor0919.htm
Humor August 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q3.htm#Humor0819.htm
Humor July 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q3.htm#Humor0719.htm
Humor June 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q2.htm#Humor0619.htm
Humor May 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q2.htm#Humor0519.htm
Humor April 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q2.htm#Humor0419.htm
Humor March 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q1.htm#Humor0319.htm
Humor February 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q1.htm#Humor0219.htm
Humor January 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q1.htm#Humor0119.htm
Tidbits Archives --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and
Stories
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
Click here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter ---
Search Site.
For example if you want to know what Jensen documents have the term "Enron"
enter the phrase Jensen AND Enron. Another search engine that covers Trinity and
other universities is at
http://www.searchedu.com/
Online Distance Education Training and Education ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
For-Profit Universities Operating in the Gray
Zone of Fraud (College, Inc.) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud
Shielding Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
The Cult of Statistical Significance:
How Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/DeirdreMcCloskey/StatisticalSignificance01.htm
How Accountics Scientists Should Change:
"Frankly, Scarlett, after I get a hit for my resume in The Accounting Review
I just don't give a damn"
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
One more mission in what's left of my life will be to try to change this
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
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
Tom Lehrer on Mathematical Models and
Statistics ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZWyUXn3So
Systemic problems of accountancy (especially the
vegetable nutrition paradox) that probably will never be solved ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#BadNews
World Clock ---
http://www.peterussell.com/Odds/WorldClock.php
Facts about the earth in real time --- http://www.worldometers.info/
Interesting Online Clock
and Calendar
---
http://home.tiscali.nl/annejan/swf/timeline.swf
Time by Time Zones ---
http://timeticker.com/
Projected Population Growth (it's out of control) ---
http://geography.about.com/od/obtainpopulationdata/a/worldpopulation.htm
Also see
http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/P/Populations.html
Facts about population growth (video) ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U
Projected U.S. Population Growth ---
http://www.carryingcapacity.org/projections75.html
Real time meter of the U.S. cost of the war in Iraq ---
http://www.costofwar.com/
Enter you zip code to get Census Bureau comparisons ---
http://zipskinny.com/
Sure wish there'd be a little good news today.
Free (updated) Basic Accounting Textbook --- search for Hoyle at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
CPA Examination ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cpa_examination
Free CPA Examination Review Course Courtesy of Joe Hoyle ---
http://cpareviewforfree.com/
Rick Lillie's education, learning, and technology blog is at http://iaed.wordpress.com/
Accounting News, Blogs, Listservs, and Social
Networking ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm
Bob Jensen's Threads ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New
Bookmarks ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called
Tidbits ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud
Updates ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Online Books, Poems, References,
and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available
free on the Web.
I created a page that summarizes those various links ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Some of Bob Jensen's Tutorials
Many useful accounting sites (scroll down) --- http://www.iasplus.com/links/links.htm
Bob Jensen's Sort-of Blogs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/JensenBlogs.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New
Bookmarks ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called
Tidbits ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud
Updates ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Some Accounting History Sites
Bob Jensen's
Accounting History in a Nutshell and Links ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#AccountingHistory
Accounting
History Libraries at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) ---
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/accountancy/libraries.html
The above libraries include international accounting history.
The above libraries include film and video historical collections.
MAAW Knowledge Portal for Management and Accounting ---
http://maaw.info/
Academy of Accounting Historians and the Accounting Historians Journal ---
http://www.accounting.rutgers.edu/raw/aah/
Sage Accounting History ---
http://ach.sagepub.com/cgi/pdf_extract/11/3/269
A nice timeline on the development of U.S. standards and the evolution of
thinking about the income statement versus the balance sheet is provided at:
"The Evolution of U.S. GAAP: The Political Forces Behind Professional
Standards (1930-1973)," by Stephen A. Zeff, CPA Journal, January 2005
---
http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2005/105/infocus/p18.htm
Part II covering years 1974-2003 published in February 2005 ---
http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2005/205/index.htm
A nice timeline of accounting history --- http://www.docstoc.com/docs/2187711/A-HISTORY-OF-ACCOUNTING
From Texas
A&M University
Accounting History Outline ---
http://acct.tamu.edu/giroux/history.html
Bob
Jensen's timeline of derivative financial instruments and hedge accounting ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm#DerivativesFrauds
History of
Fraud in America ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/415wp/AmericanHistoryOfFraud.htm
Also see
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud.htm
Bob Jensen's
Threads ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and
Stories
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
All my online pictures --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/PictureHistory/
Professor Robert E. Jensen (Bob)
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
190 Sunset Hill Road
Sugar Hill, NH 03586
Phone: 603-823-8482
Email:
rjensen@trinity.edu