Tidbits
Political Quotations
To Accompany the February 15, 2021Edition of Tidbits
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2021/tidbits021521.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/
Also see
https://www.wnd.com/2020/09/biden-claims-antifa-isnt-real-wnds-free-22000-word-e-book-proves-lying/
When Antifa received word that Ngo's book was
for sale at Powell's bookstore, they decided to show up and demand that the
local chain cease selling it all together ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bethbaumann/2021/01/11/watch-antifa-demands-a-local-bookstore-stop-selling-andy-ngos-book-about-antifas-nasty-tactics-n2582974?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=01/12/2021&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
Nobody want to be the target of Antif's's arsonists
Antifa members threaten to 'burn' down DC
during Black Lives Matter march ---
https://www.foxnews.com/us/antifa-members-threatens-to-burn-down-dc-during-black-lives-matter-march
FBI director calls Antifa 'a real thing' ---
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/516911-fbi-director-wray-calls-antifa-a-real-thing
'
Antifa
group continues occupation of Seattle-area hotel with plans to stay permanently
for free ---
https://thepostmillennial.com/antifa-takes-over-seattle-area-hotel
Did you notice how the major media no longer reports these takeovers?
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
What's Wrong With Wind and Solar? ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqppRC37OgI
Electricity prices are already going up because of the 'wasteful, duplicative
solar and wind on our grid' Facebook Twitter Comments Print Email ---
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/biden-climate-actions-to-jolt-electricity-prices
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
Cuba lifts ban on most
private business to deal with worst economic crisis since the fall of the Soviet
Union ---
https://worldnewsera.com/news/finance/cuba-lifts-ban-on-most-private-business/
Socialism Doesn't Work ---
https://reason.com/2021/02/10/socialism-doesnt-work/
Nordic Countries are Not Socialist Paradises ---
https://www.theepochtimes.com/a-moms-research-part-1-nordic-countries-are-not-socialist-paradises_3695026.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-02-12-3
Nordic countries are capitalist
Miracle of Chile ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_Chile
Movie: The Chicago Boys of Chile ---
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/chicagoboysenglish
How to Fix Economic Inequality? ---
https://www.piie.com/microsites/how-fix-economic-inequality
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/
A Letter to My Children Regarding Bernie Sanders ---
https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/digital/a-letter-to-my-children-regarding-bernie-sanders/
A study of Bernie's past reveals a very dangerous man who could bring down the
USA
History Tells Us to Worry About Inflation (in spite of what Paul Krugman
says) ---
https://www.bloombergquint.com/gadfly/macroeconomic-history-tells-us-to-worry-about-inflation
The Bill Is Coming Due for China’s
‘Capitalist’ Experiment ---
https://www.yahoo.com/news/bill-coming-due-china-capitalist-113012069.html
Thanks Wm. Dennis Huber for the heads up
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
Vaccine Politics in Europe Versus America ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2021/01/vaccine-politics-in-europe-and-america.html
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
As cities chose to reduce police budgets for 2020, this is
what happened to their murder rates ---
https://ritholtz.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/murderspike.jpg
Harper's: A Letter on Justice and Open Debate --- |
They're Coming to America ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/2021/01/21/theyre-coming-to-america-n2583446?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=01/21/2021&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
Scientists suggest US embassies were hit with
high-power microwaves – here’s how the weapons work
https://theconversation.com/scientists-suggest-us-embassies-were-hit-with-high-power-microwaves-heres-how-the-weapons-work-151730
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.
Political Correctness: New York Times
Conveniently Revises History on the 2020 Antifa/BLM-Led Riots ---
https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/01/new-york-times-conveniently-revises-history-on-the-2020-antifa-blm-led-riots/
The 2020 Election Was a Rebuke of Socialism
---
https://reason.com/2021/01/18/the-2020-election-was-a-rebuke-of-socialism/
Even Though Biden Won, Republicans Enjoyed The Largest Electoral College Edge In
70 Years. Will That Last?
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/even-though-biden-won-republicans-enjoyed-the-largest-electoral-college-edge-in-70-years-will-that-last/
Taiwan’s Crowdsourced Democracy Shows Us How to Fix Social Media ---
The Result of "Too Much Money": Asset Price
Inflation and Inequality ---
https://mises.org/wire/result-too-much-money-asset-price-inflation-and-inequality?utm_source=Mises+Institute+Subscriptions&utm_campaign=70a67886d5-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_9_21_2018_9_59_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8b52b2e1c0-70a67886d5-228708937
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
China ‘forcing Uighur Muslims and other
minorities to work in cotton fields’ ---
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/china-forcing-uighur-muslims-and-other-minorities-to-work-in-cotton-fields-6vz3750t6
Socialist and communism advocates often overlook instances of slavery forced by
governments rather than capitalists
U.S. physicists rally around ambitious plan to
build fusion power plant ---
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/12/us-physicists-rally-around-ambitious-plan-build-fusion-power-plant
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
DHS: Illegal Border Crossings Surge In
Anticipation of Biden Presidency ---
https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/11/dhs-illegal-border-crossings-surge-in-anticipation-of-biden-presidency/
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 ---
RIP Walter E. Williams ---
Walter Williams, R.I.P. | National Review
Also see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_E._Williams
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 ---
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
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
Walter E. Williams: Profit of Freedom
and Capitalism ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/starparker/2020/12/09/dr-walter-williams-prophet-of-freedom-n2581244?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=12/09/2020&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
Republican women flipped numerous House seats
in 2020.---
https://www.vox.com/21562289/republican-women-election-records
California Voters Rebuked Their Governor,
Legislators at the Ballot Box ---
https://reason.com/2020/11/13/california-voters-rebuked-their-governor-legislators-at-every-turn-on-election-day/
Report: Belgian nursing homes failed patients
amid pandemic ---
https://apnews.com/article/pandemics-coronavirus-pandemic-nursing-homes-belgium-europe-b23dd8c702f43ab9abf0e5b51ff468c9
Bernie Burns AOC? Tells CNN Good Progressives
Do Not Support 'Defunding Police' ---
Click Here
Biden's Startup Plan: The Good, the Bad, the
Ugly ---
https://www.thestreet.com/mishtalk/economics/bidens-plan-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly
Religious Books Seized and Burned in Communist China, Believers Given Jail Terms ---
Government's Money Monopoly and the "Great
Reset" ---
https://mises.org/wire/governments-money-monopoly-and-great-reset
San Francisco’s Soft-On-Crime Approach Isn’t
Working ----
https://bearingarms.com/came/2021/02/05/san-francisco-crime-spike/?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=02/06/2021&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
Danish minimum wage data ---
http://stgmarginalrev.wpengine.com/marginalrevolution/2021/02/danish-minimum-wage-data.html
Ilhan Omar's campaign contributed nearly 80%
of political payments to husband's consulting firm: filings ---
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/consulting-firm-ilhan-omar-husband-payments-campaign
Antifa members threaten to 'burn' down DC
during Black Lives Matter march ---
https://www.foxnews.com/us/antifa-members-threatens-to-burn-down-dc-during-black-lives-matter-march
A group of Black Republicans are pressing the
National Museum of African American History to properly 'honor' Clarence Thomas
---
https://www.businessinsider.com/clarence-thomas-legacy-black-republicans-african-american-history-museum-2021-2
Students Call On University Of Wisconsin To
Ban Women's Liberation Front From Law School Job Fair ---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2021/02/students-call-on-university-of-wisconsin-to-ban-womens-liberation-front-from-law-school-job-fair.html
Leaving Aside Trump's Role in Provoking the
Capitol Riot, His Reaction to It Was Enough To Justify Impeachment ---
https://reason.com/2021/02/11/leaving-aside-trumps-role-in-provoking-the-capitol-riot-his-reaction-to-it-was-enough-to-justify-impeachment/
Nancy Pelosi Accused Of Corruption After
Husband Caught In ‘Insider Trading’ Scheme ---
https://en-volve.com/2021/02/11/nancy-pelosi-accused-of-corruption-after-husband-caught-in-insider-trading-scheme/
There's an alleged history if such insider trading by him
The New Yorker: Inside the Making of the Facebook
Supreme Court ---
Click Here
The Trouble With Mitt Romney's Family Security
Act ---
https://reason.com/2021/02/11/the-trouble-with-mitt-romneys-family-security-act/
If progressivism can’t work in California, why
should the country believe it can work anywhere else?
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/opinion/california-san-francisco-schools.html
Powell Says the True Unemployment Rate is
Actually 10% ---
https://www.thestreet.com/mishtalk/economics/powell-says-the-true-unemployment-rate-is-actually-10-percent
Jensen Comment
I don't think we will every know the USA's "true" unemployment rate until we
have accurate data on the underground labor market. Thousands of people listed
as unemployed are really drawing in some cash earnings from the enormous
underground economy of the USA. Think of all of those house cleaners working for
cash who are not listed as employed. Add to this the underground workers in
construction, farming, landscaping, car repair, drug dealing, etc. and you have
a lot of paid labor not being reported anywhere, including the IRS. Until there
is a cashless economy we will not have a clue as to the full extent of the
underground economy.
Why the EU has fallen behind on vaccines ---
https://qz.com/1968175/why-the-eu-has-fallen-behind-on-vaccines/
The major media
criticizes the USA's vaccine performance while overlooking the far worse vaccine
performance in the over-regulated EU. One huge problem is the dearth of risk
capital in the EU. Business financing in the EU is mostly from banks and
financial institutions that shy away from financial risk. In the USA it's much
easier to finance risky ventures with equity capital. Alas, that may change with
the new taxes and regulations in the USA following the 2020 election.
Harvard: The EU’s
Unsustainable Approach to Stakeholder Capitalism ---
https://hbr.org/2021/01/the-eus-unsustainable-approach-to-stakeholder-capitalism?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=dailyalert_notactsubs&deliveryName=DM117021
. . .
Not only does the report fail to show that EU businesses are misgoverned, it also makes proposals that would actually put these businesses at risk. Most importantly, the report recommends an EU-wide reformulation of directors’ duties to include a broad and ill-defined range of considerations, including representing the interests of the “global environment” and “society at large.” These duties would be enforced by non-investor stakeholders bringing suits in court.
The effect of implementing such proposals would be corporate paralysis. Almost any board decision could be legally challenged by some stakeholder claiming a violation of directors’ almost boundary-less duties. Concerned about personal liability, or even just the embarrassment of being named defendant in a lawsuit, directors will refrain from major decisions without getting buy-in from every stakeholder that might sue them. How will these firms compete with nimble U.S. and Chinese firms? Conducting business through an EU-listed firm will simply no longer be sustainable. Firms will go private, or seek to avoid these rules by domiciling and listing elsewhere.
In fact, the sustainability of Europe’s entire business eco-system would be put at risk. Directors of large listed EU firms would feel pressured to cut back on dividends and repurchases and invest more internally, even if such investments make little sense from investors’ perspective. Capital would be trapped in cash-rich firms and mis-spent. The flow of capital from larger public firms to smaller public and private firms would dry up. Firms looking to raise cash would find it more difficult. After all, why would investors hand funds over to directors whose EU-mandated fiduciary duties now require them to deploy the funds to benefit the global environment and society at large? The question answers itself.
If the European Commission really wishes to increase business sustainability, it should take steps to make it easier, not harder, for European firms to raise, deploy, and return equity capital. It should turn its back on the report’s proposals, which are as poorly-grounded as the findings of short-termism trotted out to justify them.
In listserv correspondence Jagdish Gangolly wrote:
If my reading of the Dennis article is right, he is arguing for the entity theory of accounting. That will require an entirely new thinking on corporate governance, somewhat on the lines of the German model where corporations have Board of directors and Board of supervisors, the latter consisting of all stakeholders. I personally think that would be a good idea and considerably improve corporate governance in the US.
Jensen Comment About a Shortage of German Shareholders Willing to Take Financial Risks in Equity Markets
German tendency toward government regulation and financial tradition for bank financing resulted in the smallness of stock markets and equity financing in Germany relative to the USA and even some other nations in Europe and China. Germany depends mostly upon banks for business financing. As a result there is no Silicon Valley for venture equity capital in Germany.
ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF PRIVATE EQUITY INVESTMENTS ON THE GERMAN STOCK MARKET
---
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/48426/1/577332147.pdf
The German capital market has different characteristics to those of the US and the UK. The key differences involve the development of public equity markets, patterns of ownership structure, and minority shareholder protection. In contrast to other major economies, such as the US, the UK, and Japan, the number of exchange listed German companies is comparatively low. As a consequence, banks and other financial institutions act as the primary suppliers of external capital for (German) corporations. In addition, the typical market listed German firm is characterized by a small number of large shareholders. Franks and Mayer (2001) observe that “85% of the largest quoted companies have a single shareholder owning more 3 than 25% of the voting shares”1 (based on 171 companies in 1990). This percentage seems to be stable over time (at least for non-financial companies). In a study based on all nonfinancial companies listed on the „official‟ trading segment of the Frankfurt stock exchange between 1997 and 2004 (264 companies), Andres (2007) states that the percentage observed by Franks and Mayer (2001) is strikingly consistent with ownership patterns 15 years later, “with 84.5% of the firms featuring a shareholder with a stake of more than 25%.”
German inventors and developers seek outside investors such as USA's Tesla that
is now building a mega electric vhicle factory in Germany. A German
biotechnology developer, BioNTech,
partnered with the USA's Pfizer to conduct clinical trials, finance,
and produce its covid vaccine ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfizer%E2%80%93BioNTech_COVID-19_vaccine
BioNTech is the initial developer of the vaccine, and partnered with Pfizer for development, clinical research, overseeing the clinical trials, logistics, finances and for worldwide manufacturing,[32] with the exception of China, where the license to distribute and manufacture was purchased by Fosun, alongside its investment in BioNTech.[33][34] Distribution in Germany and Turkey is by BioNTech itself.[35] Pfizer indicated in November 2020, that 50 million doses could be available globally by the end of 2020, with about 1.3 billion doses in 2021.[
Jensen Comment
Until the radical left destroys equity capital markets, the USA is probably the
best nation for risky financing with corporate common stock. No other nation
welcomes Initial
Public Offerings like the USA. IPOs are generally marketed by
investment banks in the USA because there is such a large throng of USA
investors willing to make risky financial investments in their quests for the
American Dream. Before the 2020 election there were, as Jagdish points out, tax
advantages of equity investing in the USA. After the 2020 election tax
advantages of shareholder equity investing will largely disappear coupled with
new wealth taxes and new taxes on businesses that, combined with newer
German-like regulations of corporations, may dry up much of that risk capital in
the USA.
The USA, along with the rest of the world, will be moving toward having governments finance risky ventures. This will help financial winners and losers doing social good to become funded with taxpayer dollars, but it also adds layers of inefficient politics, bureaucracy, fraud, and red tape. Exhibit A is the massive fraud that arose with Medicare and Medicaid financing of health care.
What's worse is that the paths of becoming billionaires with inventions and developments will probably destroy much of the innovation that comes along with the former American Dream.
Interestingly, while the American Dream declines the Chinese Dream is roaring.
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/
The China Dream: Rise of the Billionaire Tiger Women from Poverty
"Tigress Tycoons," by Amy Chua, Newsweek Magazine Cover Story, March 12,
2012, pp. 30-39 ---
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/03/04/amy-chua-profiles-four-female-tycoons-in-china.html
Like a relentless overachiever, China is eagerly collecting superlatives. It’s the world’s fastest-growing major economy. It boasts the world’s biggest hydropower plant, shopping mall, and crocodile farm (home to 100,000 snapping beasts). It’s building the world’s largest airport (the size of Bermuda). And it now has more self-made female billionaires than any other country in the world.
This is not only because China has more females than any other nation. Many of these extraordinary women rose from nothing, despite living in a traditionally patriarchal society. They are a beguiling advertisement for the New China—bold, entrepreneurial, and tradition-breaking.
Four standouts among China’s intriguing new superwomen are Zhang Xin, the factory worker turned glamorous real-estate billionaire, with 3 million followers on Weibo (China’s Twitter); talk-show mogul Yang Lan, a blend of Audrey Hepburn and Oprah Winfrey; restaurant tycoon Zhang Lan, who as a girl slept between a pigsty and a chicken coop; and Peggy Yu Yu, cofounder and CEO of one of China’s biggest online retailers. None of these women inherited her money, and unlike many of the richest Chinese who are reluctant to draw public scrutiny to their path to wealth, they are proud to tell their stories.
How did these women make it to the top in the wild, wild East? Did they pay a price, either in their family or their professional lives? What was it that distinguished them from their famously hardworking compatriots? As I set out to explore these questions, my interest was partly personal. All four of my subjects lived for extended periods in the West. As a Chinese-American, and now the infamous Tiger Mom, I was curious: how “Chinese” were these new Chinese tigresses?
It turns out that each of these women, in her own way, is a dynamic combination of East and West. Perhaps this is one secret to their breathtaking success.
Zhang Xin is a rags-to-riches tale right out of Dickens. She was born in Beijing in 1965. The next year Mao launched the Cultural Revolution, and millions, including intellectuals and party dissidents, were purged or forcibly relocated to primitive rural areas. Children were encouraged to turn in their parents and teachers as counterrevolutionaries. Returning to Beijing in 1972, Zhang remembers sleeping on office desks, using books for pillows. At 14 she left for Hong Kong with her mother, and for five years she worked in a factory by day, attending school at night.
“I was a miserable kid,” she told me. With her chic cropped leather jacket and infectious laughter, the cofounder of the $4.6 billion Soho China real-estate empire is today an odd combination of measured calculation and warm spontaneity. “My mother drove me in school so hard. That generation didn’t know how to express love.
“But it wasn’t just me. It was all of China. I don’t think anybody was happy. If you look at photos from those days, no one is smiling.” She mentioned the contemporary artist Zhang Xiaogang, who paints “cold, emotionless” faces. “That’s exactly how we all grew up.”
. . .
But the four women I interviewed are a new breed. Progressive, worldly, and open to the media, they are in many ways not representative of China, past or present. Perhaps they are merely the lucky winners of the 1990s free-for-all in China, a window that may already be closing. Or perhaps they are the forerunners of a China still to come, in which paths to success are far more open. Each has found a way to dynamically fuse East and West, to staggering commercial success. It may still be a long way off, but if China can achieve a similar alchemy—melding its tremendous economic potential and traditional values with Western innovation, the rule of law, and individual liberties—it would be a land of opportunity tough to beat.
Updates on Medical Insurance
The good, the bad, and the ugly of England's universal health-care system
---
https://theweek.com/articles/789287/good-bad-ugly-englands-universal-healthcare-system
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/