Tidbits Political Quotations
To Accompany the February 28, 2021Edition of Tidbits
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2021/tidbits022821.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 --- |

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

 

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.

Carl Friedrich Gauss

 

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 ---
https://wearenotdivided.reasonstobecheerful.world/taiwan-g0v-hackers-technology-digital-democracy/

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  

 

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

 

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

 

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 ---

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

 

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 ---

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

 

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

 

Walter E. Williams:  The True Plight of Black Americans

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

 

 

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

 

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

 

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


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

 

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

 

Minneapolis push to defund police backfires after residents complain of slow response times, increase in crime ---
https://www.foxnews.com/us/minneapolis-defund-police-backfires-residents-complain-slow-response-times-increase-crime

 

NYC transit heads want triple the number of extra cops in subways ---
https://www.foxnews.com/us/nyc-transit-cops-subways-train-rampage

 

NPR:  Why are some blacks attacking Asian American?
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/04/19/524571669/model-minority-myth-again-used-as-a-racial-wedge-between-asians-and-blacks?utm_term=OZY&utm_campaign=daily-dose&utm_content=Wednesday_02.17.21&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email

 

New York to receive $50 billion bailout (disguised as transportation aid) in Biden’s COVID-19 relief package ---
https://www.data-z.org/news/detail/new-york-to-receive-50-billion-bailout-in-bidens-covid-19-relief-package

 

Students demand removal of George Washington statue...at University of Washington ---
https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16854
 

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

 

Biden's DOJ Shuts Down All Voter Fraud Probes ---
https://www.blabber.buzz/blab/pop/1024650-biden-s-doj-shuts-down-all-voter-fraud-probes?utm_source=c-alrt&utm_medium=c-alrt-email&utm_term=c-alrt-GI&utm_content=697zxgAhCmuHg4vas74EBzlnoWM3eNVp0oCrhLuQnY-I.A

Don't you wonder why, even the slightest bit?

 

Just Why Are Post, NY Times Obits Nicer to Terrorists Than Conservatives?
https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/scott-whitlock/2021/02/20/just-why-are-post-ny-times-obits-nicer-terrorists-conservatives

 

De Blasio’s Attack on the Gifted Children Having an American Dream ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/charlesvavruska/2021/02/21/de-blasios-attack-on-the-american-dream-n2585067

 

The scientists told us three years ago we had 12 years to avert the worst consequences of the climate crisis. We are now three years gone, so we have nine years left,
John Kerry warned that we have nine years left (to save the earth) throughout a CBS interview February 19, 2021.
Joe Biden appointed John Kerry as the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Special_Presidential_Envoy_for_Climate

MIT:  The Problem With Science Solutionism ---
Bill Gates
https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/02/16/1017832/gates-robinson-kolbert-review-climate-disaster-solutionism/

 

Politically Correct Coverup
In a move that's sure to offend every cop in Washington DC, District Attorney Larry Krasner's office has covered up a "Wall of Remembrance" that features a couple dozen plaques honoring hero cops who died in the line of duty ---

https://www.bigtrial.net/2021/02/da-covers-up-wall-memorializing-cops.html

 

Mexico was once a climate leader --- now it's betting on coal ---
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/15/mexico-coal-fossil-fuels-climate-crisis-amlo

 

All 50 States Now Allow You To Carry A Concealed Handgun In Restaurants That Serve Alcohol ---
https://crimeresearch.org/2021/02/all-50-states-now-allow-you-to-carry-a-concealed-handgun-in-restaurants-that-serve-alcohol/

However, states vary as to requirements to be allowed to carry gun in the first place and whether you're allowed to carry after consuming alcohol. Not all states allow guns in bars.

 

Yellen said President Joe Biden favors boosting taxes on companies and signaled openness to considering raising rates on capital gains. However, the administration is steering clear of proposing a wealth tax ---
Janet Yellen Favors Higher Company Tax, Signals Capital Gains Worth a Look - Bloomberg
Some states are proposing wealth taxes, notably California and New York. Some billionaires (think Elon Musk and Larry Ellison) are already fleeing both states for various reasons, including fear of future wealth taxes.
Always remember that companies don't pay taxes as long as those taxes can be passed on to customers and/or shifted to off shore tax havens. For example, many wealthy individuals avoid federal income taxes by living in Puerto Rico for at least six months every year.

 

We looked at nations in Europe that many of them tried wealth taxes as of the mid-1990's. i think it was 14 nations in Europe that had a wealth tax and the now it is down to four. France modified its wealth tax this past year to kind of scale it down and part of that is the idea of found that when you raise taxes on wealth, it does not necessarily earn as much income for the government as you hope or expect, because people -- very wealthy people find a way to shelter their assets ---

https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4786737/wealth-taxes-countries

 

The number of unaccompanied children crossing the border has been inching up, with January 2021 reporting the highest total — more than 5,700 apprehensions — for that month in recent years."
https://www.foxnews.com/media/wapo-called-out-for-report-on-bidens-migrant-facility-for-children-after-hitting-trumps-kids-in-cages
The major media is avoiding disclosures of the rising tide at the USA's southern border.

Open borders may lead to the downfall of Democratic Party election victories in 2020.

 

How to Mislead With Statistics
Why Was The National Polling Environment So Off In 2020?
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-was-the-national-polling-environment-so-off-in-2020/
The bottom line is that we really don't know. We have far more excuses than reasons.

 

AOC tears into Biden admin for reopening child migrant facility: 'This is not okay' ---
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/aoc-biden-child-migrant-facility
It's likely to grow and grow and grow with Biden's open border policy.

 

Biden is Inviting the World to Our Open Borders
UN is transporting 25,000 asylum seekers to US from Mexico
---
https://americanmilitarynews.com/2021/02/un-is-transporting-25000-asylum-seekers-to-us-from-mexico/

 




Bill Gates funnels $1 MILLION to push 'math is racist' narrative ---
https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16895

Jensen Comment
Students who no longer take algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus in high school while also avoiding these subjects in college limit their career alternatives in science, engineering, math education, and other technical disciplines requiring up through at least calculus. Some of the better business schools even require calculus.

What happens for university graduates at Michigan State who took two "practical" math courses in place of more abstract mathematics?
Has this become a way of watering down the curriculum to make it easier for weak students in general to graduate?


This economist has a plan to fix capitalism. It's time we all listened (not quite so fast) ---
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/mariana-mazzucato?fbclid=IwAR2J9xgIbYBmRRfllNjWQqDG6w4ZQxQ-Paf01eIg-SWbnzIZu6J4u-xoas8
Thank you Jagdish Gangolly for the heads up.

Jensen Comment
There are two types of financial risk in R&D. That government pays for a lot of the financial risk in "Research" is well known since much of the  basic "Research" in universities and private/public sectors is funded by government funding for which there is no direct return to the government for its funding of research grants. But the "Development" funding risk is often borne by investors in the private sector. My best recent example is how corporate investors took on most of the "Development" risk of our most successful Covid vaccines to date.

Past government funding of basic virus research had a lot to do with the invention of Covid vaccines. 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.[

Note that various governments  took on the financial loss of funding of basic virus research. But it was the private sector that took on the development risks. Shareholders would've lost billions of dollars had those development labs and very expensive clinical trials failed.

Government often benefits indirectly rather than directly from its many gambles in basic research. For example, to the extent that Covid vaccines restore the plunging economy governments benefit from the restoration of our economic systems. Tax revenues would go down the tubes if Covid vaccines developed in the private sector failed.

There are also countless examples of where corporate investors lost on high-risk development ventures.   

In February 2020, pharmaceutical companies Roche and Eli Lilly announced that two experimental drugs they had developed for Alzheimer’s disease had failed in clinical trials. Roche’s drug, gantenerumab, and Eli Lilly’s solanezumab joined more than 100 other potential Alzheimer’s drugs that have flopped, including aducanumab, a much-heralded drug from Biogen ---  
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/for-alzheimers-researchers-a-long-and-frustrating-struggle-to-find-a-drug/2020/04/03/4a845234-72a1-11ea-a9bd-9f8b593300d0_story.html     


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

 

Sponsored by California Nurses Association and authored by Assemblymember Ash Kalra, AB 1400 will ensure that all Californians, regardless of employment, income, immigration status, race, gender, or any other considerations, can get the health care they need, free at the point of service ---
https://www.thestreet.com/mishtalk/economics/california-nurses-sponsor-a-bill-mandating-free-healthcare-for-everyone
Jensen Comment
There is no program for funding this massive expense; The expense is unknown, because it there's no way of knowing how many chronically ill people in the other 49 states will flock to California for free medical care, let alone how many chronically ill people in the world will flock to California under the Biden-Harris open borders plan. How can California offer free medical care and long-term nursing care to everybody that's now available in the USA only for the poor who are eligible for Medicaid? Free medical care alone could easily bankrupt the State of California in the first year of implementation.
California does not have the medical care capacity to provide free medical care to all the people that will flood California seeking free medical care.

 

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/