Let us live for the beauty of our own reality.
Charles Lamb
Chart of the Day: Morally Hazardous Social Welfare Policies
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| Via Cato Institute |
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| Cherokee Lizzie via We the People |
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| Via Patrick O'Neill |
And You Thought the Cable Guy Was Bad...
Economic Liberty and Small Farms/Brewers
Free Range Kids in Queens?
"Clair" By Gilbert O'Sullivan
This is a charming song, an unlikely pop hit for the vocalist best known for his classic "Alone Again, Naturally", one I was later reminded of in my relationships with my nieces and grandnieces, occasionally babysitting the nephews and nieces, etc. For whatever reason, it popped up on my Youtube list of recommended videos. Clair Mills is the daughter of O'Sullivan's manager Gordon Mills (who plays the harmonica solo in the tune), whom Gilbert babysat as a toddler in his early career; this is an actual clip of Clair (whose genuine infectious joy is not an acting job) with "Uncle Ray" (O'Sullivan's "real" given name). The song was a gift of O'Sullivan to Mills. Clair to this day (some 40 years later) still adores her "uncle".
Scumbag Public Servant of the Year Nominee: IRS For Stealing Money From a Widow
There is a law requiring the reporting of large deposits ($10,000/above). (Presumably it's intended to flag potential illegal business activities. The problem is that there are a number of good honest reasons for depositing below that cap--say, you're running an all-cash small business.) The IRS looks at clusters of transaction below the cap as "structuring", i.e., splitting a large deposit to avoid reporting one large deposit requiring reporting. Enter dying cancer patient Ronald Malone; he had made a series of deposits totaling $35,500, but no reportable deposit. The IRS basically met with Malone and effectively let him off with a warning; his wife was not aware of and didn't sign the agreement. Before Malone died, he told his wife Janet about a briefcase holding $180,000. Janet made multiple deposits totaling to $18,775. In short, the IRS went after Janet and is seizing the money she deposited. Stealing money from a widow, unaware of the structuring law (my guess: she was probably worried about carrying around large amounts of money)? Pathetic.
'God Bless America' and Censorship of Student Free Speech
I will occasionally lapse into mild profanity primarily to emphasize a point; it's not meant for shock value. I was in one Facebook forum which discussed the incident below. Some obnoxious commentator was making the argument if you say 'God Bless America', you are opening the door for Muslim prayers over the intercom, etc. I wrote a derisive response to this ('God Bless America' is more cultural heritage than religious speech and is nondenominational in nature) and I may have slipped in BS along the way. The group moderator, a well-known libertarian of all people, basically decided to make my comment unviewable unless or until I cleaned it up. I don't suffer fools gladly, including a libertarian who would censor another one. It's his group, of course; he can make the decisions he wants, and I have the liberty not to follow him or give him free publicity through my blog.
Yulee High School (FL) had a student giving morning announcements when on Feb. 9, he departed from the script, uttering 'God bless America'. Two troublemaking atheist students protested to their local American Humanist Association, which fired off a protest letter to Principal Natasha Drake. Drake reprimanded the student, saying any future deviations from the script will result in his dismissal from announcement privileges. I'm not happy about Drake throwing the kid under the school bus.
Now I've sometimes criticized things like a coed at my niece's public high school graduation a few years back basically witnessing to her religious faith for a 5-minute or so speech. It depends on the nature and extent; for example, if she had credited her family and her church/belief in God for making her the young woman she is, I wouldn't have had a problem with it. But really--punishing a student for saying 3 words? I have zero tolerance for petty complaints and politically correct crap. You can sing 'God bless America' at sports events, but not while at school, where full, open discussion is the ideal?
Facebook Corner
(Reason). Here's why President Barack Obama's corporate tax "reform" plan will put America on the road to serfdom.
The morally corrupt, economically illiterate POTUS is one of the few "leaders" among the OECD who insist on a worldwide vs. territorial tax system. The idea that the US government thinks that it's entitled to a second bite of the apple from foreign operations, which already pay taxes to the local government, is irrational and morally repugnant.
Thank God there's an opposition Congress that will block this plundering ideologue. The (Incompetent) One doesn't get that more competitive business tax rates are necessary in a more global economy. We need, at minimum, low flat business tax rates and adoption of a territorial tax system, we need to cut taxes on savings and investments, we need to eliminate double taxation and shift to a tax concept which does not tax productivity.
(Reason). “There’s a difference between being liberal and progressive and being a union Democrat.”
I think that there is a more complicated explanation that is being ignored here. As an example, why were the contracts negotiated in previous decades believed to be reasonable at the time? What variables changed in the last three or four decades that made previously reasonable expectations unmanageable? I think that would be a more useful point to address.
Responding to the OP, in fact, businesses started seeing the picture back in the 1980's: there were 2 major actuarial facts: the Baby Boomer retirement tsunami and a longer-living/lasting retirement. When 401K plans were available, businesses rapidly implemented or transitioned to them very quickly. I know as a (state-branch) professor in Wisconsin, Texas, and Illinois (1986-91), I had a 403B plan available and used them. In my post-academic career, almost every company offered a 401K plan and I don't recall any pension funds.
Why didn't the states go along? In part, I think there were issues with actuarial projections (e.g., longer retirement tenures), pension costs were relatively minor budget items through the early 2000's, politicians in flush times (consider California in the late 1990's), perhaps thinking good times are here to stay, made unwise, unsustainable commitments to union allies, government workers are more unionized and considered 401K-like plans an inferior type of retirement plan.
One other pet peeve in the discussion: the lady who tried to blame "free trade" pacts for allegedly destroying the middle class. That's just economic illiteracy. First, we've been transitioning to a more service-oriented economy since Obama was in diapers. Second, trade liberalization (and let's be clear: you don't need pacts for free trade: you just get out of the way) gives consumers better selection and prices. Third, the problem with employment has more to do with an oppressive government which not only chokes the economy with regime uncertainty and excessive regulation but has been hostile to savings and investments, crucial for capital formation and long-term economic growth.
(Reason). The next time anyone calls Elizabeth Warren a populist hero, remind them that she believes the activities of the most powerful money-related institution in the country should be hidden from public scrutiny.
Has anyone actually looked at the terms of the proposed bill before blasting Warren for rejecting it? There's a lot more to it than "auditing the Fed", and those addendums are why she doesnt support it.
Absolute horseshit, another knee-jerk, economically illiterate "progressive" mistaking political spin for policy. She's taking her talking points straight from the squealing pig Fed presidents, like retiring Fisher. They don't want full audits; don't you recall how the only one, via Ron Paul, showed $16T in secret loans to foreign banks during/after the 2008 tsunami? There is no "independent" control--why the hell do you think the Senate confirms nominated Fed presidents and why the Fed chief appears before Congressional hearings? Monetary policy is a Constitutional mandate of the Congress; it has been delegated. Except for a brief period under Volcker, the Fed has typically pursued easy money policies that are by definition political--it's hard to see how the Congress could do worse than a Fed that has seen the purchasing power of a dollar decline by 95% over the past century.
She opposes it because it includes other bullshit provisions that have nothing to do with the audit.
This has to be one of the most idiotic threads on Facebook, posed by one of the most clueless OP's. The one entity that was most responsible for two asset bubbles bursting in the 2000's was actually rewarded with new responsibilities under Dodd N. Frankenstein. Doesn't anyone remember what the one-off full audit via Ron Paul in the 111th Congress revealed? Like the Fed shoring up foreign banks with some $16T in secret loans? Under what constitutional authority? The fact that Cherokee Lizzie opposes full audits is both hypocritical and morally bankrupt.
The only legitimate purpose of a central bank is currency stability. By any reasonable measure, the Fed has sucked at its original mission. The purchasing power of the dollar by CPI measures is down 95% over the past century, 98% via the monetary alternative of gold. Of course, the second mandate (full employment) is illegitimate and totally politicized the Fed; it's led to all sorts of mischief trying to micromanage business cycles, in the process creating humongous financial cycles that all but paralyze the economy. Lizzie's anti-bank populism is pure drivel, based on ignorance of banking history of the US, which has NEVER been laissez-faire (at least do some background reading from Selgin or Rothbard). The bank problems are the logical result of morally hazardous, failed government policies like federal deposit insurance.
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Michael Ramirez via Townhall |
James Taylor, "Fire and Rain"
