The world signed on to a really bad agreement in Paris and the US mistakenly agreed to part of the charade so that the politicians could feel better.
I am not a Trump supporter, but it was wise for him to reverse the foolish commitment made by Mr. Obama.
https://www.facebook.com/JohnStossel/videos/10155988767501621/
I am done with Nike.
Colin Kaepernic was a so-so football player that was close to the end of his career. He wasn’t even good enough to get a job as an ESPN analyst. He maintained his relevance to some American consumers by inspiring contempt for America’s symbols. His original protests were supposed to be about police violence but now he seems to be branching into other forms of outrage – whatever will get his name in print, it seems.
I think everyone that hates America’s symbols just because they are old should buy Nike products and everyone else that loves America and understands that we have never been a perfect country but we sure have been better than the majority of countries in the last 250 years should not buy Nike products.
Good job to Governor Ducey for drawing a line in the desert sand.
Nike has made its decision, and now we’re making ours. I’ve ordered the Arizona Commerce Authority to withdraw all financial incentive dollars under their discretion that the State was providing for the company to locate here. 7/
— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) July 2, 2019
Arizona’s economy is doing just fine without Nike. We don’t need to suck up to companies that consciously denigrate our nation’s history. 8/
— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) July 2, 2019
Source: Arizona Governor Withdraws Incentives After Nike Pulls Flag Shoe – Bloomberg
While digital versions of our credit and debit cards aren’t widely accepted just yet, it’s a given that in the future, the majority of the places where we shop will accept Apple Pay, Google Pay and the like. I look forward to the day when I can increase my personal security and reduce my pocket bloat by only carrying a small computer (my phone) to identify me and conduct my transactions.
From government IDs to hotel keys, the rest of our cards are quickly moving to mobile phones. As this becomes more ubiquitous, it will be harder and harder to justify carrying unique pieces of plastic in your wallet.
I look forward to this image being everywhere!
Great reading on this topic: Soon Your Phone Will Be Your Driver’s License, MetroCard and More – WSJ
As I write this, POTUS Donald Trump is pledging to begin tariffs on Mexico for its accused lack of assistance in the immigration crisis on the southern border of the US. Here is a quick news account from Politico:
The White House pledged on Thursday to charge ahead on tariffs on Mexico, saying the U.S. position “has not changed” after officials met for a second day to address the steady flow of Central American migrants trying to enter the United States.
Talks between Mexican and U.S. officials at the White House wrapped up without resolution. Several key officials in the administration were unavailable for negotiations. President Donald Trump was in France for the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, and both Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were on the road.
Just about every politician is talking out of both sides of their mouth on this issue. This includes a good portion of the Republicans (especially Mr. Trump) and nearly ever Democrat that I can think of.
To be crystal clear, I despise the use of tariffs against another country. I don’t like taxes in general and using taxes as weapon (i.e. tariffs) is simply a bad practice.
Tariffs are taxes. Plain and simple. They are taxes on corporations that import from the punished country, which in this case is Mexico.
The problem with tariffs and corporate taxes is that corporations never pay taxes. They incur costs. They pass those taxes as costs on to their customers in the form of higher prices for the product. They think of taxes as the same as wages, costs of materials, rent on their buildings, etc. It is a separate line item on their financial sheet, but it is deducted from their income the same way when calculating earnings.
It isn’t the corporation that pays the taxes, it is the consumer. Worse, the tax is regressive in that it is applied to all consumers of the product regardless of their ability to afford to pay or their income. Nearly everyone agrees that regressive taxes that take a larger percentage of poor people’s income than the percentage of wealthy people is unfair. But corporate taxes and tariffs are exactly that – a regressive tax on poor people.
Trump and most Republicans want lower corporate taxes. This, in general, is a good thing because as I said above, corporations don’t pay taxes – they only incur costs that are passed to their consumers. Corporate taxes are an evil and regressive tax against consumers.
So it is illegitimate for Trump and these anti-corporate tax Republicans to support the tariff on Mexico (and probably on China, but China is a different problem).
Democrat readers shouldn’t get too excited about the above paragraph, as they are actually worse.
Most of the leaders of the Democrat party are in favor of raising corporate taxes. This is a terrible stance since, as I stated above, corporate taxes are simply a regressive tax against the poor. The Democrats are supposed to be the party of the poor worker and yet they support regressively taxing those people. That is incredibly evil and insincere. They only do it because it plays well in political speeches. Democrats don’t really want to help poor people, they just want to be re-elected (which is also the goal of Republicans). They are willing to be for a tax that hurts their constituents rather than be truthful and lead those constituents. This is unbelievably cruel and ruthless.
But then Democrats become even more two-faced. Because they hate Trump so much they oppose the Mexican tariff. This is ridiculous if they were ideologically pure since tariffs (while very bad IMO) are simply what most Democrats espouse – higher corporate taxes.
Unfortunately, it is simple. Both parties are mostly evil and don’t want to help Americans. They are willing to lie and mislead their constituents simply to retain their individual jobs. The only valid option as voters is to THROW THE BUMS OUT! EVERY LAST SITTING FEDERAL POLITICIAN NEEDS TO LOSE THEIR JOB IN THEIR NEXT ELECTION!
John Roberts, Chief Justice of the United States, gave a commencement speech at his son’s middle school graduation ceremony that is absolutely perfect.
From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice. I hope that you will suffer betrayal because that will teach you the importance of loyalty. Sorry to say, but I hope you will be lonely from time to time so that you don’t take friends for granted. I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either. And when you lose, as you will from time to time, I hope every now and then, your opponent will gloat over your failure. It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship. I hope you’ll be ignored so you know the importance of listening to others, and I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion. Whether I wish these things or not, they’re going to happen. And whether you benefit from them or not will depend upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes.
Source: The Coddling of the American Investor – The Irrelevant Investor
The problem with growth in the US economy will be immediately be solved the day that we stop the trade war with China. We don’t need the Fed to counter-balance a political battle between China and the US. Mark my words, when this trade war is over, the economy will almost immediately overheat.
Also, you can guarantee that POTUS will turn off the trade war by the first quarter of 2020 so that the economy is running at top speed for the November election. The Chinese know this and they know they just have to hold on 6 more months and our political will for the trade war will vanish.
Source: High Interest Rates Are Hobbling Growth – WSJ
There’s an increasingly strong case that the Federal Reserve should cut interest rates to weaken the U.S. dollar and encourage greater exports—and that it should do it soon.
A strong dollar makes it cheaper for Americans to purchase foreign goods and more expensive for those using a foreign currency to purchase American goods. The dollar has strengthened relative to foreign currencies since the second quarter of 2018, and U.S. exports have essentially stagnated. While the U.S. economy surged in 2018 thanks to tax cuts, deregulation and a declining oil price, gross domestic product could have grown faster. Preliminary GDP growth over the past three quarters has been a strong 2.9%, but had real exports grown at a 3% annualized rate—which they did from 2009 to 2018—GDP would have grown by 3.2%.
The Fed’s tightening of the money supply contributed to this decline in export growth by making the U.S. dollar more valuable. The Fed has increased the federal-funds rate nine times since beginning the rate increases at the end of 2015, which boosted the demand for greenbacks. The greater the federal-funds rate, the greater the return on investments made in dollars. The Fed also ended its expansive monetary policy as the economy improved, constraining the money supply and further enhancing the dollar’s value.