Mom....make him quit saying mean things about me

People like to have their opinions validated.  If a car enthusiast buys a Porsche, or BMW, or Audi, he'll likely join their brand's car club, too.  He wants to hear others of like mind tell him how cool his car is and how smart he was to buy it.  If they see a magazine on the newsstand that implies their favorite car smoked the competition, he'll buy it.  If it says his car got creamed in a comparison test, he won't.

The same holds for politics.  A supporter of Elizabeth Warren or some other Progressive will probably choose to watch MSNBC and read the Huff Post.  Their go-to validator will be someone like Rachael Maddow.  Liberals can do no wrong; conservatives can do no right.  They're told what they want to hear, and they like it that way.

Ultra-conservatives work the same way.  They only want to hear and read things about Donald Trump that validate what they already believe.  They watch FOX News and listen to Rush Limbaugh.  They're told what they want to hear, they're patted on the back and made to feel all warm and fuzzy, and they like it that way.

So why were there raised eyebrows when it came out that Sean Hannity is also a client of President Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen?  Hannity is a shill for Donald Trump.  That's a fact.  Did anyone really expect him to seek out Whuppie Goldberg's lawyer?

So why was there a "courtroom gasp" when Hannity's name came out yesterday?  His faithful radical conservatives still love him, probably more than ever, and those liberals who believe him to be the devil incarnate will just dig in their heels deeper, too.  This is just the Fact-Free World we live in today.

Instead of all this political bickering, I propose that from now on we only talk about who has the best football team.  That should be something we can all agree on, right?  *wink*

S

Too big to give a damn

There is a reason that liberal Democrat Elizabeth Warren was elected Senator from Massachusetts, and liberal Independent Bernie Sanders came thaaaat close to being the Democratic nominee for President.  That reason is they exposed the massive hanky-panky going on in America's corporate suites, and it struck a nerve with voters.  Here's the latest scam just made public:  

Wells Fargo Bank, considered by many investors to be the Gold Standard for banks *a rather low bar* because of their great management, was fined $185,000,000 by the Federales for securities fraud.  It seems Wells Fargo regional managers gave their branch offices daily quotas to “cross-sell” financial products to existing customers. If someone had a checking account, they would sign them up for a savings account. Or a credit or debit card. Or online banking services.  Former CEO Dick Kovacevich invented this target for each customer, calling it the “Gr-eight initiative” — eight add-on products per household.

When some employees couldn't meet their quota, they would just forge signatures and open up accounts without their customer's knowledge or approval.  These 1.5M unauthorized accounts only netted Wells Fargo about $2.5M, so the $185M fine might seem rather punitive, right?

Umm, no.  Here was the real scam:  Wells Fargo constantly bragged in its earnings statements that their "cross-sell results are proof of their superior customer satisfaction."  Investors loved it, thinking the sky was the limit.  Yeah, right.  (The average Wells Fargo retail banking customer had 6.11 products by the end of 2015.)

The fake accounts goosed the stock price....Wells Fargo stock doubled from 2011 to mid-August 2015, the period described in the fraud complaint.   And just coincidentally, John Stumpf, the CEO of Wells, received $155M in stock options between 2012 and 2015 as the share price soared, in part based on the successful cross-selling strategy.  (This is why it was "securities fraud" and not simple "consumer fraud". The investors, not consumers, were the big losers.)

Wanna give 'ol Liz and Bernie heartburn?  Remind them that the executive who oversaw the WF banking unit the entire time those millions of fake accounts were opened is now “retiring” with a $124.6M Golden Parachute, and the 5000 employees who did bad were fired.  Sound fair to you?

I'm a staunch capitalist.  I believe those who work the hardest and come up with the best ideas benefiting both investors and consumers should do very well.  When Fred Smith turned his doctoral project into the reality we know today as FedEx, I think he deserved to get filthy rich.  When Steve Jobs and friends invented a revolutionary new iWorld, I think they deserved to get filthy rich.  The same for Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos and a few others, too.  

But the financial services industry has proven time and again they are all about smoke and mirrors, and little else.  They seem to be masters of just fleecing those who actually do contribute to the creation of real wealth.  They deserve our contempt.  Liz and Bernie just saw the truth before most of the rest of us did.

S

Pragmatism 101

More of my Political Pragmatism series:

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has introduced a bill that seeks to allow those with pre-2010 student loans to refinance them at interest rates that are about half what they have now, going from in excess of 7% to 3.86%, the rate set by Congress several years ago for federal student loans.

Many economists, bankers, and others are now saying the average student loan....over $25K each, totaling $1.2 TRILLION dollars....is hampering economic growth.  And everyone agrees (or at least pays lip service) that an educated workforce is vital to our national health, now and even more so in the future.

Sen. Warren's bill died in the Senate when it failed to secure enough votes to stop a threatened Republican filibuster.  The sugar in the gas tank?  It was to be paid for with a higher tax on those making over $1M per year.

Meanwhile Bloomberg Business News reported this:  *stay with me here*

Using a tax shelter known as the "Double Irish" the most profitable tech company in America (the world?), Apple, is paying only a 2% tax rate on one of it's shadow companies that declares 60% of Apple's total profits.   

This subsidiary buys (on paper) all iPhones made in China, immediately sells them to another Apple subsidiary based in (low-tax) Singapore, then books the difference as Apples' profit.  Ireland's already-low 12.5% tax rate is massaged by their tax lawyers and eventually becomes a miniscule 2% rate (thanks to Irish tax loopholes, hence the "Double Irish").  This saves them BILLIONS of dollars in US taxes.

I don't blame Apple for doing this.  I blame an international system that ALLOWS it to happen.  Take this, multiply it by all the other international companies who are using smoke and mirrors to dodge their taxes, too, and you can imagine how much money we're leaving on the table.  

I know, I know....Businesses don't PAY taxes, they COLLECT taxes.  But as it is, consumers are paying the tax (in the price of their iPhone), but instead of it going to the treasury, it's going back to Apple's shareholders.

The liberal position:  Business is greedy.  The conservative position:  Taxes are too high.  Neither side can see past their own short term talking points.

My pragmatic position:  If we put an end to all these tax dodge shell games and just had a realistic modest corporate tax rate that could actually be collected, we would have the money to subsidize worthwhile things like reduced student loan rates.  

This would likely lead to a better educated, more competitive workforce, and some of those brainiacs just might be the ones to invent Apple's next iGizmo, making Apple and its shareholders even MORE money.

We used to call this "priming the pump".  Sometimes you've gotta spend a little more up front to make a lot more later on.  Win / win!

I know my example is overly simplistic, but the concept is sound.  Why can't anyone look a bit farther into the future and see it?

S

Election? I don't need no stinkin' election

(It's actually a pretty good likeness.)

First, I'd call a joint session of (the former) Congress, then lock the doors and change the name out front  to "Cell Block A".

Then I would invite all the Big Bank CEO's and their top lieutenants to an "All You Can Steal" buffet at the Fed, then lock the doors (I'm seeing a theme here) and let Elizabeth Warren have her way with them. 

All government bureaucrats would spontaneously combust. 

All mean people would have to report for "re-education".

Shorts would henceforth be considered proper business attire.

Football season would be expanded to year-round.

The cop who gave me a ticket last week would be banished to Cleveland.

Any requests?  

S

Her 15 minutes of fame

Yesterday as I was driving down the Dallas North Parkway I spotted this...um...zoo escapee?  (I happened to have my 'lil pocket camera at hand and traffic was moving slowly, as always.)  I've bought a lot of cars in my lifetime, but I don't ever recall seeing on the option list a leopard spot paint job. Have you? 


Changing course, yesterday Joan Perry (Charleston Daily Photo) had a link to a cute game, The Longevity Game.  You enter your height, weight, how much you smoke, drink, whether you drive like a maniac, etc, and it tells you how long you'll live. Of course everyone wants to see "100 years" or some such ripe old age, but based on a serious story I read over the weekend, that seems increasingly unlikely.


Long story short, there are too many people in the world.  The world's population has roughly doubled in my lifetime, and a baby born today can expect to see it double again in his lifetime, to 10-12 billion people.  (It's about 6.5 billion today.)


In centuries past various maladies...wars, plagues, famines... have conspired to hold the population in check, but not today.  Climate change...think drought in Australia, floods in the USA, heat waves in Europe, violent storms everywhere, etc...are making it difficult for the food supply to keep up with world population gains.  Plus all these new people want their piece of the pie such as cars, a comfortable place to live, and other creature comforts, all requiring more mining for raw materials, polluting production facilities, roads, all dictating less arable land for agriculture.  The vicious circle just goes on and on.


Not to sound all doomy and gloomy, but maybe we should set our sights on a more modest number of years to roam the earth than The Longevity Game suggests we should expect. One way or another, it's going to catch up with us.


"Quality" and "quantity" are two very different things.  Party on.  :) 


S

Washington....home of the best politicians money can buy

Anybody been keeping up with Elizabeth Warren's nomination to become the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief?  She's a pretty feisty Harvard law professor who is hoping to be able to call the banks, credit card companies, mortgage originators, etc on the carpet for their blatantly anti-consumer business dealings.  They've been running amok for years under the premise "He who has the gold makes the rules". Many...OK, me...like the idea of having someone with the power and the willingness to do something looking out for the people's interests (although the idea of yet another bureaucracy bothers me).  


Recently she testified before a congressional committee and had the nerve to stand up to one of the congressmen interrogating her, a big Washington no-no.  The Republicans on the committee have already said there is no way they are going to confirm her nomination, so she really didn't lose much by standing up to him.  Still, I found it refreshing.


What I can't figure out is why the Republicans are willing to vote down a consumer advocate and stand beside the banks and credit card companies in light of all the sleazy things they've done and continue to do, and the near-collapse of the world economy they almost caused.  And got caught doing.  What are the Republicans thinking??  That would be like volunteering to be a character witness for Adolf Hitler.  (Hey, I call 'em like I see 'em.)


S