Pay down debt

Once again California is showing the way for the rest of the country. They are about to pass a millionaire’s tax to collect $100 billion to fund healthcare, education and food assistance with no intention to use the money to pay down debt. The state has the highest bond debt at $118 billion and estimates of unfunded pension liabilities totaling $1.5 trillion. This means passing on the debt problem to the next group to take office. It is hard to imagine that the people would vote for a tax increase to pay down debt and it would take real leadership to make such a proposal.

Rich

Throughout history socialism would become popular when the gap between the wealth and the poor became too great to ignore. When the masses of people are unable to provide for their children as they would like, then they look for government to step in. The US is reaching that point and politicians like Bernie Sanders start demanding change. They look to tax the rich to help the poor. While this is standard democratic policy the pressure to act increases, as the gap widens. The young people are the first group to recognize the inequity and they are soon followed by working people who see the rich as a type of royalty.

Cobalt processing

A brief history of cobalt is similar to other minerals needed for EV’s and other products. The US needs 8,000 tons of cobalt each year and has only one mine in operation in Michigan which is set to close in four years. The 300 tons of ore that is mined each year must be sent to China or Brazil for processing. The major source of cobalt is mined in Africa, often times using children. Some of the ore is processed in Africa but most is to China for refining and processing where there are few environmental rules. The processing in both Africa and China is contaminating ground water and air often times creating toxic heavy metals that leach into the water and soil causing extensive degradation and health crises.

Iranian assets

The US has sized control over $100 billion on Iranian financial assets worldwide. Iran has always used the banking system in the UAE to finance its activities but now that they have sent missiles into the UAE, that relationship is broken. Estimates of Iranian linked assets in the UAE, including trade, real estate and corporate account are worth $20 to $50 billion. The US has let it be known that these assets will be held in escrow to be used to help the Iranian people once this war is over.

Trump and Iran

For history buffs there is certain similarity between what Harry Truman did in 1946 with Stalin and what Trump is doing with the Iranian leaders. Stalin saw Turman as a country boy who had only been VP for 80 days when he was thrust into the presidency. He saw a man with little experience on the national stage and a person that could be manipulated. He saw an American people who were tired of foreign wars that seem to go for ever and knew that political pressure would force Truman to back away from confrontation. He was wrong. Truman clearly saw the threat of communism to the free world and vowed to fight against such dictatorship. Today the American people are once again tired of war and want to get on with life but Trump sees a future danger with the dictators in Iran who will try to take control of the Middle East. He is taking the unpopular approach to end the nuclear threat from Iran to save some future president of having to deal with a more powerful Iran. The easy way would be to just ignore Iran but leadership requires taking the road not travelled. Time will tell if this was the correct decision.

Murder rate

The murder rate in the US declined from 10.7 per 100,000 population in 1991 to 7.7 in 2021. Since then, the drop has continued more precipitously to .26 today, the lowest ever recorded. There are a number of reasons for the big drop in 2024 and 2025 but one statistic stands out and that is the number of migrant deportations. In 2024 following an increase in border enforcement, 271,484 migrants were deported and 30% of those had criminal records. Between October 2024 and September 2025, 442,637 migrants were deported and 23% had criminal records. Sanctuary cities did not cooperate with ICE during these two years and police feel that the percentage of deported convicted criminals would have been higher with cooperation.

NY City

A brief lesson on how to get elected mayor can be gleaned from Mamdani’s NY City elections. He was a city councilman polling in single digits when he gave a campaign speech outlining his proposals. His plan included free buses, free childcare, five city owned grocery stores, a rent freeze on 200,000 apartments, a $30 minimum wage, a millionaire surtax and construction of 100,000 low-income houses. The estimated cost of these items is $17 billion. It turns out that the mayor does not have the authority to raise the city individual or corporate tax so his only source of new income is raising property tax. The governor has stated she would not be financing NY City programs. The city unlike the federal government cannot legally borrow money to fund operating expenses.