Vaccine

(CNN) Newly sworn in President Joe Biden and his advisers are inheriting no coronavirus vaccine distribution plan to speak of from the Trump administration, sources tell CNN, posing a significant challenge for the new White House. Biden had set a goal of 100 million vaccinations by the end of his first 100 days. The results are in and more than 200 million received the vaccine in the first 100 days. During a March 2 news conference on the covid-19 pandemic, President Joe Biden claimed that former President Donald Trump’s administration did not ensure there would be enough vaccines for the American public.“When I came into office, the prior administration had contracted for not nearly enough vaccine to cover adults in America,” said Biden. “We rectified that.” Here is what Trump left. Pfizer-BioNTech: 100 million doses (two-dose regimen) Moderna: 100 million doses (two-dose regimen) Johnson & Johnson: 100 million doses (one-dose regimen) AstraZeneca: 300 million doses (two-dose regimen) Novavax: 100 million doses (two-dose regimen) Sanofi-GlaxoSmithKline: 100 million doses (one- or two-dose regimen) In all, the amounts agreed to under these contracts total about 800 million doses.

Nuke power

Many who have followed the problem of climate change know that replacing fossil fuels with wind and solar will not work using current technology. There is a place for all forms of energy and all should be pursued. The reason that wind and solar are in the news is that these also include social change which means moving away from free market capitalism to democratic socialism. In plain words more government jobs and fewer private industry jobs. One example is the use of thorium power plants. These plants produce electric energy without any carbon foot print. Going to this type of power would solve the problem of climate change but it would not involve the social changes. Thorium nuke plants are safe because they cannot melt down and do not use water for cooling. They also use up stored radioactive materials as fuel. All current nuke plants should be replaced with thorium plants and any new plants build should be thorium.

China

China became an independent country in 1949 and was headed by Mao Zedong. He was a communist and felt China needed one party rule. The country was based on agriculture and the people were very poor. The most important thing each day was to find enough to eat. When Mao died in 1976 the country was still poor after 30 years of communist rule. The new leadership under Dung Chow Ping opened the door to the free market and China began its remarkable rise to power. For a thousand years China's GDP per person hovered about $100. In 1980 it began to rise slowly reaching $200 by 1990 and then in 2001 China was admitted to the WTO and that opened world markets like the US. In 2005 the GDP hit $2000 a ten fold increase in 15 years. After that a meteoric rise to $14,000 by 2020. The free market system used in the west and more recently in Asia has moved 1 billion people out of poverty. Another change that accelerated the movement was opening the door to education. Under Mao only party members were educated but in the new system everyone went to school. Under Mao the Chinese communist leadership were told that the west was decadent and capitalism exploited the people. The new leader Dung Chow Ping took a trip to western Europe and his eyes were opened and the saw how backward China was and decided to pattern his economy after the west following the dreaded capitalistic system.

Racism

In recent speeches Biden has declared that racism is systemic as if this all happened during the Trump years and the press has gone along with him. Taking a trip down memory lane to examine Biden's 47 years in Washington including his 8 years as VP under Obama exposes a different picture. Biden called school busing "the most racist concept you can come up with". The NAACP called Biden’s proposal “an anti-black amendment.” He began calling the 1994 crime bill the Biden Crime Bill. This bill led to mass incarcerations of Blacks and he described Black felons as predators, too sociopathic to rehabilitate. He often voted with his fellow senator Jesse Helms and eulogized Senator Robert Byrd who was head of the Klan. Biden said of Obama, "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man. Biden said of Indians,“In Delaware, the largest growth of population is Indian Americans, moving from India,” Biden says. “You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking.” Recently Biden said, take a look at my record. If you don't vote for me, you ain't Black. Trump on the other hand reversed the harmful Biden Crime Bill with his First Step Act, increased funding for Black universities, government financed opportunity zones in the inner cities, brought Black unemployment to the lowest levels in history and yet Trump is called the racist president. Spend just a little time evaluating Trump's policies instead of his personality.

Journalism

There is a new book out about the Trump/Russia connection and according to The Washington Post Craig Unger’s new book, “American Kompromat,” should be read with a similar understanding, for it opens with the presumption that former president Donald Trump is, as former CIA director Michael Hayden described him, “a clear and present danger.” Unger starts from the premise that Trump is a Kremlin asset and proceeds to advance the argument. This is mindful of the old adage that you can set a predetermined course to reach a predetermined conclusion and you will always get there. Unger is listed as a journalist and a writer and the hope is that this is writing and not journalism.

Biden policies

The Biden administration opposes Trump's border policy, economic policy, law and order policy, Iran policy import taxes on Europe, dropping out of the Paris accords and voter ID. The economy under Trump was humming along before the virus hit but that will be abandoned as taxes are raised and regulations reinstated. The border was under control but that is abandoned. Law and order is replaced by de-fund the police. Iran's economy will be revitalized as sanctions are lifted. While polls show people favor the Paris agreements the polls show 90% of people want voter ID. Biden will keep the new approach to peace in the Middle East called the Abraham accords along with import taxes on China, the new NAFTA and the vaccine. The economy will be humming along this year because of the vaccine and the stimulus but adding more stimulus at this time is not necessary. It will be tried not to help the economy but to take advantage of the political atmosphere to make long desired social changes.

Police killings

It is surprising to most people when they find out that only 27% of police officers ever fire their weapon and most of them fire on only one occasion. This week an officer killed a teenage girl and video indicates he did so to protect the life of another girl. This office will not be charged with any misdeeds but he will live the rest of his life knowing that he killed this young girl. As the news of this incident fades into the past the memory will stay with him. He was only 18 months on the job. Officers kill more than 1,000 people each year and most do not make headlines.

Teachers

The latest thing teachers are asked to do besides teaching the subject matter is called critical race theory. Instead of just leading by example and not disparaging anyone because they are different the teachers are asked to take an active role in pointing out differences and one of the leading ideas is that white people have advantages given to them just because they are white. This is based on the history of racism that began with slavery. This is a complex issue that can easily lead to controversial approaches and one of those is called white supremacy. If this is explained incorrectly it can lead to white guilt which leads to the idea of oppressor and oppressed. It is a short step from there that says if you are white you are a racist. Since the break down of the family which started in the 60's teachers have been required to act as missing parents and this has taken away class time devoted to subject matter. Now they are given the additional duties of dealing with race. Most experienced teachers long for the day when they can return to the ABC's.

Falsely accused

Jumping to conclusions regarding matters of race and crime has become acceptable because the very first case like this was considered OK. Recall the situation with Tawana Brawley. In 1987 this young lady who was Black said she was raped by 6 white men, one of whom was a police officer. The Reverend Al Sharpton responded by standing on the courthouse steps with Tawana and declaring that racism was rampant in the country. He gained national fame from this an has this day his own TV show. The lady then recanted the whole story but this is where the story begins. Sharpton admitted that Tawana made up the story but went on to say that it may not be true in this case but many similar cases happen across the country and no one is punished. This opened the door to accusing people of crimes without investigation and justifying this action by saying these things happen in other places. This idea reached a high point when Trump was impeached by the house and tried in the senate before the investigation began. It happened when it was reported that a capital police officer was beaten to death by a rioter using a fire extinguisher and later revealed that he died of natural causes.

Black voters

The democratic party relies heavily on support from the Black community. If they were to lose this voting bloc they would not win many elections. Over the years Blacks have made progress and democrats can take some credit for that. Blacks have also been held back by many of the laws generated by democrats. The job creation by Trump opened the eyes to many Blacks and they voted accordingly. This was a frightening challenge to the democratic party. They have over the years maintained control by accusing conservatives of racism. When someone says you are a racist you are immediately on the defensive trying to prove you are not racist not taking the time to understand you can't prove a negative. To call someone a racist is like spraying them with indelible ink. The big fear among liberals is that the Blacks may get jobs and be less dependent on government. In far to many situations the Black family has been hurt and the Black incentive to succeed has been thwarted by victimization. It is as though they are not capable of caring for themselves. It is as Bush said the soft bigotry of low expectations.

Police departments and race

The claim that America is a racist country must be tempered with the changes that have taken place since the Civil Rights Law was passed in 1965. Here is one example. The percentages of minority police officers has been increasing for many years in the big cities. For example NYC is 43% white and the police department is 53% minority and the Houston police are 41% white and 51% minority. The top 40 big cities have 18 minorities for police chiefs and the top 100 largest cities have 39 Black mayors. In 1967 the first Black mayor Carl Stokes in Cleveland was elected. In the 1960's the police departments were virtually all white. While there is still much room for improvement a fair evaluation of the situation requires a more balanced view. Concentrating on particular instances creates discord where showing the big picture would help create calm. The problem is that calm doesn't sell.

Free Market

Advocates of modern monetary theory (MMT) say that the government can spend what is necessary to provide benefits that people need. The down side to this is that the government must decide what is needed instead of market forces. This creates winners and losers. For example if the government wants national healthcare the private healthcare business is gone. The extreme example of this is communism. The central government decides what is needed and how to produce it. Communism failed because is impossible to determine in advance how many pairs of shoes are needed or how many bushels of wheat. This results in overproduction in one area and underproduction in another. The miracle of the free market is how it adjust to supply and demand.

Helping Blacks

The Governor was on today talking about all of the ways that Blacks are disadvantaged in our society. He said it was time for government to take steps to solve these inequities. The government did take steps in 1965 with the civil rights movement and one outcome was the disruption of the Black family. The government offered free apartments, free healthcare along with subsidies for food, utilities and cash. The result was that in 1960 twenty-five percent of Black babies were born to single moms and today that number is 75%. While everyone agrees that changes in how Blacks are treated are needed the hope is that the cure won't be worse than the disease. Beware of unintended consequences.

Abraham

One of the unreported accomplishments of the Trump administration is called the Abraham Accords. This agreement between Israel and four Arab countries is the result of a change in strategy proposed by Jerad Kushner. Instead of following the normal plan of trying to get the Palestinians to negotiate with Israel he bypassed Palestine and worked directly with other Arab countries and achieved a smashing success. This happened because Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear agreement and took sides with the Sunni Muslims who are opposed by the Iranian Shia Muslims. This put all of the Muslim countries on the side of Israel and against Iran. At the same time Trump put severe restrictions on Iran in the form of economic embargoes and this has put a serious hurt on Iran. So far Biden has left this as is but there is talk that he will rejoin the agreement and lift restrictions. He says his agreement will be tougher and last longer which some say is an admission that the first agreement was flawed.

UN

Yesterday the new UN ambassador from the US Linda Thomas-Greenfield gave a speech at the UN and the entire talk was about how racist America is and has always been. This is the face the United States presents to the world. Her purpose must be the old AA adage that before you can cure a problem you must admit you have a problem. A quick search on the Internet reveals that there is racism around the world and it is not new. Using that alone as a criteria where is the best place to live. Here are the results of 97 field experiments of racial discrimination in hiring. France has the highest discrimination rates, followed by Sweden. We find smaller differences among Great Britain, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, the United States, and Germany. These findings challenge several conventional macro-level theories of discrimination. The Washington Post published the results of a study about racism around the world and the most racist country on Earth is India, followed by Lebanon ,Bahrain ,Libya and Egypt. With all of the positive things the US has done over the years perhaps mentioning a few of these would have offered some balance to her speech.

Black crime

This is from July 2020 article from USA Today The number of unarmed Black shooting victims is down 63% from 2015, when the database began. There are about 7,300 Black homicide victims a year. The 14 unarmed victims in fatal police shootings would comprise only 0.2% of that total. For the last five years, the police have fatally shot about 1,000 civilians annually, the vast majority of whom were armed or otherwise dangerous. Black people account for about 23% of those shot and killed by police; they are about 13% of the U.S. population. Noting that Blacks have a disproportionate higher rate but Blacks commit disproportionate higher rates of crime especially serious crime like murder where they account for half of all murders and 55% of armed robberies. There may be good reasons for these stats but cops are necessarily weary when approaching Black suspects. Reasons range from slavery to lack of fathers in the homes. It starts with discipline problems in school and carries over into young adulthood. People are always looking for the root of the problem and reducing the number of police has little to nothing to do with the root.

Taxes

Part of the Biden tax reform is to place a minimum 21% tax on US corporation profits made outside the country. If companies make profits in another country where the tax rate is say, ten percent, the US would top this off by adding another 11%. This will discourage companies from transferring operations to other countries to get a lower tax rate. Trump started something similar but at a lower level in 2017. This could help to keep jobs here. The same thing happens when the corporate tax rate in the US is lowered. Money is mobile and those in charge of taxes must remember this.

Portland

Most Americans find it hard to believe that 90% of police officers in England are unarmed. The Mayor of Portland has a plan to replace police with unarmed park rangers. This will be interest to watch and may result in a whole new way of serve and protect. On the other hand it may result in more crime.

Where is inflation

The money supply M1 consists of cash in circulation and checking accounts. On April of 2020 it was $4.77 trillion and today it is $18.5 trillion. Since production of goods and services have not increased any where close to this it should create inflation based on the old economics explanation, which says that inflation is caused by too many dollars chasing too few goods. Inflation rate over the past 30 years has been so low that most people pay no attention to it. Over this same time period the debt has increase from one trillion to $29 trillion. Where is the inflation that everyone is waiting for. All the experts say you can't keep spending more than you take in but that has been going on since the country was founded. Is it time for a new kind of economics and is modern monetary theory (MMT) coming along at just the right time. This theory states that you can keep printing money without fear of inflation until you reach full employment.

Democratic fiscal plans

The democrats in the past have put themselves in a disadvantageous position when it comes to fiscal policy. They always want to increase benefits but find themselves in the position of finding ways to pay so they propose to increase taxes. This gives them two battles to fight, first to pass the benefits and second to pass tax increases. Republicans on the other hand fight only one battle and they just propose to lower taxes. Using the ideas of modern monetary theory (MMT) the democrats have discovered a way to fight only one battle. They propose benefits but no longer have to pay. They can just have the government issue the currency needed to pay. MMT says to focus on the goal and forget about the debt and here is how it is justified. federal government___________________ non government (private) issues (spends) $100__________________ receives $100 taxes $90___________________________ spends $90 has $10 deficit _______________________ has $10 surplus The headline in the paper changes from government deficits sky rocket to private surplus skyrockets.

Communism

The communist party of America started over 100 years ago and their goal was to overthrow capitalism and replace it with communism. The method used was to divide and conquer. They would pit one group against the other. It would be labor against management, black against white and rich against the poor. They would excite groups who were discriminated against, groups like LGBTQ. They would be the champions of the disenfranchised. The idea was to destroy capitalism within by pointing out how the poor were slaves to the powerful. All of this is revealed in documents gathered over the years from the party. The strategy was to infiltrate the various organizations and cause unrest which would spread to the general society. Sowing the seeds of discontent is their main weapon. It is most effective when emotion overtakes thinking and the best emotions to use are hatred and envy. Whenever the income gap becomes too great, the door is open for the party to grow.

Hunter

When the story of Hunter Biden's addition appeared in the New York Post it was banned from social media giants Twitter and Facebook. This concerned some free speech advocates but the details of the story leaked in other areas but most of the leaks occurred after the election. The story was that Biden received $50,000 per month from a Ukrainian company called Burisma. There was no direct payment from this company. No available financial records show Burisma directly paid Hunter Biden. The $50,000-a-month figure stems from payments made to Biden by New York-based capital management firm Rosemont Seneca Bohai. Bank records show Rosemont Seneca Bohai received payments from Burisma, as well as dozens of other entities and individuals. It’s unclear why Rosemont Seneca Bohai was paying Hunter Biden. This was questioned because Biden had no experience in the gas and oil industry but there is a more pertinent question. Biden was a director on the board of Burisma from 2014 to 2019 and here is a quote from Biden's new book. His “deep descent” into substance addiction followed the 2015 death of his older brother, Beau, who succumbed to brain cancer at age 46, Hunter Biden writes in “Beautiful Things.” Why a company would hire a man who was not experienced with the business is one question but why they would keep him if he was deep into addition.

Racism

Critical race theory is a new idea being taught in university classrooms and more recently in high schools. It is difficult to find a definition of this idea without being biased. One of the best explanations is from Time magazine.“It’s an approach to grappling with a history of white supremacy that rejects the belief that what’s in the past is in the past, and that the laws and systems that grow from that past are detached from it,” Most people realize that you cannot escape the past but that you can learn from the past. There has been a good deal of progress in race relations and room for more. The phrase white supremacy can be easily misunderstood to mean that there is something wrong with being white. It doesn't help if all you do is change the color of racism. The charge of racism has been tossed around with such abandon it has lost its sting. The story is told of two little boys arguing and one says my dad can beat your dad and the second responds my dad can beat your dad and the first says my dad can beat your dad and the final retort is you're a racist. What is your answer to the question, are you a racist. Can you explain and justify your answer. Some will say if you are white you are racist.

Amazon union

The Amazon union vote was defeated with 1,798 against and 738 for with 505 challenged ballots. This is 3,041 votes out of 5,900 employees. No reason was given as to why the other 2,900 did not vote. One explanation I can think for the defeat of the union is that conditions at Amazon are favorable compared to other industries in the area. If their wages and benefits are competitive they will maintain the status quo.

Pilots

United Airlines says that 50% of new pilots over the next decade will be women or minorities. Currently 7% are women and 13% are minorities. This is an admirable goal but begs the question why are these percentages so low. Were there qualified Black pilots who were passed over because of there race. If so that should be corrected. The same goes for women. This brings up the 2009 Supreme Court case of Ricci v DeStefano. The New Haven, CT fire department offered test for promotion and only white applicants scored high enough to qualify. The city felt that was not fair so they adjusted the test to allow more minorities to qualify. The white firemen sued saying this was discriminatory and they won the case. The Black candidates did not do well on the reading an writing portion but excelled in other areas. They could do the job but not the test. If this is the case then the test could be changed to better serve the general applicants. If it is deemed that these changes will not effect the ability to properly perform the job then is should be done. If for example candidates are required to lift a passed out person through a basement window while dressed in full gear then that could be significant and disqualifying. When it comes to hiring pilots a similar approach should be considered. If a candidate demonstrates excellent flying skills but scores low on the written test, allowance should be made. It is mindful of the old tuna commercial where they tell Charlie, Starkist wants tuna that taste good not tuna with good taste. The important criteria is can you do the job.

Infrastructure

President Biden gave a speech today and explained all of the things the country needs to do and I agreed with all of what he said. I agreed with all of that four years ago, eight years ago or even 20 years ago. In the past many of these ideas were held up because they couldn't answer the question of how will we pay for these things. Using the concepts of modern monetary theory (MMT) we no longer have to worry about how to pay. As long as there is less than full employment the fed can just issue all the money that is needed. So lets go. This will provide good paying American jobs using American raw material and American ingenuity. The republicans will try and stop this not because these are bad ideas but because Biden will get the credit. Its the same oh, same oh.

Free speech

The Trump years were controversial in a number of ways but one change that doesn't get a lot of notice is the way the press reacted. The press including TV and print all moved one way or the other. If a person wants to get a good idea of what is going on it is necessary to watch different news sources but while this is going on people are lining up with one side and thus reinforcing the problem. On one side you have Fox, talk radio, New York Post, Wall Street Journal and on the other side you have MSNBC, CNN, NPR, Washington Post, New York Times, NBC, CBS and ABC. If your news selection does not include at least one of these sources from either side you are getting a distorted view of what is going on. These programs mislead not just by what they say but what they choose to not to cover. Leaving information out of a story can be just as misleading are reporting false information. This is challenging free speech by saying if something isn't true it can be censored or if something is hateful it can be censored. This gives the news people permission to decide what should be published instead of putting out the whole story and allowing the public to decide. This is what happens in countries without a free speech guarantee.

Biden investigation

The president nominates the attorney general and the senate approves but the president can fire the attorney general without senate approval. In other words the attorney general, like all federal employees, serves at the pleasure of the president. He may be the chief legal officer for the country but he works for the president. This is important because the Justice Department, which is headed by the attorney general, is about to investigate the son of the president. Some surmise that the investigation could lead to the president himself. Is this a conflict of interest. If you are a judge and your son comes before you in a case you would be asked to recuse yourself. Will this investigation be tainted?

Oil exports

Biden has stopped fracking on federal land. This represents 11% of all fracking in the United States. This will be about 900,000 barrels per day and will be made up by OPEC and Russia and thus will have little to no effect on CO2 emissions. It will reduce US exports by $54 million dollars per day or $20 billion dollars per year. It was done to show the world that the US is serious about climate change.

Deficits

There is a new idea in the field of economics that is a refinement of old ideas and it is called, modern monetary theory (MMT). It has come into prominence to answer the question, if deficits will eventually ruin the economy, why hasn't it happened. The government has run deficits for over 200 years and things are still working. Politicians use phrases like your passing the debt to your children or China will take over by buying our debt. This is designed to show the evils of deficit spending. The normal way to deal with deficits is to either raise taxes or cut spending or both. MMT suggest that you set your goals and then issue money to finance those goals. If this means deficit spending then so be it. This answers the question that always comes up with every new program, how are you going to pay for it. If it is a valuable goal then pay for it by issuing money. This takes courage that most politicians do not have because they don't want to face questions like, burden grandchildren or have China take control of our money. During the recession of 2008 the government did deficit finance but not enough and so the recovery was the slowest ever. MMT predicts that more spending would have led to a faster recovery. Deficits are intuitively unhealthy because people think in terms of their own experience. House holds, cities and states cannot run deficits at least for long but the federal government can because the feds can print all the money they need. The country is now embarking on an experiment using the idea that if it is a good thing then print the money and do it.

The vote

I was transferred to a plant in Alabama where the prior manager had been fired for poor performance. When I arrived the place was in disarray. Among the many problems was the fact that the meat cutters union had be trying to get signatures for an election. They had been at the gates every day for the past three months and finally got the 51% needed to call for an election. I had only been there two months when the election took place. I was allowed the opportunity to speak to the employees and I could say pretty much what I wanted but I couldn't threaten and I couldn't promise. I had been accustomed to public speaking but this was difficult because I had to have two copies of what I would say, witnessed by two people in the room. In the past I had always spoke with a few notes so I found it very uncomfortable speaking from a prepare text. The day of the vote the first shift voted at the end of the shift and the second shift voted at the end of their shift and the third shift which was clean up an had only dozen workers voted at the start of the third shift. By midnight the votes were counted and the union was defeated. This was not a big victory because Alabama in the 1960's was anti union. The point here is that the vote and the count took place in one day. The question is why is the vote at the Amazon plant in Alabama taking so long. There must be some mischief going on.

Incomes

There is much talk about income inequality and one of the causes that is rarely discussed is the increase in the money supply. The government creates money by issuing it. The private sector creates money through the banking system. As the money supply increases loans become more available. Rich people will borrow money to buy real estate which will appreciate in value while poor people buy cars which will depreciate in value. Rich people invest in the stock market and poor people buy refrigerators.

Green deal

The goal of the Green New Deal, in their words, is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid the worst consequences of climate change while also trying to fix societal problems like economic inequality and racial injustice. The first part of the plan is to replace fossil fuels with wind and solar and the second part is wealth redistribution and methods, procedures and possible laws to reduce white supremacy. White supremacy means that racism exist because whites have been in control and have set up the rules in their favor. In one way it means if you are white you are part of the problem. It would be better if the government started building thorium power plants and replacing existing nuke plants, as they wear out, with thorium. Thorium produces carbon free power without contaminating the air or water and has the added benefit of using up the stored nuclear waste. This is not talked about because it solves the first part without dealing with the second part which is the real purpose of the green deal. Once again politics is in the way.

Lithium

Elemental lithium is too dangerous to use as is so the batteries contain a lithium metal combination. Once these batteries are discarded the lithium can form various salts most of which can be poisonous. For many years lithium carbonate was used to treat manic depression and the dosage must be closely regulated or serious problems can develop. As more lithium is used, more is discarded and the danger increases. Since lithium can act on the brain it may become the lead of future generations. The known reserves of lithium will run out in a few years and more extreme methods of mining will be needed for new supplies and this will mean more possible environmental hazards. As society joins the mad rush for electric cars is anyone considering the problems associated with the disposal of lithium batteries. The contamination of the soil and subsequent water supply is the result of both lithium mining and disposal. Are we exchanging clean air for dirty water

Lithium

Electric cars use rare earth metals and lithium and the mining of these metals poses environmental hazards. The later disposal of these materials causes additional hazards. Lithium batteries alone create a problem and these small batteries are just the tip of the iceberg. Each electric car has about 5,000 lithium batteries. Most experts feel the car battery will last about 65,000 miles. Some say we are trading clean air for contaminated soil. Back in the middle of the last century chemicals would be stored in steel drums and buried. These people knew that the drums would rust and this resulted in many contaminated sites around the country, sites like the infamous Love Canal. Today there are 1,700 such sites and it cost $25 million to clean up each site. A super fund is set up to pay. Some feel we are doing the same thing all over again with electric cars.

Inflation

There is a danger in all the government spending and it is inflation but how and when. Unemployment is at 6% and full employment is considered 3.5%. Government spending will not cause inflation until full employment is reached. The reason is that the money is used to purchase goods and services and as long as there are unemployed people ready to enter the work force more of everything can be produced. Once full employment is reached then too much money is chasing too few goods and the prices rise. The money the government is currently throwing into the economy will come in over the next ten years and if full employment is reached before all of this money is in the system then inflation will follow. It will be very difficult to stop or slow projects when full employment is reached so there will be inflation. How much is anyone's guess.

College

For many years people lamented the fact that children from wealthier families more often attend college and this was not fair. Now we are discussing eliminating $50,000 of college debt so that families who didn't have children in college can supplement families who do have children in college. In 2016, students who had recently left high school (whether they graduated or not) from the highest-income quartile were much more likely than those from the lowest-income quartile to continue on to some type of higher education (78 and 46 percent, respectively).

$1000 per month

When it comes to paying reparations some people being facetious suggested that Blacks be given lower interest rate loans on cars and houses or Black students be given an extra 100 points on the SAT's. Some even said giving one grade level higher on tests so that a C becomes B and B becomes an A. Something like this was instituted for certain tests for fire and police departments. While these seem strange because they are not monetary rewards they were trying to show what Bush 43 meant when he said the soft bigotry of low expectations. While these ideas are too weird to contemplate a California city has set up to give low income moms a $1,000 per month with the restriction that they be Black moms. This seems to violate the equal protection clause but who knows in these days.

Amazon

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, earns a salary of $80,000 per year but since Amazon pays no dividends the company pays for most of his expenses including $1.2 million per year for personal protection. The company from the onset has always reinvested its profits instead of paying dividends to stock holders. The reason to buy Amazon stock is for growth not dividends. For years Amazon lost money and uses those past loses to offset current profits. In addition the company reinvest much of its profits as it has always done to promote growth. They also pay stock options and all of these things combine to minimize the tax they pay. This is unlike the Walmart family members who do not work for the company, except a couple who are on the board, who rely on dividends. They live modest lives spending a lot of time on non-work related activities. Their income comes from the 1.4 billion shares of Walmart stock that the family owns. The dividend is $2.20 so the family gets $3 billion per year from dividends. If they gave their dividends to the 2.2 million employees each would receive $1,300.

Truth

Many people express concern that the free press is losing credibility claiming that the views are left leaning. As the news side moves closer to the editorial side the tendency is to present only one side of the story. This is not by accident as revealed by Lester Holt of NBC when he said "I think it’s become clear that fairness is overrated ... the idea that we should always give two sides equal weight and merit does not reflect the world we find ourselves in," Holt said on Tuesday night while accepting an award at the 45th Murrow Symposium. In other words, Lester knows the truth and will present it as such. This follows the lead of Twitter head, Jack Dorsey, who proclaimed some weeks ago that he also knew the truth. This may not concern those whose truth coincides with the press but some day that may not be the case.

Tesla

I have been perplexed for several years as to why the stock value of Tesla is $700 and the asset value is $17 and the answer has been revealed in Biden's infrastructure plan. This plan will spend $174 billion, or about 28% of the transportation portion, on electric vehicles. Those who bought Tesla on the assumption that the government would come through for them have won. How this money will be spent is yet to be announced but if some is used to provide cash incentives for buyers of Tesla cars will that be enough to overcome the charging time and winter driving. Most Americans are so impatient that if it even took one hour to charge they would not take this car on a road trip. Will many of the charging stations to be built end up using electricity from fossil fuel power plants. Based on past experience of government support to purchase electric cars, as much as $7,500 per car, this will not cause people to switch.