The city of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota will split the $350 million dollar cost to rebuild the city after the riots. The riots lasted for three days in May of 2020. So far 12 people have been found guilty and sentenced to prison. Many were arrested but those charges have been dropped.

Tax policy

Part of President Biden's tax proposal is to tax unrealized gains. For example if you buy stock at $100 per share and next year it is worth $200 per share you have a gain of $100 whether you sell or not. So if you don't sell and then the stock goes down to $100 per share do you get to take a $100 loss on your income. This up and down is something that happens on a regular basis. Did the people who proposed this understand what they were doing. Not too long ago the same people were saying they were going to double the capital gains tax starting January 1st but fortunately they didn't do it as that would have caused a huge sell off at the end of last year.

China jobs

The news these days is filled with stories about how US companies are held captive by China because of the profits generated in their Chinese investments and this can cause some hypocrisy. A recent example is Disney a company that has a $5.5 billion dollar investment in the Shanghai theme park. China provides no anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people, nor does it prohibit hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Disney is upset with Florida because of a state law that forbids teaching first graders about transsexualism. Many other US companies find themselves in the same predicament. This is just one more reason to bring jobs back home.

Move on

Moveon.org is a liberal political action group and it is named after a very effective strategy. When faced with a political problem throw in some road blocks and drag it out for as long as possible and in time the public loses interest. Later when the truth comes out just say that is old news and move on. Two recent examples are the origin of the virus and the Hunter Biden laptop. When the Covid first struck some felt it came from the Wuhan lab but within a few weeks many experts came forth saying it came from bats. The story of the lab source was quickly squashed. “We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin.” Investigators were told not to open Pandora's Box. As time passed more and more evidence came forth suggesting the lab source and reasons for covering up arose. The US was conducting gain of function research in the lab The same procedure was follows in the laptop case. Experts came forth saying it was Russian disinformation and years later it was found to be authentic. The strategy worked because in both cases the press just accepted the explanations without any further investigation. Even now as both cases have come under scrutiny most of the press are not interested.

Central planning

Back in the 1980's economist were predicting that Japan would overtake the US as the world's biggest economy but it never happened. Today the same people are predicting that China will overtake the US. Others see things differently. China's population is on track to decline by 50% by 2024. As the drive for globalism lessens and nationalism gains strength China's favorable balance of trade is in jeopardy. While China has allowed free enterprise since 1985 the government still controls overall production and central control never works. There are whole cities in China designed for a million people that sit empty. The government kept building to provide jobs and now the people cannot afford to live in those cities. Currently there are over 100 government sponsored mega projects going on and most will not provide a return on the investment. They are building to provide jobs without concern for the end product. This is what happens to central planning.

Amazon workers in New York have voted for a union. The slow demise of private sector unions has hurt the low to middle income people and this may signal a turn around. While no individual should be forced to join a union the concept of unionism is good for workers.

Pelosi oil

The governments attempt to lower gas prices is getting entangled with climate change to the point where one is competing against the other and the result is difficult to understand. If the goal of oil companies is to make money they should produce more while the price is high but they are somewhat stymied by various regulations. Environmentalist prefer the oil to come from the strategic reserve or foreign countries rather than oil from the US. Burning oil adds CO2 regardless of where it comes from but they see it as a setback in their plans to lower US oil production. Here is a quote from Pelosi. And one of the things that I would say is that we want to fight inflation.  The price of oil is an indicator – the price of gas at the pump is an indicator.  Putin has exacerbated it.  But we cannot allow the fossil fuel industry to use this as an excuse to reverse everything we're doing to save the planet.  One of the things I think that the President may say – I don't have this as a fact – is that we will use the Defense Production Act to speed up diversification so that we're not so dependent on oil.