Daily Archives: January 19, 2021

Last week this column examined the government pension racket in Connecticut through the example of the "retirement" of New Haven Police Chief Tony Reyes, who is only 49 and is giving up his city salary of $170,000 to become police chief at Quinnipiac University in adjacent Hamden. Since New Haven City Hall needed a week before it could provide an estimate of the annual pension Reyes immediately will begin receiving, last week's column surmised it might amount to $80,000.

That was low. The city's budget office now estimates Reyes' annual pension at $117,000.

While Quinnipiac is a nonprofit institution exempt from federal, state, and municipal taxes and thereby is subsidized by all levels of government, the university won't disclose what it will pay Reyes. But his salary there likely will equal or exceed his salary with the city. That would mean annual income for him of at least $287,000 for his remaining 15 or so years of a typical working life. That's getting close to the $319,000 salary now being paid by the University of Connecticut to its former president, Susan Herbst, who is now teaching just one or two political science courses at UConn's Stamford branch -- essentially another premature pension -- after enjoying a year of paid vacation costing UConn $711,000.

Social Security, the pension system covering most people who do not work for the government, penalizes those who begin claiming benefits prior to the standard retirement age but continue to work for wages. The benefits of such people are reduced. But Connecticut's government pension systemrewardspeople for working for wages while also collecting benefits, thereby signifying that government employees are better and more deserving than the people who pay for them.

This practice is somehow called public service, and while it is all taxpayer money, it draws no objection from the governor, state legislators, and mayors like New Haven's Justin Elicker, who are always pleading poverty.

* * *

ANOTHER HIDDEN TAX: Now Democratic state legislators are planning to impose another hidden tax like the "gross receipts tax" levied on wholesale gasoline prices, which drivers pay without seeing it posted at the gas pump or anywhere else.

The Democrats' new idea is to tax medical insurance companies as the federal government did until recently in the name of raising money for insurance for the poor. This tax would drive up insurance costs for everybody while giving the false impression that the big, bad insurance companies had raised prices again. The Democrats' idea presumes that medical insurance isnotalready expensive enough for nearly everyone.

Government already imposes hidden taxes on medical insurance by requiring policies to provide discretionary coverage many people don't want.

While government should facilitate decent medical insurance for all, people always should be given a clear view of government's cost. Other than deceiving voters, there is no justification for hiding the cost of insurance for the poor in the insurance bills of others.

The additional tax burden would be clearer if the revenue was drawn from general state taxes, like the income and sales taxes. Then insurance for the poor would compete in the open with all other demands on government.

Until people can see clearly how they are taxed, they are not likely to insist on efficiency and better priorities in government, like ending the pension racket.

* * *

MURPHY LOOKS AWAY: Last week Connecticut U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy deplored the decline of press freedom in Ethiopia. Meanwhile the giant social media companies in the United States began censoring President Trump, former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, and others because of their political views.

That did not bother the senator.

Additionally, in recent years one national media company has acquired half the daily and weekly newspapers in Connecticut and another three companies have acquired most major radio and television stations in both the state and the country -- again without objection from the senator.

Is the senator unaware of the worsening concentration of media ownership at home and the resulting reduction of voices? Or does he realize that while nothing about Ethiopia can ever hurt him, challenging the concentration of media ownership here might?

Chris Powell is a columnist for the Journal Inquirer.

See the article here:
Premature pension in New Haven is $117000; and a new hidden tax is coming - Journal Inquirer

In December, the economy lost 140,000 jobs, with a total of 9.8 million job losses since the coronavirus pandemic began. Rent debt could be as high as $70 billion. Fifty-four million Americans face food insecurity, an increase of 17 million from pre-pandemic levels. Mass transit cuts are happening across the country, further isolating low-income individuals, making them more dependent on expensive Uber and Lyft rides, and triggering job losses.

Yellens tenure at the Fed, which included rate hikes that almost certainly caused higher unemployment rates from 2015 through 2017, demonstrates that Yellen has, in the past, overestimated the strength of the economy for working people.

Her recent statements, however, suggest that the pandemic, along with the run of wage growth and unemployment decline after 2017 many economists thought wasnt possible, has altered her thinking, and she now believes in aggressive action by the Fed and Treasury to continue to lift up the economy. In October, Yellen said, While the pandemic is still seriously affecting the economy, we need to continue extraordinary fiscal support. We need support for the economy from both monetary and fiscal policy.

Which direction she chooses austerity or stimulus, deficits or employment will have enormous import for this deeply divided country.

The late journalist William Greider called his masterpiece 1987 book on the Fed Secrets of the Temple because the Fed gives itself an aura of impenetrability, too dense or complex for ordinary people to understand. Greider revealed that this is a deliberate political choice by the Fed to insulate its decision-making from democratic oversight.

The key problem is that the Fed has two mandates that are at odds: control inflation and expand employment. Inflation is often used by monetary policymakers as a proxy for wage growth for working people. So if the Fed seeks to control inflation, wage growth slows and unemployment goes up; if the Fed seeks to expand employment, the way the Fed measures inflation means that inflation will go up. Former Fed Chair Paul Volcker kept a card that detailed construction worker wages in his pocket, seeing his mission to fight inflation as inseparable from stagnating the wage growth of the working class.

Inflation has been a reflection of class struggles, said Samir Sonti, a professor at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. In the late 70s the Volcker Fed responded to wage inflation with monetary austerity without precedent, and the result was a recession that broke the back of the industrial labor movement.

Since the early 80s we havent seen any real consumer price inflation and that is an expression of the weakening power of the organized working class, Sonti said. What weve seen is asset price inflation which is enabled by interest rates that can be kept low because theres no significant working class threat.

Yellen was appointed to the Fed in 2013, beating out Larry Summers for Obamas nomination. Progressives despised Summers and worked against a potential Summers nomination, not least because he had worked with former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to limit the size of the $900 billion stimulus in 2009 famously not even showing a proposal for a $1.8 trillion stimulus crafted by economic advisers Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein to the president for review. While by 2013 there had been significant economic recovery since the Great Recession, millions of Americans were still struggling, with 13 percent of the working age population unemployed or unemployed.

On December 16, 2015, Yellen announced that the Fed had raised interest rates for the first time in a decade. I feel confident about the fundamentals driving the U.S. economy, the health of U.S. households, and domestic spending, Yellen said. There are pressures on some sectors of the economy, particularly manufacturing, and the energy sector but the underlying health of the U.S. economy I consider to be quite sound.

At that point, there were still nearly 16 million people either unemployed or significantly underemployed in the U.S., or 9.9 percent of the population (otherwise known as the U-6 unemployment rate). The inflation rate in the year prior was just 0.12 percent, the second lowest year on record since 1960. The Fed raised interest rates again in December 2016, when the inflation rate was 1.26 percent, well below the Feds 2 percent target rate.

Mainstream economists have praised Yellens record. Under Janet Yellen the United States achieved some of the best outcomes in terms of both low and falling unemployment rates and stable inflation we have enjoyed in the postwar period, you can quibble with any given decision but the overall outcome was very good, said former Obama economic advisor Jason Furman, who was referred to The Intercept by the Biden transition.

But others have said that Yellen raised rates too soon, artificially slowing down the economy while millions were out of work. The soft 2016 economy contributed to the election of President Donald Trump. She presided over a premature rate increase, said Rohan Grey, a professor at Willamette University College of Law. She was the chair and this was a decision made by her board. Its pretty clear that was premature. What it shows is that even someone who has framed themselves as a dove and pro-labor is that when push comes to shove she wont stand out. She was in power and they prematurely tightened the economy and thats a big problem.

Yellen oversaw four more rate hikes during her time as Fed chair, one at the end of the Obama administration and three during her overlap with the Trump administration. The economy continued to grow, but the U-6 unemployment rate never dropped below 8 percent. The activistcampaign Fed Upcontinuously urged the Fed to hold off on increasing interest rates, with concerns that it would prevent more Americans from getting jobs. In spite of those criticisms, the group did urge Trump to reappoint her as Fed chair.

Grey also raised concerns about Yellens closeness to deficit fearmongering groups like Fix the Debt. Yellen is a member of the advisory boards for both Fix the Debt and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which advocate for cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

She said on the record that the national debt and the size of deficits has a sustainability concern in the long run, said Grey. And has in the past conceded that benefit cuts could help to address it. Its a classic right-wing trope. Shes liked more by team blue but her language is not too different from Paul Ryan or Ron Paul.

Sonti, the CUNY professor, for his part said that the economic impact of the pandemic may have altered Yellens thinking: The crisis is of such magnitude that even the technocratic elite are likely aware of the need to change course.

See the original post:
As Fed Chair, Janet Yellen Discounted Economic Desperation. The Pandemic Will Likely Force a Different Approach. - The Intercept

Denver business leader and former National Western Stock Show chairman Ron Williams was named Citizen of the West, although Williams will not receive the award this year due to the Stocks Shows postponement. (Provided by National Western Stock Show)

The National Western Stock Shows 2021 postponement has been disappointing for countless participants and attendees, even as its allowed the complexs $1 billionconstruction project to push forward.

But its highest honor, the Citizen of the West, could not skip a year.

I wasnt expecting it, said Ron Williams, the 74-year-old business leader, philanthropist and former National Western Stock Show chairman who received the award this week. But I knew Id be terribly appreciative if I did. There are a lot of great candidates for it here, but Im honored I ended up being the one for this coming year.

The annual Citizen of the West award recognizes those who embody Western pioneers spirit and determination and perpetuate their agricultural heritage and ideals, stock show officials said. A committee of community leaders, including past winners such as Bruce and Marcy Benson (2020s recipients), select each new winner.

Despite this weeks announcement, Williams will not formally receive the award until Jan. 22, 2022, during the Stock Shows planned return.Proceeds from the dinner will support 100 scholarships that the National Western Scholarship Trust awards annually to students in Colorado and Wyoming who major in agricultural science, rural medicine or veterinary medicine, stock show officials said.

I felt it was important that we announce this during the time when the show had been postponed so we can celebrate Ron Williams the entire year, said Paul Andrews, president and CEO of the National Western Stock Show. Well be celebrating the opening of the new Cilland Ron Williams Stock Yards at the 2022 show, as well as the new Hutchinson Western Stockyards, so that will make it a commemorative ticket.

For Williams and his wife, Cill, it will be the latest and greatest recognition in a career full of them. Williams was born in a small town in Nebraska, one of only 10 kids in his rural school and 300 people in his entire town, according to a 2016 CoBiz profile.

When I was 10 years old I was driving a tractor for my uncle, so Ive always been involved in agriculture at some level, said Williams, who came to Denver in 1967after graduating with his masters degree from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.

Here, Williams worked as an accountant for Arthur Anderson and, in 1977, joined Samuel Gary Oil Producer Inc. (later Gary-Williams Energy), where he would become an owner, president and CEO. That companys community investment division, The Piton Foundation, supported nonprofits including the Colorado Childrens Campaign, Denver Preschool Program, Urban Land Conservancy and others.

This is where Mr. Williams first became involved in and found a passion for philanthropy, stock show officials said.

Nineteen-sixty-seven may seem like a long time ago, but its not that long to me, Williams said. Although, when I came to Denver the tallest building in town then was the 31-storySecurity Life Building (now 1600 Glenarm Place). If you went out for lunch at noon, youd walk a block and see five people that you knew. The growth has been dramatic but, for the most part, I think its been managed well.

Over his years as a metro-area business leader including a 2016 induction into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame Williams flexed his philanthropic muscle by helping lead the capital campaign to raise private funds for a new state-of-the-art Childrens Hospital at the Fitzsimons Campus in Denver, gathering $250 million.

He also served on the board of directors for the Denver Public Schools Foundation for a decade, where he raised $10 million for the organization, and on the board of the University of Colorado Hospital. Hes a longtime member of the powerful Colorado Forum of business leaders. But, even as he attended the National Western Stock Show annually, it wasnt until 2004that he joined the stock shows board.

Pat Grant (former National Western chairman) asked if I would consider it then, Williams said, and it took me about two seconds to say, Absolutely.

A natural fit for the organization, Williams has brought attention and support to National Western projects ever since then. He acted as chairman for a time and, starting next year, will be able to see his and his wifes name on one of its busiest stockyards. Williams still owns a little cattle ranch in Kansas, Andrew said.

Hes just a tremendous selection for this award, he said. Hes given so much in terms of philanthropy his entire career. Hes found this balance between being a very tough businessman and being fair and caring about people. Nobody I know cares about people more than Ron. I dont think he has an enemy in Colorado, and our entire staff loves him to death.

Williams said hes still focused on bringing the stock show back, and keeping the organization strong in the meantime.

A lot of people in the agriculture industry, along with ranchers, hog raisers they come to us because this is almost like an educational vocation for them, Williams said. At the stock show, they get to meet their peers, learn and do business with each other. Theres a lot that goes on down in those yards each January.

Without a stock show this year, however, Williams will also continue his philanthropic work. Its contributed as much to his own happiness as his business successes, he said.

Its funny how, if you step out of your comfort zone and get involved in things like that, it changes your perspective on whats important, he said. I like to think we can learn from everyone we meet by taking little pieces of what works and integrating that into ourselves.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, In The Know, to get entertainment news sent straight to your inbox.

See the article here:
Ron Williams named National Western Stock Show's Citizen of the West for 2022 - The Know

The United States and the world in general are in an unprecedented place when it comes to basic issues of free speech. The emergence of Facebook and Twitter as mass purveyors of speech and the related emergence of a cancel culture in which people and groups try to shut down those with views they find offensive has created a complicated, unsettling array of issues. Its now close to inevitable that some governments worldwide will respond to the question of whether the private sector especially giant tech firms based in California gets to decide what speech is acceptable and what is not.

Three recent cases raise basic free speech issues.

Facebook and Twitter removed President Donald Trumps accounts from their global platforms in recent weeks after concluding that he was attempting to foment violence by his supporters over his false claim that he was cheated out of re-election. He brought that on himself. Yet the social networks did nothing in response to similar incendiary communications by politicians in Myanmar, India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Brazil that led to lynchings, pogroms, extrajudicial killings or ethnic cleansing, as the Los Angeles Times reported.

The leaders of Germany, Mexico and Australia raised another concern as well: They said a decision to shut off an elected officials prime means of communicating with a nation should be made by a government, not a CEO. This is a fair point but it is hard to see the irresponsible Trump as a victim.

Drawing a line at incitement of violence is easy, and essential. Deciding what else goes too far will be more difficult, but social media giants have had problems for years with users complaining of abuse, harassment and threats. Theyve known this day was coming. In plain language, Facebook and Twitter need to explain what is and isnt acceptable for posting. Increasingly, they are being considered for greater government regulation la utility companies. That almost seems inevitable. Ultimately, Donald Trumps most lasting legacy may be his role in the overdue reckoning of social media sites.

Original post:
Opinion: Trump's social media ban raises a question what are the rules and who enforces them? - The San Diego Union-Tribune

The first manager of the new Minnesota Twins triple-A ball club Saint Paul Saints will be announced on Tuesday and a familiar last name will be heard. Toby Gardenhire, the son of former Twins manager Ron Gardenhire will be leading the team.

The 38-year old Gardenhire himself played AAA ball for two seasons and has played in the minors since 2005. He managed in the farm system out of Cedar Rapids in 2018 and Fort Myers in 2019. Originally drafted by the Twins in the 41st round of the 2005 MLB draft. He was invited to Spring Training in 2010 by Minnesota.

Get those guys to the big leagues, thats the plan Im excited, Gardenhire, 38, said Monday while playing in Twins first base coach Tommy Watkins fundraiser golf tournament in Florida. -St. Paul Pioneer Press

Does he have big shoes to fill and will he manage in the shadows of his big-league-manager-father? Maybe after watching dad get tossed out of games 85 times he will have a calmer demeanor but with the same intense coaching approach.

Read the original here:
Toby Gardenhire to Manage the Saint Paul Saints - KSOO News