economic freedom

It’s time to start monitoring inflation.

(This discussion is cross-posted from my other blog, Attestation Update. The primary audience for this discussions is CPAs, so we can start to monitor the inflation data. This allows us CPAs to better understand what is going on with our clients when providing audit or review services. The information is also useful for readers of this blog, because the rapid run-up of inflation fears is a risk to economic freedom. A return to the devastating inflation rates of the 1970s would severely harm our economic freedom.)

As CPAs, we pay attention to economic trends because those have big impact on our client’s operations.  Understanding what is happening in terms of interest rates, growth or shrinkage in the GDP, unemployment trends, and real estate prices also helps us interpret financial statements during and audit or review.

It is time to start monitoring inflation rates.

Graph at the top of this post shows worrying information about inflation.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Ongoing news reports of the destruction caused by the lockdowns imposed by governments.

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Infection rates continue to drop. Depending on the particular statistic and which county you wish to look at, infections, hospitalization, and death rate are down in California somewhere in the range of 90% to 95% or even more since early January.

Yet California is still in lockdown. Not as abusively harsh as several months ago, but still in severe lockdown. So the ongoing destruction will continue.

Merely a few of the recent articles which will be highlighted today:

  • The “hygiene theater” of deep clean is no longer necessary according to CDC
  • CDC reports drug overdose are soaring
  • Young adults are suffering severe psychological damage
  • Small businesses can’t find employees because of the overgenerous federal unemployment benefits
  • Some class-action lawsuit against higher education are moving forward
  • Infective pandemic is accelerating the close of colleges

Adverse Health Impacts

4/8/21 – New York Times – Has the Era of Overzealous Cleaning Finally Come to an End? – CDC finally conceded it is exquisitely rare to transmit coronavirus by touching a contaminated surface. They assess the risk that less than one in 10,000.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

‘Rules for thee but not for me’ still operative policy for our elected ‘leaders.’

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

There haven’t been high visiblity examples in the last couple of months where political or medical leaders exercise their divine right to ignore the rules they impose on everyone else. Or perhaps I just haven’t been paying enough attention.

Well, the governor of Michigan and two of her aides have broken the dry spell of flagrant hypocrites getting caught in their hypocrisy.

Make a completely wild guess what the governor did while urging her subjects citizens to avoid travel to Florida for spring break and warn that snowbirds could easily bring infection back with them when returning from Florida?

Yup. She took a trip to Florida.

To visit her father.

Since the purpose wasn’t to frolic on the beach the trip is okey-dokey.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Lockdown protest songs from Van Morrison and Eric Clapton.

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

In fall 2020 Van Morrison and Eric Clapton released songs protesting lockdowns, describing the damage the economic shutdowns were causing and focused attack on our freedoms. A host of articles referenced on my blog describe the damage they were referring to.

On 9/18/20 Van Morrison announced three songs:

  • Born To Be Free
  • As I Walked Out
  • No More Lockdowns

Eric Clapton also released a song:

  • Stand and Deliver

For reasons you can easily figure out for yourself, which I will not state explicitly, the songs were trashed in public. I will not link to or summarize the articles complimenting the songs because they get more political than I choose.

Before going into further discussion of the songs, with links to Amazon and some highlights of the lyrics, here are four out of dozens of articles trashing them:

Merely from the titles of the articles, you can tell how much venom was poured out on the songs.

A hint of what the self-appointed critics did not like:

As I walked out all the streets were empty
The government said everyone should stay home
And they spread fear and loathing and no hope for the future
Not many did question this very strange move

After reading several articles, including some that were favorable, I wasn’t going to look at the songs any further. However, I decided to at least take a quick look. After I listened to Born To Be Free, I looked up the lyrics and listened again. Then I was intrigued and listened to all four songs, following along with the lyrics.

If you read my blog and especially if you got this far in this particular post, you will enjoy the songs.

Born To Be Free

By the way, all four of the songs are available for a mere $0.89. This one is available at Amazon at the link:

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Protest song against lockdowns from Mick Jaggar. Wait… What?

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Um, yeah. Rolling Stones, well Mick Jagger by himself (since the band can’t get together), weighed in with a song protesting the lockdowns.

A protest song.

Song ridicules the ongoing lockdown, describing the lobotomizing effect of being isolated.

It compares the forced quarantine to prison confinement.

There is one recurring line, which you have to think about a while:

It’ll be a memory you’re trying to remember to forget.

Aha…we will have to work to forget this horrible time.

It is a nightmare for those who lost businesses, will never catch up on their rent, whose education has been harshly disrupted if not destroyed, all those who now have severe depression, and those with well-advanced cancer because they couldn’t get in to see a doctor for so many months to check out that odd thing and now it is stage 4.

Yes, we will all have memories that will we be trying to forget.

A hint of the lyrics:

We took it on the chin
The numbers were so grim
Bossed around by p*****.

The video of Easy Sleazy, then more lyrics:

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Side-effects of lockdown: increasing suicides, higher unemployment.

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

The devastating side-effects from government-imposed lockdowns keeps growing. The lack of benefits and damage from lockdowns is becoming more obvious with every week that passes.

Merely a few of the recent articles in the news:

  • Suicide attempts amongst youth increasing.
  • Long-term care residents in Canada remain in solitary confinement in spite of 90% of them having been vaccinated.
  • Unemployment rate higher in states with harsh lockdowns, lower in states with freedom.

3/16/21 – Foundation for Economic Education – Child Suicide is Becoming an “International Epidemic” Amid Restricted Pandemic Life, Doctors Warn – Associated Press interviewed a British doctor who works in an ER.  Number of suicide attempts he is treating has gone from a couple a week before the pandemic started to several a day now.

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Cost of the devastation caused by closing schools.

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To the extent there was ever justification for closing schools, emerging research demonstrates it has been an extremely long time since any such justification evaporated. Research from Wharton shows the severe, lifelong cost of losing out on two or three semesters of education.

This is the fifth in a series of posts reminding us we have completed one year of “fifteen days to smooth the curve.” In California, we have started our second year of curve smoothing.

10/12/20 – Penn Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania, Budget Model website – Covid: Trade-offs in School Reopening – Detailed economic analysis is thoroughly devastating to any argument there is any value in keeping schools closed and in fact there are substantive questions whether there was any value to closing any schools.

Summary

There will be permanent damage to the education level of most students with a serious adverse impact on lifetime earnings with a disproportionate impact on kids who are poor kids, disadvantaged kids, and persons of color.

Read the full article. Please.

Recap of the highlights

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By Jim Ulvog, ago

Devastation visible after an entire year of “15 days to smooth the curve”, college edition. Part 3.

Empty college campus. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Articles describing the destruction in the education world have been noticable to me over the last several weeks. Most of the articles have discussed the devastation in primary and secondary education.

Here are a few articles describing disruption in higher education:

  • Alternatives to traditional non-campus higher education are growing.
  • What might a post-covid higher education world look like? One scenario.
  • Lots of class-action suits against colleges for refunds are getting dismissed.
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By Jim Ulvog, ago