TONS Of Hope For The New Year! December 31, 2014 Catherine H. from Oregon: “I appreciate your optimism in spite of the recent spending bill. I personally have given up because as I’ve gotten older it seems that things don’t actually get better. My opinion is that the public are no longer represented in Washington DC, our politicians are bought by and work exclusively for Big Business — yes they throw the American public a bone, but reflective of Noam Chomsky’s ideas only enough to keep us sated and non-revolutionary. . . . The American public doesn’t really have the vote, the electoral college does; our police are more and more militarized and truly work for big business, have since the industrial revolution; unions have been decimated; banks have more rights to our tax dollars than we do; I see nothing but disaster for the public. Along with reduced funding for education, which keeps us dumbed down and cheaper to hire; reduced benefits — raping of pensions/401k’s……we, as a middle class, are going absolutely no where. I don’t really have a point other than to say there is no hope anymore. Thanks for letting me vent.” ☞ Catherine! I’d be first to agree the middle class has been ill served and our political process subverted — you know which party I mainly blame — but there is so much hope! To begin with . . . EVERYTHING IS AWESOME As noted here: Everything Is Awesome Well, not everything. But America’s looking much better than you think. By Michael Grunwald Good news! The U.S. economy grew at a rollicking 5 percent rate in the third quarter. Oh, and it added 320,000 jobs in November, the best of its unprecedented 57 straight months of private-sector employment growth. Just in time for Christmas, the Dow just hit an all-time high and the uninsured rate is approaching an all-time low. Consumer confidence is soaring, inflation is low, gas prices are plunging, and the budget deficit is shrinking. You no longer hear much about the Ebola crisis that dominated the headlines in the fall, much less the border crisis that dominated the headlines over the summer. As Fox News host Andrea Tantaros proclaimed earlier this month: “The United States is awesome! We are awesome!” OK, she was talking about the Senate torture report, not the state of the union, but things in the U.S. do look rather awesome. Mitt Romney promised to bring unemployment down to 6 percent in his first term; it’s already down to 5.8 percent, half the struggling eurozone’s rate. Newt Gingrich promised $2.50 gas; it’s down to $2.38. Crime, abortion, teen pregnancy and oil imports are also way down, while renewable power is way up and the American auto industry is booming again. You don’t have to give credit to President Barack Obama for “America’s resurgence,” as he has started calling it, but there’s overwhelming evidence the resurgence is real. The Chicken Littles who predicted a double-dip recession, runaway interest rates, Zimbabwe-style inflation, a Greece-style debt crisis, skyrocketing energy prices, health insurance “death spirals” and other horrors have been reliably wrong. Come to think of it, the 62 percent of Americans who described the economy as “poor” in a CNN poll a week before the Republican landslide in the midterm elections were also wrong. I guess that sounds elitist. Second-guessing the wisdom of the public may be the last bastion of political correctness; if ordinary people don’t feel good about the economy, then the recovery isn’t supposed to be real. But aren’t the 11 million Americans who have landed new jobs since 2010 and the 10 million Americans who have gotten health insurance since 2013 ordinary Americans? It’s true that wage growth has remained slow, but the overall economic trends don’t jibe with the public’s lousy mood. And the public definitely does get stuff wrong. A Bloomberg poll this month found that 73 percent of Americans think the deficit is getting bigger, while 21 percent think it’s getting smaller and 6 percent aren’t sure. In fact, the deficit has dwindled from about $1.2 trillion in 2009 to less than $500 billion in 2014. My favorite part is the mere 6 percent who admitted ignorance; 73 percent are definitely sure the shrinking deficit is actually growing. The point isn’t that the midterm election’s discontent was illegitimate. The point is that Americans should cheer up! Six years ago, the economy was contracting at an 8 percent annual rate and shedding 800,000 jobs a month. Those were Great Depression-type numbers. The government was pouring billions of dollars into busted banks, and experts like MIT’s Simon Johnson were predicting that the bailouts would cost taxpayers as much as $2 trillion. In reality, the bailouts not only quelled the worst financial panic since the Depression, they made money for taxpayers. Nevertheless, last week, after the government sold its stake in Ally Bank, its last major holding in a financial institution, Johnson complained to The New York Times about the “unfortunate and inappropriate message” being sent by people pointing out the bailouts were actually profitable. In this holiday season, can’t we be a little bit happy we didn’t have to waste the $2 trillion he thought we were going to waste? This bah-humbug brand of moral superiority has flourished since the crisis: How dare you celebrate this or that piece of economic data when so many Americans are still hurting? It’s awkward to argue with that view, since many Americans are indeed still hurting. But the economic data keep showing that fewer Americans are hurting every month. No one is satisfied with 5.8 percent unemployment, but it’s way better than the 10 percent we had in 2010 or the 11 percent Europe has today. Declining child poverty and household debt and personal bankruptcies are also worth celebrating. Better is better than worse. Whether or not you think Obamacare had anything to do with the slowdown in medical cost growth, it’s a good thing that Medicare’s finances have improved dramatically, extending the solvency of its trust fund by an estimated 13 years. It’s a good thing that U.S. wind power has tripled and solar power has increased tenfold in five years. And while it’s true that the meteoric rise of the stock market since 2009 has produced windfalls for Wall Street, it has also replenished state pension funds and 401(k) retirement plans and labor union coffers. It definitely beats the alternative. Let’s face it: The press has a problem reporting good news. Two Americans died of Ebola and cable TV flipped out; now we’re Ebola-free and no one seems to care. The same thing happened with the flood of migrant children across the Mexican border, which was a horrific crisis until it suddenly wasn’t. Nobody’s going to win a Pulitzer Prize for recognizing that we’re smoking less, driving less, wasting less electricity and committing less crime. Police are killing fewer civilians, and fewer police are getting killed, but understandably, after the tragedies in Ferguson and Brooklyn, nobody’s thinking about that these days. The media keep us in a perpetual state of panic about spectacular threats to our safety — Ebola, sharks, terrorism — but we’re much likelier to die in a car accident. Although, it ought to be said, much less likely than we used to be; highway fatalities are down 25 percent in a decade. The other problem in acknowledging good news, not just for the press but for the public, is that it has come to feel partisan, like an endorsement of whoever occupies the White House. Republican leaders have exacerbated this problem by describing everything Obama has done — his 2009 stimulus package, his 2010 Wall Street reforms, his 2013 tax hikes on high earners, his various anti-pollution regulations aimed at coal-fired power plants, and most of all Obamacare — as “job-killing” catastrophes that would obliterate the economy. It’s hard to point out that the economy is humming along nicely without making those doom-and-gloom predictions sound ill-advised and over-the-top. Because they were. Liberals who predicted disaster when Obama refused to nationalize the banking system during the financial crisis and when Republicans insisted on the harsh budget cuts in the 2013 “sequester” were wrong, too. Disaster hasn’t happened. As ideologically inconvenient as that may be for chronic complainers on the left and right — and for pundit types invested in their bad-year-for-Obama narrative — it’s wonderful for the country. You don’t have to endorse Obama’s economic philosophy to realize that it hasn’t wreaked short-term havoc, just as you don’t have to endorse the Obama or George W. Bush anti-terror philosophies to acknowledge that America hasn’t endured a rash of terror attacks since 2001. Last week, polls finally found a majority of Americans recognizing that the economy is improving, which is to say a majority of Americans are recognizing reality. It’s probably time for politicians to discover a new Ebola to scream about. There is no shortage of candidates in this less-than-perfect union. The U.S. is still plagued by inadequate public schools, crumbling infrastructure, soaring college tuition costs, stark inequality. Many Americans want accountability for reckless bankers, torturers and fatal choke-holders. Washington is still almost as dysfunctional as everyone says it is. Congress this session really was the second least productive ever. And even though Obama is winding down the U.S. involvement in overseas wars, the world remains a scary place. There’s still plenty to worry about. But for now be merry! And may the new year be as awesome as this year. So there’s a start. And there’s more. Even with stagnant real wages, these past 25 years, I’d argue that most of us are meaningfully better off. We likely have a smart phone, which means we have immense power in our pockets not even billionaires had 25 years ago — “never lost” (GPS) and never bored (Words With Friends). Crime is down; auto safety is up. Safer on the road, safer on the street. And now secure in the knowledge that affordable health care is available no matter what befalls us. How do you measure all that in terms of per capita income? Yes, the middle class has gotten clobbered, relatively speaking — nearly all the gains have gone to corporate profits, up from a typical 6% or so of GDP to 10% or so, and to the “top 1%” — and there are structural problems we need to fix to swing the pendulum back into balance. (Had we just turned out to vote in November, we could have.) But in so many ways, “the 99%” have seen life improve. And how about Google? Amazon? eBay? Uber? How do you factor in the convenience of all that? Or the availability of so many more entertainment choices? Or of Khan Academy or TED talks? Free! Dentistry has become better and less painful . . . bank deposits can be made by smartphone . . . there is credit card reform and a Consumer Bill of Rights and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Oh, and by the way? Middle-class, middle-aged Americans are expected to live three or four years longer than in 1980 — with hope for yet longer, healthier lives on the way — no matter what happens with the Electoral College. (But even there, there’s hope: We’re 30.7% of the way toward the solution, with a further 6.7% actively pending. Check it out!) There’s hope that a consensus is forming to decriminalize drug possession and reform our criminal justice sentencing and prison systems. Boy, is that ever overdue. (I again offer the American Justice Summit videos for your consideration.) I don’t mean to be a broken record (at least for long-time readers), but Ray Kurzweil tells us the next 50 years of technological progress will be 32 times as dazzling as the last 50 years’ progress — which was already awfully darn dazzling, if you ask me. So while there’s loads of reason to worry that we’ll hurtle off the rails . . . or that our political system will become completely captured by a very wealthy few (if we don’t vote) . . . there is so much progress to hope for — and, indeed, to expect. Here are two examples almost at random: New Super-Efficient Affordable Solar Panels Could Trump fossil fuels Striking another blow to the oil and gas industries, an American solar company has developed technology that can produce super-efficient solar power that’s cheaper than fossil fuels. Rayton Solar’s new solar panel manufacturing technology uses 50 to 100 times less silicon than other technologies, cutting out large amounts of the most costly component of solar panels. The company says its patent-pending process uses just four microns worth of silicon, leaving no waste – while boosting efficiency to 24 percent. That’s 25 percent higher than industry standard efficiency, according to the company Can you imagine? And how about this one? All It Takes For The Desolenator To Make Clean Drinking Water Is A Little Sunlight Turning saltwater into clean drinking water is usually an expensive and energy-intensive process—a new desalination plant under construction in San Diego has a price tag of $1 billion, and smaller devices can cost as much as $30,000. But a new solar-powered device could make the process affordable for the millions of people around the world who don’t have running water.. . . I have no idea which technologies, let alone which companies, will actually succeed; but clearly, many will. There’s no free lunch, but there’s free sunlight, at least for the next several zillion years — and we seem to be growing ever smarter about harnessing it. And now for the schmaltz. # At the end of the day, the reason to be hopeful is that — for all our demons, sloth, and stupidity — we humans have some good qualities, too. Will they be enough to get us through this climactic next few decades, where we either learn to live together sustainably on our little spaceship — or not? No one knows. But given the ingenuity and innate goodness so many have along with their demons, sloth, and stupidity, there are ample reasons for hope. One example (which says a bit about our social policy as well): What a Homeless Man Does With $100. (John Leeds: “Spoiler alert: It is a video about a prankster giving $100 to a homeless man and secretly following him on video, expecting the man will buy alcohol or waste the money.”) And as if that weren’t schmaltz enough, here are not one but three awesome renditions of Auld Lang Syne (thanks, Mel). DOUGIE MACLEAN SUSAN BOYLE ROD STEWART Thanks for your readership! Don’t agonize, Catherine — organize! Happy New Year!
World’s Two Greatest Leaders December 30, 2014December 26, 2014 LOVE THIS POPE If you missed it, here’s his Christmas guidance to his cardinals. Loosely translated from the Latin, and summarized: “Shape up, guys. Do what Jesus would do.” Fifteen areas where they really need to get back to basics. Amazing. LOVE THIS PRESIDENT As the economic numbers get revised upward, and despite SO many Republican attempts to impede the economy — blocking the infrastructure bill and the minimum wage hike and the bi-partisan Senate immigration bill, all three of which economists agree would have boosted the economy and thereby improved our lives — it’s just phenomenal, really, to see how far we’ve come from the brink of Depression President Bush handed Barack Obama just six years ago. If you missed it, here’s his year-end news conference. And here’s Chris Hayes’s montage of clips on Republicans predicting stuff — with complete certainty — that just proved to be so wrong. (Because you know, “by any standard,” in Mitch McConnell’s still fairly recent prepared remarks, President Obama “has been a disaster for America” — stock market at record highs, health care inflation at record lows, deficit slashed, Debt growing slower than GDP, more private sector jobs created in six years than under 12 years of the two Bushes combined, gas prices down, housing start healthy, Detroit booming — just one disaster after another.) And by the way? Benghazi scandal was not a scandal after all. (“A two-year investigation by the Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee has found . . . no wrongdoing by Obama administration appointees.”) And the President was born in America. And John Kerry really was a war hero. And Al Gore never said he invented the Internet. And John McCain really did choose Sarah Palin to lead the world in the event his presidency were cut short. And it just makes me crazy that TVs in so many airline lounges around the country are set permanently to FOX News. We need to speak up more: CHANGE THE CHANNEL. Oh, God — see? You got me all worked up again.
Turning $9.32 Into $15,600 December 29, 2014December 24, 2014 Ryan T: “I dumped all of our Vanguard S&P 500 fund (VFINX) three or four years ago when I bought your book and, on your advice, switched to the Rydex Equal Weight S&P 500 fund (RSP). Over those years, Rydex is up 10% over Vanguard (74% to 64%). That’s pretty significant. Am I missing something? I know the expense ratio is higher for Rydex, but other than that it seems like a no-brainer.” ☞ The only things you may be missing are that the higher expense ratio (40 hundredths of a percent versus 9) is already accounted for in the result (the results are net of expenses) and that 10% is more than 10% (in that a 74% gain exceeds a 64% gain by 15.6%). If you’re up $100,000, that’s $15,600 extra — less the cost of my book, currently $9.81*. A comparison of the two funds can be developed here. (Use the “compare” tab and then click “clear all” and then add VFINX.) There’s no magic to this. I’ve long recommended low-expense index funds for that portion of your wealth you’d like exposed to the stock market. As argued in my book, index funds are like a horse with a 10- or 20-pound jockey, compared with actively-managed funds that run with 200 pounds (and often a lot more) on their back. (In addition to the explicit fees, they incur higher transaction costs by trading in and out and expose you to a higher tax bill if held outside a tax-sheltered account.) Over the long run, a 200-pound jockey has to be one heck of a talent to beat his emaciated 10- or 20-pound competition. The wrinkle of equally-weighted index funds like RSP is that they will tend to own less of a stock that’s been bid up to the moon and more of a stock that’s currently out of favor. There’s no guarantee this will give you enough of an edge to justify the heavier (40-pound) jockey, let alone every single year. But over long periods of time it has and likely will continue to. (Why Vanguard doesn’t offer one of these with one of its trade-mark ultra-light jockeys, I don’t know.) *Or $9.32 instantly delivered to your phone’s Kindle app. # NORTH KOREA Not crazy about what they did to SONY? Click here to help “hack them back” — a novel approach. HILLARY Responding to last week’s Bush V. Clinton post . . . George L: “I don’t like the concept of dynastic politics. I believe it’s fundamentally dangerous for our democracy. What does it say that our system can only elevate super insiders?” ☞ Our system can’t ONLY elevate super insiders – our current president is proof of that, as were the two previous Democratic presidents, Carter and Clinton, both pretty obscure before they won. So Hillary would actually be the first Democratic super insider in quite a while. And hardly part of a dynasty — her dad was a textile wholesaler descended from coal miners; her mother’s dad, a fireman.
Interpreting The Best Little Book In The World December 27, 2014December 26, 2014 There are popes and there are popes. A lot of people don’t like the current one, I imagine, with his emphasis on helping the poor, eschewing fine raiments, restoring relations with Cuba — sounds almost socialist, if you ask me. Where’s the part about tax cuts for the rich and opposing the minimum wage? Similarly, there are evangelical Christians and there are evangelical Christians. Interestingly, in the view of a couple of professors who’ve analyzed the data, “White Evangelical Christians are the group least likely to support politicians or policies that reflect the actual teachings of Jesus.” One of my favorite evangelical Christians is Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners and a leading Red-Letter Christian. Before I get to the point, I have to re-tell you my favorite story. It was five years ago. I’d just gotten the Google app — a new thing back then — for my iPhone, and had given a little talk referring to it. “Before, if I needed to settle a bet at dinner, I’d reach for my iPhone, go to the Safari web browser, pull up Google, and type in what I needed. Worked reasonably well. But now I just jerk it up to my ear, say what I want, and — voila!” Jim came up afterward and asked me what it was exactly I’d been talking about. I showed him my iPhone as I touched the Google icon, then jerked the phone up to my ear, got the beep, and said, “Jim Wallis,” whose new book, Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street, had just come out. The common spelling would be “Wallace” – that’s how it sounds – and I was afraid my little demonstration would be a complete bust . . . but within seconds, Google was showing us this list of info on Jim Wallis. “How does it do that?!” marveled the theologian. “It’s a miracle!” replied the atheist. So that’s my story. Here’s my point: There are a lot of evangelicals who read the Bible differently from the Jerry Falwells (“AIDS is not just God’s punishment for homosexuals; it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals”) and the Robert Gallatys. Indeed, an estimated 23% now favor marriage equality (which is a far cry from thinking hurricanes are caused by homosexuality). Behold the January cover story of Jim Wallis’s SOJOURNERS Magazine: Tackling the Hard Questions by David P. Gushee It’s time for Bible-believing Christians to take a new look at what scripture teaches us about gays and lesbians If you or a friend or relative is having trouble accepting God’s LGBT children as, in fact, His children, well, I offer the article for your consideration. As it says near the end, “It is appropriate to wonder whether what Paul is so harshly condemning in Romans 1 has much if anything to do with that devout, loving, lesbian couple who have been together 20 years and sit in the third row at church. Their lives do not at all look like the overall picture of depravity offered in Romans 1:18-32. You certainly wonder about this when you know that couple—or when you are that couple.” (Or, harking back to a line I’ve been offering for decades now: It probably IS unnatural for two people of the same sex to lie down together — if they’re straight. If they’re gay, it’s the most natural thing in the world. No? Can’t we just leave it at that?)
Elephantine Gifts December 25, 2014December 25, 2014 Wha’d YOU get this year? I hope: health, love, and a robust Internet connection. Truly, nothing more is required. (Food? Shelter? They are a necessary condition of health, so already covered in that list. Money? A necessary condition of having food and shelter. A job? Abner and I should certainly hope not* — but same deal, if you need one to get money as a necessary condition to the rest. The list is complete: health, love, and a robust Internet connection.) But I digress. (Oh, wait: I digress further. Just watched “The Interview.” X-rated but hysterical. There’s even a puppy. See it now for $5.95. And even though it probably wasn’t North Korea that hacked SONY, consider hacking them back anyway. I have. Merry Christmas.) And now! MARK TWAIN’S ELEPHANT From Mark Twain: A Biography, by Albert Bigelow Paine [which is free, in case you wanted to know what I got you this year]: Mark Twain was the receiver of two notable presents that year [1908]. The first of these, a mantel from Hawaii . . . the morning of his seventy-third birthday. . . . Mark Twain’s second present came at Christmas-time. About ten days earlier, a letter came from Robert J. Collier, saying that he had bought a baby elephant which he intended to present to Mark Twain as a Christmas gift. He added that it would be sent as soon as he could get a car for it, and the loan of a keeper from Barnum & Bailey’s headquarters at Bridgeport. The news created a disturbance in Stormfield. One could not refuse, discourteously and abruptly, a costly present like that; but it seemed a disaster to accept it. An elephant would require a roomy and warm place, also a variety of attention which Stormfield was not prepared to supply. The telephone was set going and certain timid excuses were offered by the secretary. There was no good place to put an elephant in Stormfield, but Mr. Collier said, quite confidently: “Oh, put him in the garage.” “But there’s no heat in the garage.” “Well, put him in the loggia, then. That’s closed in, isn’t it, for the winter? Plenty of sunlight — just the place for a young elephant.” “But we play cards in the loggia. We use it for a sort of sun-parlor.” “But that wouldn’t matter. He’s a kindly, playful little thing. He’ll be just like a kitten. I’ll send the man up to look over the place and tell you just how to take care of him, and I’ll send up several bales of hay in advance. It isn’t a large elephant, you know: just a little one — a regular plaything.” There was nothing further to be done; only to wait and dread until the Christmas present’s arrival. A few days before Christmas ten bales of hay arrived and several bushels of carrots. This store of provender aroused no enthusiasm at Stormfield. It would seem there was no escape now. On Christmas morning Mr. Lounsbury telephoned up that there was a man at the station who said he was an elephant-trainer from Barnum & Bailey’s, sent by Mr. Collier to look at the elephant’s quarters and get him settled when he should arrive. Orders were given to bring the man over. The day of doom was at hand. But Lounsbury’s detective instinct came once more into play. He had seen a good many elephant-trainers at Bridgeport, and he thought this one had a doubtful look. “Where is the elephant?” he asked, as they drove along. “He will arrive at noon.” “Where are you going to put him?” “In the loggia.” “How big is he?” “About the size of a cow.” “How long have you been with Barnum and Bailey?” “Six years.” “Then you must know some friends of mine” (naming two that had no existence until that moment). “Oh yes, indeed. I know them well.” Lounsbury didn’t say any more just then, but he had a feeling that perhaps the dread at Stormfield had grown unnecessarily large. Something told him that this man seemed rather more like a butler, or a valet, than an elephant-trainer. They drove to Stormfield, and the trainer looked over the place. It would do perfectly, he said. He gave a few instructions as to the care of this new household feature, and was driven back to the station to bring it. Lounsbury came back by and by, bringing the elephant but not the trainer. It didn’t need a trainer. It was a beautiful specimen, with soft, smooth coat and handsome trappings, perfectly quiet, well-behaved and small — suited to the loggia, as Collier had said — for it was only two feet long and beautifully made of cloth and cotton — one of the finest toy elephants ever seen anywhere. It was a good joke, such as Mark Twain loved — a carefully prepared, harmless bit of foolery. He wrote Robert Collier, threatening him with all sorts of revenge, declaring that the elephant was devastating Stormfield. “To send an elephant in a trance, under pretense that it was dead or stuffed!” he said. “The animal came to life, as you knew it would, and began to observe Christmas, and we now have no furniture left and no servants and no visitors, no friends, no photographs, no burglars — nothing but the elephant. Be kind, be merciful, be generous; take him away and send us what is left of the earthquake.” Collier wrote that he thought it unkind of him to look a gift-elephant in the trunk. And with such chaffing and gaiety the year came to an end. THE PROVERBIAL WHITE ONE From Wikipedia: A white elephant is a possession which its owner cannot dispose of and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. The term derives from the story that the kings of Siam, now Thailand, were accustomed to make a present of one of these animals to courtiers who had rendered themselves obnoxious in order to ruin the recipient by the cost of its maintenance. In modern usage, it is an object, scheme, business venture, facility, etc., considered without use or value. *Abner sings: This thing called employment Detracts from ma enjoyment, And tightens ma diaphragm. While I’m doin’ nary A thing that’s necessary Ahm happy as a cherry-stone clam . . . If I had my druthers To choose from all the others, I’d druther be like ah am Yes ma’am I’d druther be like — ba-dum, ba-dum — ah am!
Christmas Eve December 24, 2014December 20, 2014 William Least Heat-Moon, Blue Highways, p 317 (thanks, Tom!): Joseph Smith an eighteen-year-old with small hands and big feet, a quiet and “unlaughing” boy, encountered the Angel Moroni, son of Mormon, on a drumlin alongside a little road south of Palmyra [N.Y.] in 1827. . . . There he unearthed the golden plates that he said were the source of the Book of Mormon. With the aid of an ancient pair of optical instruments, the Urim and Thummin, which Smith found with the plates, he was able to translate the “revised” Egyptian hieroglyphics, although he insisted on dictating his translation to scribes from behind a curtain. Well, of course he did. [Eye roll.] Yet the several Mormons I’ve been fortunate to know well are wonderfully decent, constructive, enthusiastic souls (who’ve been fine about my living in sin). And as the simple Ugandan woman says near the end of “The Book of Mormon,” the most profane, blasphemous, irreverent show ever . . . thereby redeeming the entire show and bringing sense to the entire religion (and not just Mormonism, all religions) . . . “Eet eez a MET-a-phor!” If you haven’t seen the show, it’s near the end. The young white missionaries have become disillusioned by the preposterousness of the story they’ve been telling the heathens, who are, of course, rather more well grounded in reality. The woman in question, agape in disbelief — these boys think we’re supposed to believe this stuff literally??? — and delivers the line. (Could someone please get this word to the Islamic fundamentalists? Or at least to those who believe God calls them to murder?) I love Santa Claus and all the good he stands for (but don’t believe he actually clambers down chimneys). I love “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and all the good it stands for (but, unlike most Americans, don’t believe in angels). I love the teachings of Jesus (but don’t believe he walked on water). I love “The Ten Commandments” (but don’t believe God parted the Red Sea). And call me crazy, but I don’t think Joseph Smith had an Urim or a Thummin behind that curtain (maybe an Urim, but surely not both). From age 10, I have been an aggressive atheist. But that doesn’t make Christmas any less magical for me, the Sermon on the Mount any less inspirational, tikkun olam any less a beacon, or “The Ten Commandments” any less stirring. Merry Christmas! In the words of Tiny Tim: “God bless us, everyone!”
The ImpactAssets Giving Fund December 23, 2014December 21, 2014 I’ve long recommended using appreciated securities (held more than a year) to fund your charitable giving . . . and funds like Fidelity’s Charitable Gift Fund to make it really easy. But wait: here’s one that gives you the option of investing your principal in socially-impactful start-ups, hoping to do even more good: good with the money you give away, as before; but now, also, good with the principal of your donor-advised fund while it grows. From Forbes: Give Like An Entrepreneur Since earning an M.B.A. at Yale in 1995, Seth Goldman has been on the prowl for socially useful and novel business opportunities. He was a vice president at the Calvert Group, the do-gooder mutual fund family, before founding Bethesda, Md. based Honest Tea in 1998 with his former Yale professor Barry Nalebuff. While he’s still CEO of Honest Tea, the 49-year-old Goldman sold the last 60% of the organic tea company to Coca-Cola in 2011, and before he did he put $1.5 million worth of its shares into a donor-advised fund at ImpactAssets Giving Fund. By donating stock before the sale, he was able to claim an immediate tax deduction for its full market value without ever recognizing a taxable gain. Using a donor-advised fund also allows him to dribble out grants to specific operating charities over time. His biggest so far: $250,000 to Yale to send M.B.A. students to the Net Impact conference, which Goldman says inspired his own mission-driven career. Unlike more conventional donor-advised funds, ImpactAssets permits Goldman to remain hands on, entrepreneurial and socially conscious when investing his charitable kitty, and he has put half into private equity deals he finds himself. His biggest win so far was a $100,000 investment in Happy Baby, an organic baby food company, which was sold to Danone in 2013, with his charitable fund receiving $180,000, an 80% return in two years. Currently he has the charity fund invested in Beyond Meat, a plant-based-protein maker; Sweetgreen, an organic-greens restaurant; and CSA Medical, which uses a flash-freezing system to destroy cancers and other unwanted tissues. He says he hears about such startups “organically”–through word of mouth–and looks for leaders who are both “fired up” about a new product and cost-conscious. Technically, Goldman can only recommend investments to Impact Assets’ board, which vets them. But once a Goldman find is approved, other donors’ funds may be able to invest, too, as they were with Beyond Meat. Goldman has the other half of his charity pot in Calvert mutual funds and seed ventures identified by ImpactAssets, including Eco Fuels Kenya (organic fertilizers and biofuel), Waste Capital Partners (urban sanitation) and Sevamob (agricultural information and health services). “My appetite for risk with this portfolio is a little higher than it is for my personal one,” Goldman explains. “If we lose money on it, we’re still supporting a good cause. Even if it’s not as high a return, the positive impact is there.” Want to follow Goldman’s giving lead? First, maximize your charitable tax break by contributing your most highly appreciated shares to a donor-advised fund, he says. Then, to increase the impact of your charitable dollars, use that fund to hold the sort of mission-driven, but risky, investments you shouldn’t be putting in your family’s retirement or college fund. If you don’t have Goldman’s contacts, a good way to find such investments is through a boutique donor-advised fund such as ImpactAssets Giving Fund or the Tides Foundation. So step one is for Borealis one day to come to fruition, giving us all a huge long-term capital gain (does 15 years qualify as long-term?) . . . step two is giving some of those at-long-last greatly appreciated securities to one of these funds (and taking a nice tax deduction) . . . step three is to find amazing start-ups to fund. Needless to say, step one is by no means assured; though I like to think we are inching ever closer. (Seth Goldman’s Honest Tea, which I backed very modestly at an early stage in January, 1999, completed its sale to Coke in 2011. These things often take time to brew even without the need for FAA certification.)
America’s Resurgence Is Real December 22, 2014December 21, 2014 Whether you like him or not, do yourself a favor and watch the President’s year-end press conference. Or at least the first five or six minutes — you can always stop if the good news and hopeful signs are just too discordant for you. But you’re paying this guy’s salary; and if you are one of those upset we’ve not okayed the Keystone Pipeline, or that we’re reestablishing diplomatic relations with Cuba, or that people have been marching out of frustration over the non-indictments . . . or whatever your biggest dissatisfactions are . . . take the time to watch. It just might get you into the holiday spirit, knowing that things are looking up and that — in the steady, rational leadership of the man charged with more responsibility than any other on the planet — we have, for two more years, a gift that keeps on giving.
Build Your Own School December 19, 2014December 18, 2014 CLIMATE CHANGE . . . . . . The surface of Mars is currently inhospitable to life as we know it, but there is [now] evidence that the Red Planet once had a climate that could have supported life . . . . . . BUT WAS IT MARTIAN MADE? If it was, they probably had a climate change denier chairing their Committee on Science & Technology. VIVE LA FRANCE Talented enfants at a high-end mall. (Thanks, Mel!) BUILD YOUR OWN SCHOOL It costs about $30,000, all tax-deductible, and helps not just children in the Third World but also at-risk U.S. youth who travel abroad to help build it. Reason enough to try to get rich — so you can do things like this. Here are photos of them building the new Allard K. Lowenstein school in El Amapara, a Nicaraguan village about 10 miles from the main road. (And here are photos of the kids with the school completed, at their new desks.) Al was a great American — everyone from Eleanor Roosevelt to William F. Buckley, Jr. thought so. The plaque at this new school reads, in English and Spanish: “He tried so hard to make a better world. Now it’s your turn.” In case you are deciding between the $93,400 top-of-the-line 97mpg Tesla and the $41,450 85mpg Mercedes, I say go with the Mercedes, build your own school, and you’ll still have $22,000 left in your pocket– plus the value of the $30,000 tax deduction. # Have a great weekend. Ho ho ho!
Bush V. Clinton December 18, 2014December 17, 2014 Jeb Bush seems now to be running, as Hillary Clinton well may, and a common feeling is that, “Oh, gosh, really? Another Bush against another Clinton?” I have a couple of words to say about each. Clinton: Objectively, she would bring more experience to the office than any other incoming president in our nation’s history. (Perhaps important?) But the thing I want to note is that, unlike John Quincy Adams or George W. Bush, she is not Bill Clinton’s child. So for those spooked by the “children of former presidents make rotten ones themselves” meme, it simply does not apply. With the Clintons back in the White House, the goal would be eight more years of peace, progress, and shared prosperity, like their first eight. Bush: Let’s assume he is a good and talented man, far more serious than his brother. That still leaves the issue of his governing priorities. My knowledge of those come from his years as my governor, in Florida, where he found a way to cut taxes only for the rich (hard to do in a state with no income or estate tax!) and then, faced with insufficient revenue, decimated the state’s drug treatment budget (and opposed smaller class sizes — one of my friends had 40 children in his classroom). You can read all about it here. What makes this particularly poignant is that even as Jeb was shutting down drug treatment for thousands, he tacitly acknowledged its importance by providing it privately for his daughter. All legal and above board; just a matter of worldview and priorities. If you want an America that seeks yet more ways to advantage the wealthy at the expense of those struggling hardest . . . continuing the record of Reagan, Bush, and Bush, widening inequality’s chasm further still . . . you have your man in another likable gentleman (and he does seem to be both likable and a gentleman) named Bush. Reagan, Bush, Bush, and Bush. Not for me; but that’s what makes horse races.