News

When the Game Stops

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

The get rich quick crowd gathered on Reddit and was having quite the party.  There was no stopping the game that they were playing with stock in GameStop.

But, like at the stroke of midnight, if you don’t pay the band the music stops.  And, yesterday it got quiet.  Quiet like the inside of GameStop stores during this pandemic.

Just last Thursday shares in GameStop were bought for as high as they were sold-it always takes two to dance.  And the price to get on the floor was $483.  The stock was a much cheaper date in mid-summer at $4.  That’s no typo.  And, yesterday the stock retreated to $84 just four trading days after the $483.  That’s again no typo.

If you’re a retail investor and you wanted to show old school Wall St. that there was a new kid in town, you did.  Briefly.  The short-selling hedge funds got squeezed a bit.

If you wanted to get rich quick, hopefully you bought low and sold high.  Because as it was quickly learned again, value never goes out of style. Stock is always only worth what someone will pay for it.

However, if you bought high and sold low maybe it’s time to get off of Reddit.  If you did so with margin money you might need to see a bankruptcy attorney.  If you did so with your stay at home stimulus money, as many on Reddit bragged, maybe you should go get a job.

But, if you live in Long Beach, CA, and want to get into the grocery business you’re looking in the wrong place.  Yesterday, Kroger announced that it was closing its two stores at the end of this month in response to the mayor’s mandated “hero” pay of minimally $15 an hour for those “workers on the front lines.”

And, we are reminded again, value never goes out of style.  People are always only worth what someone will pay for them.  And jobs are valued for what people will accept them for unless you are the government and want to cause some market disruption.

Government has its eye on this stock market disruption.  They’ll start hearings next week on what we can learn from it.   That should be good for a few laughs.  Do you notice how the government always reacts, it never acts?

Political opposites Rep Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Senator Ted Cruz were in full agreement that the bad guys in this were the old Wall Streeters who were trying to blame the up and comers for making the market rattle.

In other words, “let the free market decide what a stock is worth.”  Hmm.  That seems like the polar opposite of what the government is trying to do with wages.

Reddit user benaffleks (really) says “This is a big moment.  Hedge fund managers live in the past.  They believe that average retail investors don’t know anything about the market(which may be true) and we’re just gambling our money away.  This was the past.”

One never really knows when the game stops.

But, when it does fair market value is always the winner.

Always.

 

 

Serious Problem Solved

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Four days into the Joe Biden presidency and we can already feel what true leadership looks and feels like.  Gone are the petty arguments this same time four years ago that were being played out by the Trump team v. the media over how many people attended his Inauguration Parade.

“We’ve got serious problems, and we need serious people,” said President Andrew Shepard in the movie The American President.  He went on castigating his reelection opponent Bob Rumson, “This is a time for serious people, Bob, and your fifteen minutes are up.”  There.

So some serious people have been weighing in on a serious problem in the last few days.  The serious problem is Covid-19.

It got serious in March of 2020.  By mid-October of 2020, Biden had seen enough.  He tweeted, “We’re eight months into this pandemic and Donald Trump still doesn’t have a plan to get this virus under control.  I do.”

Amongst other jewels on his platform, he promised 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days in office!  Bold goal aiming for 1 million injections a day don’t you say?

His advisers advised the press that this would be a tall hill to climb but they would do everything they could to make it happen.  How tall?  His senior advisor Cedric Richmond spoke to CNN’s Pamela Brown on air about the Covid vaccine distribution.  “The sad part is the last administration didn’t leave anything.  They didn’t leave a plan.”

The funny or not so funny thing about that is America has been averaging almost that for the last 15 or so days before Biden took his oath under heavy security.  It might be over a million a day if California, ranked dead last in the US in percent of vaccines administered versus shipped, could roll up more sleeves.

Now, this conflicts with another Biden tweet this past week.  @JoeBiden: “There is nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.”  Say it ain’t so, Joe?  What happened to your plan?

But for some, if you follow the science, apparently the situation is getting better after nearly ten months of stay at home orders.

One believer is Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer(D).  She announced that her state would allow restaurants and bars to reopen for indoor service at 25% capacity starting early next week.  She stated, “The science around this is settled, and if we all wear masks and wash our hands while social distancing, we will be in a strong position in a few weeks.  And then we’ll even be able to do more.”  Groundbreaking really.

Did she learn this while attending Biden’s inauguration while not socially distancing?  Sounds like her husband can go clean his boat safely now, too.

Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser(D) found the science news refreshing as well.  She announced an identical plan to Whitmer’s on the same day.  The mad scientist, she is.

Both are timely, though both are a full week behind New York(D) Governor Andrew Cuomo’s pronouncement a week ago.  He brilliantly blabbed that New York can’t go on like this any longer.  “We must reopen,” he said.  The plan floated there is to use rapid testing administered at hundreds of government locations. Of course, it is.  Rapid testing has been available for about six months.  Let the government help you.

So, either we have a plan or don’t.  Either we reopen or not.  And, we need more vaccines that we don’t administer.  And then, there is our new leader who said there’s nothing we can do about the trajectory.

No wonder we need the government’s help to solve this.   Surely they’ll follow the science to get us there.  And, just in time we might add.

 

PA, QB’s, KXLPP, and Phil

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

The state of Pennsylvania has produced more great quarterbacks than any other.   Namath, Unitis, Kelly, Marino, and Montana hail from all over the Keystone State as it is known.

And, as of today, it will have produced yet another.  This one is tasked with leading the most important team of all, the United States.  His name is Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. and he was born in Scranton, PA way back in 1942. 

If you listen to those who voted for him, Joe’s facing fourth and long given the job done by his predecessor, outgoing QB Donald J. Trump.

But, undaunted, the Scrapper from Scranton has promised much to many.  His game plan is aggressive on day one and even more so in the first 100 days.

One of the first plays he is expected to call is a halt to the Keystone XL Pipeline Project (KXLPP).

If you’re not familiar with the project here’s where the bouncing ball stands after three phases were completed.  The pipeline became well known when a planned fourth phase, Keystone XL, attracted opposition from environmentalists, becoming a symbol of the battle over climate change and fossil fuels. In 2015 Keystone XL was temporarily delayed by then-President Barack Obama. On January 24, 2017, President Donald Trump took action intended to permit the pipeline’s completion. On January 17, 2021, it was announced that President-elect Joe Biden planned to cancel the Keystone XL project during his first days in office.

You’d think that it’s the first of its kind as opposed to likely the safest of its kind.

Opponents cheered.  If you’re in the stands waving pompoms for the Green New Deal, it’s a touchdown.  Proponents jeered.  If you’re a member of one of the four national unions that have nearly 7000 of their teammates working on it, or if you prefer North American oil refined in North America, you booed lustily.

So the Keystone State commander in chief will punt the political football known as the Keystone Project down the field.

And, that’s how it goes these days.  Every four years we spend a lot of time, energy (not the dreaded fossil fuel type), and money undoing what we’ve been doing.  Next up immigration laws, then the dreaded wall, then corporate taxes.  Then?  Well, how about the inheritance tax?  How dare you die and leave your hard-earned money to your family!

It’s hard to win the office and keep the office when 50% of the stands are filled with the opposition to your game plan.  It’s harder still when you make choices like stopping the KXLPP.  The union vote of confidence is waining and you just kicked off.  Fifty percent of 50% of 50% of 50% is, well you understand, not enough after four years in the biggest league of them all.

And, speaking of kicking off, this QB is a mere 78 years old as he takes office, but we digress.  Former Oakland Raider QB George Blanda grew up in Pennsylvania as well.  Blanda retired from pro football in August 1976 as the oldest player to ever play at the age of 48.  Maybe 78 is the new 48?

Blanda played in four different decades.  Biden has been in political offices of one kind or another for at least that many.

With that type of longevity, you must be pretty good at knowing when to run v. when to pass.

Good luck Mr. QB President-elect Biden.

Puxatawny Phil will be watching.  He too is from PA.  Will he see his shadow, take his ball, and go home?  Or does hope eternally spring early this spring?

 

 

Do Not Pass Go

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

“Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the rest of the play?”

The fallout continues from the storming of the Capitol Building last Thursday.  And it accelerates.  The siege didn’t last very long, but the damage in so many ways was done.

And, the door to reshaping America has blown more wide open than the courtesy shown by the Capitol Police to the not so peaceful of the mostly peaceful protesters.

Cancel culture is evolving like a revolving door that lost power.  Have you ever been in one when it came to a complete stop?  You try not to smash your face against the suddenly stationary glass.  Good luck.

Do you remember the decibel level of the media when an Oregon baker refused to make a cake for a same-sex couple wedding?  That was when the media deemed it so wrong for a private business to selectively not serve a willing paying customer.

Chick-Fil-a still doesn’t open on Sundays, but it takes some damn fine chicken to survive the cancel attempts of the culture of today.

Parler might be in the deep fry, however.   Surely you heard of them?  They are (or were) trying to build a Twitter-like platform for the right.   Amazon, Google, and Apple collectively pulled the virtual rug out from under Parler.

Every vendor for texting and email services and even their lawyers ditched them.  Poof!  It can be awfully dark on Al Gore’s internet in so many ways.

If you have no server, no app, and no search engine result, you have no social media business.  It’s pretty simple.  And, it should be pretty scary to all.

The PGA has had it with Trump too.   They exercised their right to cancel their agreement to play the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump Bedminister, one of his courses.  It’s their right after all.

Major corporations are running, not walking away, from members of Congress who voted against ratifying the electoral college results.  Some have stopped political contributions altogether.  And, altogether that might not be a bad idea.

BBR has long supported a business’s right to refuse service for any reason(s) including religious beliefs but not on prejudices.

Hate Trump all you want.  Hate the right all you want.  Hell, impeach him for a second time if you want.  But, we better start pointing some vitriol and arrows at big tech and now.

The monopolies that they have and the power that they wield should scare us all.   Try working your way down the fourth side of the Monopoly Board.  Pacific, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Park, and Boardwalk are all very expensive if you land on any one of them.

The war on free speech makes the storming of the Capitol look like a bunch of misguided, misfit amateurs, oogled on by a sore loser, which it was.  And both should scare all.

The right to burn the American flag has long been ruled as guaranteed freedom of expression.

You don’t have to like it.  You just need to respect it.

The same should go for freedom of speech.

 

(In)Civility

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

The roads that lead to the corner of civility and incivility are but a few steps apart from one another.

Was yesterday’s mostly peaceful protest march that started just steps from the White House and ended up the steps of the Capitol Building a new low? Not at all.  The First Amendment guarantees it.  But.

Was the lowest of lows reached when a subset of the group invaded the hallowed halls of the Congress by breaking windows, brandishing a few guns, and carrying out artifacts from their conquest?  We can hope.  Or, we can do more than hope.

Trump was elected as the ultimate outsider and built his momentum by condemning all that Washington is (drain the swamp) and all that reported favorably on it (the fake news folks).  His base loved(loves) the idea.  His fringe zealots crossed a line that heretofore may have never been crossed before.  And, where the hell was the police?

We all had to feel violated.  The White House and the Capitol Building are more than architectural masterpieces.  They’re our home and our workplace.  They are uniquely Americas to cherish.   They are the envy of the world for what they symbolize or did symbolize.  Freedom.

But maybe, just maybe we’ve taken these freedoms a bit too far.  And, like it or not that goes for both sides.  We’d rather argue and stand our ground on every item of our agendas no matter how big or small.  “Leaders” would rather tear up a speech behind the President’s back than meet with him face to face to try to advance the quality of the American way of life.

If you protest longer, yell louder, destroy more, burn hotter, and loot till you can’t carry anymore loot maybe you’ll be heard.  Or, maybe you’ll be ignored and despised. Kill a few cops while you’re at it too.  Feed your base and your fringe will carry your water.

If you claim repeatedly, and petulantly, and incorrectly that the election that you lost was really one that you won in a landslide somebody will believe you and you can still sit in the wooden chair in the Oval Office.  Feed your base and your fringe will carry your water.

Yesterday the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat issued a joint statement prior to their game.  “2021 is a new year, but some things have not changed,” the statement read. “We play tonight’s game with a heavy heart after yesterday’s decision in Kenosha, and knowing that protesters in our nation’s capital are treated differently by political leaders depending on what side of certain issues they are on. The drastic difference between the way protesters this past spring and summer were treated and the encouragement given to today’s protestors who acted illegally just shows how much more work we have to do.

You might have missed the news(understandably) that no Kenosha officers were charged in the Jacob Blake shooting that left him paralyzed.   They weren’t charged because eyewitness and video accounts showed the repeat offender of the law carrying an open knife disobeying the lawmen who feared for their lives.    Why would you have a heavy heart about that?  Nevermind that Kenosha was burned down as it doesn’t fit the narrative.

The Celtics and the Heat then knelt together pregame protesting the Washington protest.

What’s next?  Could some group protest a protest of a protest?

What Trump said to his supporters was wrong.  What they did inside of the Capitol Building was criminal.

When the peaceful protesters in the summer of love burned down the Minneapolis Police Precinct Three Station it was wrong and it was criminal as well.

Two wrongs don’t make a right.  And ten wrongs don’t make five rights.

Yesterday wasn’t a civil war, but it was far from civil.  But, if we keep justifying lower lows of uncivil behavior we’ll get there.

In less than two weeks President-Elect Joe Biden will take the oath of office on the same steps that the protesters occupied for hours yesterday.

Donald Trump issued a statement last night saying that the transition would be orderly.  He’s a funny guy.

Joe Biden said he was running for office because “the soul of the nation was at stake.”

It sure seems so.

 

 

Tic Toc Goes the Clock

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

In 2009 newly elected and inaugurated President Barrack Obama told Republican Congressional leadership that “elections have consequences.”  And, indeed they do.

In 2017 newly elected and inaugurated President Donald Trump told America that “we are going to win, win, win.  We’re going to win so much that you’re going to get tired of winning.”  And, apparently, indeed America did tire.

With one seat still undecided in Georgia this AM, the Democrats are so close to their own win, win, win.  They have a slim majority in the House, they won (stole say some who remain in denial) the Presidency, and they are on the doorstep of the slimmest of margins in the Senate.

In 2009 when the Democrats last controlled all three, Obamacare was born. It turned healthcare into a right, not a need, for all practical purposes.

But remember, “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.”  Well, not really, but we digress.

So, assuming Georgia delivers two peaches to the Senate from yesterday’s runoffs, what “consequence” or “consequences” will they deliver? The world is their oyster thanks to the presumptive peaches.

Well, what’s on the menu?  Is Washington DC headed for statehood?  Are higher corporate taxes on the way?  Surely there is some further social and justice reform coming.

How about more black robes for more black Supreme Court justices.  Nine is such an odd number anyway.  How about a lucky 13?

And, it’s cold (too cold) outside now, but it’ll soon be warm (too warm) this spring.  Climate change needs to change.  And, all of those windmills that you’ll soon see won’t cool us down enough.   The car battery business is very good, and it just got better.

And, finally, Twitter’s “disputed claims” department can reassign a few workers.

Or, will the Democrats have trouble group ordering from the menu?  Can’t decide?  It’s happened before.  Can’t share?  It’s happened before.   It happened in 2009.  Indigestion and heartburn aren’t ever far away if one gets gluttonous.

Two years seems so far away.  But, in two years could the Republicans recover from so much winning and whining and take back the House?  The Senate?  Both?

Sure they can.  The pendulum always swings.  At least it always has.  Obama found out the hard way in late 2010 just as Reagan did back in 1982.

Stacking on two more Senators by granting statehood to DC would make the Senate tough.  But, don’t forget that politics is always local, and the “on the ground” House seats that the elephants gained in November is a modest but significant move countrywide that could make landfall in the Capital as early as 2022.

As for the now?  One of our staff members fielded a question from his soon to be 32-year-old son this AM.  “Now what do we do, dad?” the young businessman asked.  “Go to work, son,” came the reply we’re told.

While two years seems like an eternity to reshape America, it’s but a New York minute in our history.

And, the clock never stops ticking.

 

5593 Pages and $2000

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

The ride to the $2000 per family stimulus signed into law by President Trump had a few twists, turns, bumps, and bruises.  But, in the end, is or isn’t it all worth it?

The answer reminds us of a quote from a famous president of our yesteryear.  “It depends on what your definition of is, is.”

The house bill called the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021, funded both the government to do its usual fine job and the citizens who don’t have a fine job.

Actually, it did that and then some.  And, some.  It’s a measly $2.3 trillion spend.

That it took a while might have had to do with that pesky election in November.  You see, multiple attempts were made to line your pockets with bread crumb money in the fall.   But, a few Dems said no and no and no for one reason or another or another.  Till now.

Senator Marsha Blackburn may have summed it up best when she said, “One of the things that is so frustrating about this is that you could have had a lot more money than $2,000 in the pocket of hard-working Americans if, back in July or September or twice in October or in November, they had voted to increase unemployment by $300 per week.

Nevermind that, take a look at what’s inside this 5593 page beautifully wrapped Christmas present if you have time.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or AOC if you’re short on time, just a few days ago complained that she didn’t.  Maybe she was out doing some last-minute shopping of her own.

The novel War and Peace was just 1225 pages.

USA Today had some time.  They feel like if you are a concerned citizen on climate change you got everything you ever wanted.  If you think climate change is a bunch of malarky it looks like you got a lump of coal in your stocking.  See what we did there?

USA Today reported that environmental activists “are touting the $2.3 trillion bill as a potential game-changer thanks to tax breaks for renewable energy sources, initiatives to promote carbon capture storage, and a significant phasedown of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) that are a key culprit to the planet’s warming.”

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) supported the bill and likes the incentive features.  “Free-market innovation is the key to addressing a changing climate,” Barrasso said. “This bipartisan legislation proves we can protect our environment without punishing our economy.”  Can you hear the laughter all of the way from China?

The law also includes expanding the federal bureaucracy across federal agencies, including creating the Office of Fossil Energy, the Office of Science, and the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

That’s lots of new offices at a time when the commercial real estate biz is tough because that Covid thing keeps getting in the way.  DC must be the place to relocate if you are a commercial realtor.  Perhaps a lease-to-own arrangement is best for you Uncle Sam?

The Direct Air Capture Technology Advisory Board also would be put in place.  I guess if we want to know what it is we should heed the advice of Nancy Pelosi of years gone by when Obamacare was passed.  She uttered, “if you want to know what’s in the bill you can read it after we pass it.”

Still, we wondered what the hell direct air capture was.  A quick Google search turned up a page that had a popup request that we donate to the World Resources Institute (WRI).

The WRI sounds mighty important, almost as important as the $2000 you’ve been waiting on for four months.

 

 

 

What Changed?

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Helping America get back on its collective feet is a noble cause of our invaluable government.  In fact, there is a report from Politico this AM that a $900 billion stimulus package (the second of its kind in the year of our Covid) is expected to be announced today.

Yesterday’s stock market rally foreshadowed as much.  When you pump money into consumers’ and businesses’ hands it eventually lands on corporate bottom lines.  When bottom lines go up, stocks go up.

You might question why $900 billion and why today?  Perhaps you should question $900 billion and why today.  President Trump countered and countered Pelosi’s pork-filled relief bill in September and October.  She wanted a robust $2.2 trillion.  Spendthrift Trump only wanted about $1.8 trillion.  Pelosi tore into the miser at every turn.  In fact, she ripped up the pages (not really but to revisit the visual is worth the reach) of the Trump counter saying it wasn’t near enough back then.

What changed?   An election is what changed.  Why help Trump and the peasants before the election when you can delay, anger the peasants, blame it on Trump, and have them vote your way?  Now that the dealing is done, open the cash spigot a bit and make it rain all be it far less than the president was willing to do to help.

Speaking of peasants, the black lives matter movement spearheaded by the BLM organization is now impatiently waiting for a meeting with the Biden/Harris team that they peacefully protested for in many cities to ignite those same peasants to vote them in.  It’s been 32 days and counting they say.  Enough already.  Where is our seat at the table they ask?  Don’t they know that the Biden/Harris transition team is very busy?  At the sound of the tone leave a voice mail, please.

Extra busy and awfully quiet is Kamala Harris.  Remember BLM to enunciate it as “Comma Lah” when leaving the voice mail, but we digress.  In six months’ time, she accused Biden of racism and her campaign soon fell on its face.  She got up four months later, answered Biden’s call, and was nominated as the first black woman to run as VP.  Depending on from which direction the wind blows she claims to be either African American or identifies as a Black American.  What changed?  “Only in America” Don King once said.

And that isn’t the only busy signal that BLM calls have received.  Yesterday Biden announced his choice for Secretary of Transportation.  It’s none other than Mayor Pete Buttigieg.  When last we heard a peep from Pete he was dropping out of the Democratic Presidential race and holding raised hands with Biden on a stage announcing that the future was bright.  Heck, he didn’t even wait till Super Tuesday.  What changed?  A backroom back scratch for his obvious sway with the Gay Community is what changed.

Could it be more ironic that in South Bend, IN, where the honorable Buttigieg reigns, the roads are said to have some of the worst potholes of any city in America?  As Secretary of Transportation maybe Pete can grab a bit of the above-mentioned $900 billion for some asphalt?

In addition, Buttigieg faced opposition from the local black community and the local BLM organization after he demoted the city’s first black police chief, and after a white police officer shot and killed a black man named Eric Logan. Black Lives Matter activists followed Buttigieg on the campaign trail and protested him repeatedly.

Hmm.  BLM denounced his nomination loudly yesterday.  After all, isn’t that at the very core of the BLM movement?

The number that you have called is either disconnected or no longer listed.  Please hang up and try again.

What changed?  You know what changed.

The saying “politics makes strange bedfellows” need not change.

It always answers the call.

Undebatable Facts

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Six or so years ago then-President Barrack Obama delivered one of his many eloquent speeches.  In it, he emphatically stated that “Climate change is no longer a debate, it’s a scientific fact.”  He added one of his dramatic pauses for the cause.  And, so it was.

It is indeed a fact that the climate has been changing since the earth was created, and actually even before, so he has a point.

In the last 18 months or so we’ve been told over and over that black lives matter by the Black Lives Matter organization, many civic leaders, elected government officials, and many politicians trying to earn your vote.  Heck, if you believe that all of us deserve equality you would agree that black lives matter as you obviously believe that all lives matter.

It’s stated overtly in the second paragraph of the United States Declaration of Independence as follows: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

And, so it is.

But, on the road to ensuring this equality, a few potholes have made the ride rough.

One such pothole is in the far northwest.   The Oregon state legislature’s Emergency Board created the Oregon Cares Fund this summer — with nightly Black Lives Matter riots raging in Portland — to allocate $62 million (or 31% of the total) in funds from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to black residents (out of $200 million in total funds).  This fund is meant to provide the Black community with the resources it needs to weather the global health pandemic and consequent recession. The most recent census shows that just under 2% of Oregonians identify as African Americans or black.

Does the community need 15 times the average of fellow Oregonians?  You bet.  Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) and AG Ellen Rosenblum said as much last month: “The data show that Black Oregonians are experiencing disproportionate harm from COVID-19.  We must not allow pernicious and ideologically-motivated lawsuits to impede our efforts to deliver critical resources to Oregonians amid a devastating pandemic.”  Two lawsuits citing inequitable distribution of federal funds, a direct violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, are pending.

Meanwhile, two time zones and almost 2000 miles due east, Madison, WI has some road repair to do as well.

According to a report, the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has come under fire this week over the pay disparity between two recent keynote speakers. Robin DiAngelo, the author of the best-selling White Fragility, was paid substantially more than the second keynote speaker, black female author Austin Channing Brown. DiAngelo was paid nearly $13,000 for speaking at the event, while Channing received just $7,500.

Now, the university is facing criticism over its failure to live up to its own standards on “diversity and inclusion.”  Ethelene Whitmire, chair of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Afro-American Studies, refused to comment on the pay disparity when questioned.

“The department has not discussed this topic,” Whitmire said.  Like climate change, it must be another fact with no need for debate.

Perhaps Barrack Obama could use his considerable powers and discuss this topic. Even in these pandemic times he probably could deliver a Zoom speech from his home office.   His standard speaking fee is a mere $400,000.  Maybe both authors were under-compensated?

Are government and capitalism blocking the way on this drive to equality heaven?

Or, perhaps some things aren’t as black and white as they seem.

 

Diversify or Get Delisted!

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

While one eye was looking at CNBC early this morning the other was fixated on the coffee being brewed to get it fully open.  And suddenly there it was.  Breaking news delivered to you by none other than Andrew Ross Sorkin.    The news was enough to get the other eye open even without the much-needed caffeine.

In bold font, it rolled.  Nasdaq will require boards to have at least one woman and one director who self-identifies as an underrepresented minority or L.G.B.T.Q.

Sorkin read on, “Companies that don’t disclose diversity information face potential delisting, while those that report their data but don’t meet the standards will have to publicly explain why.”  Cancel culture?

And he read on, “Nasdaq lobbied the S.E.C. to make diversity disclosure a rule for all companies. “The ideal outcome would be for the S.E.C. to take a role here,” said Adena Friedman, Nasdaq’s C.E.O.  Or,  she could have said, “let’s get big brother to make it so!”

“Nasdaq cites research showing the benefits of board diversity, from higher-quality financial disclosures to the lower likelihood of audit problems.”  In other words, men cheat, but when women or minorities are present they are less inclined to do so.

This was all quoted from this morning’s New York Times.

Do you know who was the lead writer recognized in the byline for the story?  Andrew Ross Sorkin.

So, to recap, an avowed liberal writer of a left-leaning paper, delivered breaking news on a left-leaning CNBC and quoted his own story in doing so.

And, to further recap, a public company that profits from every trade

that the public makes on its exchange of listed public companies wants to dictate how their boards are constructed.

Does it at all smell like another public company named Twitter deciding what is right for the public to read or not to read?  Well, it doesn’t smell like the freshly brewed coffee that is still sitting there as we type.

Is it a coincidence that this breaks just less than a month after the Biden election?  Much like the “let’s impeach Trump”  bellows less than a month after his election, the left is on offense yet again.  They always are.

And, to quote many a late-night infomercial, “but wait, there’s more!”

Not only would it be the first time a major stock exchange demanded more disclosure than the law requires, which Ms. Friedman described as “an unusual step.” It raises questions about whether exchanges could use their listing rules to force action on other hot-button issues, like climate change.

And there it is!

In the selling world you can always ask for two “orders” hoping to get one.

Make no mistake about it the left is always selling.  They’re quite good at it.

And more than ever before they have major organizations in the media, and now in the previously free marketplace, carrying their PowerPoint presentation and samples for them.

My oh my, how the business climate has indeed changed.