I went to a meeting hosted by a firm that specializes in helping sell other companies. The presentation was surprisingly good and informative. And, I was not surprised or discomforted that 1/3 of the presentation was a sales pitch for the company that hosted the event. The talk was free; I went in assuming they were looking for new clients.
No. I was bothered by the right-wing snippets included in the presentation. Accepted-as-gospel fallacies about economics, finance, and recent history. For example, did you know that social security is broke? The so-called "lock box" is filled by $70 trillion in IOUs. The US is printing lots of money, and that is debasing our currency. No wonder that no one else but the US government is willing to buy our debt. China, India, and Brazil are all taking a pass on our treasury bills. And, income tax! Whoo boy! Here, my friends, is a facsimile of the very first 1040 form that was sent out by the IRS in 1913 and remained unchanged for 20 years. One page and a flat, 1% tax. Eminently fair. John Rockefeller and my grandfather at a sewing machine were treated equally. Nothing more democratic than that! Now, the IRS code is bloated to thousands of pages that get changed every year. Oh, and here is a quote from James Madison in which Madison rejected the idea of a national income tax. Jimmy knew that governments would just squander the money. And, he was right!
And that crash of 2008?. All caused because that year 80% of mortgages -- all forced upon the lenders by Congress -- went to subprime borrowers. And, when they defaulted, the economy went kablooey.
We also learned that now is the greatest time ever for people to sell their companies. It is a true sellers' market. Interest rates are at 70 year lows. Capital gain taxes are low. Companies looking for acquisitions are flush with cash because they've had nothing to spend it on since 2008. Europeans think US companies are bargains because the euro is strong compared to the dollar. Why, just compare today's economic environment with the 1980's when interest rates on 10 yr treasuries were at 21%. Back then, it was tough to find someone willing to take a risk on a buying a small company when they could earn a 21% return, risk free and backed by thefullfaithandcredit of these United States. I was too polite to ask why conservatives love them some Ronnie Reagan who oversaw that awful business climate and despise the Socialist Kenyan Muslim Usurper.
The biggest mystery of all. How is it possible for so many money guys to believe the right wing nonsense? This passion for political dogma over facts has got to lose them money. I have experienced two-score and more years of listening to ignorati making ludicrous false claims about science. I have met physicists who dismiss evolution; but, I can't find any other examples of people who remain so steadfastly loyal to nonsense within their supposed areas of expertise. What is going on?
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