During my morning routine prior to work, I was taking a break when the phone rang. At the other end was a gentleman telling me he had found money for me. From there my day changed. I sat up and listened. Who wouldn’t? I am getting free legal money not handed out by a loathsome politician acting like it was theirs in the first place. Of course, it was my money, but it was still a find. The call was from Bernstein, a private wealth management firm. I left there about five years ago when my financial advisor departed unannounced. I promptly moved my accounts elsewhere. It certainly was possible that some earnings/dividends might have been transferred to them after my departure. At any rate, it was nice to hear they had some of my moola. The young man then proudly told me they were sending me a check for 11 cents. Yes, you read that correctly. They had contacted me because they were holding 11 cents of my money to be deposited into my IRA account. He wanted to know if he should send it to me or to my new investment advisor. Then I started to harangue him. “You didn’t really contact me about 11 cents, did you? No, you… Read More

As a rule, columnists generally do not like to riff on other people’s product but rather create one’s own. Sometimes one is just forced to do so because of the message put out by others that have a significant position in the journalistic world. Those people do a disservice by providing misleading information on a subject with which you are well versed, and they must be countered. Catherine Rampell is a staff opinion writer for the Washington Post who is syndicated. She has the same economic background as Jared Bernstein who has been a spokesperson for President Biden and now is the nominee for Chair of Council of Economic Advisers – that is none. Her degree from Princeton was in Anthropology. I don’t know why she is considered an economics “expert.” I don’t know whether she has read The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith or Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Freedom. Yet she regularly opines on financial subjects and this time she has hit on the IRS and whether we are overtaxed. In her column, Sorry Democrats You Cannot Pay for Everything by Soaking the Rich… Read More

Experienced readers know the Bialoskys are devoted dog lovers who long ago made the transition to adopting rescues rather than getting puppies. I have long said dogs only want a bowl of food, a bowl of water and a lap to sit on and I still maintain that is true. We have had wonderful success with rescues, but we won the lottery with Winnie. Winnie entered our lives after the premature death of Kelly, a Lhasa Apso. She was the most adorably cute puppy and just a wonderful dog. Lhasos tend to take command of the house and Kelly was no different. She was diagnosed with cancer while The Beautiful Wife (BW) was home alone as the kids were at college and I was off working on the 2012 presidential campaign. She was the only doggie we had who did not live a full life, dying at 8 years old. I started looking for a Carin Terrier (think Toto). It was impossible to deal with the Carin Terrier people. At least in California, pick a breed of dogs and there is a group of people who are formed to connect with the dogs they love. The regional head for the Carin Terrier group was very helpful, but she kept leading me to these people very much over the top for my taste. One… Read More

The current attempt to turn our society on its head by establishing equity as the standard for advancement instead of excellence has become quite apparent. The failures are right in front of us. Two shining examples that glare at us daily are visible members of our federal government. The first is our transportation secretary. We all knew he had no qualifications to run this department. His only notable experience is being mayor of a city whose population is less than double the number of transportation department employees (103,353 residents versus 55,000 employees). How could this not be seen as a train wreck (no pun intended) waiting to happen? This is a person who wants to be taken seriously, yet regularly behaves in a non-serious manner. Just the fact that he was caught being driven to work and then getting off at a certain point and riding his bike (notably with a helmet) the remainder of the way tells you how his mind works. Then there was the incident of him disappearing for two months. He is not the only cabinet member to disappear for an extended period as Xavier Becerra, Health and Human Services Secretary, has been known to disappear for… Read More

The economic illiteracy of Americans — including most who have taken one or more college Economics classes — can be breathtaking. But instead of always complaining about this malady, I decided that with this article, I’d here offer a one-lesson business accounting course that SHOULD be taught in high school (if not at home).

Herewith, a cram course on the fundamental math of a retail business — specifically a fast-food establishment. And why almostallsuch culinary establishments will be cutting back their hours of operation — making that late-night fast-food eatery largely a thing of the past.

Every business has two kinds of costs:

1. Fixed Costs— These are costs that don’t change much from month to month. At the top of the list of fixed costs is usually property costs — mortgage (or rent), taxes, insurance. Add to that franchise fees, accounting cost, some insurance costs, etc.

2. Variable Costs— These costs primarily consist of the cost of goods sold, utilities, franchise percentage payments and… Read More

Whenever one blinks these days, there is a new story about which people get hysterical. Tennessee has always been best known for Nashville country music and Memphis barbeque. But it has become focused currently on two cultural events that are related, but in their own way completely separate. You certainly are familiar with the fact a transgender individual entered a Christian day school and killed six people – three older adults and three young children. If you read the “wrong” news service, there is no mention the shooter was a transgender. Or you might read seven people were killed due to the fact that the Nashville police did their job and killed the shooter –possibly saving many lives. That is not the topic of this column. It is another incident. A gun control proposal was put forth in the Tennessee State Legislature. Everyone I know is in favor of gun control. It is just the Left wants to control guns for law abiding citizens. They cite countries that have confiscated guns from their citizens, and you pretty much saw what happened during the pandemic where these countries ran roughshod over people’s rights in ways Americans could not… Read More

We pretty much all agree that the government needs some funding to operate essential functions. We have agreed on fees for services, property taxes and income taxes. We may not agree on the amount of tax, but we generally accept that taxes can be levied. That does not seem good enough for those interested in an ever-expanding government. Thus, they are searching for new means and they are looking to the final frontier – tax the assets people have accumulated over their lifetime – a wealth tax. As we all know, the federal expenditures have expanded astronomically in recent years. In 2010 the expenditures were $3.55 trillion. President Biden’s proposed budget beginning October 2023 is $6.9 trillion. Here are some fun facts at the state level. In 2023, California is spending twice as much per resident (in today’s dollars) as the government did in 2010. Florida and New York currently have very similar population levels, yet New York state spends twice as much as the Florida state government. The issue recently erupted as eight states joined in a pact to establish a wealth tax. The eight states – New York, California, Washington,… Read More

By now I am confident that you have read about or seen the recent and infamous episode at Stanford Law School. I refer to Judge Kyle Duncan, of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, being verbally attacked by student protesters during a presentation and then dressed down by an assistant dean of DEI. The worst parts of this matter have not even been addressed and some cultural crimes were committed. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) ran a column by the judge explaining his position on what occurred. Being a real newspaper, the WSJ also ran an op-ed piece by the assistant dean, Tirien Steinbach. The copy is here https://www.wsj.com/articles/diversity-and-free-speech-can-coexist-at-stanford-steinbach-duncan-law-school-protest-dei-27103829. Ms. Steinbach (if I may call her “Ms.”) shows her bias quite clearly early in the piece. She states, “student groups that vehemently opposed Judge Duncan showed up to protest.” That is not what they showed up to do. They showed up to disrupt the Judge’s presentation, thus… Read More