Suggested Discussion Outline

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johnkarls
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Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:43 pm

Suggested Discussion Outline

Post by johnkarls »

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It was extremely frustrating and nearly impossible to devise a Suggested Discussion Outline for “Makers and Takers” because most of it is incoherent!!!

In other words, rather than (1) describing an alleged problem, (2) explaining why the alleged problem is indeed a problem, (3) making a proposal, and then (4) explaining why the proposal in fact solves the problem AND why the alleged solution is the best solution available -- our author Rana Foroohar reels off alleged fact after alleged fact while rarely explaining why the alleged fact is a problem, or what the best solution is.

Accordingly, it is respectfully suggested that each participant on Dec. 14 focus on as many problems as s/he would like and be prepared for EACH problem on which s/he is focusing --

(A) To explain why the alleged problem is indeed a problem,

(B) To propose a solution, and

(C) To explain why your proposal in fact solves the problem AND why the alleged solution is the best solution available.


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CAVEATS

For the sake of good order, it is respectfully suggested that each of the following topics be considered “out of bounds” for the reasons indicated.


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Out-Of-Bounds Topic No.1 -- Indictment of Bill Clinton for Repealing Glass-Steagall

We should all be able to agree that Bill Clinton’s 1999 Repeal of the Glass-Steagall requirement that Commercial Banking and Investment Banking be separated -- was a disaster for any number of reasons.

After all, the Commercial Banks obtain deposits courtesy of Federal Government guarantees thru the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

And Bill Clinton should have known from just having presided over the clean-up of the Savings and Loan Crisis 1986-1995 in which 1,043 of the nation’s 3,234 S&L’s failed, which in turn actually bankrupted the Federal Government’s Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC), forcing a taxpayer bailout thru a specially-created Federal Bailout Program known as the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) Program -- that “free” (aka Government guaranteed) money will attract Ne’er-Do-Wells like “bees to honey”!!!


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Out-Of-Bounds Topic No.2 -- Indictment of our author Rana Foroohar for Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism

On p. 25 of “Makers and Takers” Rana Foroohar suddenly makes the gratuitous comparison --

“It’s about reforming business education, which is still filled with academics who resist challenges to the false gospel of efficient markets the same way that MEDIEVAL CLERGY DISMISSED SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE THAT CHALLENGED THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.” [Emphasis added.]

Three of the world’s five so-called Great Religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism) are monotheistic -- Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

[Confucianism is NOT a religion but is more akin to a compilation of Ann Landers columns and was practiced simultaneously with Buddhism by the Chinese before the Chinese Communists substantially wiped out Buddhism. Shintoism is/was a quasi-religion comprising primarily ancestor worship and is/was practiced simultaneously with Buddhism by more than 90% of the Japanese population at the time of World War II though, according to http://www.cia.gov, the percentages of today’s Japanese population practicing Shintoism has dropped to 79.2% and practicing Buddhism has dropped to 66.8% -- however, it is respectfully suggested that that is a 66.8% overlap rather than an overlap of only 46.0% (that is 79.2% + 66.8% = 146.0% less 100%)].

All three of the monotheistic religions WORSHIP THE SAME GOD (NB: “Allah” is simply the Arabic word for the God of Abraham and Moses).

And it is true that the medieval clergy of ALL THREE RELIGIONS “dismissed scientific evidence that challenged the existence” of the God of Abraham and Moses.

So in our PC-culture, it is NOT permissible for Rana Foroohar to make such a reckless statement without clarifying whether she is intending to attack SOLELY Christianity AND NOT ALSO Islam and Judaism.

After all, we should all be able to agree that her only defense is IGNORANCE and, as the ancient proverb goes, IGNORANCE OF THE LAW IS NO EXCUSE, even if we are only dealing here with “PC Law.”


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Out-Of-Bounds Topic No.3 -- Rana Foroohar Mindlessly “Following The Herd” In Claiming That The 2008 Economic Meltdown Was Caused By Subprime Mortgages and Old-Fashioned Insurance of the Value of Mortgage Pools (called “Credit-Default Swaps” in order to fool the NY Insurance Commissioner into believing that such insurance should not require adequate insurance reserves)


Our 11/14/2012 E-mail Campaign Re The Cause Of The 2008 Meltdown (which was re-posted on http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org in the Participants Comments section for our 12/14/2016 meeting) spells out how a one-time reduction of the regular 35% income tax rate to 5.25% on dividends from tax-haven subsidiaries (primarily non-resident Singapore corporations) of $4 TRillion - $5 TRillion of profits that had piled up FROM EXPORTING AMERICAN JOBS caused the tax-haven subsidiaries which had NOT put the funds IN MATTRESSES LOCATED IN SINGAPORE but instead had done the only thing that, as a practical matter, was permitted by the U.S. tax code (loaning the money to the unrelated CHUMP American companies that had NOT EXPORTED AMERICAN JOBS), to demand repayment of those loans ASAP.

So it is no mystery why the resulting $4 TRillion - $5 TRillion REDUCTION IN AMERICAN PAYROLL and capital expenditures of the CHUMP companies created a housing crisis.

After all, if Congress is going to cause that many American workers to be thrown out of their jobs simultaneously, there should be no mystery why there was nobody to buy all their homes as they were being foreclosed. Whether or not there had been any subprime mortgages.

And that $4 TRillion - $5 TRillion, as it came “around the horn” from the CHUMP American companies to the tax-haven subs to the parent-company EXPORTERS OF AMERICAN JOBS, were simply used for stock buy-backs and extraordinary dividends -- and PER THE CONSTANT LAMENTS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE ABOUT THE DESPERATE STAITS OF THE CHUMP COMPANIES, never made it back to the Chump companies for a “big nothing” (and certainly NOT “Job Creation” as claimed in the title of the Congressional legislation reducing the tax rate).

Just like the Federal Reserve during the 2008-2010 Meltdown which did NOT “have a clue” about what was happening, Rana Foroohar is reminiscent of the Buddhist-Hindu tale of the Blind Men and the Elephant!!!

Because Foroohar constantly rails against various aspects of the imbroglio just described, while exhibiting no comprehension that they are connected, much less why they are connected.

Nonetheless, in light of John Karls’ current personal e-mail campaign (please see Short Quiz Q&A-27) to each of the Presidents of the 12 Regional Federal Reserve Banks to put them on notice to be ready to loan $5 TRillion to the CHUMP companies (THE SAME WAY THE FEDERAL RESERVE PRINTED $7.77 TRILLION WHICH IT LOANED TO BAIL OUT U.S. BANKS IN THE 2008-2010 FINANCIAL MELTDOWN) so that the CHUMP companies can re-pay their loans from the tax-haven subs of the PROFITS that have piled up there FROM EXPORTING AMERICAN JOBS SINCE THE 2008 MELTDOWN, there is nothing to do!!!

And nothing to be gained from taking the time to consider once more how The Establishment created a false narrative for what caused the 2008 Meltdown, because The Establishment knew that it would be necessary to fool Congress again AS IT IS NOW DOING vis-à-vis whether another $5 TRillion has been SEWN INTO SINGAPORE MATTRESSES!!!

Because Congress is poised to do the same thing all over again in the first 100 days of the New Administration.

So the proof will soon be in the proverbial pudding. And we don’t have to waste time on Dec 14 re-hashing this issue.


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Out-Of-Bounds Topic No. 4 – Renewing 1968 Executive Order 11387 To Halt The Export Of American Capital

Rana Foroohar is blissfully oblivious to the consequences of the Free Flow of American Capital!!!

Our 2/12/2014 E-mail Campaign to renew 1968 Executive Order 11387 which prohibited the Export of American Capital during the last year of President Lyndon Johnson’s administration AND THE FIRST FIVE YEARS of the administration of President Richard Nixon -- noted the following advantages --

“(1) the retention of more American capital in the U.S. would mean that the additional capital would have to be invested in domestic projects that would employ more American workers, thereby reducing or eliminating American unemployment; and

“(2) the resulting increase in the ratio of capital employed per American worker would cause the real income of American workers to rise once more.”

It is respectfully suggested that we attempt to conserve time on Dec 14 by refraining from re-hashing this issue, especially since our author was so blissfully oblivious to it.


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Partially Out-Of-Bounds Topic No. 5 -- The Looming Problem of Congress’ Green Lighting of Corporate America’s Substituting 401(k) Plans (in which American workers largely do NOT participate) for Pension Plans


Chapter 8 entitled “The End of Retirement” is really a “basket of deplorable” factoids relating to the looming crisis of elderly American workers who can NOT afford to retire.

Although her basic theme is valid, she starts out “on the wrong foot” by saying (p. 239) --

“Although small firms have created most of the new jobs in the economy for the past fifty years, only 14 percent of them sponsor formal retirement plans today.”

Which is so typical of Foroohar when she does deign to try to APPEAR to explain anything for “The Great Unwashed”!!!

“Most of the new jobs” is NOT the same as “most of the jobs”!!! Foroohar should be honest enough to tell “The Great Unwashed” what percentage of American workers are employed by our old large corporations.

But that irritation is the proverbial “teat on the whale.” The reasons for respectfully suggesting that Chapter 8 be “Partially Out-Of-Bounds” are --

(1) We already have a 2/9/2011 E-mail Campaign for financing Social Security and Medicare with a European-style gasoline tax.

(2) And Foroohar is sublimely oblivious to the way Congress Green Lighted Corporate America’s stampede away from traditional pension plans to Sec. 401(k) plans.

(3) And we have studied in detail the pending collapse of state and local pension plans for our 5/8/2013 meeting on “Federal Bailouts of Illinois and Detroit, Etc., Etc., Etc.” [Foroohar correctly identifies governmental employment as the last bastion of traditional pension plans.]

And we have tried to focus on No. 2 several times -- please see, for example, Sec. E-3 of the Suggested Discussion Outline for our 2/11/2015 meeting which proposed --

“E-3. A new Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-mail Campaign against Corporate America’s substitution, beginning in the 1980’s, of Sec. 401(k) plans for traditional pension plans, because the substitution will result in the majority of Americans reaching retirement age with little or no savings.”

And please see the additional background provided in the materials posted on http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org in the Participant Comments section for that 2/11/2015 meeting entitled “Bitterness and Focusing on the Future” and “George Orwell and The Definition of ‘Tramp’ (noun)” and “Suggested Answers to the Second Short Quiz” Q&A-9 through Q&A-16, especially Q&A-14 which said --

“Q-14: Did Congress pass the so-called Pension Protection Act of 2006 which protected corporations from the prohibition of offering tax-exempt plans that benefit disproportionately high-wage employees (typically the corporate officers), if the tax-exempt plans comprise Sec. 401(k) plans that provide for automatic enrollment subject to opting out (vs. “opt in” plans) even when all of the low-wage employees do in fact opt out?”

“A-14: A feature of the tax law from time immemorial had been that tax-exempt retirement plans are NOT permitted to benefit disproportionately high-wage employees (typically the corporate officers). However, studies showed that low-wage workers were more likely to participate in Sec. 401(k) plans in which contributions were matched by employers, if they were automatically enrolled subject to opting out (vs. so-called “opt in” plans). So Congress enacted the so-called Pension Protection Act of 2006 that provided that the prohibition against tax-exempt retirement plans benefitting disproportionately high-wage employees would NOT apply to so-called “opt out” Sec. 401(k) plans. Accordingly, employer-provided Sec. 401(k) plans are now permitted to benefit ONLY high-wage employees such as corporate officers.”

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The “Partially Out-Of-Bounds” Lines for Chapter 8???

(1) We should NOT have to re-hash financing Social Security with a European-style gasoline tax.

(2) We should NOT have to re-hash all of the material assembled for our 5/8/2013 meeting which addressed the ridiculously-underfunded pension plans of state-and-local governments.

[NB: We also studied on 5/8/2013 how the Federal Government’s MILITARY PENSIONS and CIVILIAN PENSIONS do not have a penny of funding and nobody frets about that the way so many fret about Social Security!!! As well as studying about how nobody frets about how there is NO ENDOWMENT to fund all of our future military budgets!!!]

(3) We should NOT have to re-hash the stampede of Corporate America following the so-called Pension Protection Act of 2006 from pension plans to Sec. 401(k) plans.

With respect to No. 3, it is noted that the person who led the opposition at our 2/11/2015 meeting to an E-mail Campaign to revoke the so-called Pension Protection Act of 2006 is among our 9 RSVP’s for 12/14/2016. Which is why I am assuming that tackling this issue would consume a tremendous amount of time and would again fail to produce a positive result.

However, if any participant(s) do/does want to tackle this issue, it is respectfully suggested that we hold that discussion until the end of the meeting in order to permit other issues to “see the light of day” for the first time.

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Anything else in Chapter 8???

Please be prepared with the ABC’s of the third paragraph of this Discussion Outline.

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