I got to thinking the other day, as I so often do, after seeing somebody toss off a joke on Twitter. The gag is an asset manager being told by a prospective client, "I need real, net of fee returns of 8%, so I don’t think you are a fit." The asset manager drily replies in .gif form, "Correct." My immediate response was not to the "realistic" or "unrealistic" element of an 8% … [Read more...] about The more unrealistic your goals are, the more of them you need
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Five questions about immigration
Immigration has emerged somewhat abruptly and I gather somewhat unexpectedly as a major political issue in 2018 due to the president's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which offered work permits and reprieve from deportation to immigrants who entered the United States without authorization as children (this group of immigrants is sometimes … [Read more...] about Five questions about immigration
How Ron Johnson’s weird idea for corporate tax reform might work
Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin announced last week that he couldn’t support the Senate tax reform bill because it failed to align the treatment of corporate income (which is taxed once when it’s recorded as profit and again when distributed to shareholders) with “passthrough” income, which is taxed only when it is reported on an individual taxpayer’s return. Rather than … [Read more...] about How Ron Johnson’s weird idea for corporate tax reform might work
On mutual understanding
I think that, to a degree that sometimes seems unusual in these heated times, I enjoy reading and listening to people who don't just disagree with me, but fundamentally disagree with me. This is partly because I don't even agree with the people who agree with me, so I get annoyed whenever a Democrat suggests a new means-tested tax credit and I see in my mind's eye the dozens … [Read more...] about On mutual understanding
An unbridgeable divide in American life
I recently returned from a long weekend trip to my hometown (made longer by one voluntary bump and one involuntary missed connection), and have been turning over in my head something that has come to seem more and more important to me. Here it is: small-town life is so obviously superior to big-city or suburban life that the suggestion that big cities or suburbs are better … [Read more...] about An unbridgeable divide in American life