OUT OF CONTROL: 480,000 OVERSTAYED VISAS LAST YEAR
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JEH: Gun control now matter of homeland security...
ROLLING STONE: REPEAL SECOND AMENDMENT...
I teach the Constitution for a living. I revere the document when it is used to further social justice and make our country a more inclusive one. I admire the Founders for establishing a representative democracy that has survived for over two centuries.
"[It] needs to be repealed because it is outdated, a threat to liberty and a suicide pact," says constitutional law professor
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mccrant@gmail.com
Minimum Wage Shown to Hurt Net Income
Barack Obama has made a real push to get a minimum wage of $15 per hour in the United States. As costly an idea as the Affordable Care Act was, this one could be the stick that breaks America's economic backbone--business--once and for all.
A mandated minimum wage actually benefits nobody but government. This is because of the combined effects of a graduated income tax, FICA taxes on payroll gross and the loss of entitlements for families currently with a job holder but still receiving Earned Income Credits, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, food stamps and housing assistance--just to name a few.
The mandated minimum wage, in many ways, is illusionary because prices on all items must be raised to compensate. With the losses in other arenas for lower class families, many will find they have even fewer discretionary dollars to spend each month despite the pay hike. In some cases, employers are going to find they have to get by with fewer employees because of the damage the minimum wage policy has on the bottom line.
UC Berkeley--a bastion of liberalism--conducted a study of the problem through its Labor Research program on Wal-Mart's employee's behalf. (The company's union-backed group called OUR Wal-Mart asked for the study.)
The estimate from this study determined Wal-Mart, the choice of necessity for many of America's low-income families, would take a nearly $5 billion hit against current net income levels by going to Obama's wish for a $15 minimum wage. And just over 34% of Wal-Mart employees would be exempt from the mandate's minimum level. With 1.5 million employees in the U.S., only 979,000 would be subjected to the new minimum pay.
Now when compared to the overall Wal-Mart revenue of $482 billion in the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2016, $5 billion in lost revenue is just over 1% and, by liberal standards, is determined to be a fleabite.
However, compared with net income the $5 billion represents just over 1/3rd of Wal-Mart's profitability. That cannot be considered a fleabite.
Wal-Mart, like every other business, is operating for profit. Its investors hope to make a gain in capital return and in dividends.
Charles Sizemore, in his opinion newsletter last Friday, wrote eloquently about the importance of dividends. He stated, "Stock dividends are more than a quarterly paycheck. They are a way of doing things. I would go so far as to argue that they are a philosophy of life or at least of business)."
Sizemore lays out a few positive reasons for dividends. First 'dividends are an outward, visible sign of who the real boss is.' Second, 'dividends dissuade fruitless empire building.' Third, 'Share buybacks never seem to work out as planned.'
Let's examine the three reasons in order to analyze the dilemma Wal-Mart is in.
Sizemore's first explanation is 'the guy at the top of the food chain is only different from the common assembly line worker in the size of his paycheck.' That's somewhat true. But there are some headaches that go along with that larger paycheck. All problems wind up on the top dog's desk sooner or later. Losses to the bottom line get there rather quickly.
His second reason is followed up by 'CEOs really aren't that different from politicians.' Ah-h, so true. While politicos have to appease most constituents, the real job remains to keep the biggest campaign donors happy--no matter what comes out of their mouths. Just like a politician says one thing to the bigger donors and another to the constituent to preserve their seat and thus their power control, bosses are spending other people's money often to obtain fruitless growth--JUST SO THEY CAN HAVE MORE POWER!
The problem with the buyback programs is, from normal situation of "Buy low, sell high", they are inverted and usually buy high and sell low. This inversion has exploded because of the Obama insistence that top people do not get an inordinate pay directly but use stock options to balance their income. This policy in conjunction with the Fed's unwarranted zero-interest rate policy, has pushed stock prices far beyond normal levels since the Great Recession. Sizemore thinks it would be more beneficial to use cash reserves for boosting dividends rather than stock buybacks. To me, profits could be used to expand a company's product/service line or even just improve pay for employees (gee, the wage raise Obama wants but through normal profit not government mandate.)
I'm a believer in the American Dream based on free capitalism, not socialism through government interference. Wal-Mart's potential loss of net income will mean a cut in dividends simply so government can get more revenues from payroll taxes, allegedly cut dependence on government entitlements (reducing that cost to government) and making people feel better about themselves.
As with everything socialism depends on, I dislike it. It warps solid economic business models that have worked for generations. It sets up government intrusion into daily life even more and ultimately will not have the desired effect for the poor--only create more of them.
Government's bottom line needs to be addressed, but it produces nothing but make-work. Business bottom lines affect everybody. How much depends on the business, but when the liberal-leaning UC-Berkeley puts out a report showing a huge drop in a single company's bottom line, that should be a red flag that should be heeded.
Minimum wage mandates, like Obamacare mandates , should be ash-canned. The sooner the better.
"I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility to every form of tyranny over the mind of man."--Thomas Jefferson
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Mohammad Moghaddam, an immigrant, came to Amarillo with his family eight years ago from Iran.
Immigrant services from Amarillo would not discuss with reporters whether they helped relocate the family to the Amarillo area.
Police say Mohammad was upset he was passed over for a promotion so he took his manager and another person hostage.
He was shot dead by police.
ABC News reported:
Amarillo police say the armed man who took two people hostage inside a local Wal-Mart was a store employee who had a work-related dispute with the manager and that there was no reason to believe the incident had any ties to terrorism.
Police Sgt. Brent Barbee says the suspect, 54-year-old Mohammad Moghaddam, took his manager and another person hostage over a dispute related to a promotion. Barbee says Moghaddam was a current employee at the Wal-Mart store.
Police say officers responded to the incident around 11 a.m. Authorities say a police SWAT crew entered the area of the store where the hostages were located around 12:20 p.m. and fatally shot Moghaddam.
Barbee says Moghaddam was armed with a handgun.
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Orlando Victims Died Because They Were Unarmed - Not Because They Were Gay
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US Senator Refuses to Leave Senate Floor Until Gun Control Measure Passed
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MUSLIM UN COMMISSIONER ZEID RA’AD AL HUSSEIN CALLS FOR HIGH-POWERED GUN BAN IN UNITED STATES
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Industrial Production Plunges For 9th Straight Month – Longest Non-Recession Streak In 100 Years
/SUMMER OF CHAOS: PAID PROTESTERS PLAN TO COUNTER TRUMP, STARTING IN TEXAS
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Breaking Obama Calls For New Assault Weapons Ban
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On
June 23rd, a vote will be held in the United Kingdom to determine if
Britain will stay in the European Union or not. This is most commonly
known as the “Brexit” vote, and that term was created by combining the
words “Britain” and “exit”. If the UK votes to stay in the European
Union, things over in Europe will continue on pretty much as they have
been. But if the UK votes to leave, it will likely throw the entire
continent into a state of economic and financial chaos. And considering
how bad the European economy is already, this could be the trigger that plunges Europe into a full-blown depression. (Read More....)/
FED’s Yellen Toys with Rates with Upcoming Brexit Vote
The Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is expected to keep
interest rates unchanged on Wednesday and signal if it still plans to
raise rates twice in 2016 amid concerns about a U.S. hiring slowdown and
Britain’s possible exit from the European Union. The Fed raised its key
overnight lending rate in December for the first
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Leftists suggest secret court to strip 2nd Amendment rights
A New York Times editorial advocates for a new law
allowing a secret court to take away citizens’ right to own a gun at the
discretion of the federal government. Citing the Orlando terror attack
that left 50 dead including the shooter and 53 wounded at a gay
nightclub, the piece advocates for a “no-buy” list similar to “no-fly”
lists.
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Southern Baptists Help Build US Mosques in Interfaith Coalition
(TRUNEWS) The Southern Baptist Convention, the US’s largest
Protestant denomination, is now helping to build mosques, right here in
‘Christian America’. In a legal struggle to allow the building of a
mosque in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, a coalition of faiths have come
together to help promote the building of an Islamic religious center
whose
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Armed Services Committee proposes to axe 25 percent of U.S. generals
The 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) as
summarized by the Senate Armed Services Committee proposes a 25 percent
reduction in Generals and Admirals across the board. A summary of the
bill provided by the committee states the drawdown in general officers
also applies at the 3, 2, and 1 star levels. The committee reasons that
“Over the past 30 years, the end-strength of the joint force has
decreased 38 percent, but the ratio of four-star officers to the overall
force has increased by 65 percent.”
Read more at http://www.trunews.com/#eeDxS4TPaXWVJpdO.99
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