Gotcha: Man, that was a fast yellow light …

Might not be your imagination.

In some locales, city-fathers are shortening the duration of yellow caution lights – you know, going from green to red.

Why?

Simple.  To increase the odds that you get ticketed by a red light “safety” camera.

According to a News 10 TV report,  in Tampa, the yellow light duration was reduced by a fraction of a second at intersections with red light cameras.

The result: red light tickets and their accompanying revenue more than doubled.

Red light cameras generated more than $100 million in revenue last year in approximately 70 Florida communities,

What’s the impact on traffic safety?

Apple’s taxes: Why the Fed’s argument is simply silly …

This week, Apple CEO Tim Cook was hauled in to DC to testify about Apple’s low corporate tax rate …

Cook explained that Apple makes a lot of money outside the U.S. … selling products that are made outside the U.S. under licenses held by foreign subsidiaries and sold in non-U.S. countries.

Said simply, no part of that income is earned in the U.S. either thru the development, manufacture, sales, or distribution of the products.

None.

But, our wise Senators think that Apple should pay U.S. corporate income taxes on that money any way.

Why?

Because Apple was legally formed in the U.S. and has it’s Corporate headquarters in the U.S.

Here’s the code-breaking question to ask …

Flashback: What happens when a tax-evader runs the IRS?

I’m a bit surprised that this retro-snit hasn’t come up in the current IRS flap …

Think back to early, 2009.

Newly annointed President Obama nominated Tim Geithner to be Secretary of the Treasury.

During his confirmation hearings, Geithner ran into an “issue”.

It was revealed that Mr. Geithner, he failed to pay payroll taxes on income he received from the International Monetary Fund in 2001, and then repeated the error in the three subsequent years, despite explicit disclosures and instructions from the IMF, and with the help of an accountant.

According to the WSJ:

Apologizing to the committee, Geithner took responsibility for what he called “careless” and “avoidable” mistakes while insisting they were unintentional.

He acknowledged signing an IMF statement at the time that he understood he had been reimbursed to pay those self-employment taxes, adding that he should have read the statement more carefully.

In his testimony, he laid blame on his TurboTax software

Why is this important?

NetTrax: What’s the fundamental difference between designer shoes and cars?

From an online retailing perspective it’s simple …

Once you buy a car you’re probably out of the market for awhile

… but once you buy a pair of designer shoes, you’re probably going to buy more of them.

Why does that matter to an online retailer?

IRS: Lerner gets 4 Pinocchios … and pleads a fifth.

OK, now we’re starting to make some progress.

Lois Lerner is the head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS.

She’s the one who answered a planted post-speech question  — by “apologizing”  for the IRS targeting conservative groups.

Her public statements regarding the IRS fiasco has earned her 4 Pinocchios from the left-leaning Washington Post.

More on that later.

Now, it’s being reported that she’ll plead the 5th Amendment at a Congressional hearing on Wednesday. Source

Here’s a link to the Post’s analysis : A bushel of Pinocchios for IRS’s Lois Lerner.

Quick summary: Liar, liar … pants on fire.I know, innocent until proven guilty …

English translation: GUILTY !

Perp walk,  anybody?

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Kudos: Michelle’s commencement speech rocks …

I haven’t been a big Michelle Obama fan.

Never recovered from her “first time I’m proud to be an American” snit … and totally turned off by her hypocritical  lifestyle of the rich & famous routine.

Biggest deal: I’ve oft said that she and her husband have squandered an opportunity to talk frankly to black kids in a way that only they can.

They’ve got the cred to push family values, individual responsibility and the importance of education.

Except for a few lines in a few speeches, they’ve come up prtetty empty.

That is, until last week when the First Lady gave a great commencement address at Bowie State University.

She  encouraged the graduates  to promote the importance of education in the black community.

According to the Washington Post, she layered a tough-love cultural commentary with statistics …  one in three African American students drop out of high school  … only one in five African Americans between the ages of 25 and 29 have a college degree.

Here are a couple of the high impact sound bites from her speech:

Rx: How to start fixing the IRS …

OK, here’s my diagnosis – the Dx — and my short-term prescription – the Rx.

First, the Dx …

Of course, the Tea Party and other conservative groups were targeted for political purposes.

Any claim of “efficiency procedures” or “inadvertent error” are simply ridiculous.

Of course,  folks high up the food chain were involved … setting the broad mission (with Mob-like deniability) — “punish your enemies” –- and condoning the actions by failing to stop them them when they became well known.

So, what to do?

Here is how I’d get started righting the ship … the Rx:

Nums: Scandals important, but O’s rating is up … say, what?

The term “Teflon president” is being re-calibrated.

Here’s a head-scratcher:

Despite the Benghazi, IRS and AP scandals, CNN reports that Obama’s job approval ratings have bumped up.

That’s despite the parallel findings that respondents think the 3 scandals are important, that they are indeed scandals, and that they think that the GOP-led Congress is handling the matter correctly.

Here are some details …

IRS: An “efficiency initiative” that resulted in horrible “customer service” … say, what?

I was in the car on Friday morning and tuned the radio to the Congressional testimony of the Treasury IG and Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller.

In a word: frightening.

First, the IG seems like a straight arrow.  HIs answers were direct, structured and fact-based.

He dished the bad news, but wouldn’t take the GOP bait to condemn beyond his specific findings.

Then, there was this clown.

Let’s put this situation in perspective and then drill down …

Nums: Will the scandal hurt the IRS’s image?

Trick question since the public’s perception of the IRS is already pretty low

According to A Pew survey, the Internal Revenue Service, now under intense scrutiny for singling out conservative groups,  is one of the least-popular federal agencies.

Specifically. the IRS ranks 11th out of 14 agencies (the 13 listed below plus the Homeland Security Department) in terms of public perception of their performance.

Only 47% of people surveyed said they had a “very” or “mostly” favorable opinion of the IRS.

Hmmm.

That pesky 47% number.

 

I guess that folks who don’t pay income taxes think that the IRS lightening everybody else’s wallets is way cool.

The IRS is the second-lowest among the 13 agencies people were asked about.

The only agencies ranking lower were Eric Holder’s Justice Department (38% excellent or good), the Social Security Administration (36%) and Arne Duncan’s Education Department (33%).

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ABC: IRS Official in Charge Targeting Now Runs ObamaCare Division

Definitely from the ‘you can’t make this stuff up” file …

ABC News is reporting …

The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.

Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012.

But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed.

House Speaker John Boehner expressed “serious concerns” that the IRS is empowered as the law’s chief enforcer.

“Obamacare empowers the agency that just violated the public’s trust by secretly targeting conservative groups,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind.,
added.

“Even by Washington’s standards, that’s unacceptable.”

Sen. John Cornyn even introduced a bill, the “Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act of 2013,” which would prohibit the Secretary of the Treasury, or any delegate, including the IRS, from enforcing the Affordable Care Act.

“Now more than ever, we need to prevent the IRS from having any role in Americans’ health care,” Cornyn, R-Texas, stated.

“I do not support Obamacare, and after the events of last week, I cannot support giving the IRS any more responsibility or taxpayer dollars to implement a broken law.”

Seriously, you just can’t make this stuff up …

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Stop right there, professor … proof of citizenship, please !

Unfortunately, this has become an annual event.  A summer initiation of sorts.

Once again, I was detained for questioning by government officials.

This year was unusually unnerving.

No, it wasn’t by rogue IRS agents in Cincinnati targeting an alleged conservative blogger.

I was suspected of crossing a border to illegally access government-provided services.

Here’s the story …

Turning around the turnaround: JC Penney goes back to the future …

In one svelte move, JC Penney launched near-total, point-by-point repudiation of ex-CEO Ron Johnson’s attempt to turn the retailer into a chain of Apple stores. 

 

Let’s dissect this one …

What’s going at Business Insider?

I understand that Henry Blodget is probably still hacked that he got nailed for pumping Internet stocks before the bubble burst … and got barred from ever working on Wall Street again.

So, I assume, he’s probably just over-compensating to balance life’s scales an increase the odds of getting into heaven.

But, gimme a break…

Here’s a screenshoot of a recent Business Insider home page headlining:

• It’s a good idea to cut everybody in America a check
• A Today Show host got engaged
• A vision of NBA stars without tatoos
• Corporate logos with subliminal messages

May just be me, but doesn’t read though as either “business” or “insider” …

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Bored at work? Here’s why …

Interesting tidbit in a Business Week article What’s Wrong With the U.S. Job Market?

Punch line: the “cognitive content” of tasks performed by employed college graduates peaked in 2000, has dropped fairly steadily since, and is approach all-time lows.

Here’s more …

Gotcha: IRS admits to targeting “Patriots” … turns attention to ObamaCare enforcement.

Just in case you missed the news last Friday, the IRS publicly admitted that it targeted conservative groups during the 2012 election … and then shielded itself behind a George Castanza defense.

Here is the WSJ summary of the IRS disclosure:

Yesterday,an Internal Revenue Service official disclosed for the first time, and by way of apologizing, that the agency that wields the taxing power of the federal government had targeted conservative groups for special scrutiny during the 2012 election season.

A spokeswoman acknowledged that the agency had flagged groups with the words “tea party” or “patriot” to have their tax returns inspected.

In addition, the agency was targeting groups raising  ”issues regarding government spending, government debt or taxes”,  or …  how to  ‘make America a better place to live’.  WSJ update

She added the tax inspections were carried out entirely by low-level workers in Cincinnati without any direction from Washington.

Here’s my take on the IRS revelations:

First, a couple of weeks ago Obama bristled at the thought that some (many ?) folks don’t trust the government. 

What does the jabrone expect if his administration turns its bulldogs on its political opponents?

Can you imagine the outcry if George Bush had told the IRS to key word search “Muslim”, “Islamic”,”Progressive” or “choice” and then said to go get ‘em.

All hell would have broken loose.

Second, about the “don’t blame me, it was somebody in my organization” defense …

Nums: THE way to look at the employment numbers …

In a  couple of the past week’s posts we’ve been exploring the employment down mixing from full-time to part-time jobs.

I personally think that it is one of the most important – and least reported trends in the economy.

Flashback to last Friday … the BLS headline was that 165,000 jobs were added in April and the unemployment rate dropped to 7.5%

That news flash elicited giddy re-reporting … e.g. Business Insider’s “STOCKS GO WILD AFTER AWESOME JOBS REPORT” … “awesome” and all caps,

Yep, total employment went up 165,000 jobs … that’s true

But, here’s the rest of the story …

Nums: More on the rise of part-time work …

Yesterday we posted “Connecting the dots: ObamaCare may be creating jobs!”

The punch line: many companies are reported to be down mixing their work forces by reducing full-timers to part-time status … and hiring additional part-timers to fill their needs.

Today, let’s look at some macro numbers.

Total employment dropped 8.2 million during the recession.

5.3 million of those 8.2 million jobs have been recovered … but total employment is still down 2.9 million from its pre-recession peak.

Note that total employment is up 1.4 million since President Obama’s Inauguration in January 2009.

Keep that number in mind … 1.4 million.

Things get more interesting with a little drilling down …

Jobs: A generation lost ?

Editorial in the WSJ today titled Meet Generation Jobbed …

Punch line: With youth unemployment and underemployment at persistently high levels, “our kids are starting to look and sound like Europe’s smart kids—despondent and resigned.”

Here are the facts underlying the conclusion …

Part-timing it: Retailers adding employees … and cutting hours.

According to IBD …

Retailers – prepping for the ObamaCare mandates — are cutting workers’ hours and reclassifying them as part-timers.

Here’s the data …

NetTrax: You’re leaving cookie crumbs on the net … lots of them

What happens when you click to a web site?

Short answer: you have new cookies installed on your computer or have old cookies modified  … whether you know it or not … and  you then spew crumbs all over the Internet … letting companies track you, profile you, and hard sell you stuff.

Here’s a visual of what a couple of clicks can do … each dot represents a  site or company that can grab your information … just because you innocently clicked.

Later we’ll explain the graphic and what’s going on.

First some background on web tracking …

Pssst: What’s your zip code?

Ever wonder why the gun-chewing cashier asks you for your zip code?

I naively assumed the store was just doing some kind of geo-survey … trying to figure out where their customers were coming from … how far they were driving to shop their store.

Silly boy.

CNN reports that ”Every time you mindlessly give a sales clerk your zip code at checkout, you’re giving data companies and retailers the ability to track everything from your body type to your bad habits.”

Whoa, Nellie.

Here’s what’s happening   …

Connecting the dots: ObamaCare may be creating jobs!

You read that right.

The obvious has become evident to me …

The BLS reported that employment rose by 165,000 in April, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 7.5 percent,

Hmmm.

Memory jogged back to last week’s post re: the increasing number of part-timers:

Obvious question: how many of the 165,000 were part-timers?

According to the Fed’s data base, part-time employment increased by 229,000.

If true, that means that full-time employment dropped.

Hmmm again.

What’s going on?

Ouch: Columbia b-school prof blasts academic research …

The blog InDecision posted the “presidential address” given at the conference of the Society for Consumer Psychology by Columbia Professor Michel Tuan Pham.

In his preamble, he bluntly questioned both the “external and internal relevance” of the research that he and his colleagues publish.

First, his perspective on external relevance … 

Nums: The April jobs report … Sequester creates jobs?

Here’s the headline: “Non-Farm Payrolls Rise More Than Expected, Up by 165,000 in April; Unemployment Rate Drops to 7.5%”.

I guess that the Sequester – rather than inhibiting job growth – actually spurred job growth.

Not really.

But, it means team Obama will have to re-write its press release for today.

= = = = =

Reminder: April ADP’s number was  159k … 30k below the consensus forecast … and, ADP revised March down by about 20k jobs..

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Nums: Is predictive analytics winning battles, not wars?

Peggy Noonan has a piece in the WSJ today that I almost skipped.

You know, another  “Is Obama a Lame Duck?” piece.

Buried in the column was a riff about predictive analytics that caught my eye.

It pointed out one of the downsides of  predictive analytics … the craft  of crunching big data bases to ID people, their behaviors and their hot buttons.

Here’s what Noonan had to say …

Nums: The cable news race …

As reported by Drudge …

I’ve started to tire of O’Reilly, but he still holds a commanding lead.

Constantly amazed that Stewart & Colbert get classified as news shows … though frequent surveys say that many people do use them as their primary news source.

No surprise that MSNBC continues to get hammered in the ratings.

Kinda sad that that CNN continues to slip … key shows running even with Al Sharpton’s show … ouch.

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Nums: Who approves of Obama more – poor folks or rich folks?

Interesting results from the Weekly Economist-YouGov Survey …

Headline: Obama gets a 47% approval rating (below 50%) and a 47% disapproval rating … dead heat.

But … looking at the “top & bottom boxes – strongly approve, strongly disapprove – he underwater by 16 percentage points.

Numbers get more interesting diving into the details:

By region … no surprise that Obama does best in the Northeast – about even on top & bottom boxes …. he does worst in the South – no surprise – and the West (a mix of West Coast liberals and and gun toting open-country folks).

Things get way more interesting by age and income …

Nums: The shift to part-timers …

In a prior post, we reported that middle income jobs were disappearing … apparently down mixing to lower income jobs.

Here’s more …

The NY Times reports that about 7.6 million Americans working part-time jobs are doing so reluctantly, and would rather have a full-time job … that’s about 3 million more than there were when the recession began at the end of 2007.

Most of the part-time jobs are in retail and food service … where companies are throttling full-time employment in advance of ObamaCare penalties.

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Nums: How many murders in Chicago since Newtown?

My eye caught a headline “Another murder near Obama’s home”.

The gist of the story:

A man was killed and another was wounded in a shooting early Tuesday in Hyde Park,

It’s the second shooting to happen near President Barack Obama’s home in neighboring Kenwood in about a week.

Last week 15-year-old Cornelius German was gunned down in the 5000 block of South Evans, less than a mile away from Obama’s house.

That got me wondering: how many murders have there been in Chicago since the Newton massacre.

Apparently, enough other folks ask the same question, so Slate has developed an infographic that provides a tally of murders by city since Sandy Hook.

The answer: 96 Murders in Chicago since Newtown. 

Source

Think about that for a second … then continue reading.

Bummer: The middle class plight … in 2 charts.

Pew released a sobering report last week: An Uneven Recovery, 2009-2011

The central conclusion: the rich have gotten richer and the middle class has gotten crushed.

Upper and lower income groups have both increased by about 5 percentage points of the population mix.

In other words, the percentage of middle class folks – earning from 2/3s to twice the median income – has dropped by 10 percentage points.

What’s going on?

Air fares: Public weighs in …

According to a YouGov.com survey reported by  NBC News  …

Survey says: 4 in 10 Americans  wouldn’t mind being publicly weighed at the airport.

Source

The results suggest that a once-unthinkable concept of differential fares based on size could become a fact of life for fliers.

Here are some verbatims:

Nums: More about the declining LFPR … blame teens, not old folks.

Remember March’s employment numbers?

Despite paltry job growth – less than population growth — the unemployment rate went down – because about 500,000 folks dropped out of the labor force.

The LFPR (labor force participation rate) dropped to 63.2%.

The Atlantic published an interesting recap of LFPRs by age group over time.

Note that the LFPR has been   …

• Increasing for all age groups over 35
• Holding steady at about 80% for folks 35 to 34
• Dropping for folks 20 to 24.
• Dropping big-time for teenagers

While older folks are participating more in the labor force, their LFPR is substantially less than other age groups (except teens) … so the aging population is “mixing down the overall LFPR.

What’s up with teens?

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Amazing infographic: Life inside Baltimore’s jails …

From the you can’t make this stuff up file …

There’s a notorious gang – the Black Guerrilla Family (BGF) –  that is, one could say, well represent in the Baltimore prison population.

Well, court documents have been filed in a massive racketeering case accusing 13 female corrections officers of colluding with the BGF — seven male inmates and several outside gang members.

Colluding may be a gross understatement.

Corrections officers allegedly smuggled  contraband such as cellphones, drugs, and weapons to BGFers, and turned a blind eye on the BGF leaders running the outside gang from prison.

You know, garden variety collusion between guards and prisoners.

But, it turns out that several of the guards are also accused of being literally “in bed” with the BGF inmates.

Four of the officers became pregnant with prison gang leader Tavon White’s baby.

One of them got pregnant twice.

Say, what?

The web of relationships got sufficiently complicated that the Baltimore Sun developed an extraordinary infographic.

Don’t squint, below I’ll walk you through it and give you the link.

OK, here’s a key to the info graphic …

Vanguard CEO: “Uncertainty the enemy of the economy” … I disagree”

In a WSJ editorial today, Vanguard CEO Bill McNabb says that …

Americans who seek to earn a living and save for the future are confused and discouraged.

Concerns of investors are asking: How does this affect my retirement fund? What about my college savings account? How does this affect my taxes? Would I be better off putting my savings under the mattress?

Firms can’t see a clear road to economic recovery ahead, so they’re not going to hire and they’re not going to spend.

It’s what economists call a “deadweight loss“.

He points to economic research that indicates U.S. economic policy uncertainty has been 50% higher in the past two years than it has been since 1985.

Source: PolicyUncertainty.com 

The uncertainty revolves around regulatory policy, monetary policy, foreign policy and, most significantly, uncertainty about U.S. fiscal policy and the national debt.

Vanguard estimates that the rise in policy uncertainty has created a $261 billion cumulative drag on the economy … which adds up to more than one million jobs that we could have had by now, but don’t.

Mr. McNabb makes a strong argument.

But, I respectfully disagree.

Tsunami Alert: NYU b-school prof blasts high MBA tuitions …

In a Financial Times article,  NYU Stern School of Business professor Larry Zicklin, says the days when getting an MBA costs well north of $100,000 are coming to an end.

Zicklin argues that  …  b-schools face an existential threat … and that they aren’t aware of the tsunami that’s about to hit them.

The era of charging $100,000 for an education is over.

Here’s why …

Cajones: Congress considers an exemption to ObamaCare … to themselves!

From the you can’t make this stuff up files …

During the 2009-10 battle over what’s now dubbed Obamacare, Republicans insisted that Capitol Hill hands must have the same health care as the rest of the American people.

Now, according to left-leaning Politico, “Congressional leaders in both parties are engaged in high-level, confidential talks about exempting 535 lawmakers and their aides from the insurance exchanges they are mandated to join as part of ObamaCare.”

“The lawmakers — especially those with long careers in public service and smaller bank accounts — are concerned about the hit to their own wallets.”

Obviously, “by removing themselves from a key ObamaCare mandate, lawmakers – who passed the law — and aides would be held to a different standard than the people on whom they’re imposing the law.”

Picture credit

Politico keenly observes: “If Capitol Hill leaders move forward with the plan, they risk being dubbed hypocrites by their political rivals and the American public.”

You think?

Good for us, bad for them.

Hmmm.

There’s more. Here’s the real head-scratcher …

Huh: Home Depot using a cat to up its likability …

According to BrandChannei …

“Richard the Cat, a.k.a., Pundit of People, remains Home Depot’s meme of choice as the brand welcomes spring some out-of-character humor.

The orange feline follows a human family as they pursue scores of DIY projects with questionable results and predictable mishaps.”

“Everyone has elves, reindeer, Santa, but one of the biggest things followed in the social space is cats”

HD is taking a chance on the cat meme since the two are an odd pairing.

The Home Depot brand is authentic, innovative and attainable, while Richard’s cat-sona is sarcastic, superior and refined.

HD’s CMO says: “When I shared this with our leadership team, our CEO got it immediately.

We’re very lucky we have one of the hippest CEOs out there.”

Hmmm.

Here may be the rub for Home Depot …

Biz Insider: “Krugman won, austerity lost” … say what?

Yesterday, Business Insider guru Henry Blodget wrote: The Economic Argument Is Over — Paul Krugman Has Won

I haven’t been a big Blodget fan since he was run off of Wall Street for hyping internet stocks during their pre-bubble bursting run-up.

I think he’s trying to balance the scales these days … leaning far left to – he hopes – increase his odds of getting through the Pealy Gates.

The essence of his article is that the only thing wrong with the economy is a lack of adequate aggregate demand.

So, the government should keep borrowing and spending  … and things will right themselves,

The economic water level will rise to a point that reluctant CEOs will have no choice but to start hiring and building plants to meet demand.

That’s not a patently dumb notion … it’s just flat out wrong.

Here’s what’s wrong with Blodget’s argument …

Uh-oh: Where did the bombers get the money?

I’d been wondering – since there has been no mention of jobs – how the bomber brothers got the dough to (a) live (b) travel to Russia for 6 months and (c) construct weapons of mass destruction.

The older brother didn’t have a job and the younger one was a pot-smoking college student.

The Boston Herald has just surfaced one avenue: that they (and their parents) were on the government welfare dole … so, in effect, taxpayers were paying their way.

Hmmm.

That’s bad, but is welfare enough to fund a terror plot complete with trips to Russia?

Doubt it.

So where did the rest of the money come from.

DHS Chief Napolitano says there’s no way they got it from terrorist groups.

Oh really, Janet.

No way?

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Debunk: Air traffic controllers, sequestration and delays …

Flight delays at major airports because of Sequestration.

Say, what?

Here’s a smoking gun chart right from an official FAA report.

According to the FAA, the number of controlled flights (i.e. “systemwide traffic”) has dropped  23% since 2000.

During that same period, the number of air traffic controllers has remained essentially constant.

Said differently, each controller is handling 23% fewer flights than in 2000 … when, to the best of my recollection, the skies were pretty darn safe.

Note that since 2005, the number of flights has gone down 14% and the number of controllers had increased 7.5%.

FAA: A Plan for the Future – 10-Year Strategy for the Air Traffic Control Workforce 2012 – 2021

Here are some verbatims from the FAA report and an out-of-box idea …

MBA: Career-switching is back in fashion …

According to Business Week: “More MBA grads are switching careers as the job market improves.”

Here are the details …

What’s the difference between Krispy Kreme doughnuts and gourmet cupcakes?

We’re not talking baked goods quality, we’re talking quality of the earnings baked into stock market valuations.

And, the answer may surprise you.

$$$: How much do MBA interns get paid?

According to Business Week, top school MBAs haul in an average of about $1,750 per week for their summer internships.

At HBS, the median is $7,000 per month … that’s about $1,650 per week … which annualizes to about $90k.

Of course, there’s wide variation based on the school and the industry.

Note that Kellogg –- a general management and marketing school – tops the list

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An IRS agent, an FBI agent and a gardener ….

No, this isn’t the lead line of a bad joke.

It’s a question of priorities.

Let’s start with the gardener …

Nums: Obama was right … it’s a matter of trust.

For the record: I love kids (especially my grandkids), I lived in the city adjacent to Newtown for 7 years, and I’m definitely not a gun hawk – I’ve never owned one, never shot one and don’t plan to do either.

I think most people are reading this week’s gun control vote all wrong.

First, it’s repeatedly reported that 80% to 90% of Americans support background checks.

That’s probably true, but a practical  overstatement because “while about 80 percent of those Americans think that background checks sound like a reasonable idea, they don’t really care much …   only 4 percent of Americans consider guns to be the “most important” issue facing the country.” NRO

Second, I think that President Obama had it right a couple of weeks ago when he pitched: “People say they don’t trust the government.  But, we are the government.”

Yep, he has it right … people don’t trust government.

At least the Federal government.

Here’s some evidence …

A recent Pew survey shows that trust in government took a major hit during the Johns0n-Nixon-Ford-Carter years … and has been cycling around the 30% mark since … currently, a little over 20% of the population trusts the government.

Think about that for a moment …

Even assuming that – at an extreme – no Republicans trust the current administration … it means that less than half of all Democrats trust the administration.

Hmmm.

Here are some more interesting nums …

Gotcha: You probably paid too much … especially if you’re bad at math.

Awhile ago, we reported a study that consumers almost invariably pick 33% more stuff than a 33% price discount.

Ouch.

Consumers are notoriously bad at spotting real values. Why?

According to the Atlantic ….

• First: Consumers don’t know what the heck anything should cost, so we rely on parts of our brains that aren’t strictly quantitative.
• Second: Although humans spend in numbered dollars, we make decisions based on clues and half-thinking that amount to innumeracy.

More specifically, here are some more ways consumers end up paying too much …

Nums: Do big companies or small companies create more jobs?”

Bit of a trick question since the constant refrain is that small companies are the ones that generate job growth.

According to a Business Week analysis of ADP National Employment data …

Since the U.S. economic recovery began in june 2009, big employers have increased employment 7.5%, while small employers have boosted payrolls only 4.9%.

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, was on the McCain team in 2008 but has changed sides and now regularly advocates for the Administration of TV.

He says: that there are three explanations for why large employers (1,000 employees and up) grew faster than small ones (fewer than 50 workers).

Before you cut the football team, band, honors classes and hot lunches …. consider these places to cut government spending

According to an IBD recap …

The Government Accountability Office’s latest annual report on government waste and duplication found 31 areas in the government that overlap, duplicate efforts or are egregiously inefficient.

That’s on top of the 131 found in its previous two annual reports …. the vast majority of which have been totally ignored by Obama’s crack team of budget-cutters.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who pushed for this report, figures the latest examples alone add up to $95 billion — more than the spending cuts under this year’s “sequester.”

Here are some of head-scratchers that the GAO found …

Nums: Still, blaming the declining LFPR on seniors retiring …

Former Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee was back on TV saying that more than 60% of the decline in the labor force participation rate (LFPR)  is simple demographics … old people retiring.

Last week, I posted a back of the envelop analysis that said  seniors retiring is less than 1/3 of the blame.

• See Nums: Labor Force Participation Rate is down b/c old folks are retiring … well, not exactly!

Today, let’s do the analysis more rigorously, using a technique that I teach called PVA – Profit Variance Analysis ….