Disqus - Latest Comments for billstepp

Re: Middle-Class Welfare State Is Invisible by Design: Ezra Klein

billstepp — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:09:21 -0000

Saying the mortgage interest deduction is a "government social program" is like saying that the standard deduction is one also. What it is is simply a quid pro quo to reduce someones income tax.
The mortgage interest deduction also causes a one-time increase in the price of a house, which is just offset by the positive cash flow effect (from a lower tax "bill") by the taxpayer taking it.

Re: Who Was the Greatest President of the Twentieth Century?

billstepp — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 22:30:33 -0000

Why not Milhous Nixon? I want to vote for a prexy who went before the world and said, "The people have got to know whether their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook...."
That's the greatest statement ever by a U.S. president.
Clinton had the second best one, "I did not have ...."

I voted for the great Gamiel, and attempted to vote more than once, Chicago-style.

Re: Why Does the 99 Percent Let Athletes, Executives, and Movie Stars Get Away with Huge Salaries?

billstepp — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 09:50:58 -0000

I'm a libertarian and an anarchist. The State is a criminal entity; it gains most of its resources through direct theft, which is what taxation is. (Seignorage, another form of theft, accounts for a tiny fraction of its take.)
I have nothing against professors and other teachers--at private schools.
State schools should be privatized or abolished.
Btw, as Peter Thiel and others have noted, far more resources are diverted into schooling than should be, and higher education is a bubble.
Indeed, even the left-wing Village Voice ran a cover article last week about the student debt bubble. Number 1 in student debt is NYU. Hey, if the Violets can't be #1 in football (har!), they might as wells be #1 in student debt.

First tech stocks, then real estate and dodgy mortgage underwriting, now student debt.
Abolish the State, and the State U, now more than ever!
And Comrade O is the world champion drone killer.

Re: Why Does the 99 Percent Let Athletes, Executives, and Movie Stars Get Away with Huge Salaries?

billstepp — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 08:08:05 -0000

Creative types (e.g., actors, artists, musicians, writers) earn copyright-engorged salaries. These are sometimes referred to as "economic rents." Abolish copyright and watch their earnings decline in a newly free market for their services. They would still make a nice living, particularly the A-listers.
As for athletes and other high earners, who cares what they earn? As the previous poster noted, many athletes have short careers. And at least they make their living without pillfering money from taxpayers, unlike (for example) professors at state universities in Michigan. On the contrary, their typically very high taxes are funnelled to these parasites, some of whom then have the audacity to criticize them for their high earnings.

Re: Decriminalize Insider Trading

billstepp — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 20:40:06 -0000

Flag,
A negative tone is in the eye of the beholder. Corp. execs usually try to put a positive spin on bad news, at least on the conference calls I have heard. As for options grants, that works both ways, as they exercise their options too and sell stock them.
I don't think they try to advertise bad news as such in general.

Re: Decriminalize Insider Trading

billstepp — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:58:53 -0000

Good article Don. Note that the insider charges against Mark Cuban were dismissed, as he had no fiduciary obligation not to trade the stock in question. Of course, they never should have been brought against him in the first place.
Flag, how exactly are insiders supposed to drive their stocks down? By short selling? I don't think so.

Re: Zoning as a tool of class exclusion

billstepp — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:18:47 -0000

My understanding of the first zoning law in NYC (circa 1915) is that it was passed to discriminate against "those people," in this case lower east side Jews.