Monday, April 22, 2019

Losing Earth


ON THIS DATE: April 22, 1970 - First Earth Day Celebrated
The first Earth Day was held in the U.S., marking the birth of the modern environmental movement. The idea for a national event stemmed from Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, who was inspired by the massive 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara, Calif. His plan to have a day dedicated to hosting “teach-ins” of environmental issues on college campuses became what is now recognized across the world as Earth Day. He was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Clinton.
Happy Earth Day!
Some depressing facts - Hawaii's Waikiki Beach could soon be underwater, as rising sea levels caused by climate change overtake its white sand beaches and bustling streets. Honolulu will start experiencing frequent flooding within the next 15 to 20 years, officials predict. State lawmakers are considering spending millions for a coastline protection program aimed at defending the city from regular tidal inundations.
U.S. nuclear plants weren't built for climate change: 54 of the [60] nuclear plants operating in the U.S. weren’t designed to handle the flood risk they face. Nineteen face three or more threats that they weren’t designed to handle.
The most powerful paragraph I’ve read recently, which is also the final paragraph of Nathaniel Rich’s new book, “Losing Earth”:
“Everything is changing about the natural world and everything must change about the way we conduct our lives. It is easy to complain that the problem is too vast, and each of us is too small. But there is one thing that each of us can do ourselves, in our homes, at our own pace — something easier than taking out the recycling or turning down the thermostat, and something more valuable. We can call the threats to our future what they are. We can call the villains villains, the heroes heroes, the victims victims and ourselves complicit. We can realize that all this talk about the fate of Earth has nothing to do with the planet’s tolerance for higher temperatures and everything to do with our species’ tolerance for self-delusion. And we can understand that when we speak about things like fuel-efficiency standards or gasoline taxes or methane flaring, we are speaking about nothing less than all we love and all we are.”
TAX HANGOVER - Conor Barnes, an accountant in New York, decided to stop telling her clients to “have a nice day” at the end of their meetings. Often she delivered news that had, in fact, ruined their day: They owed the government money, sometimes a painfully large amount.
The overhaul of the tax code — the first in three decades — caused much confusion this tax season, which was only worsened by the monthlong government shutdown. Many taxpayers were upset when they found out that they owed money to the federal government, even if their tax burden was lower.
And if taxpayers don’t adjust their paycheck withholdings, next year could bring an even bigger shock.
“If they don’t go out and make a change now, they will have even less withheld in 2019, so their situation will just get worse,” said Nathan Rigney, lead tax research analyst at H&R Block’s Tax Institute.
How did it happen? New guidance from the Internal Revenue Service prompted employers to adjust workers’ paychecks last March in an attempt to match up what they would owe under the new tax plan. And in some cases — if taxpayers didn’t update the relevant withholding forms — they ended up owing money, even if their total tax liability dropped.
The updated tables were in effect for about nine months last year. But this year, they’ll be in effect for all 12, meaning the problem will be magnified if taxpayers don’t take action — and soon.
Withholdings are updated by filling out I.R.S. form W-4 and giving it to your human resources department, or whoever handles payroll. It’s an eye-glazing task, which may be why nearly 80 percent of filers, according to H&R Block, failed to update last year.
“Most people were taking a wait-and-see approach, as no one is dying to increase withholdings,” said Debra Taylor, an accountant and financial adviser in Franklin Lakes, N.J. “It was difficult to generalize how the new law would affect taxpayers as everyone’s situation was truly different.”
If a family was able to take the child tax credit or new qualified business income deduction, they might not have ended up owing anything, even if they could no longer deduct their state and local income taxes, Ms. Taylor said. But if they did not receive benefits from some of the newer tax breaks, “then they could be losing all the way around. Hence the high level of frustration and surprise among folks.”
Early this tax season, I.R.S. statistics showed that the average taxpayer refund was down nearly 17 percent. Things have evened out since then: As of April 5, the average refund was $2,833, down 1.1 percent from last year.
But that’s not the whole story: A million fewer taxpayers had received refunds.
Averages also gloss over what was happening in individual households across the country. In New Jersey, for example, H&R Block found that, on average, its clients owed about 30 percent less in taxes than in 2017. But their refunds declined by about 6 percent, according to an analysis among customers who filed through the end of March.
Over all, H&R Block said that its average taxpayer’s total liability dropped by $1,200, while refunds were up $43. Instead of substantially bigger refunds, those taxpayers received about $50 more in their biweekly paychecks starting in March 2018, for a total of $1,156 — which they may not have even noticed.
To use the I.R.S. calculator, you will need a copy of your 2018 return, along with your most recent pay stub (and your spouse’s, if applicable). The calculator can determine how much you need to withhold to end up with the right amount set aside at the end of the year. But it’s already April. If you need to withhold more, the longer you wait, the fewer pay periods there will be to absorb the changes.
Make sure you keep all of that information handy — you will probably have to do this again, and sooner than you would like. The reason? The I.R.S. is updating the W-4 form.
The W-4 has to be overhauled because it was built around personal and dependent exemptions, which the new tax law eliminated.
The tax and payroll industry was critical of the initial proposal released last June. They said it was far too complicated for workers and their employers, and it also asked workers to provide sensitive information — about outside income, among other things — that they might not want to share with an employer. A new draft is expected at the end of May.
After soliciting comments and making more tweaks, the final version should be available by the end of the year, in time for the 2020 tax year.
It hasn’t been an easy task.
“Do you want the form to be absolutely accurate or do you want it to be simple and easy to complete?” said Alice Jacobsohn, senior manager of government relations for the American Payroll Association, a group for industry professionals.
When the new form is available, you should probably run through the withholding exercise again. Your employer might ask you to fill out the revised form anyway.
But as you work out how much you want withheld, keep one thing in mind: As good as it feels to get a fat refund, what you’re really doing is giving the government an interest-free loan. So instead of withholding too much, you might direct that extra bit of money into an interest-bearing account, and pay yourself instead.
Whether or not you owed for 2018, now is the time to update your withholdings. The I.R.S. suggests performing a “paycheck checkup” annually to avoid surprises. Big life events like getting married or having a child are other reasons to go through this exercise again.
Using the I.R.S.’s withholding calculator makes it easier to fill out the W-4. TurboTax and H&R Block offer similar tools. The calculator helps taxpayers estimate their 2019 income tax and compare that amount with their current withholding. That will show them whether they should have more or less money withheld from their paychecks.
The amount withheld is determined by the number of so-called allowances. The fewer allowances you claim, the more is set aside from each check. You can increase your
withholdings further by specifying an additional flat dollar amount to be set aside each pay period.
Where is the aspirin????
COLLEGE CHRONICLES – Ithaca College has decided not to renew its contract with Sodexo to operate the campus dining program, and will instead take those operations “in house.” The change is being made with the intent to provide improved programming, simplified meal plans, and a lower cost to both the college and to students. The new meal plan structure will be designed to help address food insecurity on campus.
What the bribery scandal has exposed about elite colleges and the wealthy families that sustain them.
A student at Wake Forest University tells her professor that her go-to house wine is Tignanello, which runs about $100 a bottle. Parents ask a revered professor at Stanford if their teens can work free for him during the summer, hoping it will give them a leg up in the admissions process. For professors at elite colleges, encounters with the scions of wealthy families have long come with the territory.
But the admissions-bribery scandal, which came to light last month, has brought renewed scrutiny to the codependent relationship between the nation’s top-tier colleges and the power brokers who fuel their endowments, finance their buildings, and willingly pay full freight for their children to attend. The scandal has brought into sharp focus the myriad advantages that high-income students have when applying to highly selective universities.
BOOB TUBE - Is there anything in this world more comforting than watching Ina Garten make challah French toast? Hulu released two more seasons of “Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics” a few days ago, and for you galloping gourmets this is a must see . You may not be cooking them in an impossibly sun-drenched East Hamptons mansion, but her recipes are simple and butter-filled. Highly recommend.
CAPITALISM - Capitalism in crisis: U.S. billionaires worry about the survival of the system that made them rich: For the first time in decades, capitalism's future is a subject of debate among presidential hopefuls and a source of growing angst for America's business elite. In places such as Silicon Valley, the slopes of Davos, Switzerland, and the halls of Harvard Business School, there is a sense that the kind of capitalism that once made America an economic envy is responsible for the growing inequality and anger that is tearing the country apart.
A hot book at Harvard Business School: "Winners Take All," by Anand Giridharadas, a journalist and former McKinsey consultant.
The book is "a withering attack on America’s billionaire class and the notion that America’s iconic capitalists could use their wealth and creativity to solve big social and economic problems that have eluded ... government."
TOP FIVE - Winter 2018-19 is officially over, and for five locations in the United States, it isn't a moment too soon.
It would seem formidable to narrow down and rank five places that had it worst this winter.
  1. Nebraska - Record snow, cold, and rain, enough said.
  2. Montana - After Groundhog Day, Great Falls, Montana, had a streak of 44 consecutive colder-than-average days through March 18.
  3. Tennessee - In America's wettest winter on record dating to 1895, Tennessee was the only state to set a record-wet December-through-February period, according to NOAA.
  4. Seattle - You might think this is an odd pick. How bad can a winter be in a place that averages only 5 to 6 inches of snow a year? From Feb. 3 to 12, Seattle picked up 20.2 inches of snow from three separate winter storms. In just nine days, the Emerald City measured almost four times their average annual snowfall, making February 2019 only the eighth month on record in which the city picked up at least 20 inches of snow – the first such month since January 1969.
  5. California - Storms in early December and mid-January also triggered some mudslides and rockslides in both Northern and Southern California. The worst of the flooding, however, was in late February, when the Russian River reached its highest level in 25 years, isolating the towns of Guerneville and Monte Rio. Over 2,000 homes and businesses were damaged, and nearly 4,000 residents were ordered to evacuate Guerneville.
BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK – Birthday wishes and thoughts this week to Gene Hasse…famous Father, Ashley Judd (51) Lexington, KY.; Joe Z. ….famous Jacob Javits Republican; Queen Elizabeth II (93) London, England.
MUELLER INVESTIGATION - The Mueller report shows us someone who’s ill-suited to his job and deficient in character. But we already knew that.
While it’s true that Mueller’s investigation “did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election-interference activities,” as we have known for weeks, the actual report is brimming with incidents and behavior that appear, at the very least, deeply corrupt.
The special counsel investigation was often cast as a clash between President Trump and Robert S. Mueller III. But there was always a third player, for whom victory seemed assured no matter the outcome.
Russian President Vladimir Putin set this sequence of events in motion with a Kremlin campaign to destabilize American democracy. That operation and its aftermath inflamed partisan tensions in the United States, eroded public confidence in core institutions and triggered a two-year investigation that consumed the nation's attention and much of the Trump presidency.
Over more than two years, Trump tried to pressure law enforcement officials, back-channel to witnesses and deter inquiries into his murky relationship with Russia.
It was over breakfast in London when a shadowy professor leaked the news to a Trump-campaign official: The Russians have “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. The highly anticipated report by the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, released on Thursday in redacted form, provides new details about the role that Joseph Mifsud, a former London-based professor with Kremlin ties, played in the Russian ploy to disrupt the 2016 presidential election.
Mifsud, a Malta native, is described in the report as a globe-trotting professor who linked George Papadopoulos, a foreign-policy adviser to the Trump campaign, with Russian nationals and gave him advanced notice about hacked emails that would undercut Clinton’s candidacy.
MARKET WEEK - It's a packed week on the earnings calendar, with Whirlpool on deck after the market closes today and tech behemoths Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon slated for later in the week. Results from industrial stalwarts United Technologies, Boeing and Caterpillar are also on tap.
The WSJ Dollar Index surged to its highest level since early March on Thursday following upbeat retail sales data, pulling within 0.1% of its early year peak. The dollar is still up more than 7.5% in the past year after edging lower Friday, threatening corporate profits for large multinational companies.
The dollar also has been strengthening against the currencies of emerging countries, like China, where many American businesses generate significant revenue. 
Companies generally don't change prices because of currency fluctuations, so a hypothetical 20-yuan Big Mac could translate to $3 when the dollar is weak, but only $2.90 when it's strong. McDonald's sells over 1 billion Big Macs a year in China, so that number makes a big difference.
The Fed hasn't raised interest rates this year and isn't expected to do so any time soon, but interest rates on credit cards are still increasing.
U.S. card holders are expected to pay $122 billion in interest charges in 2019. That's 12% more than what they paid in 2017 and 50% more than what they paid as recently as 2014.
Credit card interest rates tend to move in concert with U.S. overnight interest rates, controlled by the Fed. LendingTree's Magnify Money website found that between December 2015 and December 2018 the Fed had increased rates by 2% while credit card interest rates had increased by 2.16%.
The average credit card assessed interest rate is now 16.91%. It was 13.14% in the first quarter of 2014.
  • Canopy Growth (+3.99%), the world’s most valuable marijuana company, plans to buy fellow pot company Acreage Holdings for $3.4 billion...when (if?) weed becomes legal at the federal level in the U.S.
  • Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, has launched its own blockchain. Here’s what that means.
  • Facebook (-0.28%) said it stored millions of Instagram passwords without the proper security measures.
  • Amazon (-0.17%) announced a free, ad-supported music streaming service to win more customers for its speakers and Alexa-enabled devices.
  • Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he will introduce a bill that raises the federal minimum age to buy tobacco products from 18 to 21.

DRIVING THE WEEK - Monday: Earth Day; existing home sales; earnings (Kimberly-Clark, Halliburton); Tesla revealing autonomous tech
·      Tuesday: New home sales; earnings (P&G, Verizon, Coca-Cola, United Technologies, eBay, Twitter, Snap)
·      Wednesday: Earnings (Microsoft, Facebook, Visa, AT&T, Boeing, Caterpillar, PayPal, Tesla, Chipotle)
·      Thursday: Durable goods orders; earnings (Amazon, Intel, Comcast, 3M, Altria, UPS, Starbucks, Ford); NFL Draft starts
·      Friday: GDP; consumer sentiment; earnings (Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Sony); a few of you may see Avengers: Endgame. Friday brings the first look at Q1 GDP and after initially looking bad it should come in above 2 percent. So not a terrible headline for Trump. Q2 could be a different story. The U.S. consumer is back on track, almost. ... We have never bought the idea that the past few months represent the end-of-cycle weakening in consumption. That idea is impossible to square with robust growth in payrolls, increasing wage gains and elevated confidence.

SWAMI’S WEEK TOP PICKS
NHL Game of the Week – Tuesday 4/23 7:00 PM ET, NBCSN: Game 7 Eastern Quarter-final Toronto Maple Leafs (3-3) vs. Boston Bruins (3-3). Can the Leafs end the dreaded Game 7 curse against the B’s. Auston Matthews gets the winner, Leafs move on 4-3. (Season to date 8-3)
MLB Game of the Week – Saturday 4/27 4:05 PM ET, FS1: Cleveland Indians (12-9) vs. Houston Astros (13-8). Two likely opponents come the playoffs, Stros win this won 6-4.
2019 Season to Date (12 - 8)
Next Blog:  Word and Jack Ass of the Month.
Until next time, Adios
Spring Arbor, Michigan
April 22, 2019
#IX-21-389

CARTOON OF THE WEEK – “ Earth Day” The New Yorker

RINK RATS POLL –
What does Earth Day mean to you?
___ Sadness
___ Call to action
___ No worries
___ Helplessness
___ Fear

QUOTE OF THE MONTH“I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things we could use.”
Mother Teresa


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