Saturday, September 16, 2017
From Libertarianism.org
The Merits of Secessionism
Just as libertarians support legalizing drugs in order to reduce the social ills associated with drug use, but not to encourage drug use, so libertarians may well support legalizing secession in order to encourage decentralization and reduce the risks of violence.Secessionism/Libertarianism.org
Friday, September 15, 2017
On this day in 1963,
Four Young Black Girls Killed in Birmingham Church Bombing
From This Day In History:
On this day in 1963, a bomb explodes during Sunday morning services in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls.
With its large African-American congregation, the 16th Street Baptist Church served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., who once called Birmingham a “symbol of hardcore resistance to integration.” Alabama’s governor, George Wallace, made preserving racial segregation one of the central goals of his administration, and Birmingham had one of the most violent and lawless chapters of the Ku Klux Klan.
The church bombing was the third in Birmingham in 11 days after a federal order came down to integrate Alabama’s school system. Fifteen sticks of dynamite were planted in the church basement, underneath what turned out to be the girls’ restroom. The bomb detonated at 10:19 a.m., killing Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Addie Mae Collins–all 14 years old–and 11-year-old Denise McNair. Immediately after the blast, church members wandered dazed and bloodied, covered with white powder and broken stained glass, before starting to dig in the rubble to search for survivors. More than 20 other members of the congregation were injured in the blast.
When thousands of angry black protesters assembled at the crime scene, Wallace sent hundreds of police and state troopers to the area to break up the crowd. Two young black men were killed that night, one by police and another by racist thugs. Meanwhile, public outrage over the bombing continued to grow, drawing international attention to Birmingham. At a funeral for three of the girls (one’s family preferred a separate, private service), King addressed more than 8,000 mourners.
A well-known Klan member, Robert Chambliss, was charged with murder and with buying 122 sticks of dynamite. In October 1963, Chambliss was cleared of the murder charge and received a six-month jail sentence and a $100 fine for the dynamite. Although a subsequent FBI investigation identified three other men–Bobby Frank Cherry, Herman Cash and Thomas E. Blanton, Jr.–as having helped Chambliss commit the crime, it was later revealed that FBI chairman J. Edgar Hoover blocked their prosecution and shut down the investigation without filing charges in 1968. After Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley reopened the case, Chambliss was convicted in 1977 and sentenced to life in prison.
Efforts to prosecute the other three men believed responsible for the bombing continued for decades. Though Cash died in 1994, Cherry and Blanton were arrested and charged with four counts of murder in 2000. Blanton was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Cherry’s trial was delayed after judges ruled he was mentally incompetent to stand trial. This decision was later reversed. On May 22, 2002, Cherry was convicted and sentenced to life, bringing a long-awaited victory to the friends and families of the four young victims.
Grant's: Pension Predicament
The modern financial epoch is defined by a few common threads, not least a collective corporate inclination toward buybacks and/or dividends over reinvesting in their businesses. The Financial Times noted on August 29 that capex across global listed companies has fallen in every calendar year since 2012.
Capital investment is not the only expense that has been at least partially neglected in this long bull cycle. The July 21 issue of Barron’s made note of plainly inadequate funding levels for corporate pension plans:
At midyear, the average corporate defined-benefit pension plan was only 83% funded, according to Goldman Sachs Asset Management. That’s up from 81% at the start of the year, but it’s still a big shortfall. General Electric (GE), Lockheed Martin (LMT), and Exxon Mobil (XOM) all had plans funded at just around 70% of assets at the end of last year. The shortfalls are ‘despite very benign equity markets,’ notes Kevin McLaughlin, who heads liability risk management in North America at Insight Investment. ‘The need to make contributions to close these deficits is real.’
Some companies are heeding McLaughlin’s advice, albeit in ways that might raise an eyebrow or two. Bloomberg today broke the story that Boeing Co. opted to partially plug its $20 billion pension shortfall (the plan’s total size is $57 billion) through a $3.5 billion infusion of its own shares, including those it had acquired from the public in prior company share buybacks.
Boeing stock has been as good as gold this year. Actually better than gold: its 58% share price appreciation soundly trumps the yellow metal’s 14% advance. Still, some observers are less than impressed with a move that seemingly embeds a type of leverage that can’t be readily spotted on Boeing’s balance sheet.
‘It’s an irresponsible thing to do certainly from the perspective of the plan participants,’ said Daniel Bergstresser, a finance professor at the Brandeis International Business School. ‘Ideally, you would like to put assets in the pension plan that won’t fall in value at exactly the same time that the company is suffering.’
Others have turned elsewhere for a remedy. Kroger Corp. recently announced a $1 billion contribution into its own pension plan, substantially closing the plan’s $1.3 billion shortfall. The Cincinnati-based supermarket chain is taking the more conventional route to plug the gap: it tapped the bond market through a $1.5 billion offering of senior unsecured debt in July.
The move was cheered by some. John Meyer of Meyer Capital Management told the Cincinnati Business Courier that “this strikes me as a move only a really good business would make. Kroger views this as not managing for the next 12 weeks but looking at it over the long term.” Matt Brill, a bond fund manager at Invesco, was quoted in the aforementioned Barron’s story as saying, “We don’t feel negative about it at all. At the end of the day, they owe the money anyway.”
As to the efficaciousness of the plan, we aren’t so sure. Beset by corporate T-1000 Jeff Bezos and Amazon’s splashy cost-cutting foray into the grocery business via the Whole Foods deal, Kroger has seen its share price shaved by more than 37% year-to-date. Part of the problem is that debt issuance is not the only liquidity-draining initiative undertaken by management of late. The company announced on June 22 a $1 billion share buyback, the fifth such repurchase program initiated by the company since March of last year (the prior four took place at much higher prices). Yesterday, Kroger declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.125 per-share, up by 4.2% from its September 2016 payout and 19% north of its 2015 disbursement.
These maneuvers, in tandem with its contracting valuation, have added some strain to Kroger’s balance sheet. Its long term debt footed to $13.1 billion as of the quarter ended August 12, up by 36% year-on-year. Shareholder equity of $6.14 billion was down 7% year-over-year. Dividend payments have accounted for 34.2% of net income through the first two quarters of the year, compared to an average of just under 24% last fiscal year and just under 20% in fiscal 2016.
So far, the ratings agencies have registered no public protest. Kroger maintains a triple-B rating at S&P and Baa1 at Moody’s, both one notch above the lowest rung of investment grade. Both agencies have deemed Kroger’s outlook to be “stable”.
File these items in the bourgeoning category of: not-early bull market sightings.
From Grant's Interest Rate Observer
Thursday, September 14, 2017
On this day in 1847,
United States Captures and Takes Control of Mexico City
From This Day In History:
During the Mexican-American War, U.S. forces under General Winfield Scott enter Mexico City and raise the American flag over the Hall of Montezuma, concluding a devastating advance that began with an amphibious landing at Vera Cruz six months earlier.
The Mexican-American War began with a dispute over the U.S. government’s 1845 annexation of Texas. In January 1846, President James K. Polk, a strong advocate of westward expansion, ordered General Zachary Taylor to occupy disputed territory between the Nueces and Rio Grande Rivers. Mexican troops attacked Taylor’s forces, and on May 13, 1846, Congress approved a declaration of war against Mexico.
On March 9, 1847, U.S. forces under General Winfield Scott invaded Mexico three miles south of Vera Cruz. They encountered little resistance from the Mexicans massed in the fortified city of Vera Cruz, and by nightfall the last of Scott’s 10,000 men came ashore without the loss of a single life. It was the largest amphibious landing in U.S. history and not surpassed until World War II. By March 29, with very few casualties, Scott’s forces had taken Vera Cruz and its massive fortress, San Juan de Ulua. On September 14, Scott’s forces reached the Mexican capital.
In February 1848, representatives from the United States and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, formally ending the Mexican War, recognizing Texas as part of the United States, and extending the boundaries of the United States west to the Pacific Ocean.
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
On this day in 1936,
17 Year Old Bob Feller Strikes Out 17 Batters
On this day in 1936, 17-year-old Cleveland Indians pitching ace “Rapid” Robert Feller strikes out 17 batters in a game, setting a new American League record. Feller allowed just two hits in the game to help his team to a 5-2 victory over the Philadelphia A’s.
Feller was born November 3, 1918, in Van Meter, Iowa. An only child, he spent his days pitching against the side of a barn on his family’s farm. At just 16 years old, in July 1935, Feller signed with Cy Slapnicka, a Cleveland Indian scout, in exchange for an autographed baseball and one dollar. On August 25, 1936, when he was still only 17, Feller made his first start, striking out 15 St. Louis Browns with a blazing fastball and knee-buckling curveball that would be the hallmarks of his long and storied career.
On September 13, Feller started the first game of a double-header against the Philadelphia A’s at League Park in Cleveland. The young pitcher’s fastball was effective from the start and he was soon racking up strikes at a pace unseen in the American League since Rube Waddell of the St. Louis Browns struck out 16 batters in 1908. Feller’s 17 strikeouts that day tied Dizzy Dean’s modern major league record, set in 1933. Two years later, on the last day of the 1938 season, Feller broke Dean’s record when he struck out 18 Detroit Tigers, setting a modern record that would stand for 31 years. (It was finally broken in 1969 by St. Louis Cardinals’ pitcher, Steve Carlton.
Bob Feller retired from baseball after the 1956 season having won more games than any pitcher in Cleveland Indians history. His numbers would, no doubt, have been even more impressive if not for the four seasons he spent in the Navy during World War II, where he earned eight battle stars. In 1957 his jersey number, 19, was the first to be retired by the Indians. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, the only pitcher since Walter Johnson to be so honored in his first year of eligibility. His lifetime record of 266-162 includes three no-hitters (1940, 1946 and 1951).
On this day in 1814,
Francis Scott Key Writes "The Star-Spangled Banner"
On this day in 1814, Francis Scott Key wrote the poem which was later set to music and became the national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
The poem, originally titled “The Defence of Fort McHenry,” was written after Key witnessed the Maryland fort being bombarded by the British during the War of 1812. Key was inspired by the sight of a lone U.S. flag still flying over Fort McHenry at daybreak, as reflected in the now-famous words of the “Star-Spangled Banner”: “And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.”This Day In History
The poem was printed in newspapers and eventually set to the music of a popular English drinking tune called “To Anacreon in Heaven” by composer John Stafford Smith. People began referring to the song as “The Star-Spangled Banner” and in 1916 President Woodrow Wilson announced that it should be played at all official events. It was adopted as the national anthem on March 3, 1931.
Lindsey Graham, Ron Johnson, Rick Santorum Reveal Their Obamacare Block Grant Repeal Legislation
Breitbart ArticleTuesday, September 12, 2017
Sunday, September 10, 2017
Time to do something radical.
America’s Crisis with Opioids
Townhall ArticleIf you were around in the 1980s, you’ll likely recall HIV/AIDS bursting on the scene with a vengeance. AIDS spread through the consciousness of America even faster than the disease. Who was exposed? Where did it come from? Today another epidemic has exploded into the minds of America that has everyone just as befuddled – opioids. People are dying in mass numbers and no one has totally wrapped their heads around the problem to solve it.The numbers are staggering. For people under the age of 50, opioids are the single largest cause of death. More than cancer, more than auto accidents, more than gun violence, more than any other cause. In fact, opioids were a greater cause of death in 2015 than HIV/AIDS was in 1995.
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