SWEET HOME CHICAGO, NOT!

     Now don't get me wrong.  I've enjoyed a great number of business trips to Chicago, I am a huge Michael Jordan fan, Julia Roberts looked amazing dancing to Frank on the river cruise in "My Best Friend's Wedding," and the Blues Brothers wrote the book on "cool."  But, Chicago and the entire state of Illinois are seriously vying to unseed California as the most-terribly run government with fiasco economics.
     Last month, continuing their labor-corrupt politics the Illinois Supreme Court upheld Chicago's new law that forbids food trucks from being within 200-feet of any bricks-and-mortar food business, therefore mostly eliminating this service from Downtown Chicago.  The Court also stated that it is not in violation of the state's constitution to require each truck to carry a GPS tracker in order that the city knows where the trucks are at all times.  What?  What about the United States Constitution? (see China)(also see JAM VIEWS Post "Licensing is a Scam" to refresh your memory of how entrenched corporate interests and unions, and the politicians accepting their campaign contributions, use ridiculous licensing laws to defeat competition).
     JAM VIEWS applauds the gutsy Ms. Laura Pekarik, owner of Courageous Bakery and Cafe, named in honor of her sister's battle with cancer, for pursuing this case for free markets and democracy.  She states that the trucks are the "heart and soul" of her business.  Sam Barrot, owner of the sandwich company Fat Shallot, claims the majority of restaurants downtown are chains "so the 200-foot rule does little other than support restaurants that can be found anywhere."
     Let's hope Ms. Pekarik continues her righteous fight to the U.S. Supreme Court, even against the tremendous procedural and expense hurdles in place to stop her.  And, let's also identify this "dumb economics" law as a further, and almost last, nail in the coffin for the budget and economy of Chicago and the state of Illinois.
     Both the city and the state are beyond bankrupt and are being kept "solvent" by corrupt politicians and ratings agencies.  Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Agency rate Illinois the lowest of all 50 states in credit worthiness, but still have them ranked investment grade.  If you believe that, you deserve to have them default on your municipal bonds.  Let's remember that these two agencies put AAA ratings on thousands of Collateral Mortgage Obligations (CMO's) which held truckloads of mortgages in which the homeowner never could even make the first house payment!  To quote Michael Lewis' great book and movie, "The Big Short," "Who sells a mortgage to someone who can't even make the first payment?!"
     Now Illinois, with their last desperate gasp, has legalized gambling and marijuana so they can tax the hell out of them.  How quickly your morals change when you see the tax revenue.  This would all be a sad mistake if it hadn't been going on for decades.  Illinois pension systems, which pay big labor and government retiree benefits, have a reported $162 billion funding hole, and this calculation relies on very ambitious projected rates of investment return, returns which you and I would be indicted for investment fraud for even suggesting.  The Wall Street Journal has reported that "independent analysts using more realistic rates of return reckon that the state's pensions may only be about one-fifth funded."  That means 80% unfunded.
     Remember that the U.S. Government tells you that the National Debt is $22 trillion, but if you honestly report the debt to include the unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare, it is over $90 trillion.  [Side Statistic: Wall Street derivatives which nearly destroyed the world in 2008 totaled $700 trillion, and as of 2019 now total more than $1.2 quadrillion.  Yes, quadrillion.  That is a real word!].
     So, how can we get Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker to read JAM VIEWS instead of focusing now on changing the state's flat tax to a graduated income-tax system in order to get the last remaining dollars from "the rich," as well as placing a tax on your golden retriever?  Shouldn't he be more concerned that the Vice Channel's show, "Viceland," renames his great city as "Chiraq," the unfortunate reference to a war zone?  Will the last taxpayer in Illinois please turn off the lights when you leave?
     Why must it be so difficult?  Why won't the government provide basic economic education to its citizens in public schools, so that history does not continue to repeat itself, over and over and over?  Please learn from these examples, and don't go with the crowd, for they know not what they do.  Your place is not among them.

"If you can't get them to salute when they should salute and wear the clothes you tell them to wear, how are you going to get them to die for their country?"  -  General George S. Patton, Jr.

** Thank you very much to the WSJ, Forbes, and Fortune for the above quotations and statistics.

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

** To access JAM Views directly please visit jeffreyamartinovich.blogspot.com 

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UPDATES: LICENSING SCAMS, INEPT FED, CHARTER BATTLES, & CRONY CAPITALISM

     JAM VIEWS members know that we periodically revisit important topics 1) to ensure we all fully understand the dramatic impact of correct economics and business practices, and 2) to remind us that the fight for free markets and rugged individualism is a never-ending battle against the Looters.
     LICENSING.  Previously we learned that state, city, and county licensing requirements are merely scams to protect the entrenched business interests which are funding the politician's campaigns, and to generate revenue to support the ever-expanding government bureaucracy and entitlement programs on the backs of hardworking small business owners.  Recently, the state of Arizona has freed small business and individuals by passing a law to be the first state to recognize out-of-state occupational licenses, including more than 40 professions from cosmetologists and court reporters to psychologists and surgeons.
     Republican State Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita stated, "The reform opens up an appealing job option for low-skilled workers who otherwise would have had to pay between $8,000 and $15,000 for (re)-schooling to do the same work."  This leadership-by-example will have a dramatic impact across many states and release more capitalism than you may imagine.  Also, this is a huge benefit for military spouses whom uproot themselves and their professions to move with their transferred service member.  GOP State Rep. Jeff Weninger declared, "We are open for business, and we're trying to cut back on red tape here."  Congratulations to Arizona!
     STABLE DOLLAR.  Following up on our lessons explaining that the goal is not a strong dollar, nor a weak dollar, but a stable dollar, Judy Shelton, an economist and author of "Money Meltdown: Restoring Order to the Global Currency System," recently released some interesting statistics to support our case.  Judy's book explains that we should question the Federal Reserve's competency, as "no other government institution had more influence over the creation of money and credit in the lead-up to the devastating 2008 global meltdown."  Currently the Fed pays banks to keep their $1.5 trillion in excess reserves (8x what's required) in accounts earning interest instead of making loans to the public to create businesses and spur job creation.
     The Fed has always incorrectly believed that inflation results from job creation.  Judy points out that "inflation results when too much money is chasing too few goods.  It is not caused by real economic growth where wages increase to properly compensate people for their higher levels of output achieved through productivity gains."
     Also, as we keep preaching, the Bank of England's recent report concluded that today's "Fed-controlled" system has performed poorly in comparison to our periods under the gold standard (1870-1913) and the gold-exchange system (1948-1972).  Having the stable gold standard enabled "accelerating labor productivity, falling income inequality and increased workforce participation.  The Obama 2015 Economic Report of the President even suggested that if this same growth had continued once Nixon took us off the gold standard in 1973, that U.S. citizen's "incomes would have been 58% higher in 2013, and "the median household would have had an additional $30,000 in income."
     JAM VIEWS members know we must have a stable currency based on gold (or something else), and that the technocrats the Government keeps trying to tell us are brilliant, are not.
     CHARTER SCHOOLS.  This week we are reminded that bureaucracies and entrenched interests hate the upstarts which greatly outperform their mediocrity, especially in our children's schools.  Ben Chavis, a Lumbee Indian raised by sharecroppers in rural North Carolina and successful businessman-turned-educator, became principal of American Indian Public Charter School (AIPCS) in 2000.  This Oakland, California public school was then the poster-child for failed schools: truancy, drugs, violence, failing test scores, and all the rest.
     By 2004, after Chavis installed discipline, standards, and performance metrics, the middle school students achieved higher math and reading test scores than students at any other public school in Oakland.  After Chavis then opened a high school, this charter in 2008 ranked fourth in the entire state for performance.  To top it off, he also started a second charter middle school which ranked 5th out of 1,300 California schools, and in 2006 was named one of the top 250 schools in the country.
     So how did they reward him?  In 2011 Mr. Chavis announced plans to expand further, so the Oakland School Board began an investigation and found "financial improprieties."  Next, to great national media fanfare, the federal prosecutors indicted Mr. Chavis on mail fraud, money laundering, and conflicts of interest (see "Indicting a ham sandwich").  Thank God, last week the U.S. Attorneys Office in San Francisco dropped all of these charges for insufficient evidence, and Mr. Chavis agreed to a technical violation in order to move forward.  But, he had to leave AIPCS in 2013 to fight for his life for 5 years.  With class and grace this week, he stated, "I'm not the victim.  The kids are the victims."
     Remember to support school choice, support merit-based rewards, and to embrace others who succeed.  No schadenfreude!
     Finally, a quick note on CAPITALISM.  Ms. Chamlee-Wright, President of the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University, issued an article clarifying that our ultimate goal is not only to defeat all aspects of socialism, but also Crony Capitalism, the entrenched large-corporation, political-lobbyist, licensing-barriers-to-entry types of impure capitalism.  She also promotes questioning everyone and everything.  She stated, "I believe that competitive and open markets (plus lots of social and political freedom) are the answer.  Perhaps you think otherwise, but we should have that conversation rather than unthinkingly accept what's put in front of us."  She must be a JAM VIEWS reader!
     A reminder this week to do everything possible to support business startups and entrepreneurial mentality.  Stop at every lemonade stand, and always buy those water-logged golf balls from the kid peddling his inventory next to the pond on the 7th hole.  The Universe is watching.

"We must make the building of a free society once more an intellectual adventure, a deed of courage."  -  F.A. Hayek, Economist.

** Thank you very much to the WSJ, Forbes, and Fortune for the above quotations and statistics.

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

** To access JAM Views directly please visit jeffreyamartinovich.blogspot.com 

* SUBSCRIBE TO JAM VIEWS

* PLEASE USE THE BELOW SHARE BUTTONS TO SPREAD THE WORD!