Month: May 2021

Latest Data on COVID-19 Vaccinations Race/Ethnicity

Mary Pat Campbell
Latest Data on COVID-19 Vaccinations Race/Ethnicity

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Excerpt:

This week’s (May 10 to May 17, 2021) pace of vaccination remained similar to last week across racial/ethnic groups. Across reporting states, vaccination rates increased by 1.3 percentage points for White people, from 40.3% to 41.6%, and by 1.2 percentage points for Black people, from 26.6% to 27.8%, maintaining the gap in rates between these groups (Figure 4). The rate for Hispanic people increased by 1.6 percentage points from 28.8% to 30.4%, while the rate for Asian people increased by 1.9 percentage points, from 50.2% to 52.1%.

Author(s): Nambi Ndugga, Olivia Pham , Latoya Hill, Samantha Artiga, Raisa Alam , Noah Parker

Publication Date: 19 May 2021

Publication Site: Kaiser Family Foundation

The SEC’s job is bigger than just protecting the investors, Mr. Gensler

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.truthinaccounting.org/news/detail/the-secs-job-is-bigger-than-just-protecting-the-investors-mr-gensler

Excerpt:

Unlike FASB, the SEC has no control over GASB. But the Commission is obligated “to protect investors in the municipal markets from fraud, including misleading disclosures [emphasis added].” Taken together, the SEC’s own statements make a strong case that it is obligated to prevent fraud in state and local governments’ financial reports, which are confusing and obfuscate the truth. 

The state and local governments’ annual financial reports are based on shoddy accounting practices. If confusing and misleading disclosures are considered fraud, then annual reports produce fraudulent disclosures.

It is confusing and misleading that the GASB requires state and local governments to keep two sets of books. Annual financial reports include governmental fund statements that are prepared using an accounting basis called the “modified accrual basis,” which in essence uses short-sighted cash accounting, while the consolidated financial statements are prepared using accrual accounting standards similar to those used by corporations. 

Author(s): Sheila Weinberg

Publication Date: 20 May 2021

Publication Site: Truth in Accounting

Op-ed: Illinois pension reform: Arizona provides a model worth another look

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-opinion-illinois-pension-reform-arizona-20210525-eb5z573ajbfdlhemyj25yij22i-story.html

Excerpt:

Which is why every politician and every voter in Illinois ought to know how Arizona managed its 2016 reform of the 48% funded Public Safety Personnel Retirement System, which had a cost-of-living adjustment calculation that everyone agreed was broken, including the unions themselves. But Arizona shares with Illinois a constitutional protection against pension changes, specifically stating that “public retirement systems shall not be diminished or impaired.”

So how did they implement this change? In a two-step process, the legislature passed reform legislation and then placed on the ballot a constitutional amendment which inserted a new clause into the state constitution: “Public retirement systems shall not be diminished or impaired, except that certain adjustments to the public safety personnel retirement system may be made as provided in Senate Bill 1428, as enacted by the fifty-second legislature, second regular session.”

This meant that the citizens of Arizona could vote on this pension change without having to worry about whether they were authorizing any unknown future changes to pensions that they might not have wanted.

Author(s): Elizabeth Bauer

Publication Date: 25 May 2021

Publication Site: Chicago Tribune

Forensic Investigation Of Chicago Police Pension Fund Underway

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardsiedle/2021/05/25/forensic-investigation-of-chicago-police-pension-fund-underway/?sh=6f9aac8c3ed9

Excerpt:

The Chicago Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund (PABF) —commonly referred to as the Chicago Police Pension Fund—is one of the worst funded public pension plans in the United States today, with a funding ratio of only 23 percent.

A group of retired and disabled officers, along with widows, has long questioned the trustees and management of the struggling pension. Dissatisfied with the responses they received, the group formed the CPD Pension Board Accountability Group.

Funds were raised to commission an independent forensic audit of the pension and an expert in pensions was retained recently to conduct the review. As Forbes readers will recall, in my recent book, Who Stole My Pension?, I encourage pension stakeholders to band together to fund independent forensic investigations by pension experts of their own choosing—to get a second opinion as to whether the pension fiduciaries and Wall Street “helpers” they have hired to manage investments are doing a good job.

Author(s): Edward Siedle

Publication Date: 25 May 2021

Publication Site: Forbes

State earned income tax credits and suicidal behavior: A repeated cross-sectional study

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0091743520304345

Abstract:

Suicide is an increasingly common cause of death in the United States and recent increases in suicide rates disproportionately impact low income individuals. We sought to assess the impact of income support in the form of state earned income tax credit policies on suicide-related behaviors. This state-level study used repeated cross-sectional data from vital records and the National Survey of Drug Use and Health data representative at the state-level. The population included adults who either died by suicide or were selected for in-person NSDUH interviews between 2008 and 2018. Exposure was measured as the generosity of a refundable state earned income tax credit policy measured as a percentage of the federal policy. Outcomes assessed were suicidal ideation, suicidal planning, non-fatal suicide attempt, suicide deaths, and combined fatal and non-fatal suicide attempts. Analyses were performed between April and June 2020. A 10 percentage-point increase in the generosity of state earned income tax credit was associated with lower frequency of non-fatal suicide attempts (prevalence ratio [PR] = 0.96; 95% CI: 0.93–0.99), combined fatal and non-fatal suicide attempts (PR = 0.96; 95% CI: 0.93–0.99), and suicide deaths (PR = 0.99; 95% CI: 0.99–1.00). This translates to 4 fewer suicide attempts per 10,000 population each year. Generous state earned income tax credit policies are associated with reductions in the frequency of most severe suicidal behavior. Income support policies may be one way to reduce suicide attempts and death, especially among low-income adults.

Author(s): Erin R.Morgan, Christopher R. DeCou, Heather D. Hill, Stephen J.Mooney, Frederick P.Rivara, AliRowhani-Rahbar

Publication Date: April 2021

Publication Site: Preventive Medicine

John Napier : Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio….. & Constructio…..

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: http://www.17centurymaths.com/contents/napiercontents.html

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A modern translation with some notes of Napier’s Descriptio, with the Latin version presented last, is presented here. Book I is an introduction to the new science of logarithms; while Book II is devoted to a thorough explanation of the solution of plane and spherical triangles. The original work was translated by Edward Wright in 1616 and both the original and the translation were used by Briggs at Gresham College as part of the education of navigators, for whom the work was intended; astronomers also benefited. This work and its sequel the Constructioshould be read before Briggs’s Arithmetica is approached. I present here a spreadsheet derivation of Napier’s Log Tables : there was a ‘slippery mistake’ in one of the tables of the Constructio, which together with the rounding that took place, limited the original tables accuracy to only perhaps 5 places ; thus, there cannot be complete agreement with the original tables.. The Constructio in which Napier promised to elaborate on his method then follows; though Napier did not live long enough to see this work in print. This work is the first time the exponential function appears in mathematics, under the guise of a geometric number line. This is a brilliant exercise in lateral thinking to solve an apparently unsolvable problem : the time and labour spent in long calculations. I am much indebted to the translation of this work by William Macdonald (1888) , that has helped me to unravel some of the knots in Napier’s Latin and saved much time. An appendix is also given; and one should also mention the existence of another book that was printed before the death of the philosopher, his Rabdologea, in which Napier’s other calculating devices that include his bones and promptuary are set out. As an excellent translation by William Frank Richardson has been published in the history of computing series, there is no need to expound on this here. Perhaps I should say that an internet friend of mine, Jim Hanson, has resurrected the Promptuary, and you should visit his website if you want to know how to make one :

Translated text: http://www.17centurymaths.com/contents/napier/ademonstratiobookone.pdf

Author(s): John Napier (original in Latin), translated by Ian Bruce

Publication Date: 30 April 2012

Publication Site: 17th century maths

Over the past century, African-American life expectancy and education levels have soared

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/05/20/over-the-past-century-african-american-life-expectancy-and-education-levels-have-soared

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AT THE turn of the twentieth century, a newborn white American could expect to live for around 48 years. That was 15 years longer than a newborn African-American could expect. Improvements in hygiene, medicine and other public-health measures led those numbers to rise dramatically. By mid-century, life expectancy for African-Americans had nearly doubled, to 61 years, while for white Americans it rose to 69. By 2017 the gap had narrowed further, to three and a half years: 75.3 for African-Americans, 78.8 for whites. But Hispanic Americans outlive them both, to an average of 81.8 years. In other words, both races have progressed significantly, but gaps remain. This same pattern exists across a number of metrics.

The most disturbing aspect of this pattern is not just the enduring gap in outcomes between black and white Americans, though it has narrowed markedly. It is that, as the work of Anne Case and Angus Deaton, both economists at Princeton, has shown, life expectancy fell for all demographic groups of Americans between 2014 and 2017 for the first time since 1993. The rise in mortality rates has been especially stark for whites without college degrees, owing to what they call “deaths of despair”: drug overdoses, suicide and diseases caused by heavy drinking.

Publication Date: 20 May 2021

Publication Site: The Economist

Intelligence on Sick Staff at Wuhan Lab Fuels Debate on Covid-19 Origin

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/intelligence-on-sick-staff-at-wuhan-lab-fuels-debate-on-covid-19-origin-11621796228?mod=djemalertNEWS

Excerpt:

Three researchers from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick enough in November 2019 that they sought hospital care, according to a previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence report that could add weight to growing calls for a fuller probe of whether the Covid-19 virus may have escaped from the laboratory.

The details of the reporting go beyond a State Department fact sheet, issued during the final days of the Trump administration, which said that several researchers at the lab, a center for the study of coronaviruses and other pathogens, became sick in autumn 2019 “with symptoms consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illness.”

….

China’s National Health Commission and the WIV didn’t respond to requests for comment. Shi Zhengli, the top bat coronavirus expert at WIV, has said the virus didn’t leak from her laboratories. She told the WHO-led team that traveled to Wuhan earlier this year to investigate the origins of the virus that all staff had tested negative for Covid-19 antibodies and there had been no turnover of staff on the coronavirus team.

Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist on that team told NBC News in March that some WIV staff did fall sick in the autumn of 2019, but she attributed that to regular, seasonal sickness.

…..

It isn’t unusual for people in China to go straight to the hospital when they fall sick, either because they get better care there or lack access to a general practitioner. Covid-19 and the flu, while very different illnesses, share some of the same symptoms, such as fever, aches and a cough. Still, it could be significant if members of the same team working with coronaviruses went to hospital with similar symptoms shortly before the pandemic was first identified.

Author(s): Michael R. Gordon, Warren P. Strobel, Drew Hinshaw

Publication Date: 23 May 2021

Publication Site: WSJ

2.8 Million New York City Residents To Get Retirement Coverage

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/teresaghilarducci/2021/05/19/28-million-new-york-city-residents-to-get-retirement-coverage/?sh=5cbd24fb5d4a

Excerpt:

At the end of April, the New York City Council took a bold step and approved a city-sponsored retirement plan for private-sector employees who do not have retirement coverage at work, creating the city’s first ‘auto-IRA’ (individual retirement account). SCEPA’s Retirement Equity Lab, which testified in support of the policy, estimated the New York auto IRA plan will provide coverage to 2.8 million city workers that today have none. 

Mayor de Blasio signed the bill last week implementing the city’s auto-IRA program.

The NYC Auto IRA Bill Is Well- Designed

Employers with more than five employees will have to automatically deduct a percentage of their workers’ pay and forward it to city-facilitated, not-for-profit IRAs. (Employers with less than five employees, self employed, and gig workers need to voluntarily join.) Auto IRA account’s are individually-owned and professionally managed, and administered by an independent board headed by city-appointed trustees. While employers are required to participate, employees would have the right to change their contribution rates or opt-out of the program. The plan is also portable; participants can maintain their accounts when they change jobs. 

Author(s): Teresa Ghilarduci

Publication Date: 19 May 2021

Publication Site: Forbes

Chicago Boys’ Free-Market Pension Model Is Unraveling in Chile

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-10/chicago-boys-free-market-pension-model-is-unraveling-in-chile?sref=htOHjx5Y

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Chile’s privately run pension funds are in a battle for survival, reeling under the impact of billions of dollars of withdrawals as politicians and social movements attack a system once viewed as a model for the world.

Chileans have taken out more than $30 billion from their retirement savings in the past year and congress has authorized a third wave of withdrawals that could drive the figure to more than $50 billion. That would leave the pension funds with about $180 billion of equities and fixed-income assets. Many lawmakers are now calling for the whole system to be dismantled.

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Created during the dictatorship of August Pinochet on the advice of free-market economists known as the Chicago Boys, the private pensions Chileans are required to fund are a bedrock of the country’s system. The savings they have generated over the past four decades have given local credit markets and the peso a stability that is the envy of serial defaulters such as Argentina or Ecuador, and prompted countries including Peru and Colombia to adopt similar structures. Yet, many complain that the funds have failed to provide decent pensions.

Distrust in the system, and a need for cash, meant Chileans rushed to pull money out of their savings accounts as the pandemic forced the government to shutter much of the economy.

Author(s): Eduardo Thomson

Publication Date: 10 May 2021

Publication Site: Bloomberg

Global minimum tax

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://allisonschrager.substack.com/p/known-unknowns-905

Excerpt:

Is it just me or are people obsessed with tax compliance lately? I suppose it is part of this fantasy that high earners and corporations have enough money to pay for all our new spending – we just have to force them to pay up.

You know what might be simpler than jacking up taxes and doubling the size of a government agency? A broader base and simplified tax system that doesn’t leave so much room for getting out of paying taxes. Take the idea of a global minimum corporate tax. Sounds sensible enough; after all, you can’t increase the corporate tax rate too much because it is so easy to send profits overseas where taxes are lower.

But anyone who studied public finance can tell you there’s the tax rate and there’s the tax base. Generally, it is better to have a broader base and a lower rate. You get more revenue that way, and it causes fewer distortions and enhances transparency. Maybe we can convince OECD countries to set a higher corporate rate, but that creates a new race to the bottom to degrade the base. Countries will compete to offer more loopholes and deductions. And that seems worse to me.

Author(s): Allison Schrager

Publication Date: 24 May 2021

Publication Site: Known Unknowns at substack

Wuhan researchers sought hospital care in late 2019: US intel

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://thehill.com/policy/international/china/555013-three-wuhan-researchers-were-sick-enough-to-be-hospitalized-in

Excerpt:

Three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology became ill enough with symptoms similar to COVID-19 that they sought hospital care in November of 2019, according to a U.S. intelligence report obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

According to the Journal, the intelligence report, issued in the last days of the Trump administration, said researchers at the lab became sick “with symptoms consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illness.”

….

The Wuhan Institute of Virology has reportedly not provided raw data, safety logs or lab records on its work looking into coronaviruses in bats. Many consider the virus to have originated in bats before jumping to humans.

Author(s): Joseph Choi

Publication Date: 24 May 2021

Publication Site: The Hill