DeSantis & Financial Literacy
March 29, 2022
Florida Governor Signs Financial Literacy Bill
Here is a summary of the recent Florida Financial Literacy announcement as I understand it,
‘On March 22, 2022, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1054, titled the Dorothy L. Hukill Financial Literacy Act, which will require high school students to take a financial literacy course to receive a standard high school diploma.
The legislation will officially become a graduation requirement for students who enter high school in the 2023-24 school year, and will not affect students currently enrolled in high school.
“Financial literacy is an important life skill for a student to have,” said DeSantis. “Ensuring our students have the skills to manage their finances – and perhaps one day own a business – will pay dividends for our state. I am proud to sign this bill to support the future of Florida’s students and ultimately their families and communities.”
Students will be required to earn one-half credit in personal financial literacy and money management, including instruction on types of bank accounts, credit scores, taxes and managing debt.’
During my career in banking and financial services, I spent over 2 decades seeking solutions to our national intellectual deficit in the area of personal economic and financial literacy.
Much of what I learned relates to relevancy. Young people who grew up in a household where Amscot was the financial provider of choice won’t relate to traditional banks. And, a young person with no job and no viable prospects for a future career which will generate a reliable income stream isn’t a good candidate for learning about bank accounts, credit scores, etc.
What I found in my practical research was that the very best solution to engaging students – probably beginning at middle school, and certainly at the high school level – involves thoughtful inclusion of economic concepts into the social studies curriculum.
Virtually everything in the history of mankind involves an economic component which can be carefully woven into the history itself.
The feudal system, which flourished in Europe until about 1500, continues to exist in the U.S. and other nations, disguised by new labels and promoted by clever marketing schemes.
Then, there was slavery. The underlying reason for the extraordinary prosperity of plantation owners in the southern U.S. states producing cotton, tobacco, rice, and sugar wasn’t due to their intelligence: it was completely due to slave labor.
Today, we have the overarching issue of student debt. Those who have been educated and informed about ‘opportunity costs’ are (at least) inoculated against the commissioned charlatans who offer promises of obscene salaries for completion of certain certificate or degree programs — with no real supporting facts – “just sign on the dotted line and you will never regret it”.
Today, we have a financial sector (“Wall Street”) which extracts tremendous costs out of each and every financial transaction. For virtually no value-added, an investment bank transaction takes at least 25% off the top, providing immediate (and arguably excessive) financial rewards to certain economic pirates — analysts, associates and managing directors — while adding zero benefit to our overall economy.
The recent ‘Great Recession’ (2007 – 2009) was enabled by a broad contingent of economically illiterate consumers who were duped by an equally inept cohort of financially and economically illiterate brokers. The common theme: A relatively small group of mathematical practitioners – economic pirates — who created theoretical models which proved to be defective in practice.
The current frenzy centered on Cryptocurrency is likely another economic trap conjured up by economic pirates. The underground economy has been somewhat stifled by a 1969 decision of the U.S. Treasury to discontinue $500 and $1,000 bills. Can you just imagine an illicit $500,000 cash transaction conducted using $100 bills? Laundered money, converted into cryptocurrency, is the perfect medium through which to consummate the transaction. Drugs? Weapons? Real Estate? The sky is the limit.
Best I can tell, nothing in the Florida bill addresses the basic issues which American adults need to be aware of. A good understanding of fundamental economic principles is the foundation of a comprehensive financial and economic education, and I don’t think those concepts are imbedded anywhere in this Florida legislation.
Josh Hawley, an Elected Obstructionist?
March 23, 2022
Is Sen. Hawley a danger to our democracy?
Josh Hawley, the junior senator from Missouri, was mostly unknown until he joined a few other newsworthy seditionists to attempt to deny certification of Joe Biden’s election on January 6, 2021.
Hawley became a poster boy for the cause, caught on camera fist-pumping outside the Capitol just prior to the insurrection.
His re-election campaign now uses this photo to embellish a number of trinkets available on his website – for example, a coffee mug is available for just $20.00.
Hawley graduated from a private Jesuit high school where he was valedictorian; is a graduate of Stanford; and of Yale Law School where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal and also served as president of the Yale Federalist Society chapter. Prior to his election to the Senate in 2018, he held a number of positions, including a stint as an associate professor at the University of Missouri Law School, where he taught constitutional law.
But, please don’t be fooled by his pedigree, boyish good looks or his melodious baritone delivery.
Hawley clearly has a penchant for disloyalty and rebellious activities focused on undermining the workings of the United States government.
And, his recent performance interrogating Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has given new meaning to the phrase “badgering the witness.”
Trump Organization & $100 Million Refinance?
March 10, 2022
How did The Trump Organization refinance a Trump Tower mortgage with a $100 million loan?
The new loan is a refinancing of a commercial mortgage the Trump Organization took out on Trump Tower in 2012. That was a 10-year loan with an interest rate of 4.2% that came due this year, according to a financial disclosure filed by Trump.
The lender of the original mortgage loan was Ladder Capital, a New York firm where the son of Trump’s longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, is a senior executive.
The new loan was apparently consummated on February 15, 2022 with Axos Bank of California.
Axos Bank? ‘Never heard of them’, you say.
Axos is a small [$14 Billion] boutique west-coast Federal Savings & Loan, formerly known as Bank of Internet, USA.
Axos has been in the press recently because of apparent ties to World Business Lenders and allegedly predatory loans to small business owners at rates of up to 268% APR, evading state usury laws by evoking the Axos federal charter.
CEO Gregory Garrabrants is head of Axos Financial Inc., the holding company which owns Axos Bank.
In 2018, Garrabrants compensation was $34.5 Million, more than Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase & Co. ($31 Million) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s David Solomon ($23 Million) raked in that year.
Federal Savings & Loan? Please don’t tell George Bailey about this!
Manhattan DA Halts Trump Investigation
March 6, 2022
Alvin Bragg: You now are the District Attorney of Manhattan.
Did someone get to you? Were there threats against your family? Was there the promise of a payout that was just too rich to deny? Maybe some of each?
Donald J. Trump has gotten away with crimes in New York for decades. Witnesses, opposing counsel, judges get bought off, threatened or promised business will be sent their way later if they back off, disappear, and/or change their tune.
Donald J. Trump combined his exceptional skills in rhetoric and oratory with his propensity for self-dealing. His narcissism is well documented. His penchant for litigation is legendary.
It seems clear that Donald J. Trump deserves nothing less than a complete and thorough investigation of the veracity of his annual financial statements, and a thorough presentation to a grand jury which would provide the public with a complete and transparent look into allegations which have simmered for the past 3 decades, at least.
It’s no secret that — despite Trump’s historic focus on New York City real estate — none of the Money Center Banks have made a loan to Trump or a Trump affiliate for ages. His creditors are Deutsche Bank and several non-bank syndicates.
Money Center Banks tend to be highly focused on the accuracy of financial statements and the creditworthiness of principals involved in any transaction. Silence and lack of interest from Money Center Banks toward the Trump Organization should not be interpreted as modesty, indifference or ignorance.
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence which most informed observers would interpret as aggressive intent by the Trump family and the Trump Organization to bamboozle taxing authorities and potential creditors through creative asset valuation techniques.
We – the public – are forced to sit on the sidelines confident that you – an elected District Attorney – will seek justice within the bounds of the law, serving the public interest while acting with integrity and balanced judgment to respect and protect the constitutional and legal rights of all persons, including suspects and defendants.
We believe your recent choice not to pursue charges is unfair to Mr. Trump, the Trump family, and the general public. A definitive outcome of this case is both needed and required.
Sadism in Tallahassee
March 5, 2022
Elected Officials Running Amok
Today, Florida is the third most populous state in the U.S.: 21.5 Million and growing.
Florida has an elected, part-time legislature that seems to evoke the historic governance needs back when Florida had a post-WWII population of 2.5 Million.
How can it be that a particularly malignant cabal of ignorant, callous and wicked creatures was elected to state office in Florida in 2021?
Satan apparently had a mission for them: Enact atrocious legislation to further torment Florida residents who are poor and/or downtrodden.
The Florida Legislature meets in session every year for sixty consecutive days. That’s it.
In contrast, Tennessee has a population of about 7 Million, with an elected legislature that meets for 90 session days over a two-year period.
Arkansas, with a population of 3 Million, closely mirrors the Florida model, except it has a much broader scope of representation per capita.
The Florida Legislature managed to propose and pass a number of specious bills during their 2022 Reign of Error.
One of the most egregious bills passed by the Florida Legislature in its 2022 session – known as CS/HB 5: “Reducing Fetal and Infant Mortality” – is a clever ruse orchestrated by hard-core religious zealots which will primarily have adverse impact on socially and economically disadvantaged women, generally members of a protected class.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, so it seems clear he is aware of the focus Harvard Law has placed on Reproductive Rights. Through his legal education, he has been exposed to a deep and intimate knowledge of Disparate Impact, the legal theory which helps to examine the effects of laws or practices which appear on the surface to be nondiscriminatory, but which have in practice a disproportionately negative effect on members of legally protected groups.
Certainly Gov. DeSantis is entitled to embrace his own personal values, beliefs and opinions. But, he is not entitled to use his position as an elected official to impose his personal values on the people of Florida.
We would expect that if CS/HB 5 <or a similar bill> should come to him for approval, he would veto it.
Yet, as of this writing, media sources predict that Gov. DeSantis will sign the bill into law.
walrus51 