Bloomberg columnist Barry Ritholtz is a firm believer that government knows better how to spend your money than you do.
Ritholtz is on another tirade now, this time crowing loudly The Kansas Supply-Side Experiment Unravels. Ritholtz’s solution, as always, is more tax hikes.
Let’s take Ritholtz’s observations, complaints, and analysis and apply them to Illinois.
Ritholtz says Governor Sam Brownbacks’s “Tax cuts were supposed to spur growth, boost revenue and create jobs. The results were the exact opposite.”
When did the problems start?
Barry provides the answer “Kansas was one of the highest outbound migration states in 2014, 2015 and 2016. As recently as 2012 and 2011, Kansas didn’t make the lists of states with high migratory outflows.”
Blasting economically illiterate socialists is an easy game so there is not much of a story here so far.
However, Ritholtz made a story with this paragraph.
Have an exit strategy: Because Kansas didn’t focus on specific and measurable benchmarks, it had no way to know when to pull the plug. This is important, as the legislature was forced to wait until things were unequivocally bad and getting worse before taking steps to end the experiment. An exit strategy based on specific goals would have saved a lot of unnecessary austerity-induced pain for the people of Kansas.
Oil Considerations
Dear Barry, it would behoove to look at this simple chart.
How about a look at the state itself?
Kansas
Barry notes, “Kansas is badly lagging its neighbors, all of which have similar economies. Even worse, people (especially young people) are fleeing the state.”
I have a simple question: Is there any reason millennials would want to stay in Kansas even if the economy was doing well?
Illinois, the Global Mecca
By Ritholtz’s standards, Illinois should be a global mecca. It has much going for it. Let’s count the ways.
- Highest property taxes in the nation
- High sales taxes and “home rules” that allow local governments to raise taxes even more.
- Cook County sales taxes are 10.25%
- Strong prevailing wage laws protecting unions
- No right-to-work provisions
- Stong workman’s compensation laws that protect injured workers
- Democrats led by Mike Madigan have been in control of Illinois for all but two years since 1983.
- Illinois has more taxing bodies than any state in the nation
Results
Barry Asks, Illinois Delivers
Illinois is doing damn near everything Ritholtz wants. It is even hiking minimum wages. Chicago is collecting over 10% in sales taxes.
Taxes on media, soft drinks, cable are in the works.
Here’s a proposed tax that ought to have Ritholtz screaming the praises of Illinois at the top of his lungs: ILLINOIS HOUSE PROPOSES ‘PRIVILEGE TAX’ ON INVESTMENT MANAGERS
For the “privilege” of living in Illinois, state Rep. Emanuel Chris Welch, D-Hillside proposes House Bill 3393, a “privilege tax” that would hit partnerships and S corporations engaged in investment management services with a 20 percent tax on fees earned from their investment strategies.
And that ain’t all. Tax proposals of all kinds are in the works to protect the right of the downtrodden, just as Ritholtz wants.
Have an Exit Strategy!
Dear Barry, since you chastised Kansas for not having an exit strategy, can we please discuss an exit strategy for Illinois?
Mish Exit Strategy
On May 3, I commented Puerto Rico Placed in Bankruptcy Protection: Illinois Needs Similar Deal.
In the above link, I stated that Illinois desperately needs five things.
Five Desperately Needed Reforms
- Municipal bankruptcy legislation
- Pension reform
- Right-to-Work legislation
- End of prevailing wage laws
- Workers’ compensation reform
Bankruptcy, the ONLY Solution
Number one on my list of Illinois reforms is bankruptcy legislation. It is the only hope for numerous Illinois cities strapped with impossible-to-pay pension liabilities.
As part of any budget package, Rauner must demand municipal bankruptcy legislation. Bankruptcy is the only solution for Illinois that works.
The system is simply too broke to fix.
Pension Puzzle
Illinois pension plans are going bust. Why is that? Did Illinois not tax enough?
For sure, Illinois did not fund the plans, but to fund them, the state would have had to raise taxes even more.
For discussion, please see Illinois Too Broke to Fix: Chicago Police Pension Fund Broke by 2021 at the Latest.
Supporting Evidence of Socialist Tax Hike Madness
- March 25, 2017: Cook County Illinois Suffers Largest Population Drop In Entire US
- July 14, 2016: Welcome to Illinois (Where Every 5 Minutes Someone Moves Out)
- April 4, 2017: Illinois Revenue Freefall: Fiscal Year-to-Date -8.1% and Worsening
- February 7, 2013: Platitudes, Promises, and the Failed Pro-Union Policies of Illinois Governor Pat Quinn
- June 14, 2017: Unable to Pay Bills, Illinois Sends “Dear Contractor” Letter Telling Firms to Halt Road Work on July 1
- May 18, 2016: Illinois State Workers, Highest Paid in Nation, Demand 11.5 to 29% Hikes
- August 31, 2011: Illinois Loses Most Jobs in Nation Following Tax Hikes.
- April 13, 2011: 35% of Illinois State Employees are on Workers’ Comp
- October 28, 2015: Chicago’s Sheep Dogs Approve Mayor’s Tax on Sheep; Quote of the Day “It’s Not a Piece of Art”
- February 13, 2016: “Bond Girl” Blasts Chicago Public School Bonds, Says “CPS Genuinely Insolvent”
- March 25, 2016: US Population Growth +0.79%, Illinois -0.17%, Illinois Second Worst to Coal Plagued West Virginia
- January 20, 2016: “B” Word Hits Chicago: Illinois Governor Proposes Bankruptcy for Chicago Public School System
- January 14, 2016: Illinois Too Big a Risk: GE Moves Corporate Headquarters to Boston, Bypassing Chicago Citing Litany of Issues
- June 23, 2017: Illinois Too Broke to Fix: Chicago Police Pension Fund Broke by 2021 at the Latest
Unlike Kansas, surveys show the number one reason people leave Illinois is high taxes.
Dear Barry, since Illinois is F*d up beyond repair following your tax hike and union utopia social welfare agenda, can we please try my exit strategy?
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
I went to Kansas once… it was closed. Apologies to W.C. Fields.
Volume 2 of Rick Santelli’s rants will probably be in full swing by early next year.
In the end…
There will be cities/states with growing economies, increasing populations, affordable taxes and greatly curtailed public unions
and
There will be city/states with decimated economies, declining populations, insane taxes and thousands upon thousands abandoned homes…
“There will be cities/states with growing economies, increasing populations, affordable taxes and greatly curtailed public unions”
For Illinois, that would be “in every direction outside its borders”.
Ritholz is such an insufferable socialist. How he peddles his nonsense for a paycheck, I’ll never understand.
He peddles it on Bloomberg. 🙂
I honestly don’t think that American elites are aware of the fact that hundreds of thousands of Americans (including many young Americans) who don’t worry in media move to lower tax states every year. I know it’s almost cliche at this point to talk about media bubbles, but these people are truly in their own bubble. Yes, Americans do like lower taxes and will move there (slowly but surely) over times.
Here is in fact a pretty fair criticism of Brownback from National Review. I’m not a huge fan of Kevin Williamson but he’s pretty good at explaining the nature of government spending: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/434885/kansas-tax-cuts-wont-starve-government-beast
Motto of the story: It’s really, really hard to cut government spending anywhere. Especially in a state that already has an income tax.
Most governments are like small conglomerates. They do a lot of very diverse things like provisioning road, water, police, fire, sanitation, schools, etc… And the elected politicians generally have very little to no understanding of how to run any one of those types of activities. And, unfortunately, almost all of those activities are unprofitable by nature.
I’ve always looked on state and local government as the part of the world that has to take on the unprofitable activities so that private profitable activities can happen. Building roads never makes money. And once you build one, you have to maintain it forever. But it does allow all the home builders and smaller roadside businesses to make money.
So, sure, cutting spending at the local level is very hard to do. Ask people which of the services above they want to go without. They’ll say none. They have to have them all. And they do. Well then make them more efficient! Prove that they are being operated inefficiently. You can’t.
Totally fair point and I agree with you. Entrenched systems, especially in government, are close to impossible to reform with a near cataclysmic event. The Northeast and Illinois are especially bad. Much worse than anything in Kansas. But yes, most people actually do like a lot of what local government provides, including myself.
There are efficiencies to be gained at the local level in terms of things like sanitation collection and parks maintenance. However, in the big picture, they are pretty minor. At least at the local level in NJ, the biggest driver of property taxes is school costs (about 70% of your bill!). Pensions, health care, schools. All of the rest is minor.
Indiana seems to have done a good job in balancing efficient government (at least somewhat) while still investing in infrastructure.
Curious to see the impact that driverless cars and increases in telecommuting will have on state and local governments….
“provisioning road, water, police, fire, sanitation, schools, etc” “unfortunately, almost all of those activities are unprofitable by nature.”
Government, by its nature, makes those things unprofitable. Government takeover of anything currently provided by markets would lower its quality, reduce its availability, and raise its cost. Look at what it’s doing to health care.
That’s just the way it magically works. Or doesn’t work.
Ritholtz is a very pretentious man. He likes to pretend he is as good a driver as any professional formula one driver. He is a name dropper. a member of a fishing camp club where the elite hedge fund managers meet and drink. He is a pretentious bon vivant, just ask his considered opinion on any restaurant worthy of his patronage or wines and drinks he adores. And his hero is Jacob Javits, a republican who had credentials as a social reformer but a financial conservative. Back about 2007-8 his column used to be interesting, then his ego became far to large even for his Bloomberg screens.
So yes, it makes perfect sense that Kansas should have listened to Barry and that Illinois is doing so really well following his advice. The man is never wrong, just ask him. Barry’s problem is that he isn’t a billionaire yet so he still has to suck up to Micheal Bloomberg.
Gee, Mish, for a person who lives in Washington, I thought you would be trashing Seattle for 15/hour. What do you care about Illinois?
Gee, Mish, for a person who lives in Washington, I thought you would be trashing Seattle for 15/hour. What do you care about Illinois?
I happen to live in Illinois, and Seattle does deserve trashing. You sure don’t know much do you?
Why don’t you move to Sonoma with JJ – we can be neighbors and you can trash California from up close 😉
There is also the fact that the price of wheat collapsed from 2013 on…by 50%…Kansas is a huge producer, and this had to have massive ripple effects throughout the economy.
Yup, and Kansas is a very large natural gas producer as well (something like 8th in U.S.). A fair criticism of Brownback and Republicans is that they didn’t budget for a rainy day fund. Oklahoma’s budget got hit hard but they seem to be a little more resilient.
There is also the fact that the price of wheat collapsed from 2013 on…by 50%…Kansas is a huge producer, and this had to have massive ripple effects throughout the economy.
excellent point!
Kansas was sort of comical. “We will drastically lower business taxes and new businesses will pour into our State” …… umm, you do realize you are still going to be Kansas?
Illinois is tragic. Cannot anyone there math?
Mish is exercised by Ritholz. I was 3/4 of the way through this piece and still marveling to myself that some thoughtful person actually reads that silly shill.
https://twitter.com/ritholtz/status/871854515401654272
The elite of Kansas City, MO live on the Kansas side. Lawrence is nice too.
Kansas has high end suburbs, while Kansas City is an urban hellhole that has been depopulated by desegregation in the schools, which are now completely rotten.
A very unfair article in which Ritholtz’ views are not accurately stated but implied. Just as people judge Venezuelan policy on the basis of people voting with their feet and ignoring the price of oil as a huge factor, so to Kansas. Ritholtz nowhere states that raising taxes or prevailing wages or outsize public union benefits are good policies.
Austerity does not work! Ritholtz actually states that changes to the tax structure (getting rid of tax shelters, no confiscatory taxes!) works if it changes economic incentives. Decreases in public spending by themselves (again, depending on where spending is cut) decreases investment in the economy and shrinks the flow of money circulating. Just look at Greece.
Ritholtz is right to emphasize incentives. Even in sports it is sometimes necessary to make changes to the rules of the game. In economics there are no magic formulae, and repeating what worked in another time or location may not work today: reality is complicated.
Ritholtz is a progressive who supports massive minimum wage hikes. He favors tax hikes. He hates and rails against Walmart. He loves unions.
Right on schedule, the next day June 27, he posted the standard Cal Berkeley report on Seattle’s minimum wage benefits instead or with the other more important study done by Seattle itself which is causing all kinds of reevaluations.
You have the cart before the horse. Incentives mean that some social planners or world fixers know what’s best and that is almost never true.
People inclined to create wealth and consequent jobs would do far more without the dead hand of government disincentives stopping them.
If you want to have unconstrained public spending, because less would be austerity, then you will have to live with confiscatory taxes. Anyone who expects government to keep growing spending, should expect to pay more.
Barry simply doesn’t know what he is talking about and I’m sure he has never been to Kansas. Yes, Kansas is having budget issues as it has cut taxes without cutting spending significantly. However, as Mish has indicated above, the huge drop in oil prices have decimated Kansas’ budget (similar to Oklahoma). However, a few things to note:
1.) The Kansas City metro area is doing very well and is very attractive to young families who often move back to Kansas after to raise children spending time on the coasts or Chicago.
2.) The decline of population of young people from Kansas is primarily in the very rural areas (Kansas is a pretty big place). Again, KC metro area is doing well.
3.) Kansas does not have nearly the amount of long term budget deficits that Illinois, NJ, Conn, etc have.
4.) Pretty amazing that Barry doesn’t mention Indiana, which has actually done quite well over the last decades, including some of the best infrastructure in America, and is right next door to Illinois, yet pursued conservative policies.
In short, I’m not too worried about Kansas in the long run. However, I am worried about Barry’s utopias in Illinois, NJ and Connecticut.
Bernie Sanders loves socialism, but he will kindly ask you not to bring up that whole Venezeula thing. He doesn’t have many followers who can think for themselves, but those that do tend to realize Sanders is full of sh!t when they hear about Venezeula.
Also, don’t ask about all the fraud at the college his wife ran for a decade… socialism is supposed to benefit the few at the top, not the people who vote for them!
Ritholtz majored in physics and equestrian studies, then became a lawyer, made so much money in law that he became a WaPo journalist, then he became the ultimate quant AND ultimate portfolio manager (both at the same time, while also riding horses, writing a book, and writing a column for WaPo). And was so fabulously successful at the wealth management thing that he took yet another column writing gig at Bloomberg.
Ritholtz is Michael Moore (the mockumentary maker) except he does his thing with books and newspaper columns, instead of mockumentaries. Suckers buy tickets to the movie / buy the book, Moore / Ritholtz become crazy wealthy writing stuff for the self-labeled “victims”, and then laugh all the way to the bank.
Like all advocates of socialism, Sanders / Moore / Rithotlz end up a lot better off than the suckers who support them. A lot like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Maduro — both crazy wealthy in a country so poor most can’t afford toilet paper.
Socialism causes economic pain and suffering for almost everyone — except the con-artists selling it to the masses.
Government is supposed to be for the people. In reality, people exist to support the government.
Illinois should build a Wall!
Brownback’s tax cuts were so reckless and crazy that the **Republicans** in the state legislature overrode his proposals. The courts found that the government was illegally underfunding schools in poorer areas of the state. Another charming thing about Kansas is that it is a “right-to-work” state i.e. you have the “right” to work for peanuts. No wonder it is doing so well! Nuf sed.
Wow, sounds great! I would move there except I don’t like tornados. Everyone here seems to forget about that tornado problem.
“The courts found that the government was illegally underfunding schools in poorer areas”
So why even have elections?
If an unelected lawyer in a black robe is going to make these decisions?
“If an unelected lawyer in a black robe is going to make these decisions?”
Was it a constitutional issue?
Civics 101. Courts are there to ensure that you obey the laws. Just because you won the elections, it doesn’t give you the right to break laws.
Civics 101. Elected members of the state set budgets and spending levels as per the State Constitution.
NO LAWS WERE BROKEN.
Unless an unelected lawyer in a black robe disagrees and just makes up his own laws and budget process.
“Just because you won the elections, it doesn’t give you the right to break laws.”
The Clintons would disagree, win or lose.
What laws are those? Laws that say the courts decide how money is spent? The Constitution doesn’t allow that, but our Judicial Dictatorship decrees otherwise…
OK, this is an asinine column. I’ve followed Ritholtz for years and shared a stage with him at an event in the Yale Club and I’ve never heard him point to Illinois as an example of “getting it right”, so can you please provide some links to your claim that he holds Illinois up as a shining example of his financial philosophy. It isn’t like you should be short of material, he blogs almost as frequently as you do Mish.
“Bloomberg columnist Barry Ritholtz is a firm believer that government knows better how to spend your money than you do.”
Can you also point to where Ritholtz makes this claim?
Ritholtz book puts the blame for the 2008 financial crisis squarely on Greenspan’s decisions – I thought you’d agree with him on this?
If you follow Ritholtz at all you will find he likes tax hikes, is against Walmart, is for Unions, is for huge minimum wage hikes
He is a card carrying Progressive
He’s a liberal weenie and I was banned from his old site for labeling him as such. He has very thin skin and an ego bigger than his belly.
So, no sources to support your points then. Hardly convincing Mish, particularly when you are pretty rigorous sourcing your economic points.
I have listened to socialist cvlaptrap from Ritholtz for years.
Do your own research
Look up Ritholtz Walmart
Look up Ritholz minimum wages
Look up the price of wheat
Look up the price of oil
Read my links on Illinois
Your apology is accepted in advance
Now knock off the bullshit
I don’t know much about Mr. Ritholtz, but I didn’t get the socialist part. He specifically stated that Kansas’ tax cuts were too modest to make a difference. I would take that as a conservative stance on the subject.
IMHO, tax rates, unless egregious, don’t make much of a difference to growth. What makes a difference is having a product that people want/need, at a price people can afford, and executing well.
If I own a tire store in Podunk, KS, cutting my taxes isn’t going to cause growth. It’s going into my retirement account at a bank in New York.
If you want growth, identify the growing industries, and provide them with the incentives necessary to relocate: good infrastructure (roads, rail, fiber), competitive tax rates, quality people from good schools/colleges, and a decent quality of life (low-cost housing, nice parks/lakes,etc…).
Ask any large, growing business what they really want, and that’s what you will hear.
“Ask any large, growing business what they really want, and that’s what you will hear.”
Most businesses thrive when there is a well educated workforce, strong justice system to enforce contracts, low levels of corruption and good infrastructure (reliable electricity, good transportation, etc.) Those advantages take tax dollars to deliver and are much more important than the taxes they have to pay, so long as everybody is on the same playing field. When you have multinationals that can avoid taxes competing against small businesses that don’t have access to the evasion techniques, then you are punishing small business.
If you want to have unconstrained public spending, because less would be austerity, then you will have to live with confiscatory taxes. Anyone who expects government to keep growing spending, should expect to pay more.
Government has trampled all those items, and that’s why we are screwed.
Gov’t functions specifically for the elite. Decisions like Citizens United demonstrate that.
What has big government done for all those struggling small businesses? Nothing. All the incentives go to big business, because they purchase them, with lobbying.
Do people still follow Ritholtz?
At one time – years ago – I followed him casually. Until I determined he was a card carrying status quo moron – an arrogant one at that.
I know of no one who’s ever made any money following advice from Barry. Alas, that may be why he is writing columns for Bloomberg instead of managing capital for clients.
Hmmm…
++++
The Kansas tax cuts actually produced strong results
USA Today | 06/26/2017 | Alan Cobb
The state legislature’s recent decision to raise income taxes by $1.2 billion will hurt every working Kansan and small business. It will damage the long-term trajectory of our state. It will pummel pocketbooks and discourage job creators. Additionally, the retroactive nature of these regressive taxes will cause a great deal of pain, crippling our state’s economy and putting us at a competitive disadvantage.
Kansans deserve to keep more of their own money. The 2012 income tax cuts did just that. Families had more in their pockets to pay off debt, save for their children’s college or invest in a new home. Business owners were able to reinvest their earnings into their enterprise and local communities.
Kansas saw strong results. Unemployment is down to 3.7%, the lowest in 16 years. The state set a record for new businesses every year since cutting income taxes. The small businesses the tax cuts targeted created 98% of new private sector jobs in our state. Despite these strong results, many blamed our budget challenges on these cuts, ignoring the substantial downturn in global agriculture and energy markets.
Refusing to acknowledge the data, legislators pledge to fix the perceived problem of the “small business tax cut.” But when the time came to cast their votes, they voted for broad-based tax increases on all Kansas workers. Kansas will now have a higher top marginal individual income tax rate than Massachusetts.
Early this year the US Census Bureau released its population estimates for each of the 50 states and Washington, DC, for 2016 and how populations changed from July 1, 2015, to July 1, 2016.
Most states added population, from some combination of net births minus deaths, international migration, and domestic migration. Eight states — West Virginia, Illinois, Vermont, Connecticut, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, and New York — saw a net loss of population. Kansas wasn’t one of them.
I’d like to know where Barry got his information. For pure migration here is the net or the difference of in-migration and outmigration per 1,000 residents for years 2011-2012, 2012-2013, 2013-2014, 2014-2015,2015-2016:
Kansas 0.4 -2.3 -2.5 -2.3 -4.4
Illinois -3.7 -3.3 -5.1 -5.7 -6.5
Randy
Reblogged this on World4Justice : NOW! Lobby Forum..
Why do you even respond to Ritholtz? He is just another totalitarian scumbag advocating government expansion because he hopes to be on the side doing the oppressing as things get worse.
Wow, and I thought California was bad. They can’t be far behind though with Gov Moonbat leading the charge off the cliff…..
Illinois is the new California…without the nice weather or beautiful landscapes.
I don’t understand Mish’s point about Kansas? Is he saying that the Kansas economy is tied to the price of oil and this is what explains their economic troubles? Is the problem simply that Kansas is too “boring” for millennials?
I don’t understand Mish’s point about Kansas
Good grief. My point is obvious and I even stated it.
Blasting economically illiterate socialists is an easy game so there is not much of a story here so far.
However, Ritholtz made a story with this paragraph. “Have an exit strategy: Because Kansas didn’t focus on specific and measurable benchmarks, it had no way to know when to pull the plug. …”
What about that do you fail to understand? I want Ritholtz to apply his exit strategy thesis to Illinois. Ritholtz demand Kansas have an exit strategy fo failed policies.
I demand Ritholtz do the same for Illinois.
My point was obvious, stated, and made in detail unlike Barry’s fluff analysis of Kansas.
Well, it seems Illinois economic strategy is to enrich and entrench Illinois policy makers. By that measure they appear to be doing quite well.
I am just curious as to why the economy of Kansas is doing poorly. I take it Mish doesn’t think the economic troubles are a result of Kansas government policies. So what then is causing the Kansas economic troubles?
I am just curious as to why the economy of Kansas is doing poorly. I take it Mish doesn’t think the economic troubles are a result of Kansas government policies. So what then is causing the Kansas economic troubles?
Can you read my blog? comments?
Pull up a chart of the price of oil
Pull oup a chart of the price of wheat
I will help you
https://www.investing.com/commodities/us-wheat-advanced-chart
Click on monthly view
So, you are saying that the Kansas economy is largely dependent on the oil and agricultural industries and that it’s prosperity has a lot to do with the over all climate for those industries?
That’s why I asked about the price of oil in my first comment. I wasn’t trying to argue, just understand.
It does raise a good point though. Just how much are “governments” responsible for economic prosperity (or lack thereof)? Washington State (where I live) is a high regulation/tax state yet it seems to be doing pretty well.
For some reason Mish is blaming KS failures on oil prices – even though it isn’t in the top 10 states for oil production. Anything but point to the failure of Brownback’s policies, even though the local Republican Party even think Brownback is a disaster.
This is the triumph of fundamentalism over reality – a struggle a lot of people who comment here win.
Pull up a chart of wheat
https://www.investing.com/commodities/us-wheat-advanced-chart
The largest wheat producing states by volume in 2011 were: Kansas (276.5 million bushels), North Dakota (200 million bushels), Montana (175 million bushels), Washington (168 million bushels) and Idaho (105 million bushels).
Kansas is Ag + energy
OK, but you didn’t mention wheat in your post, or cattle, another large industry. What about aviation? Three of the top five employers in Kansas are aviation companies (mind you, they’ve been on a glide path for a decade or so).
Kansas has had some headwinds, but it is underperforming surrounding states and is cutting services that it’s people value to the point where they are voting for candidates who want to counter Brownback’s policies.
Yes I read Mish and Ritholtz and a plethora of others and I am still confused. But again, as I have posted before, I live across the Mississippi river in MO and I can tell you that southern Illinois is a sad mess bordering on the level of third world.
Cairo IL is actually further south than Richmond VA.
Extreme Southern Illinois is indeed a sad mess. No tourism, no industry.
But in many ways, Northern Illinois is much worse. Despite appearances, of vibrancy, Northern Illinois has bills that cannot be paid.
Why would anyone move out of Kansas? Creationism in schools maybe?
Ritholtz quotes on Illinois:
June 17, 2010
To follow up on my comment yesterday about the markets perception of the credit of the State of California and Illinois, Illinois has officially taken the baton of the most financially troubled state in the country as measured solely by the 5 yr CDS market. Illinois 5 yr CDS is trading at 305 bps vs California at 296 bps. New York is #3 at 250 bps, the highest since Apr ’09 and up 50 bps in just the past 2 weeks.
May 5, 2016
Note the reference to Illinois. We recently published a guest piece on the pension promises made to teachers in Illinois. (See http://www.cumber.com/more-revealed-in-illinois/.) The anecdotal evidence in that discussion speaks volumes about why the State of Illinois is sinking into its own version of the Puerto Rico debt abyss. We do not expect to see any political will applied toward any favorable outcome. In our firm we take a very dim view of Illinois school credits, and we distrust the general obligation pledge of the state.
And there are more.
OK a few quotes, but I doubt Ritholz would ever write a Bloomberg article bashing the liberal policies of say IL or CT that got them where they are today. He chooses to cherry pick KS to advance his agenda.
This is a great post Mish, I’m glad you took on Ritholz. I would like to see him respond to this on his blog.
I still read BR blog sometimes, but I started getting turned by off how political and one sided he is. According to his blog liberals can do no wrong and conservatives are always wrong about everything. His daily news read posts are endless articles bashing conservatives, but almost never the other way. He does not present both sides of the story. He is the exact type to blast KS but ignore IL, CT, NJ, etc… I noticed some comments I had a few years ago were censored and not published by him because I presented another side of the story on a few issues.
But I have to give BR some credit though. Let’s say starting after the end of the recession in 2010. He didn’t seem to fall into the same “group think”/”confirmation bias”/”recency bias” as many permabears and permabear bloggers did. With
the endless doom and gloom posts the last 8+ years about stuff that hasn’t materialized. And endless recession calls that haven’t materialized. He is similar to CalculatedRisk in that achievement.
But with that said, I’m not crazy about his politics and his totally unfair politically biased reporting on many issues.
Mish blocks comments he doesn’t like as well – I know from personal experience, so if you want to chastise Ritholtz for censoring, don’t think this place is any different.
The premise of the article is that Ritholtz gives Illinois a free ride and holds Kansas to a different standard. A few seconds googling can disprove this. I posted a couple of the results but you can look for yourself.
Google: “site:ritholtz.com illinois”.
Ritholtz leans left and does not like the crazy element of the right wing that is growing in this country. Frankly, I’m in the same political space as him. This is not a popular viewpoint on this board, however it is his board. I’m waiting to see how long a dissenting voice is allowed to keep posting around here 🙂
It is the tone of many of the replies I object to. Cross the line, imply the poster is an idiot and anyone would delete the comment.
Ritholtz does not “lean” left, he is an ultra-left progressive IMO.
Mish is far more open to publishing comments that he disagrees with IMO. Ritholz blocked my very basic opinion comments on topics just because they were different then his, inconvenient to his agenda, and for no other reason.
I can google Ritholz Illinois all day, but the fact is he DIDN’T write an article about IL on Bloomberg, he cherry picked KS, and ignored a ton of other conservative states with conservative policies that are killing it economically (UT, ID, NC, SC, TX, SD, IN, NE, TN, etc…), with big population IN-migration, creating lots of jobs, low unemployment, etc…
but the fact is he DIDN’T write an article about IL on Bloomberg, he cherry picked KS, and ignored a ton of other conservative states with conservative policies that are killing it economically (UT, ID, NC, SC, TX, SD, IN, NE, TN, etc…
Bingo!
“killing it economically (UT, ID, NC, SC, TX, SD, IN, NE, TN, etc…)”
Really?
Since all of the following states from your list have over 30% of their economy dependent on Federal Government, are they really “killing it” or “killing the U.S. taxpayer”?
ID, NC, SC, TX, IN, NE, TE (which just missed 40% by 0.1%).
When they get into the 20% bandwidth, talk to me about “killing it economically”
Did I miss SD? Yes I did, and they are one of the highest “taker” states at 37.2% of their economy funded by tax dollars.
Source: https://taxfoundation.org/states-rely-most-federal-aid/
People are voting WITH THEIR FEET. They are largely moving to red or purple states (UT, ID, AZ, NV, NC, SC, TN, FL, TX, AR, GA etc… all have very high domestic in-migration growth rates). They are moving OUT of the more liberal states like IL,CT, NJ, NY, MI, VT, OH in droves. WA state is another state people are flooding into as well (many coming from CA). Seattle is liberal, but most of WA outside of Seattle is more libertarian, and the state has NO state income tax (not exactly a liberal tax policy). Even CA no longer has population growth from domestic IN-migration. The growth is from births and foreign immigration. So American citizens are not even choosing to move to CA anymore. To me watching what people DO says a lot more than media drivel.
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Mish:
I left Chicago and ILLANNOY last August for the very reasons you cite in this piece.
I had simply had enough of being abused by politicians, local officials and the tax rates there to justify staying. And ya know what – I am not comin back – EVER.
Most folks who I know – mostly in the western burbs out by the Fox River corridor have told me their recent tax bills are now 10% higher than 2 years ago.
As I am sure you are aware Dan Proft on his morning show has been reporting on this continuously over the last year; taxes, pension problems, Mad Again, Cullerton and the lot.
I used to read Ritholz on occasion – found him years ago to be entertaining – I liked the posts on music and cars – generally on Fridays – but something switched with him and he became really abusive in his responses to opposing views at times. That is when I tuned him out – I think sometimes he responded with a pseudonym- the likes of which posted responses several times a day and they were flat out offending at times. Just sad what happens when progressive / liberalism starts to pickle the mind – pride takes the place of humility, weakness takes the place of strength, overlording takes the place of true problem solving and on and on.
I find Ritholz to be a sad poster child of the left – sad that a guy with such potential resorts to the place he is now residing.