Saturday, February 1, 2014

Three Dead Bankers and More News

The Chief Economist for Russell Investments apparently killed himself by jumping off a bridge. A couple of days ago a Mr. Gabriel Magee, a senior analyst with JP Morgan apparently jumped to his death from their building in London. He was an expert in software that predicts market trends. A former Deutsche Bank executive hung himself recently too. His specialty was risks and securities. There were no reported witnesses to any of these deaths. All three appear to have been highly respected and liked. There are some people who are saying that the three deaths are related, I don't know that. It is however a strange coincidence.

Yahoo - MarketWatch - Owe the IRS money? Good news
. So, it has just come out that many people will not be taxed because of a failure to obtain healthcare insurance. Why did it take so long for this to come out? It is a good article for you to read if you don't have healthcare insurance.

Washington State Goverment - WASHINGTON STATE ROAD USAGE CHARGE FEASIBILITY ASSESSMENT. I have in fact written how this was coming for years, this should not surprise any of my regular readers. Instead of paying a gas tax to maintain the roads, you will pay based on the number of miles you travel a year. That is actually fairer than our current system as electric vehicles and natural gas vehicles damage roads the same as any other vehicle. We need to look beyond the obvious and consider how this will work.

Part of the plan calls for having black boxes in all cars, I have written about that more than once too. Not only will they know how many miles you drove, they will know where you drove those miles which will allow local governments (states, counties, cities) to levy a tax for the miles you drove in their localities.

Here is something to consider, the wealthiest areas do not like having sidewalks. They don't want people walking through them. They used to; but, back in the day the maid didn't drive a car, she took a bus. I can imagine a place like Beverly Hills charging a higher tax for driving through it's residential areas than through it shopping areas. Imagine how your driving habits might change if it cost you more to drive through local streets than over highways. Lets dig a little deeper, what if your job required you to drive to residential areas; but, the travel tax was deductible as a business expense. You have to look beyond the immediate and look at how these things can be used to influence your day to day decisions. A brilliant man once told me that you have to know whose map you are on. The amazingly brilliant man actually knew my name and an obscure paper I had written regarding and aspect of transportation. He was a speaker at a national conference I attended and one of the few really oddly brilliant people I have met in my life.

The man had given a speech on how maps are used to divide and treat us differently. He was so right and that was such an deep comment. Resources and benefits are given by area. They are given based on maps. The amount of funds given by the federal government are all based on maps. Funny how their newest funding scheme is called MAP-21.

Huffington Post - Live Science - Universe Is Made Of Math, Cosmologist Says. I want to say a little something completely off topic. I post my links to sources and identify the sources, the publishers and sites, I do not however post the authors name and often the author's name is not on the source document. I don't post the names because the publisher has decided whether or not to post the names and if you follow the links, you can quickly discover if they publisher bothered posting the author's name. If any of my readers choose to link to a post or this site, you don't have my name as I have not published it. Publish the blog address and leave it at that.

Huffington Post - Live Science - Universe Is Made Of Math, Cosmologist Says. You need to read this and consider what the person is really saying. He thinks the universe is just numbers, he cannot accept that sentience, consciousness, awareness, is what creates and allows the universe to exist. For there to be math, there must be at least a one and he ignores that.