Ed and Ron recorded this show live before an audience at the Institute of Professional Bookkeepers of Canada 2016 Ignite Conference in Richmond, BC, Canada.
Some 5,300 Wells Fargo Bank (WFB) employees opened a couple of million fake accounts, since their compensation system was designed around opening up accounts. This created an incentive for otherwise ethical people to perform an unethical act. It's hard to be a good citizen in a bad country.
For Morgan, a new suspense horror film.
Did they price gouge? Hell, NO! What would happen if Uber were ruled to be illegal. It creates $6.8 billion in "social value," roughly $20 per person per year.
If you have tickets to Louis CK's show, don't scalp them! I love Louis CK, but he is a terrible pricer and even a worse economist. Charge more and give the money away!
Whadd'ya know, it makes sense!
EU accuses Ireland or "providing illegal state aid" to Apple, and says the company owes $14.5 billion in back taxes to Ireland. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said the Commission can have taxes or they can have jobs, but they can't have both. Ireland claims there was no "special deal" with Apple, and the tax rates were always statute-based.
It's hard to have employees without successful employers. It's time to take the corporate tax to zero, since corporations don't pay taxes—only people do!
Another asinine regulation from the EU, this one on American winemakers: They must relabel their bottles for export because they list alcohol content to one decimal point more than the EU deems permissible.
Warren Buffet loves to talk about the rich not paying their "fair share" of taxes. But his company, Berkshire, pays the equivalent of 13% of its pre-tax profits, making it one of the lightest taxpayers among big firms.
Alcohol and pharmaceutical companies are funding the fight against legalized pot.
In analyzing more than 135 years of speeches in the Congressional Record, in 1990, the probability of correctly guessing a lawmaker's party from a one-minute speech was 55%. By 2008, the probability jumps to 83%. We've become more partisan, a linguistic divide.
From Bernie Sanders to former DNC head Debbie Wasserman Schultz, "I hear from people you are planning to attack me and say I do not believe in an all-wise, benevolent creator with a glorious beard and a love for all humanity. If so you are vile and this is beneath you. I do believe in Marx."
Many Chinese are buying up condos and not living in them. This creates a reverse "tragedy of the commons," as cities depend on people actually living in them. Same thing is happening in Israel. These countries are going to start taxing non-resident buyers. Does government have a right to do this? Rabbi Daniel Lapin thinks so, because businesses in these cities depend on populations living there.