Whitcomb: Complicated birthday; Putting Off Rent Control; Showing off in Newport; Greenspan Got It Wrong

Whitcomb: Complicated birthday; Putting Off Rent Control; Showing off in Newport; Greenspan Got It Wrong

"The neighborhood cringes behind windows
washed in magnesium light, streamers fizzling
above the shingled rooftop of the apartments
across the street where teenaged boys
with mannish arms throw cherry bombs....''

-- From "Fourth of July,'' by Dorianne Laux (born 1952), American poet

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Here's the whole poem:

 

These, to me, are the most important words in "America the Beautiful''

"God mend thine every flaw, 
Confirm thy soul in self-control, 
Thy liberty in law!''

 

 

"Is this dying? Is this all? Is this all that I feared when I prayed against a hard death? Oh, I can bear this! I can bear it!'' 

-- Cotton Mather (1663-1728), Puritan clergyman and author

 

 

"All traveling becomes dull in exact proportion to its rapidity.''
-- John Ruskin (1819-1900), English polymath

 

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I remember how we as kids used to stock up on as many fireworks as we could at those explosives emporiums along the roads in the Carolinas, pile them in the back of the station wagon as our parents smoked away, and a few months later made an hours-long racket on the beach on the Glorious Fourth -- better than Christmas.

 

 

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As we try to celebrate America's 250th, we see more than ever the fragilities and strengths of our governmental systems and an often feckless citizenry whose confusions, ignorance and bigotries have expanded as social media and other information, disinformation and disinformation systems have come to dominate so-much of the public square in what is becoming a post-literate society primarily.

 

Consider that a plurality of those citizens who bestirred themselves to vote put into the presidency twice a gangster with a documented half-century of fraud and demagoguery, surrounded by grifters, thugs, and cultists, and boosted by faithful, unquestioning "low-information" followers screaming support for every lie he unloads at those crazed rallies he hungrily feeds on.

 

Some country! But maybe federalism and America's extreme heterogeneity will save us.

 

Trump is the sort of person whom the Founding Fathers most feared. Most of these middle-class-to-rich white men were well-read, especially in history, and understood how vulnerable the public was to the promises and threats of populist would-be tyrants. They would not have been surprised by what's been going on.

 

But America has lasted far longer than most nations, thanks to edifying ideas about constitutional government and human rights (albeit for many years mostly for white males) imported from Britain; vast territorial expansion grimly abetted by, among other things, the elimination of most Indians via European diseases and war; and the energy and innovation from a (sometimes rapacious) rapidly developing capitalism. It even survived a terrible civil war, in which one side fought to preserve slavery

 

There are too many variables to predict how much longer the United States will last, though I feel pretty safe in saying (especially after the last few years). it won't be another 250 years or even 50.

 

Meanwhile, history shows that corrupt populist leaders, by using extreme and often illegal powers, can garner popularity for a while by goosing the economy with big projects; giveaways to important groups, and tax cuts. But these lead to severe economic imbalances that make things much worse. Then, protests about them might be put down violently.

 

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The gargantuan Obama Presidential Center, on Chicago's South Side, with its fat tower, is a reminder of  what most of America's Founders didn't want for their constitutional republic -- a monarch instead of "chief magistrate.'' One thinks of the pharaohs' pyramids when you see the looming monument to the glory that is Barack Obama. (You can imagine what our narcissist-in-chief  will put up in Miami.)
 

The ever-growing  power of, and attention to, the president is not healthy for a would-be democracy. The sort of modesty displayed at  the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, in Hyde Park, N.Y., is about right and surprises many visitors, given that FDR is a world-historical figure
 

 

Helpful technicality
This is good news: The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has removed from the November ballot an initiative that would have limited annual rent increases to the national inflation rate, or 5 percent, whichever is lower, whether or not there was a change on tenancy in a rental unit.

 

Of course, rent-control backers will craft another similar initiative, but they're wrong. Rent control eventually has to be abandoned, or sharply limited, because  it discourages housing construction (and maintenance).  Obviously, the more housing you put up, the less housing-price inflation. It's called supply and demand! Massachusetts's sky high housing costs are caused by the state's prosperity (concentrated in Greater Boston) combined with too many limits on building set by localities.

 

The court blocked  the rent-control question on  a technicality: It would have exempted units in religious facilities. Under the Massachusetts Constitution, certain matters, including religion, cannot be subject to an initiative petition.

 

Meanwhile, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling curbing some of the powers of the National Environmental Policy Act, which dictates the federal environmental review process, may allow more housing to be put up. 
 

READ MORE: 

 

As Gilded as Ever
How many more hotels can the touristy part of Newport handle? I thought about that the other day when in The City by the Sea to have  a wharf-side lunch with a couple of local luminaries. 
 

Then I walked up to Bellevue Avenue on streets and sidewalks jammed with happy tourists and by the shopping center across from the Tennis Hall 0f Fame, wherein the luxurious Bellevue Hotel will go up, reminding us of Newport's ability over the centuries to draw rich people even as many poor people have called the city home, too. The city has always combined grit and glamour.
 

Indeed, it has been stunning how many newly minted billionaires have established themselves as mansion owners in recent years in a repeat of previous Newport Gilded Ages. It's as if they see having a big place in the storied city as a celebration and validation of their success. They certainly like being close to other princes of capitalism. 
As for some Newporters' complaint that the proliferation of hotels is behind much of the city's traffic and housing-cost problems, I suspect that the epidemic of short-term and seasonal rentals is more to blame; they're hard to regulate.

 

 

No Need for Social Security Panic

There's fear and trembling in response to threats that the Social Security Trust Fund will shrink so much by 2032 that its benefits will have to be cut by more than 20 percent. But this is entirely avoidable! And political pressure will ensure it is avoided. Don't want a revolution!
 

Right now, the cap on the payroll tax is on only $184,500 of income. The top withholding ("payroll tax")  levy for a worker is $22,878 -- 12.4 percent of $184,500. So while most Americans pay Social Security taxes on 100 percent of their earned income, richer folks don't. Just eliminate the cap or at least raise it to, say, $400,000.

 

As it is, many richer Americans avoid much taxation because the tax code  heavily favors investment income over earned income. The suggestion above would at least address that, er, inequity a bit, and help ensure that the many millions of people who rely on Social Security don't suffer a devastating income drop, even as AI poses the threat that the income from many jobs that is paid into Social Security will disappear. Make retirements later -- with fewer jobs? Will we have to resort to a guaranteed minimum income?

An 'Oops' from Greenspan

"Mammon, n. The god of the world’s leading religion. His chief temple is in the holy city of New York."
-- Ambrose Bierce (1842-ca 1914), American writer

 

Alan Greenspan, who died last week at 100  was a very smart and often charming guy and a pretty good jazz musician, but his obsession above all as longtime chairman of the Federal Reserve Board with pleasing the princes of the financial markets helped lead to the extreme financialization of the American economy, the Crash of 2008 and yawning income inequality that has given the very rich extreme political power, which some have used for very selfish ends.
 

He was also a disciple of the crank extreme libertarian writer Ayn Rand, patron saint of selfishness. (I was close to one of  Mr. Greenspan's Randian friends in New York in the '70's.)
 

Mr. Greenspan claimed in 2008 that he was shocked at how corrupt bankers could be:
 

"Those of us who have looked to the [corporate] self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders' equity—myself included—are in a state of shocked disbelief."  Did he know that little about greed? Had he read much history?

 

 

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I wonder when the AI stock orgy will stop and investors and chastened speculators return en masse to boring, reliable, dividend-paying consumer stocks. People will always need toothpaste.

 

 

 

 

Polar Park in Worcester, home of the Worcester Red Sox (aka Woosox), is very modern and spiffy, with excellent sightlines. (Of course, I would have preferred that the team had stayed in Pawtucket,  at the charming and now torn-down McCoy Stadium, where people called it the Pawsox.)
 

But, unfortunately, driving into the labyrinth, seasoned with confusing signage, that is downtown Worcester (once dubbed "The Pittsburgh of New England'' because of its iron, steel, wire and cable industries) is best avoided. If only one could helicopter into the stadium.

 

 

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For the general drop in crime in recent years, I'd cite the aging of the population and surveillance cameras.