12/10/20

Facebook And the H-1B Visa Scandal

Comes now our pals at Facebook who are under the microscope of a bunch of state Attorneys General to be busted up and reformed for a myriad of reasons.

In the specific instance of the state AGs, it is for smothering small businesses. This is different.

My name is Mark Zuck and I do not approve this message. Look into my eyes. We did nothing wrong. Do not listen to the Big Red Car. I will take him to a junkyard and crush him into a cube of red metal.

At the same time, Facebook is being sued by the Department of Justice for improperly filling a number of jobs — 2,600 high paying jobs — through the use of H-1B visas.

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12/10/20

DoorDash Dashing To A Crash?

This is the week that was as it relates to Initial Public Offerings. Well, last week also.

Amongst the IPO royalty is a company called “DoorDash” (DASH) that hit the IPO switch on Wednesday and was up almost 90% on its first day of public trading.

DD had already re-priced its IPO price based on demand twice during the lead up to their birth as a public company, so the deal was pretty rich.

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12/9/20

How Does Texas Do It?

Texans voted for a constitutional ban against imposing a state income tax in an election held in November 2019. The situation until then had been murky on the issue of a personal income tax relying upon something called the “Bob Bullock Amendment” which allowed the Legislature to set a personal income tax, but only if voters approved it via a statewide referendum and if the new revenue was used exclusively for school property tax cuts and education programs.

Which leads us to the question — how does Texas fund itself?

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12/6/20

Who Actually Pays Corporate Income Taxes?

I am chatting the other day with a chap in the aftermath of the election and how he sees the implication of future tax increases on the country. He is a smart chap with an MBA from a fine school and he is a wizard businessman, but he is a liberal.

We get focused on the issue of corporate taxes and he says, “I get it that corporations really don’t pay those taxes.” He looks at me with his chin out like he is bluffing at Texas Hold ‘Em and thinks that makes him look confident.

I smile because it is a new thought he has never expressed before, so I say, “How so?” And he explains it thusly.

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12/5/20

A Letter to Joe Biden In Regard to Vaccine Distribution

Don’t be a baby, get the shot.

Dear Joe:

I hope this note finds everything well for you and yours. I keep watching you saying there is no “plan” to inoculate the country with the soon-to-be approved vaccine for COVID.

I thought I would share with you what I have learned doing minimal research on the Internet because, apparently, there is a plan.

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12/4/20

Planning In The Age Of COVID

If you are the CEO of a startup or small business, the months of November and December are when you must be planning what you will make happen in CY 2021 — and, yes, there will be a Calendar Year 2021 whether you plan for it or not.

You should be following a discipline something like this:

Review 2020 performance — review and discuss with your senior folks with an eye toward segregating the loser from the winners, the saints from the sinners

Based on 2020 performance, create your 2021 plan with input from your senior folks

After a careful review, publish the “preliminary” plan and sit down with your Board to get feedback

Revise the plan

Publish the plan

Brief the plan to the company and get buy in

This can take two weeks or six weeks. It should be started in November, finished in December, and published before Christmas. 

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12/3/20

COVID Exposes The Weaknesses

Business environments are impacted by laws, regulation, and leadership. This happens at the state level.

The business environment in, say, New York and California is different than the business environment in Texas.

COVID and the pressure upon Governors — the CEOs of their states — to steward the business environment in their states whilst simultaneously dealing with the pandemic has accentuated differences in state leadership and regulation.

These differences have triggered meaningful mobility amongst companies and investors.

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11/28/20

The Obama 3.0 Biden Foreign Policy

I am an issues/outcomes equal opportunity critic. I care not a whit about the politics of the issue or the sponsors.

This is why I liked the First Step Act (lauded by Senators Kamala Harris, Booker, Warren, and fellow travelers) and the the Canadian Softwoods Lumber Tariff.

The FSA was good policy supported by a bi-partisan gang of legislators who all took credit for it.

Comes now the first inklings of the Biden foreign policy team — Obama retreads all. For God’s sake, y’all, he gave John Kerry the international climate change portfolio.

Holy shit, Joe, you’re in charge. Wow! I’m 76 and you’re 78 and we’re the New Idea Guys. WTF?

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