Martin Fridson, Editor, https://isinewsletter.com

Chief Investment Officer, Lehmann Livian Fridson Advisors LLC. I post on income investing, high yield bonds, financial statement analysis, and economics.

[Martin Fridson, Editor, https://isinewsletter.com @MartinFridson]

@oldcanadaseries Borat: I have question for you. You are American military man, yes?

Military Officer: That's right.

Borat: Have you ever thought about attacking Canada?

Military Officer: Canada? No. Why would we attack Canada?

Borat: For strategic reason. The element of surprise.

[Martin Fridson, Editor, https://isinewsletter.com @MartinFridson]

@mikerosenwald Vic was a generous host and a knowledgeable lover of music.

[Martin Fridson, Editor, https://isinewsletter.com @MartinFridson]

@GeneSohoForum @BBKogan Gene, as a champion of free trade and despiser of regulation, I guess you applaud the lifting of the ban on sugar imports from a Dominican company that uses forced labor? (A big Trump donor, incidentally.)

[Martin Fridson, Editor, https://isinewsletter.com @MartinFridson]

Some of the biggest losses arose from crises that never happened.

https://t.co/xrv6xZkpbv

[Martin Fridson, Editor, https://isinewsletter.com @MartinFridson]

@GeneSohoForum Gene, would libertarians object to someone settling his debts by selling his future labor for a lump sum now and then working for zero wage? Some would call that slavery but you wouldn't see it as fundamentally different from other time shifts such as prepaying a mortgage, right?

[Martin Fridson, Editor, https://isinewsletter.com @MartinFridson]

@GeneSohoForum Shaw wrote an introduction to Pygmalion that explained why it would make no dramatic sense whatsoever for Henry and Eliza to end up as a couple, which is what happened in My Fair Lady but not in Shaw's play.

[Martin Fridson, Editor, https://isinewsletter.com @MartinFridson]

With just a LITTLE help from chatGPT, I'm a cartoonist.

[Martin Fridson, Editor, https://isinewsletter.com @MartinFridson]

@GeneSohoForum Gene, as a critic of gov't regulation, do you favor or oppose proposals to impose restrictions of e-bikes, which have caused numerous pedestrian deaths? Is this best left to the market to resolve, in your view?

[Martin Fridson, Editor, https://isinewsletter.com @MartinFridson]

@GeneSohoForum Gene, in line with your wish to end arts education in schools, should reading great literature also be cut out? Students could then be "forced" to read only employment-related material, such as training manuals. The few interested in reading for pleasure could do it on their own.

[Martin Fridson, Editor, https://isinewsletter.com @MartinFridson]

@GeneSohoForum RFK Jr's proposal has nothing to do with monitoring food safety. It says that food companies would have to show that the ingredients they put in their products aren't harmful, even when uncontaminated by harmful microbes, poison, animal droppings, etc.

[Martin Fridson, Editor, https://isinewsletter.com @MartinFridson]

@GeneSohoForum So let me be clear: Are you saying a libertarian can support RFK Jr's crusade against vaccination yet oppose him when he wants to increase regulation in the face of libertarian that holds that regulation always backfires?

[Martin Fridson, Editor, https://isinewsletter.com @MartinFridson]

@GeneSohoForum @AbakpaJob Gene, as a sharp critic of gov't regulation, do you condemn Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s proposal to require food companies to submit data showing that ingredients they plan to use are safe?

[Martin Fridson, Editor, https://isinewsletter.com @MartinFridson]

AI-buildup depreciation schedules "totally arbritrary" says accounting expert.

https://t.co/5FvREH7Ckj

[Martin Fridson, Editor, https://isinewsletter.com @MartinFridson]

@GeneSohoForum So I'll take that as a Yes-- tax $$ extracted by government effectively at gunpoint shouldn't be "wasted" on exposing children to the arts in school, even though they may otherwise never discover a love for classical music or another field that would enrich their lives. Got it.

[Martin Fridson, Editor, https://isinewsletter.com @MartinFridson]

@GeneSohoForum Thanks for this excellent summary, much of it new to me and others, I'm sure. So the bottom line is you advocate immediately abolishing all "waste" of taxpayer money on arts education, since children who already know they're interested can avail themselves of those resources?

[Martin Fridson, Editor, https://isinewsletter.com @MartinFridson]

@GeneSohoForum @JulieBorowski You say your prefer to dealt with "This World." In it, schooling is mandatory to age 16, by which age students in charter schools are forced to take geometry & biology, which won't help them get most jobs. Would you prefer it otherwise?

[Martin Fridson, Editor, https://isinewsletter.com @MartinFridson]

@GeneSohoForum You've said mandatory schooling should end at 8th grade and the few who are interested in subjects unrelated to employment can pursue them in adult education. Would you eliminate music & visual arts from the curriculum in K-5 and up?

[Martin Fridson, Editor, https://isinewsletter.com @MartinFridson]

@GeneSohoForum Back to my question, you do consider it immoral for the government to outlaw what you view as a fundamental right to discriminate on the basis of race, right? Why in the world would you decline to acknowledge that and change the subject? (Even though you're not racist.)