Back in class, US Global Media and does Bill Clinton (the first black president) smoke Kools?

Back in class, Global Media and does Bill Clinton, the first black president, smoke Kools?

I will bet anyone $5 that Trump will wear out his welcome and that the democrats will take back the House in 2 years and that JD Vance will not be president following Trump.

After 13 years I am back in the classroom as a favor to the Finance department head, one of my many coauthors. The person that teaches the senior level class in Financial Markets and Institutions is on leave and I was asked to teach one section of the course. At first I said no but after talking with the department head I finally acquiesced. I thought it would be a mistake since I am so out of touch with this generation (see my posting on the Academy Awards). Looking at the textbook there are only two new topics, cryptocurrency and fintech firms. I have kept current on all other issues so it was not going to be an issue with knowledge but one with age. My great grandmother died when I was six. She was a slave. None of the students were born when Bill Clinton was president. Now that is an age/cultural divide that may be difficult to overcome. 

I mentioned that the Wealth of Nations was published in 1776 and asked what was the significance of that date, only one student knew. No one had heard of Milton Friedman. They are finance majors but couldn’t define basis point. All are on Tik Tok – I thought tick tock was how a clock sounds. The technology in the classroom is daunting. I needed someone to come in the first two sessions to show me how to operate it and then how to mirror my laptop to it. In order to use the whiteboard (in my day they were blackboards – racist?) I have to turn off the overheads, the screen rises. Then I have to turn back on the overheads so the screen lowers. Why in the world did they put the screen in front of the whiteboard is baffling.

Have you heard of the US Agency for Global Media? Neither had I until Trump nominated Brent Bozell to head it. He also nominated the perpetual loser and destroyer of the Arizona republican party Kari Lake to head Voice of America – which I did not think was still in existence. I went to the agency’s website and here is what it says:

“USAGM oversees six entities: two federal organizations — the Voice of America and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which oversees Radio and TV Martí — and five non-profit organizations — Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, the Open Technology Fund, and the Frontline Media Fund — which receive grants from USAGM.”

 “Its mission to inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy.”

Look for Kari Lake to screw this one up too. So it is a propaganda arm of the US government. I wonder what they were broadcasting the past four years? Do we really need a radio free Europe? This is something that DOGE should take a look at. Its budget is $950 million.

Trump is obviously after the gay vote by having the FDA withdraw its proposed ban on menthol cigarettes. According to the CDC, 36% of LGBT smokers smoke menthol cigarettes compared to 29% of straight smokers. Tobacco companies advertise at LGBT events, contribute to HIV/AIDS organizations and sponsor gay pride festivals. But all the brouhaha surrounding the ban has been focused on blacks where 85% of smokers smoke mentholated cigarettes.

The FDA proposed the ban in 2022 and for a while it looked like a slam dunk. However, the White House did not issue a final ban due to intense pressure from these “marginalized” groups who raised holy hell. HHS Secretary Becerra said the proposed ban elicited “an immense amount of feedback, including from various elements of the civil rights and criminal justice movement.”  The criminal justice movement? Is there really such a thing? There were comments on the ban that it would fuel a black market and worsen criminal justice inequities, I guess because the cops would target black and gay communities. Naturally, dropping the ban elicited a hue and cry from the usual suspects. One health advocacy group said “This decision prioritizes politics over lives, especially black lives”. (They left out the gays). But Al Sharpton opposed the ban putting him for at least one instance on the same side as Trump and having those on the left saying that he sold out to the tobacco industry. No word from Jessee Jackson. I wonder what brand of cigarettes does he smoke?