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The emptiness of faculty offices. The emptiness of young minds.

I made a mistake coming out of retirement to teach one section of financial markets and institutions. First there is the cultural divide. None of the students were alive when Bill Clinton was president. They were in the second grade when I retired in 2011. In the main, they have little knowledge and no intellectual curiousity. Don’t get me wrong there are several very strong students in this class of 59 but as a group, not so much. After the first exam, 17 students failed to pick up their exams. Consistently there are around 40 students who regularly attend. So I thought the other 19 had dropped. Then I gave the second exam and the room was again full. WTF? I said “Where did all of you come from?” Then in the class when I handed back the exam, 16 did not pick it up (one had dropped). Maybe it is because the lectures are recorded, that those students do not see the need to attend class. Nevertheless, I had given all the exam takers and extra 5 points because their previous scores were so low and I took those points away from those who cut the class. One whined that since I didn’t take attendance it was unfair to punish him. I told him “tough”. I make the class entertaining. I relate the dry text to everyday events. We are covering international financial markets and Trump’s tariffs are perfect lecture material. They now can make sense out of what is going on. How can that be boring?

Their attendance or lack thereof is what’s happening in our society today. When Trump’s appointees arrived at their offices, they found that most of the employees were missing – working from home. They were ordered to return. But millions of feet of office space sit empty and those who are paying rent are wasting their money. The same is true at the university. When I go up to the finance department offices to pick up exams and quizzes, I have never seen one faculty member or one office door open. I remarked this to the secretary and she said that the faculty seldom come in. The courses are now online. All the students have laptops. Professors all give multiple choice true false exams because its so easy to import questions from the test bank into the exam. The computer gives the test, monitors the test and grades the test. So why should a professor spend all weekend grading papers (like me)? As a result, the students don’t understand anything. They just recognize stuff. 

For the first time that I can remember, I am actually depressed. I could not work in that environment. When I was working I never had a bad day. I was surrounded by smart people doing smart things. Being around smart people made me smarter. I knew every faculty member and co-authored with several of them. Students would come by sometimes to talk about class but often just to pick your brain on some topic of interest. It was always stimulating. I generated more ideas that I could exploit. Doctoral students would ask if they could see my idea cache. When I gave papers in our seminars, one faculty member asked me where did I get my ideas. I loved it. Now all that is gone. Everyone is working from home – or so they say. There is no faculty interaction. There are no students in the halls. Nothing. I now feel like a stranger in a strange land. All of this reminds me of Asimov’s Naked Sun and Caves of Steel that I read in high school. I am going to re-read those novels in which everyone is isolated from everyone else and conduct relationships via what would now be the internet. I would miss the interaction between faculty and between faculty and students. I believe that this exacerbates the lack of intellectual curiosity amongst the students. I guess I can understand that they have never heard of Paul Volcker, Milton Friedman and Gladys Knight and the Pips but Ron DeSantis, Scott Bessent and Elizbeth Warren? What rock are they living under?

Never again. Come Spring I am going to read, write my blog, have lunch and breakfasts with interesting people, go to the farm, smoke cigars, hunt, fish, ride motorcycles, camp and generally chill.

I had once said that there are three types of people in the world: the 3 percent that make things happen, the 7 percent who know what’s happening and the 90 percent who haven’t a clue what’s happening. I thought that the availability of free information would move many in the 90 percent into the 7 percent. I was wrong. Those percentages seem to be immutable regardless of information available. Malcolm X once said “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” This generation would likely ask “Who is this X person? Does he work for Elon Musk?” If the purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one, then we have failed.

Tattoos and the Sweet 16

Did you see where the families of some of the Venezuelans deported to El Salvador said that they were not gang members but just had face tattoos? Huh? Maybe it is just a cultural thing in Venezuela, much like wearing pants below the butt like convicts in the US. But why would anyone have their face tattooed if it is a symbol of gang membership?

Speaking of tattoos, they are prevalent enough amongst the college basketball players but I was watching highlights of an NBA game while on the treadmill. It was unwatchable because of the all the wild hair (which we used to call girlie hair) and abundant tattoos (again the convict influence on today’s culture). It looked like a pickup game between Venezuelan gang members – albeit absent the face tattoos. OK maybe I am old fashioned but all that excess body paint is off putting. I tell my students that I will not write a letter of recommendation for anyone who has a visible tattoo, regardless of their grade. One very good student asked me if I was serious. I was and still am. I told him that when the CEOs of the S&P 500 started tattooing their arms and necks, then I might consider revising my policy. Not!

We are now on to the Sweet 16. First off there are no Cinderellas this year. The only double digit seed is Arkansas, a 10^th seed. But no mid majors this year. All four number 1’s and three of the number 2’s are still alive, The only number 2 to lose was St John’s which lost to Arkansas. I hope UT gets to the Final Four and Rick Barnes finally wins a national championship. He is the coach with the most victories that does not have a championship. That was why Texas let him go to Tennessee’s everlasting gratitude. I don’t understand the Texas ADs. They keep firing coaches that get to the tournament but fall short of winning it all. They fired Barnes and hired Shaka Smart who was fired and they hired Chris Beard who they fired to hire Rodney Terry who they fired to replace him with Sean Miller who was at Xavier after being at Arizona where he had incredible talent but always fell short. Expect Texas to fire Miller after 2-3 years.

Maybe, just maybe, winning a basketball championship is hard. Barnes could not win with TJ Ford and Kevin Durrant! In this year’s tournament, of the 68 coaches only 6 had won a championship – John Calipari, Tom Izzo (who I think is the best coach coaching), Bill Self, Scott Drew, Dan Hurley and Rick Pitino. Drew’s Baylor team was the only non-bluebood in the group. Only Hurley and Calipari have won two even though Calipari had one vacated. So shouldn’t an AD just be happy with having a successful season and making the tournament? This year only Calipari and Izzo made it to the Sweet 16 and it is doubtful that Arkansas or Michigan State will hoist the trophy. If Barnes doesn’t win then I am pulling for Kelvin Samson who like Barnes has never won a championship. Barnes has only been to one Final Four. Samson has been to two.

The SEC coach of the year is Bruce Pearl – who has cheated everywhere he has been. Now since players can be paid, Pearl no longer has to cheat sub rosa. However, the coach of the year should have been Mark Pope at Kentucky. Pope inherited the mess that left by Calipari, had no returning starters and yet beat Tennessee twice and is now in the Sweet 16. Pope should have been the choice not Pearl.

Speaking of Pope, his old school BYU is in the Sweet 16 and is a very dangerous team. Watch out Alabama! BYU presents the NCAA tournament committee with an interesting challenge. Since BYU will not play on Sundays, the committee has to put them in a bracket that never plays on Sundays. I am sure that wreaks havoc with the seeding and placement of teams.

Connecticut is the only school to have both the men and the women win in the same year. This year their women are in the Sweet 16 but the men fell short losing to Florida. Now Maryland, Tennessee, Duke and Ole Miss are the schools with the chance to hoist both trophies. Fat chance. Duke is men’s favorite and South Carolina is the women’s favorite especially given the injury to USCs JuJu Watkins. I hope beyond hope that UT gets by the other UT. But if not, I am pulling for Duke’s women because of Kara Lawson.

Trump vs the judges. Trump vs the world

Activist Judges

Further evidence that justice is not blind comes from Chuck Schumer who said “The good news here is, we did put 235 judges, progressive judges, judges not under the control of Trump, last year on the bench, and they are ruling against Trump time after time after time.” The republicans have for years bemoaned the “activist” judges. But the law is open to interpretation. If not, then all the rulings from the Supreme Court would be unanimous. Indeed, in the 2023-2024 term, 67 percent of the court’s rulings were unanimous – and this court is supposed to be one that is sharply divided. I wonder if this is a decided effort on the part of the Chief Justice? However, some issues like abortion and gun control will never find unanimity. It will be interesting to see whether we get a spate of 6-3 rulings on the appeals by Trump’s lawyers on the limits of executive power.

Trade

I wish Trump would get his figures straight. In almost every case involving trade he misspeaks. He always inflates the trade deficits. He said that the deficit with Canada was $200 billion. Actually, the trade deficit is half that and when the capital account is added – which accounts for services – the deficit falls to around $54 billion.

In fact, Trump always ignores the capital account and focuses only on the current account which tabulates goods imported and exported. Yet this country has transitioned from primarily a manufacturing economy to a services economy. Trump knows this but chooses to ignore it. Ironically manufacturing has maintained its percentage of GDP but doing so with fewer workers. Much like agriculture, technology is displacing workers. Yet unemployment in the once heavily manufacturing states has not significantly changed with the loss of manufacturing. The national unemployment average is 4.1%. In Pennsylvania it is 4.8%, 4.6 percent in Ohio but 3.3% in Michigan. Yet Colorado is 4.7%, California is 5.4% and Nevada is 5.8 percent. Who knew?

Trump should realize that manufacturing leaving developed countries for less developed ones is a trend that is historic. Manufacturing was once in the industrial northeast and migrated to the southern states. That trend still continues yet Trump has made no effort to stop companies from leaving New York, Illinois and California for Tennessee, Texas and Florida. But it is the same phenomena. If Trump really wanted to increase employment he should be doing all he can to stop the job killing and investment stifling regulations in many states. That will grow more jobs and create more investment than his tariffs ever will.

Trump rails about “unfair” tariffs. He points out the ones on dairy in Canada are 270%. But that only applies after US exports reach a certain limit set under the “free” trade agreement. Here is what Trump said during his first term “Fair Trade is now to be called Fool Trade if it is not Reciprocal. Tax Dairy from us at 270%.” In actuality Canada allows 64,500 metric tons of fluid milk into the country before it imposes the high tariff. That total has rarely been exceeded. Yet it makes for a good talking point. Yes I know that if Canada lifted the quota that the total would probably exceed the old limit. But that is an empirical question.

But still Trump conveniently ignores the capital account which is in surplus and concentrates on the trade account which is always in deficit. Makes for good political theatre. Now he is saying that the country will impose reciprocal tariffs. I am waiting to see how this is going to be done. The US tariff book lists over 17,000 items subject to tariffs. Is Trump going to go line by line or with just an average? When US tariffs are higher – like on pickup trucks where there is a 25% tariff – will they be lowered? And what is the end game? If it is “unfair” then reciprocal tariffs will eliminate that argument. If it is to eliminate the trade deficit, then no efforts, even zero tariffs, will address that problem given the size of the US economy vis a vis any country in the world.

Trump wants the EU to buy more American vehicles and agriculture. Yet most US vehicles are not compatible with European streets. As to agriculture, the Europeans do not trust our food which contains more artificial colorings and hormones than the Europeans allow. They have rejected our GMO produce and meat products. I remember when I was living in Germany and saw what they told me at the market was a chicken. It looked liked a shriveled up rabbit. So unless we can get them to eat unhealthy and clog up their streets with oversized vehicles all of Trump’s tariff threats won’t move the needle.

Net Zero, ESG and DEI

I am neither anti-ESG nor anti-DEI. However, like the democrats always seem to overplay their hand, same is true with most of the ESG and DEI crowd. ESG stands for “environmental”, “social” and “governance” and is pushed by the left to force corporations and financial institutions to go green. The Davos crowd and the UN are enthusiastic proponents. The UN’s Net Zero Banking Alliance is “committed to aligning their lending, investment, and capital markets activities with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050”. Its members are 131 of the world’s largest banks from 44 countries and $50 trillion in assets. Banks like Barclays, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Lloyds are members. The US banks in the group were Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo. These banks pressure their clients to move their activities toward net zero. Some banks have been accused of debanking fossil fuel companies. Canada’s new prime minister Mark Carney is a true believer and pressured banks to join the Alliance. 

In 2022 eleven republican AGs demanded that the US banks turn over information regarding their ESG activities saying that there was collusion that may violate antitrust laws. That investigation along with the election of Donald Trump motivated the US banks to leave the alliance. Thank goodness for the republican AGs!

The companion organization to the banking group is the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative. Larry Fink of Blackrock was one of this groups leading cheerleaders claiming that climate risk is investment risk and pledged to navigate clients to transition to net zero. The Initiative’s objective is for its asset managers to “assess material climate-related risks” and to commit to a goal of net zero emissions. The 87 members comprise most of the world’s largest asset managers committed to pressuring companies to adopt net zero goals or creating investment funds focused on ESG. Again the republican AGs to the rescue! They threatened to pull their pension funds from Blackrock, Vanguard and others contending that the returns on those portfolios were smaller due to the ESG objectives. Moreover, ESG funds had higher fees. Larry Fink blinked and withdrew Blackrock from the initiative. Blackrock also shut down many of its ESG funds. State Street, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Columbia and Vanguard soon followed. However, the Europeans are still committed to net zero despite the damage it is doing to their economies.

In the US, there are 50 exchange-traded funds that focus on ESG with a combined $70.4 billion. Mind you, I am not opposed to ESG funds. I do oppose asset managers investing their clients’ monies in such funds to the detriment of earnings. I also do not mind that individual corporations incorporate ESG into their objectives, so long as they are open to their customers and stockholders. However, Blackrock and other asset managers were openly supporting shareholder petitions to force ESG into corporations. Blackrock has since announced that it will no longer do so. The top ESG rated firms include Microsoft, Caterpillar, Motorola, Nvidia, Mastercard and surprise surprise Marathon Petroleum. Again, if their stockholders endorse ESG it is fine with me. 

What about DEI? There is currently a case before the Supreme Court that some observers on the right contend will be the death knell of DEI. One right wing outlet said the case “will kill DEI.” Not so fast my friends. It will only affect how some parties apply DEI. The case involves a straight white woman who was passed over for promotions by a gay boss who promoted a gay man instead. The lower court said that she did not have standing even though the evidence was on her side because being straight and white meant she was not in a protected class! Huh? You mean that equal protection under the law does not apply to straight white folk? Apparently not in that court. The Supremes appear to be going to rule unanimously in favor of the plaintiff. Justice Kavanaugh said “Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, whether you are gay or straight, is prohibited. The rules are the same whichever way it goes.” Even the three liberal justices seem to agree prompting Justice Gorsuch to say “We’re in radical agreement on that today.”

Apparently the 6^th District appeals court applies a standard that will be struck down. Even the Ohio solicitor general who argued the case for the state said that “Ohio agrees it is wrong to hold some litigants to a higher standard” because of their identity” and that the plaintiff in this case, “should have the same burden” as a gay plaintiff who made a similar allegation of discrimination.” Slam dunk. Case closed. It is curious that the right leaning media would think that this case will kill DEI. It won’t. It will simply mean that straight whites have the same rights under the law as the so-called protected groups. In the words of Chief Justice Roberts “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” The same applies to race and sexual preference.

I keep reading where the democrat party is dead. Wistful thinking. So what if the congressional democrats have an approval rating of 29 percent. What does that mean? Is the 29 percent happy with the dems or angry? Since the overwhelming majority of congressional democrats have voted against almost everything Trump does the 29 percent approval mean that the other 71 percent disapprove of what the 29 percent approve of? Unlikely. As long as the republicans in the House are united (hello Thomas Massie) there is little that the dems can do. Over in the Senate they can filibuster certain bills and stop the republicans who won’t be able to muster up 60 votes for cloture. So much like the republican AGs suing to rein in the excesses of the Biden Administration, the democrat AGs and liberal organizations like the ACLU are suing the Trump Administration at every turn. Here the dems are relying on the leftist judges appointed by Obama and Biden to slow down Trump. Thus, both parties are relying on a kritarchy – rule by judges – to determine the limits of executive power. It should come as no surprise that over ninety percent of the rulings against Trump have come from democrat appointed judges giving further credence that justice is not blind.

Of course Trump being Trump called for the impeachment of the judge that he is sparring with over deporting to El Salvador members of a Venezuelan gang. Despite a rebuke from Chief Justice Roberts, some republicans in the House filed articles of impeachment against the judge and four others. At least the democrats never tried to impeach right leaning judges that overturned some of Biden’s excesses. However, one of the important questions is whether a single judge has the jurisdiction to issue an overarching ruling that applies nationwide. Understand that there are 677 federal judges ad 179 appellate judges spread over 94 geographic districts. Surely plaintiffs can find one that will support their suit to enjoin whatever it is that Trump is doing. Trump’s legal team claims that the rulings of the judge in the deportation hearings are themselves unconstitutional. If so, they need not be obeyed. Understand that the courts do not have a monopoly on interpreting the Constitution and that a president is not obligated to carry out an unconstitutional ruling from a judge.

Again I am not a lawyer but deporting illegals without a hearing was bound to be enjoined. I would guess that even illegals cannot be denied due process. That Trump had to find a 1798 law to do so may be viewed as an overreach. This judge may stop the deportation of other aliens but I seriously doubt if he orders the return of the illegals that Trump will comply. Trump likes Andrew Jackson (who I despise) and may take his cue in defying a court ruling. I think in the main Trump will just appeal the unfavorable rulings of lower courts and hope for vindication from the Supreme Court. It remains to be seen if Trump would – like Biden and Jackson– defy a Supreme Cout ruling.

Now back to whether the democrat party is dead. Two things. First, the town halls show that many democrat voters are displeased with their representatives and senators with all the screaming and shouting. But what can those elected officials do other than yell and scream themselves – see Jasmine Crockett? But this shows that the party is not dead but impotent. These districts are not going to flip to the republicans. If there are competitive primaries the likely result will be that establishment incumbents will lose to younger more radical folk who will be just as impotent. Second, the Bernie and AOC “Fight Oligarchy” tour is drawing great crowds.  Sanders says that he wants to have “real discussions across America on how we move forward to take on the Oligarchs and corporate interests who have so much power and influence in this country.” Of course he means the republican oligarchs and not democrat ones like Georg Soros and Michael Bloomberg. Well you can always count on Bernie to lie to the gullible masses that make up the democrat base. This is another indication that the party is not dead just frustrated. Yet it is strange to see that two of the least impactful members of congress (except for the green new deal) are out there yelling to resist. It is also interesting that oligarchy is rule by the few and that is exactly what occurs under socialism. So why is their tour named “fight oligarchy”?

Bye bye Department of Education – for now

Trump has signed an executive order “eliminating” the Department of Education.  He said “The Department of Education is a big con job… we spend more per pupil than any other country in the world, but we’re ranked 40th.

That means something’s really wrong, right? I say send it back to the states.” 

Of course, Trump would know a con job when he sees one. Naturally, all the republicans are voicing their support while all the democrats are pretending to be aghast. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md) said this was an “outrageous, illegal scam. Trump and his Cabinet of billionaires are trying to destroy the Department of Education

so they can privatize more schools. The result—making it even harder to ensure that ALL students have access to a quality education.” Van Hollen is lying and knows it. Even he knows that privatizing schools will improve education. But he has a toney education – Swarthmore, Harvard, Georgetown Law. Where did he send his kids to school? Certainly not the public schools in PG county.  But democrats see their buds getting less money and could care less about the kids’ education that they so suddenly have passion for. So spare me all the crocodile tears.

The department is not eliminated. Only congress can do that but Trump can zero it out of the budget, terminate its employees and route its “essential” functions to other departments. Although republicans in the House and Senate are proposing bills to officially get rid of the department those efforts will fail. No way will they get 60 votes in the Senate. The department did nothing to raise proficiency in our schools. But was that ever its intent? That chore lies with the local school districts not with the federal government. Thus the failure is local not federal. The Department of Education like most of the federal departments exisst to funnel tax payers monies to special interest groups and not to effect change. In that the Department of Education was successful.

But the department was low hanging fruit. What about the Department of Energy? Hasn’t it been as spectacular a failure? Do we really need a department of commerce, of labor, interior, agriculture, transportation, veteran affairs and housing and urban development? Maybe you can justify defense, attorney general, state and health and human services but the others? Really? Just show me how federal intervention in any of these areas benefits the public writ large rather than a chosen few.

I admire Elon Musk. He knew that the left would go after him and after Tesla. Yet he has not wavered. Some critics are saying that the savings found by DOGE are miniscule. An $11 million savings was reported on canceling leases for some empty IRS office space. Piddling? To be sure but Musk is confident that he can find $1 trillion in total savings. Remember “How do you eat an elephant?” One bite at a time.

Has any democrat spoken out against the Tesla terrorism going on in the country? They either are cheering it on or afraid to criticize it for fear that they themselves will be torched. Who is the nazi now?

Speaking of Musk. I have written about the poor built quality of Teslas, their awful frequency of repair record and yet their fiercely loyal customer base. Well that may be changing especially with the left’s targeting Teslas, dealerships and charging stations. Now all the cybertrucks have been recalled as well. Musk is brilliant. Perhaps he is hanging on to Tesla because he is stubborn. Yet it may be time to sell Tesla and concentrate on his other businesses.

More evidence that the left hates Musk is the lack of praise for bringing home the stranded astronauts. It is really sad to see the demise of NASA. But then again, this may show the public that private enterprise can replace the government. Now to do it in education.

Randi “Whine”garten head of American Federation of Teachers is beside herself as is Becky Pringle head of the National Education Association. Both see their gravy train going away. Weingarten says that Trump’s plan is to “voucherize and privatize our public schools, we know what they’re doing. They want to dismantle public education in this country, and we know that public

education is the foundation of this or any democracy.” She also says “So, billionaires—kids of billionaires—they have it, they go to private schools. “Everyone else, 90% go to public schools. Don’t take away their opportunity.” I guess she overlooks the fact that many of her union officials and teachers send their kids to private schools She also overlooks that vouchers and charter schools, which she vehemently opposes, can be part of publicly funded education. I only wish she and Pringle were so animated and passionate about educating children rather than protecting their half million dollar salaries.

Random Thoughts #52

Trump’s cutting off some funds to Columbia University is finally rousing some faculty out of their slumber. Many of the grants terminated were going to the sciences whose ranks are filed with Jews. While the professors professing solidarity with the pro Hamas crowds are mainly from liberal arts, the grant recipients are mainly on the science side of campus. However, one grantee was active in the protests, neuropsychologist Jennifer Manly. She has received over $100 million in grants over 20 years concentrating on the “social determinants of heath thesis saying that racism, sexism and homophobia can cause brain disease in black and “Latinx” communities.” She also contends that racism can cause Alzheimer’s disease and blames “historical patterns of segregation” for higher rates of dementia among blacks. I guess there are race grifters in the scientific world as well. How much you want to bet that Manly gets no more NIH grants for the next four years?

Did you know that several universities such as Stanford and Washington University St Louis have as many administrators as students? At Stanford there are 15,750 administrators, 2,288 faculty and 16,937 students. At Washington University there are 17,012 students and 21,247administrators and faculty. In contrast the University of Tennessee has 11,491 faculty and staff and 38,728 students.

This is why there is all the howling at “elite” universities over Trump cutting the overhead on grants to 15%. Harvard currently adds on 60 % to its grants. Guess you have to pay all those DEI folk.

Scott Bessant the Treasury secretary says that every country will be given a reciprocal tariff, some high and some low and will have until April 2 to decide what to do.  Bessent said the Trump administration will consider policies including currency manipulation, industrial subsidies and labor conditions when calculating a country’s new tariff rate. Does this mean that lowering their tariffs will not be enough to satisfy Trump? So it seems because I was wondering what Trump would do if Canada suddenly eliminated all their tariffs.

The ambassador from South Africa has been expelled. Expelled? Yes expelled. The State Department’s spokesperson Tammy Bruce (remember her from Fox?) made the announcement. Relations with that beautiful country have been icy starting with South Africa’s accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice. Then Elon Musk tweeted his opposition to a new law that seemed to allow the South African government to confiscate the land of white citizens. Trump tweeted his displeasure and moved to cut off all aid to the country. Trump then offered white South African farmers a “rapid pathway” to US citizenship should they choose to emigrate. Whites make up 8 percent of the population and own 75% of the land. They are mostly Afrikaners, who once ruled the country during apartheid. However,most white South Africans rejected Trump’s offer with a  leading group saying “Emigration only offers an opportunity for Afrikaners who are willing to risk potentially sacrificing their descendants’ cultural identity as Afrikaners, the price for that is simply too high.” The group also opposes the cutting off of aid to the country. Another group Solidariteit, represents two million Afrikaners and includes a trade union, said that “repatriation of Afrikaners as refugees is not a solution for us.”

For Trump the last straw was when the ambassador, Ebrahim Rasool, said that Trump was a white supremacist. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Rasool was a” race baiting politician” who hates Trump and expelled him. Pretty dramatic, eh? I wonder how that affects travel and trade with South Africa. I have been on three bow hunting safaris and absolutely love the country and its peoples, black, white and mixed. They do have very serious problems that hopefully will be fixed. Note however, that South Africa did not expel the US ambassador and is moving to replace Rasool calling his comments “regrettable.” 

Trump goes after the PhD Project

I used to hear employers say that there were no qualified blacks for a particular job. The same was true at universities. Well affirmative action and DEI compelled them to broaden their search. But what if the pool of minority candidates were small as is the case in some areas of the university such as engineering or business? The question is how do you increase that pool? One way has been the PhD project, which is currently being assailed by the Trump Administration.  

KPMB started the PhD project in 1994 to grow the pool of minority PhDs in accounting even though the company itself hired very few PhDs. It later expanded to include other areas in business. I was asked to help facilitate bringing in more Finance PhD candidates. I did so gladly because there were precious few minority PhDs in Finance and the pool of graduate students was pitifully small. What I, and others, did was to put a space for research papers and ideas of students in the PhD project in our annual meetings. I was an officer in one large association and the editor of the journal in another. Mind you, the PhD project was encouraging students to get PhDs in business and providing them with counselling and assistance. Students had to apply and be accepted in a PhD program. The PhD Project provided mentoring services. When they were awarded the degree, they were then available to be in the pool of candidates hired by universities. The link with the academic associations provided universities with access to the students in the PhD Project. Since the annual meetings are often the recruiting market for the disciplines, the universities’ pool of candidates is greatly enhanced. The search costs for qualified minority candidates are greatly lowered.

Go to phdproject.org. and there you will see that their mission is to broaden the pool of business school faculty to “encourage, mentor, and support tomorrow’s leaders”. This is important because it will show bright young minds what an academic career entails and its attractions both financially and intellectually. I was the only black in my PhD program at Ohio State and my professors could not recall if another had ever been in the program. There was one in finance but we never had a class together.

During my years as a professor there have been precious few minorities in my classes – except for the year spent at Howard University. I have always mentored students both black and white and encouraged them to include academics in their career decisions. I admit I have probably tried harder to get minorities and women interested in a PhD. The PhD project has been successful in expanding the pool. Ninety percent of its students earn a PhD and 97% accept a faculty position. Over 1,800 new faculty have been mentored in the PhD project. There are now chaired professors and deans that otherwise might not have considered a PhD who are contributing to business education.

Now the Trump administration has sent notice to the university partners of the PhD project in its never ending quest to stomp out everything that is DEI. As a result some universities are now terminating their relationship with the organization. NPR reports that “The U.S. Department of Education has launched investigations into 52 universities in 41 states, accusing the schools of using “racial preferences and stereotypes in education programs and activities. The department’s Office of Civil Rights said that the schools violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act by partnering with the PhD Project, a nonprofit that helps students from underrepresented groups earn doctoral degrees in business. The program focuses on supporting black, Latino and Native American students.” The PhD Project responded “Our vision is to create a broader talent pipeline of current and future business leaders.” “This year, we have opened our membership application to anyone who shares that vision.”

I want the PhD Project to continue its good work. It is interesting that Trump has vowed to get rid of the Department of Education and yet it is that department that is seeking to terminate the relationship between the universities and the PhD Project. I hope it fails. I would hope that the underrepresented groups served by the PhD project would expand to include first generation white students and those from economically depressed areas such as Appalachia. Perhaps that would satisfy the Trump zealots. The PhD project has proven to be the most effective source in expanding the pool of minority PhDs. May it continue to do so.

The New Era overlap caps

Opening Day was March 18 in Japan. The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs or should I say the Los Angeles Dolaers beat the Chicago Cubs? You see every so often New Era releases a new set of baseball caps. This year the release of their “overlap” caps created so much controversy that the cap for the Texas Rangers was immediately pulled from the stores. When I looked at the caps I wondered why the Astros cap was still available. But soon it too was pulled along with the one for the Los Angeles Angels. The Texas cap with the “T” imposed in the center spelled Tetas which is a Spanish vulgarity referring to a woman’s breast. But look at the Astros’ cap. It spells As-H-os. Some would say that is appropriate given their sign stealing scandal of a few years back. The Angels’ cap is An-A-els which means “God’s grace”. I don’t know why that is offensive. But so be it. But what about the Bo-B-on Red Sox? The Los Angeles Do-LA-ers seems appropriate given that they are trying to buy another World Series title. Then there are the Seattle Ma-S-ers, The Philadelphia Phi-P-ies, the Miami M-M-mi Marlins (stutter anyone?), De-D-oit Tigers and the Washington Na-W-als Nationals.

Those lucky enough to have bought the Astros and Rangers caps before they were pulled are now selling them for $1,000+ on ebay.

Democrat leadership, Jewish Voice for Peace

Part of the democrats problem is that both of their leaders in the House and Senate are from New York. In the House the republicans’ leaders are from Louisiana (Mike Johnson) and South Dakota (John Thune). In the House, Mike Johnson (Louisiana) is speaker, Steve Scalise (Louisiana) is majority leader, Tom Emmer (Minnesota) is whip and Lisa McClain (Michigan) is conference chair. For the democrats Hakeem Jeffries (New York) is minority leader, Katherine Clark (Massachusetts) is whip and Pete Aguilar (California) is caucus chair. All the republicans are from the heartland. All of the democrats are not. Couldn’t the democrats find someone from middle America or the south?

In the Senate, John Thune (South Dakota) is majority leader, John Barrasso (Wyoming) is whip, Tom Cotton (Arkansas) is conference chair, Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia) is policy committee chair and Tim Scott (South Carolina) is senatorial committee chair. For the democrats Chuck Schumer (New York) is minority leader, Dick Durbin (Illinois) is whip, Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota) is policy chair, Cory Booker (New Jersey) is strategic communications chair, the vice chairs of the conference are Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts) and Mark Warner (Virginia). Only Warner is from a southern state while Durbin and Klobuchar are from middle America. Interestingly, these three were right in the middle of senate democrats who voted for Trump’s nominees. There were 6 democrats who voted for 10 nominees and 8 who voted for only one. Durbin voted for 5, Klobuchar voted for 7 while Warner voted for 6. So I guess you would call them “moderates.”

Isn’t it interesting that all the blow back on Schumer’s voting for the continuing resolution is coming from the usual loud voices on the left and from democrats in the House. We have heard from the usual suspects, Jasmine Crockett and AOC but nothing from the senate side. Chris Murphy – who only voted for one of Trump’s nominees – usually one of the loose cannons in the senate said that he still supports Schumer as leader.

Did you notice that one of the leading groups in the pro Hamas demonstrations is something called Jewish Voice for Peace? It has been especially prominent at Columbia University and lead the protest at Trump Towers in support of Mahmoud Khalil. I know that Jews are divided between Zionists and non Zionists. I know that some like Chuck Schumer have called for Netanyahu’s resignation. But I can’t conceive of a Jew shouting “intifada!” and “from river to sea!” which advocate the erasure of Israel. Since Jewish Voice for Peace does these things, I was wondering if there were any Jews in Jewish Voice for Peace? That organization is pro Palestinian and supports the boycott, divestiture and sanction campaign against Israel. Not surprisingly the Times of Israel says that JVP is neither Jewish nor for peace. Consider that in response to the attack on Israel by Hamas on Oct 7, Jewish Voice for Peace said that “the source of all this violence” was “Israeli apartheid and occupation — and United States complicity in that oppression” and that Hamas’s actions were consistent with “Palestinians’ right to resist.” It is difficult to imagine a Jewish group tweeting that. Here is a statement from them about Trump’s efforts to deport noncitizen students who are engaged in pro-Hamas activities.

Donald Trump is reportedly planning to continue his violent crusade aimed at gutting freedom and democracy with an Executive Order today calling for the deportation of non-citizen anti-war activists, with a particular focus on students. This is a vile attempt to sow fear and crush political dissent to the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, as well as to further the far-Right’s broader anti-immigrant agenda. Should there be any attempt to enforce this authoritarian, unconstitutional, and violent executive order, we call on elected officials, university administrators, and all people of conscience to boldly reject these orders. 

Polls indicate that they have very little support amongst Jews themselves. Yet there are a number of American Jews who question Israel’s war effort. While 89 percent of American Jews support Israel’s fighting Hamas only 62% find acceptable Israel’s war conduct.

Still I wonder if members of JVP wear Star of Davids or signs of their Judaism in these protests? Can a Jew in JVP walk to class at Columbia without being harassed? 

Did you see where several Columbia professors canceled classes to show support for Khalil? Beats me why this shows support. One even canceled an exam and gave every student an “A”. So much for academic excellence at one of our former “elite” universities. One professor tweeted “Given that the College and Columbia University has neither issued a public statement with any clear explanations as to why or how this arrest was allowed nor offered any serious reassurances for international students who might be targeted further, many professors feel it is unsafe to continue teaching as usual. Many students are afraid to go on or even near campus. To ensure the safety of all, I am canceling classes this week.”

I guess any international student involved in violent demonstrations should be afraid and rightly so. But “unsafe to continue teaching as usual?” Hey, he probably wanted to get a head start on spring break.