Mississippi community college is defending itself against allegations from the DOJ and Betsy DeVos that it positions itself as a “police state” and threatens the free speech rights of its students.
In September, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education filed a lawsuit against Jones College after the school threatened to arrest student members of Young Americans for Liberty for their efforts to initiate a conversation about marijuana legalization on campus. The campus police stopped the YAL members from tabling to raise awareness about this issue. FIRE sued the school on behalf of YAL and student Michael Brown.
Now the Department of Justice is weighing in on the matter, releasing a statement insisting that “College campuses should not be mini police states.”
“The United States of America is not a police state,” said assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division Eric Dreiband, adding “Repressive speech codes are the indecent hallmark of despotic, totalitarian regimes. They have absolutely no place in our country.”
US secretary of education Betsy DeVos also weighed in on the free speech of students at Jones County Junior College saying that the situation is “yet another concerning example of students encountering limits on what, when, where, and how they learn.”
“This is happening far too often on our nation’s campuses. This Administration won’t let students be silenced. We stand with their right to speak and with their right to learn truth through the free exchange of ideas—particularly those with which they might disagree,” DeVos added.
Jones County Junior College told Campus Reform that it “has reviewed the statement of interest filed by the federal government on this matter,” and that “At this time a preliminary motion to dismiss certain claims against certain defendants is pending before the court.”
The school disputed the legitimacy of the allegations, telling Campus Reform that “the only alleged facts in the record come from the unproven statements contained in the plaintiffs’ complaint,” and complains that the DOJ’s statement “broadly accepts those allegations and the merits of plaintiffs’ claims. The College looks forward to the Court’s ruling on the motion to dismiss and to developing the facts of this case through the discovery process.”
The institution assured Campus Reform that its “goal has always been to ensure that all students have equal and safe access to an environment free from hate speech; racial, gender, national origin, religious affiliation; and disability discrimination.”
“The plaintiffs’ allegations require the College to actively defend itself, its employees, and the Trustees from the position that no harm was done to the plaintiff by the College. Our mission is to teach the ideals of a democratic society. We focus every effort to ensure our students have access to their future through advanced affordable education that stands not only on free inquiry but promotes learning, advances knowledge, and promotes economic growth for the American family,” the college added.
The Average Millennial Has A Subprime Credit Score
As Millennials rage against older generations of Americans, they appear to have forgotten one thing: their own deplorable credit score, or as Experian notes, “what many people might not know: Millennials also have one of the lowest average credit scores of any generation.“
As the following chart from Deutsche Bank shows, the average FICO score for both the Millennial and the younger, Gen Z, generation is below 669, the level that defines Subprime borrowers.
Why are millennials scores low? Rod Griffin, director of consumer education and awareness at Experian, recently said part of it may be that “because they are young and haven’t yet established a robust credit history.” Indeed, a young millennial might be barely out of college, and “at 22, most people have very little credit history and so would likely have lower credit scores,” he explains. And while one can argue that it takes time to build out a credit score, the fact that Gen Zers have effectively the same FICO score as Millennials, is quite troubling and suggests there is more to the problem than merely the follies of youth.
Commenting on the depressed Millennial scores, in a recent report, Experian found that millennials — people between ages 23 and 38 — have had a tough time getting ahead financially: “held back by their credit scores, some millennials have struggled to obtain new credit and, as a result, may be finding it hard to reach certain financial milestones.”
To understand more about millennial credit scores, Experian took a look at data from the fourth quarter of 2018 to see where these consumers had the best and worst FICO, what type of debt they had and how they’ve progressed in the past year.
Here are the facts.
Compared with the national average of 701, millennials had an average FICO Score of 665 in the fourth quarter of 2018, according to Experian data. The silent generation, those in their 70s and older, had the highest average FICO Score of 756, followed by baby boomers, who had an average score of 732. Generation Z—the youngest group, with people between ages 18 and 22—had the same average score as millennials.
Millennials have an average credit card balance of $5,231, up 7% year over year from $4,869 in 2017.
Millennials carried an average of $34,770 in student loan debt, up 8% from $32,239 in 2017.
Millennials have an average total debt amount of $80,666, up 11% from $72,988 in 2017.
Minnesota had the highest average millennial FICO Score among states, with an average of 698—just three points shy of the national average of 701, according to Experian data from the fourth quarter of 2018. The District of Columbia followed with an average score of 697 for millennials, and North Dakota came in third with an average score of 693. Massachusetts had the fourth-highest average millennial FICO Score at 692, followed by South Dakota, which had a 690.
On the other end, Mississippi millennials had the lowest score with an average FICO Score of 621—a 44-point difference from the millennial average of 665. Alabama had the second-lowest average score at 633, followed by South Carolina at 635 and Louisiana at 636. West Virginia—the only state not located in the South—came in fifth with an average FICO Score of 637.
As MarketWatch recently observed, such depressingly low scores matter because they end up costing young Americans tens of thousands of dollars in excess interest payments. The reason: People with lower scores are less likely, on average, to repay their debts, so the companies lending them money will charge them higher interest rates to offset the risk they’re taking.
Here’s an example: Let’s say you’re borrowing $250,000 to buy a home and get a 30-year-loan, which is standard. If you had a score of 760 or higher, your mortgage rate might be something like 4.161%, according to FICO, a credit scoring company; that would mean the total interest you’d pay to the lender over the life of the 30-year loan would be $188,069. Now let’s say you have a score of 652 (the average for a younger millennial). In that case, your rate would be 5.204% — and you’d wind up paying $244,422 in interest, which is roughly $56,000 more than the person with the better score.
It’s not just mortgages that low scores impact. “A credit score can play a part in getting that new cell phone you want, in qualifying for an apartment lease, for setting up utility service with lower security deposits, and when applying for car or home insurance,” explains Griffin. “Having good credit scores can save you money by having to pay lower interest rates, reduced activation fees, lower security deposits, and reduced insurance rates.”
It could even impact the job you get. “A limited version of your credit report may be reviewed when you apply for a job or promotion, particularly for jobs that involve handling a company’s money or to verify our identity,” he adds.
Ultimately, it boils down to one simple thing: don’t borrow what you can’t afford, and certainly what you can’t repay. Sadly, instead of taking responsible control over their financial (lack of) disciple, Millennials are far more eager to just blame older generations, as has now become the case with the laconic (and iconic) retort to pretty much everything: “Ok Boomer” to which one can now add: “…but can Boomers please co-sign for my credit card?”
Watching the impeachment “vote” was hard work. With only a few exceptions, each Congressman rose for roughly 90 seconds and provided a prearranged, almost completely scripted-along-party-lines explanation of how he or she was casting one’s ballot. After four grueling hours of hearing self-serving lies like “no one is above the law,” I was hoping that one of them would either fall off the podium and fracture a leg or actually go mad and break out into a song and dance routine. The entire performance was the strongest possible argument for term limits that is possible to make.
However, one of the more truly interesting aspects of the proceedings was the Democratic Party view of Russia, which was cited constantly. According to most of the Democrats, Russian meddling was the decisive element in getting Donald Trump elected, and many of them also believe that there was collusion between the GOP candidate and President Vladimir Putin. It is a viewpoint that is totally at odds with the facts, even if one actually believes that there was a meeting in the Kremlin at which a malevolent Putin instructed his myrmidons to “get Hillary.” Slippery Adam Schiff, he of the intelligence committee, carefully referred to Russia as an adversary but many other Democrats kept using the word “enemy.”
Regarding Ukraine, it was also interesting to note bipartisan support for supplying lethal weapons to the puppet regime in Kiev so they can kill Russian soldiers. No one, as far as I could discern, made the point that the United States had no real interest in regime change in Ukraine in the first place as it was a dangerous move that was responsive to no actual American interest. After that, funding and arming the locals to confront Moscow also would not seem to be in the US interest. That so many congress critters seem to be hard wired in their Russo-phobia would seem to suggest that they are willfully ignorant on the subject and inclined to take the path of least resistance, which is to blame the Kremlin rather than the horrific US policy that preceded and brought about Moscow’s intervention.
One also has to conclude that while the Republicans continue to mostly quietly support an aggressive foreign policy, the real war party in Congress is now the Democrats. They have incorporated Russia as the enemy so completely into their sense of identity that it has become the fallback position whenever they feel compelled to say something to distance themselves from the GOP. For them Russia and Vladimir Putin are together the real enemy that is out to destroy what remains of American democracy. To put it bluntly, such an argument is ridiculous, but it is clearly believed by many in the House of Representatives and Senate.
While all of that was going on in high definition, there were other things taking place.
A week before the “trial” in the House of Representatives, the White House ordered a new round of sanctions directed against Iran. The sanctions in part target the country’s largest private airline Mahan Air, which was accused of “weapons of mass destruction proliferation” and transportation of lethal aid to Yemen. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin issued a statement claiming that “The Iranian regime uses its aviation and shipping industries to supply its regional terrorist and militant groups with weapons, directly contributing to the devastating humanitarian crises in Syria and Yemen.”
Mahan Air has been targeted by the Treasury Department since 2011, when it was claimed that the planes were being used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to move troops and military hardware around the Middle East region. The airline has 55 planes and flies to 40 international and domestic destinations.
The airline is now sanctioned under the Executive Order 13382 as a “proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and their supporters.” Apart from the appalling English usage, one might well question the designation itself as Iran is not the party responsible for the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. That honor goes to America’s good friend Saudi Arabia. And blaming the situation in Syria on Iran is also a bit of a misdirection as it is the United States that has prolonged the carnage in that country. And what weapons of mass destruction are involved in both cases is by no means clear. Iran has no nukes and there have been no credible reports of the use of chemical or biological weapons in Yemen, while the stories about Syrian government employment of such weapons have turned out to be fabrications.
The Treasury Department sanctions targeted three general ticket sales agents of Mahan Air, as well as dozens of aircraft belonging to or operated by it. The new sanctions might be viewed as the latest step in the US government campaign to apply “maximum pressure” against Iran. The move will mean that other countries in Europe and the Middle East will stop permitting Mahan Air flights from landing or otherwise using their facilities. The Treasury is clearly willing to use what are referred to as “secondary sanctions” on other countries if the ban on Mahan Air is not supported. It is economic warfare pure and simple and the intent might well be to shut down the airline.
The timing and targeting of the White House move suggest that pressure is being directed against Iran’s transportation links with the rest of the world, thereby isolating it and bringing it that much closer to economic collapse. How Iran will react to the new sanctions is not known, but if it is pushed hard enough it might choose to strike back.
There is also some concern over a bill before Congress that was originally introduced three years ago but which now appears to have sufficient support to pass into law. It would authorize additional sanctions by the US Treasury Department directed against “the Syrian regime, Russia and Iran for past and ongoing war crimes” that it has been claimed took place during the Syrian war. As many of the alleged atrocities in the Syrian war have been exposed as fabrications by groups like the White Helmets, it is by no means clear how Washington will verify its list of “war crimes.” At least one report suggests that the White House now supports the bill and is likely to enforce any sanctions that are put in place.
And, of course, it just might be Israel that will pull the trigger and start a war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, struggling for his political survival, continuously claims that Iran is planning to attack, requiring his continued strong leadership. Last month, Israel carried out a “very intense” attack on Iranian and Syrian targets in Syria, killing 23 soldiers and civilians. Earlier, the Israeli Air Force claimed that it had destroyed an Iranian weapons depot in Iraq and also used drones to hit alleged Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. Some believe that the Israeli actions are intended to provoke an Iranian response that will bring the US into the fight.
So, Congress continues to whine pointlessly about Russiagate while the pot is boiling over in the Middle East. It will be interesting to see if it will be possible to make it through the year without something very unpleasant happening.
When I was growing up my mother had a saying, or an answer, for just about everything…as do most mothers. Every answer to the question “Why?” was immediately met with the most intellectual of answers:
“…because I said so”.
Seriously, my mother was a resource of knowledge that has served me well over the years, and it wasn’t until late in life that I realized that she had taught me the basic principles for staying safe in the investment process.
So, by imparting her secrets to you I may be violating some sacred ritual of motherhood knowledge, but I felt it was worth the risk to share the knowledge which has served me well.
1) Don’t Run With Sharp Objects!
It wasn’t hard to understand why she didn’t want me to run with scissors through the house – I just think I did it early on just to watch her panic. However, later in life when I got my first apartment I ran through the entire place with a pair of scissors, left the front door open with the air conditioning on, and turned every light on in the house.
That rebellion immediately stopped when I received my first electric bill.
Sometime in the early 90’s, the financial markets became a casino as the internet age ignited a whole generation of stock market gamblers who thought they were investors. There is a huge difference between investing and speculating, and knowing the difference is critical to overall success.
Investing is backed by a solid investment strategy with defined goals, an accumulation schedule, allocation analysis and, most importantly, a defined sell strategy and risk management plan.
Speculation is nothing more than gambling. If you are buying the latest hot stock, chasing stocks that have already moved 100% or more, or just putting money in the market because you think that you “have to”, you are gambling.
The most important thing to understand about gambling is that success is a function of the probabilities and possibilities of winning or losing on each bet made.
In the stock market, investors continue to play the possibilities instead of the probabilities. The trap comes with early success in speculative trading. Success breeds confidence, and confidence breeds ignorance.
Most speculative traders tend to “blow themselves up” because of early success in their speculative investing habits. The speculative trader generally fails to hedge against the random events that occur in the financial markets. This is turn results in the trader losing more money than they ever imagined possible.
When investing, remember that the odds of making a losing trade increase with the frequency of transactions being made. Just as running with a pair of scissors; do it often enough and eventually you could end up really hurting yourself. What separates a winning investor from a speculative gambler is the ability to admit and correct mistakes when they occur.
2) Look Both Ways Before You Cross The Street.
I grew up in a small town so crossing the street wasn’t as dangerous as it is in the city. Nonetheless, I was yanked by the collar more than once as I started to bolt across the street seemingly anxious to “find out what’s on the other side.” It is important to understand that traffic does flow in two directions, and if you only look in one direction, sooner or later you are going to get hit.
A lot of people want to classify themselves as a “Bull” or a “Bear”. The smart investor doesn’t pick a side; he analyzes both sides to determine what the best course of action in the current market environment is most likely to be.
The problem with the proclamation of being a “bull” or a “bear” means that you are not analyzing the other side of the argument and that you become so confident in your position that you tend to forget that “the light at the end of the tunnel…just might be an oncoming train.”
It is an important part of your analysis, before you invest in the financial markets, to determine not only “where” but also “when” to invest your assets.
3) Always Wear Clean Underwear
This was one of my favorite sayings from my mother because I always wondered about the rationality of it. I always figured that even if you were wearing clean underwear prior to an accident; you’re still likely left without clean underwear following it.
The first rule of investing is: “You are only wrong – if you stay wrong”
However, being a smart investor means always being prepared in case of an accident. That means quite simply have a mechanism in place to protect you when you are wrong with an investment decision.
You will notice that I said “when you are wrong” in the previous paragraph. You will make wrong decisions, in fact, the majority of the decisions you will make in investing will most likely turn out wrong. However, it is cutting those wrong decisions short, and letting your right decisions continue to work, that will make you profitable over time.
Any person that tells you about all the winning trades he has made in the market – is either lying, or he hasn’t blown up yet. One of the two will be true – 100% of the time.
Understanding the “risk versus reward” trade off of any investment is the beginning step to risk management in your portfolio. Knowing how to mitigate the risk of loss in your holdings is crucial to your long-term survivability in the financial markets.
4) If Everyone Jumped Off The Cliff – Would You Do It Too?
Every kid, at one point or another, has tried to convince their Mother to allow them to do something through the use of “peer pressure.” I figured if she wouldn’t let me do what I wanted, then surely she would bend to the will of the imaginary masses. She never did.
“Peer pressure” is one of the biggest mistakes investors repeatedly make when investing. Chasing the latest “hot stocks” or “investment fads” that are already overvalued, and are running up on speculative fervor, always ends in disappointment.
In the financial markets, investors get sucked into buying stocks that have already moved significantly off their lows because they are afraid of “missing out.”This is speculating, gambling, guessing, hoping, praying – anything but investing. Generally, by the time the media begins featuring a particular investment, individuals have already missed the major part of the move. By that point, the probabilities of a decline began to outweigh the possibility of further rewards.
It is a well-known fact that the market works in what is called a “herd mentality.” Historically, investors all tend to run in one direction at one time until that direction falters, the “herd” then turns and runs in the opposite direction. This continues to the detriment of investor’s returns over long periods as shown by Dalbar investor studies.
This is also generally why investors wind up buying high, and selling low. In order to be a long-term successful investor, you have to understand the “herd mentality” and use it to your benefit – which means getting out from in front of the herd before you are trampled.
So, before you chase a stock that has already moved 100%, or more, try and figure out where the herd may move to next, and “place your bets there.” This takes discipline, patience, and a lot of homework but you will be well rewarded for your efforts in the end.
5) Don’t Talk To Strangers
This is just good solid advice all the way around. Turn on the television, any time of the day or night, and it is the “Stranger’s Parade of Malicious Intent”. I don’t know if it is just me, or the fact the media only broadcast news that reveals the very depths of human depravity, but sometimes I have to wonder if we are not due for a planetary cleansing through divine intervention.
Back to investing – getting your stock tips from strangers is a sure way to lose money in the stock market. Your investing homework should NOT consist of a daily regimen of CNBC, followed by a dose of Grocer tips, capped off with a financial advisor’s sales pitch.
In order to be successful in the long-run, you must understand the principals of investing, and the catalysts which will make that investment profitable in the future. Remember, when you invest into a company you are buying a piece of that company, and its business plan. You are placing your hard earned dollars into the belief the individuals managing the company have your best interests at heart. The hope is they will operate in such a manner as to make your investment more valuable, so that it may eventually be sold to someone else for a profit.
This is also the very embodiment of the “Greater Fool Theory,” which states that there will always be someone willing to buy an investment at an ever higher price. However, in the end, there is always someone left “holding the bag,” the trick is making sure that it isn’t you.
Also, you need to be aware that when getting advice from the “One Minute Money Manager” crew on television. When an “expert” tells you about a company you should be buying, remember he already owns it, and most likely will be the one selling his shares to you.
6) You Either Need To “Do It” (polite version) Or Get Off The Pot!
When I was growing up I hated to do my homework, which is ironic, since I now do more homework now than I ever dreamed of in my younger days. Since I did not like doing homework, school projects were almost never started until the night before they were due. I was the king of procrastination.
My Mom was always there to help, giving me a hand, and an ear full of motherly advice, usually consisting of a lot of “because I told you so…”
I find it interesting that many investors tend to watch stocks for a very long period of time, never acting on their analysis, buy rather idly watching as their instinct proves correct, and the stock rises in price.
The investor then feels that he missed his entry point, and decides to wait, hoping the stock will go back down one more time so that he can get in. The stock continues to rise, the investor continues to watch becoming more frustrated until he finally capitulates on his emotion and buys the investment near the top.
Procrastination, on the way up, and on the way down, are harbingers of emotional duress derived from the loss of opportunity or the destruction of capital.
However, if you do your homework and can build a case for the purchase, don’t procrastinate. If you miss your opportunity for the right entry into the position – don’t chase it. Leave it alone, and come back another day when ole’ Bob Barker is telling you – “The Price Is Right.”
7) Don’t Play With It – You’ll Go Blind
Well…do I really need to go into this one? All I know for sure is that I am not blind today. What I will never know for sure is whether she believed it, or if it was just meant to scare the hell out of me.
When you invest in the financial markets it is very easy to lose sight of what your intentions were in the first place. Getting caught up in the hype, getting sucked in by the emotions of fear and greed, and generally being confused by the multitude of options available, can cause you to lose your focus.
Always go back to the basic principle you started with which was to grow your small pile of money into a much larger one.
Putting It All Together
My Dad once taught me a very basic principle: KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid
This is one of the best investment lessons you will ever receive. Too many people try to outsmart the market to gain a very small, fractional, increase in return. Unfortunately, they wind up taking on a disproportionate amount of risk which, more often than not, leads to negative results. The simpler the strategy is, the better the returns tend to be. Why? There is better control over the portfolio.
Designing a KISS portfolio strategy will help ensure that you don’t get blinded by continually playing with your portfolio and losing sight of what your original goals were in the first place.
Decide what your objective is: Retirement, College, House, etc.
Define a time frame to achieve your goal.
Determine how much money you can “realistically” put toward your goal each month.
Calculate the amount of return needed to reach your goal based on your starting principal, the number of years to your goal and your monthly contributions.
Break down your goal into milestones that are achievable. These milestones could be quarterly, semi-annual or annual and will help make sure that you are on track to meet your objective.
Select the appropriate asset mix that achieves your required results without taking on excess risk that could lead to greater losses than planned for.
Develop and implement a specific strategyto sell positions in the event of random market events or unexpected market downturns.
If this is more than you know how to do – hire a professional who understands basic portfolio and risk management.
There is obviously a lot more to managing your own portfolio than just the principles that we learned from our Mothers. However, this is a start in the right direction, and if you don’t believe me – just ask your Mother.
Natgas Spikes On The Return Of Old Man Winter, Powerful Snow Storm Expected Over Weekend
Natgas futures soared 3% following a new report that details much colder temperatures are on the way for much of the US starting next week.
Data provider Refinitiv estimates that heating degree days (HDDs) are expected to start rising next Monday and continue above trend through mid-January. This means colder weather is expected to arrive next week, driving energy demand to heat businesses and homes in the US-Lower 48.
Northeast HDD shows energy demand will start moving higher around New Years.
Southeast HDD shows colder weather will arrive early next week, forcing homes and businesses to crank up the heaters.
Central HDD shows colder weather will force many to turn up their heaters this weekend.
Midwest HDD will surge around New Year’s Eve.
Southwest HDD will surge this weekend.
And Western HDD will dive below trend into the new year.
A 48-day HDD forecast for the US-Lower 48 shows energy demand as a whole will increase to above trend for much of January.
“Natural gas is higher this morning on weather forecast patterns for middle January,” said Robert DiDona of Energy Ventures Analysis, adding that the weather report caused a short-cover.
DiDona said thin trading over a holiday week coupled with a bullish weather outlook sparked volatility late this week.
Temperatures across major Northeast metro areas are expected to move lower through the weekend into next week.
And looking ahead this weekend, there could be a powerful winter storm moving across the Plains.
The controversial report from Inspector General Michael Horowitz into the FBI’s investigation into Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign revealed many concerning details. One was that Christopher Steele’s dossier was used in the case to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court to secure a wiretap on former Donald Trump campaign official Carter Page after the DOJ found no probable cause to do so. The report also revealed that late Senator John McCain provided former FBI Director James Comey with reports from Steele after the FBI terminated the former British intelligence officer as a source, Breitbart reports.
McCain reportedly gave Comey five new Steele reports that were not previously in possession of the FBI, although it’s not clear if McCain knew at the time that Steele was no longer an FBI source. Regardless, the new reports were allegedly obtained by McCain from Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson. Fusion GPS was notably hired for anti-Trump opposition research by the president’s opponents in the primary.
“Several weeks later, on December 9, 2016, Senator John McCain provided Corney with a collection of 16 Steele election reports, 5 of which Steele had not given the FBI,” the IG report reads. “McCain had obtained these reports from a staff member at the McCain Institute. The McCain Institute staff member had met with Steele and later acquired the reports from Simpson.”
According to Breitbart, the unnamed McCain staffer is David J. Kramer, who reportedly gave the Steele dossier to BuzzFeed News, which published the document in full on January 10, 2017.
Devin Nunes writes letter to Adam Schiff pointing out several serious errors Schiff made in characterizing Steele dossier, Page FISA, more. ‘It is clear you are in need of rehabilitation…’ pic.twitter.com/qoY3p7EJOo
The Steele dossier as a vital part of the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign, at least in terms of the FISA. Writing for The Washington Post, Erik Wemple highlights that Horowitz concluded that much of the material in the Steele election reports could not be corroborated, which squashed the hopes of pundits like MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, who put their faith in the report. In addition, Horowitz concluded that there were certain allegations that were inaccurate or inconsistent with information gathered by the FBI. The information that was corroborated related to time, title, and location information, much of which the report noted was publicly available.
“The ubiquity of Horowitz’s debunking passages suggests that he wanted the public to come away with the impression that the dossier was a flabby, hasty, precipitous, conclusory charade of a document,” Wemple wrote, noting that MSNBC viewers were likely “blindsided” by the news.
The IG report also revealed that the FBI found “potentially serious problems” with Steele’s dossier as early as January 2017.
Every week seems brings a new story about how vaping is really, really, really bad for you.
Only a few years ago, electronic cigarettes were being hailed as a new and healthier way for people to consume nicotine and pot. The number of vapers worldwide has grown sevenfold since 2011, to an estimated 41 million users. But now, vaping is being attacked as a dangerous trend that’s luring teenagers into a deadly habit that might be as bad for you as conventnional smoking. Reports of vaping-related deaths and respiratory illnesses appear daily on cable news shows, in newspapers, and online. The FDA is considering a ban on flavored e-cigarettes, and many states have already instituted strict regulations on vaping sales and use. Congress has voted to change the age for legal tobacco and e-cigarette sales to 21, up from 18.
Is vaping bad for you? Should we be panicking? What sorts of policies should govern the use of e-cigarettes? To answer these and other questions, Nick Gillespie sat down with Reason‘s Jacob Sullum, who has written extensively—and authoritatively—about the issue for years.
Hollandse-Hoogte/ZUMA Press/Newscom RICHARD B. LEVINE/Newscom Nicolas Maeterlinck/ZUMA Press/Newscom Douglas Graham/Newscom Alex Milan Tracy/Sipa USA/Newscom Blaine Harrington/agefotostock/Newscom Nancy Kaszerman/ZUMA Press/Newscom GKUA.COM/MEGA / Newscom Jim West/ZUMA Press/Newscom Keiko Hiromi/Polaris/Newscom Douglas Graham/Newscom
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Demonstrating a fundamental misunderstanding of how black markets work, a Wall Street Journal editorial blames marijuana legalization for vaping-related lung injuries involving illicit cannabis extracts. “A surge in vaping related lung illnesses this year caught the medical community by surprise, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reporting more than 2,500 lung illnesses and 54 deaths,” the Journal says. “This is another reminder that America is undertaking a risky social experiment by legalizing and especially destigmatizing cannabis, and the potential effects are hard to foresee or control.”
Since those lung illnesses overwhelmingly involve black-market marijuana products, the lesson from the outbreak is exactly the opposite of the one the Journal draws. The CDC’s map of cases shows they are concentrated in states where marijuana remains illegal for recreational use, including Florida, Illinois (where legal recreational sales do not begin until next week), Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Utah. The one major exception is California, where illegal dealers still account for nearly three-quarters of the market, thanks to heavy taxes, licensing delays, onerous regulations, and local bans.
The CDC itself highlights the dangers of THC vapes obtained from “informal sources like friends, family, or in-person or online dealers.” In a CDC survey reported last month, 96 percent of patients who developed respiratory symptoms after vaping THC said they had obtained the products “informally.” While two people in Oregon died after vaping THC cartridges they said they had bought from state-licensed shops, those are exceptions to the general pattern. The main problem is a black market in which consumers do not know the provenance and composition of the products they are buying.
In a legal market, it is much easier to guard against potential hazards. Legal manufacturers tell consumers the ingredients in their vapes, and they are liable for fraud if they lie. Marijuana regulators in Colorado,Oregon, and Washington have banned the use of vitamin E acetate, a cutting and thickening agent strongly implicated in the lung injuries, and state-licensed laboratories in places where marijuana is legal can test products for that ingredient and other potentially harmful additives or contaminants. Vitamin E acetate, which the CDC has found in nearly all of the lung fluid samples from patients it has tested, is a relatively new additive that started showing up in illegal THC cartridges this year, which coincides with the recent outbreak.
The Journal‘s reasoning, in short, is completely backward. By the same logic, the hazards of black-market booze, such as government-mandated poison in diverted industrial ethanol, would have counted as an argument against repealing alcohol prohibition.
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Every week seems brings a new story about how vaping is really, really, really bad for you.
Only a few years ago, electronic cigarettes were being hailed as a new and healthier way for people to consume nicotine and pot. The number of vapers worldwide has grown sevenfold since 2011, to an estimated 41 million users. But now, vaping is being attacked as a dangerous trend that’s luring teenagers into a deadly habit that might be as bad for you as conventnional smoking. Reports of vaping-related deaths and respiratory illnesses appear daily on cable news shows, in newspapers, and online. The FDA is considering a ban on flavored e-cigarettes, and many states have already instituted strict regulations on vaping sales and use. Congress has voted to change the age for legal tobacco and e-cigarette sales to 21, up from 18.
Is vaping bad for you? Should we be panicking? What sorts of policies should govern the use of e-cigarettes? To answer these and other questions, Nick Gillespie sat down with Reason‘s Jacob Sullum, who has written extensively—and authoritatively—about the issue for years.
Hollandse-Hoogte/ZUMA Press/Newscom RICHARD B. LEVINE/Newscom Nicolas Maeterlinck/ZUMA Press/Newscom Douglas Graham/Newscom Alex Milan Tracy/Sipa USA/Newscom Blaine Harrington/agefotostock/Newscom Nancy Kaszerman/ZUMA Press/Newscom GKUA.COM/MEGA / Newscom Jim West/ZUMA Press/Newscom Keiko Hiromi/Polaris/Newscom Douglas Graham/Newscom
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