Rick Kelo speaks on the value of Imports

Rick Kelo

Very often politicians demonize imports.  President Trump campaigned successfully on claiming he would retaliate against the Chinese for sending "cheap" imports into America.

Not so fast says Rick Kelo.  As a former economist, financial analyst and a veteran Chicago tax recruiter, Rick Kelo has looked at the economy through a number of lenses and thinks he sees something different about imports that most over-look.

"Between 55% - 60% of our imports are things used to produce a finished good in America.  The impression when people hear "imports" is that we're talking about a bunch of cheap Chinese t-shirts, nothing could be further from the truth," Richard Kelo points out.

If we obstruct imports, say by putting a tariff on Chinese imports at the port, then we raise the cost of things American manufacturers produce.  That tariff raises the common, working-class, blue-collar American's bill at the cash register.  It does not hurt the Chinese, it hurts us.

Famous economist and Nobel Laurette Milton Friedman agreed with Rick Kelo when once famously pointed out to a room full of politicians that, "Exports are the cost of trade, imports are the gain from trade.  Whatever you export you lose the ability to use.  It is what you import that you gain."

Rick Kelo shares "Does Capitalism Exploit Workers?"

Rick Kelo points out that when people enter into a peaceful, voluntary exchange where both parties have the right to say no to the trade, then exploitation is impossible. 

The very word exploitation was created in the 1830s by a French Socialist named Saint Simon, Rick Kelo mentions.  Prior to Simon's writings that word did not exist.  However, the very definition of the word exploitation excludes voluntary transactions:

The Oxford Dictionary defines it as:

"The action or fact of treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work."

There can be no unfair treatment in a voluntary trade since if either party felt the trade was unfair they merely wouldn't enter into it.

Rick Kelo asks "Has Our Economy Gone Off the Rails?"

America was founded on the Classic Liberal principles of a limited federal government, with most decisions reserve to the states, and a list of clearly defined rights that could not be infringed.  Has the growth of the State as a proportion of America's economy taken us off track from the structure under which America enjoyed most of the growth our quality of life now rests upon?

These are important questions to consider as election season begins.  Rick Kelo has a few thoughts on this topic.  Rick Kelo is a small business owner, and a former economist and financial analyst.  Educated at West Point in his undergraduate studies, then later in Chicago, Rick Kelo's range of formal education in engineering, finance, and economics coupled with working experience in corporate finance, then later as a Chicago tax recruiter, gives him a unique perspective on these issues.

We should consider every election cycle if our government has gone "off the rails" from its original intent.  We now have a political class that rules under the guise of capitalism, but is increasingly fascist: it rules to the benefit of itself and its big business backers at the expense of most Americans (in their capacity as tax payers).  When a big business backer takes a loss, a normal part of the profit & loss system of capitalism, then the political class bails them out or declares that business "Too Big To Fail."

Meanwhile, remember to consider the plight of small businessmen like Rick Kelo, the President of TaxScout, Inc.  Small businesses, and most vulnerable of all - startups, now have an outside chance of making it big as that has become increasingly harder under the huge regime of government regulations in place.  Regulations exist to prop up the profits of existing big businesses at the expense of the entrepreneurs.  For example, it is obvious that under the Affordable Care Act no clever entrepreneur could ever navigate the regulatory hurdles necessary to enter the health insurance field.  Only the existing mega-insurers with departments of lawyers already on staff can figure out how to navigate it.

Richard Kelo

Rick Kelo Considers Economic Mobility

Rick Kelo is concerened that most Americans are unaware, due to the problem-inventing / fear-mongering from politicians who need something to promise to fix in order to get votes, that economic mobility in our country is very high.

Rick Kelo

Someone born into the lower class, which in economics refers to the bottom quintile of income distribution, is more likely to reach a higher income quintile than they are to remain in the lower class they were born into, notes Richard Kelo.

Rick Kelo also noted that many of the persistent & gripping effects of inter-generational poverty stem from interventions against the market.  The governmental welfare apparatus has become literally a machine for producing poor people & keeping them poor due to the fact it is loaded what public choice economists call 'perverse incentives.'  The government monopoly on schools is just as bad.  Ask yourself this: when you go into a poor neighborhood you will see many fancy cars.  You will not see any fancy schools.

The difference?

Cars are provided by markets, schools by government.

Rick Kelo - A Thought on Monopolies

Rick Kelo

What most people picture when thinking of a monopoly is a big company.  But sheer bigness alone isn't enough for a company to be a monopoly.  In order to function as a monopoly a company has to be able to withhold supply from the market in order to drive the price up.  When they can accrue a higher profit than the firm would be able to earn in the market that extra is what's known as a "monopoly profit."

In studying the history of anti-trusts Rick Kelo noticed that the majority of the monopolies in the 20th century existed in socialist countries.  Every case of actual monopoly only existed when the government granted either:

1. Special protection from domestic competition.  For example PDSVA in Venezuela has no domestic competition because the State seizes any domestic oil and gifts it to PDSVA.
2. Tariffs or import restrictions that grant protection from being under-cut by foreign competition.  Standard Oil, in America, was able to grow large because a very high tariff on kerosene protected them from foreign competition.

When we research monopolies, as Rick Kelo did, an odd pattern emerges.  We discover that very few so-called monopolies in America in the 20th century were actually monopolies.  They were accused of being monopoly based on sheer bigness alone, but even Standard Oil never withheld supply in order to raise prices.  Kerosene prices went from over 30 cents a gallon in 1869 (when Standard Oil began to grow) to a mere 8 cents a gallon by the 1880s.

Rick Kelo- Understanding Tax Rates on a Deeper Level

Rick Kelo is an Authoritative Economic Voice, Who Helps Others Understand How Ideas Have Shaped Our Modern World

Nothing quite sparks heated debate in the US as does the subject of taxes and what we should and shouldn't be paying. On the one hand, many see taxes as an important part of civilized society- providing the government with the money to spend on things we can all benefit on- schools, roads, hospitals and other aspects of infrastructure. For others, taxes are the government greedily deciding how our hard earned money should be spent, and taking the power into their own hands. In many ways it also explains the partisan political divide in the US, as many of these ideas fall on either side of the Republican/Democrat fault line.

Rick Kelo is a head tax adviser, and also prolific economic thinker. He is a member of the academic question and answers forum Quora.com, where he helps answer users questions about economics and explain them in context of the real world. A recent question posed was as to Why the US has the Highest Rate of Business Taxes in the World. IN a short and informative response, Rick Kelo answered as follows.

''Firstly there are Marginal Tax Rates, or the maximum amount on paper that a corporation may pay before deductions. Secondly comes the Effective Tax Rate (called ETR in taxation). This is the amount that a firm actually does pay after deductions. The other point I’d clarify is you say “Businesses.” Really in an American context we’re talking about C Corps, and in the context of the answer I am about to give you it is publicly traded C Corps. It is impossible to verify or truly know the tax rate of private companies. America's Effective Tax Rate, that our large corporations actually pay, is the second highest in the world. Our multinationals (MNCs) pay an average ETR of 30%. Only Japan is higher at 37%.''

Rick Kelo has seen himself become an important member of the Quora community, where he has been able to use it as a platform to share his ideas on classic liberal economics, and the importance of keeping old ideologies such as socialism at bay. His educated mind is one of many which is most welcome on forums such as Quora, which are helping shape the way people think in the age of the internet.

Rick Kelo – The Right Way to Handle Finances as a Small Business

For small businesses, and large businesses for that matter, there are few things more important that correctly managing finances. When just starting out, the scale of a business’ financial structure is typically such that the average individual can handle the organization and filing on their own. As the business grows, however, it becomes increasingly important to bring in a professional. This is for two reasons. The first reason is the sheer volume of tasks that must be handle as they relate to a company’s finances. This is not something that one single person has the time to do on his or her own. Second, as a company grows and becomes more complicated, so too do the taxes and other financial matters for that company. The consequences of incorrectly filing your taxes or making a mistake in the record keeping for your company can result in fines or even jail time. That is why for any business that has its feet underneath it and is starting to develop serious revenue and a serious client base, it is important to find an expert who can help you manage your assets.

According to recruiter profile, Rick Kelo (inChicago, IL) that is exactly the type of service that TaxScout brings to their clients. TaxScout is the largest tax professional placement service in the country. They offer the best candidates and continue to work with clients after placement in order to manage retention of the professionals they have placed. What TaxScout and Executive Recruiters such as Rick Kelo specialize in is helping bring together tax experts looking for employment with businesses that need financial support. Rick Kelo and other professionals help with this by creating company candidate databases to comply with OFCCP, promoting diversity, developing client bases, advising on retention policies, and advising on fair market compensation for the experts that they place.

One of the company’s biggest accomplishments is their impressive 70% retention rate. This means that roughly 70% of the financial experts they place in companies stay with that company in the long run, more than double that of other firms. This is because TaxScout continues to work with clients after placing them with a suitable company in order to manage the retention of the professionals they have placed.

For more information about Rick Kelo, TaxScout, or the services that they can provide to you or your business, visit his professional website, LinkedIn, or any of the various blogging platforms that publish his articles.

Rick Kelo – Bubbles

As a tax expert with a degree in economics, Rick Kelo knows (and has written more than one article) about economic bubbles. A bubble, to put it one way, occurs when any asset is traded for a price that far exceeds that item’s intrinsic value. A bubble is far from a new phenomenon; as a matter of fact, the first bubbles occurred in the 17^th century, well before real-time information on any asset was available.

Bubbles, of course, lead to economic crashes, which lead either to recessions (bad enough), or outright depressions (far worse). The British South Sea Bubble, which occurred in the years 1711 to 1720, gave us the term we use so often today. Previous bubbles (including the Dutch tulip bubble, which caused widespread economic devastation) were known as “manias”.

Some economists are of the opinion that a bubble cannot be identified before it begins, and thus, that a bubble cannot be prevented from starting. They believe that any measures taken to prevent the formation of a bubble will create a crisis; therefore, it is best to let a bubble form and burst – which, also, will cause a crisis. Not only that, but the subsequent crash can cause long-term economic problems, as shown by the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the housing bubble of earlier this century.

When a bubble has formed, owners of the assets that are the subject of the bubble have the tendency to spend more. Given that their assets are seriously overvalued, these owners feel that they are richer. The housing bubble is one such example. Then, when the bubble bursts, spending is cut and economic growth slows considerably.

Economists have yet to agree on what causes bubbles in the first place. One theory puts forth the idea that they are driven by sociological factors. Another theory is that excessive monetary liquidity creates banks to lend money under unfavorable terms. This, in turn, creates markets that are vulnerable to inflated asset prices driven by speculation. To quote Axel A. Weber, formerly the president of Deutsche Bundesbank, “The past has shown that an overly generous provision of liquidity in global financial markets in connection with a very low level of interest rates promotes the formation of asset-price bubbles.”

In other words, when assets are highly appreciated, economic bubbles tend to occur. When the bubble bursts, as it must, assets fall in price and confidence sinks, which may lead to a financial crisis.