the new york times says it received an anonymous gift of three pages from donald trump <u+2019>s state tax returns from 1995, showing a loss of $916 million . the times speculates<u+2014>in its news pages, not its opinion pages<u+2014>that the resulting tax deduction <u+201c> could have allowed him to legally avoid paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years.<u+201d> naturally, the left is expressing outrage that the irs taxes business profits, not losses. click here to receive this daily opinion summary via email. but where is the progressive ire directed at the clintons, who in two presidential terms and eight years in the senate enjoyed various opportunities to tweak the tax code to their liking ? we should also mention that the clintons house much of their own wealth in the clinton foundation, where it can support their political ambitions tax-free. while there is no evidence mr. trump did anything illegal, a journal editorial notes , <u+201c>what is illegal in this story is that someone disclosed mr. trump<u+2019>s tax returns without his permission .<u+201d> as for mr. trump<u+2019>s trade policy , <u+201c>the republican is promising to force a renegotiation of nafta. but he doesn<u+2019>t seem to realize that mexico gave up more tariff protection than the u.s. did when the agreement was signed in 1993,<u+201d> writes our columnist mary anastasia o<u+2019>grady . more open markets have attracted more investment in the u.s. <u+201c>this investment dynamism helped generate 264,800 new u.s. jobs in motor-vehicle production and parts between january 2010 and june 2016, according to the bureau of labor statistics. that<u+2019>s a 40% increase in employment despite the increasing trend toward robotics in the industry. shut down nafta and these workers and future job seekers will pay .<u+201d> mr. trump lost a lot of money building casinos, and former sen. phil gramm warns in our pages today that insurance companies could lose a lot of money building roads and bridges . in <u+201c>the subprime superhighway,<u+201d> mr. gramm notes that financial regulators in europe and the u.s. are creating incentives for insurers to invest in infrastructure projects promising little return . speaking of money-losing infrastructure projects, a journal editorial observes that california governor jerry brown last week <u+201c>vetoed a bill to establish modest financial guardrails for the state<u+2019>s high-speed rail authority.<u+201d> this followed a los angeles times report that after a bidder on the bullet-train project declared in its proposal that <u+201c>more than likely, the california high speed rail will require large government subsidies for years to come,<u+201d> the line was removed from the proposal posted on the state website. but there is some good news from the golden state<u+2014>and from gov. brown. last week he also signed a bill to require a criminal conviction before forfeiture proceeds can be sent to state law enforcement, notes a separate editorial . the new law <u+201c>closes a loophole that allowed police to seize property without adequate due process,<u+201d> writes the editorial board. post-traumatic stress disorder has resulted in a veteran <u+201c>suicide rate approximately twice that of the general population,<u+201d> writes former prosecutor and world war ii veteran robert morgenthau . despite efforts to increase hiring of mental health professionals at the department of veterans affairs, <u+201c> suicides by veterans have continued unabated , and the va has not been able to meet the needs of those it serves.<u+201d> is political correctness destroying fiction? <u+201c>to write in the voice, say, of a black woman if you are a white male writer, is rapidly becoming taboo<u+2014>a form of cultural appropriation, to use the proper jargon. but such theft is the job of fiction writers,<u+201d> writes the journal<u+2019>s bari weiss . reflecting on a recent bank scandal, former ibm ceo lou gerstner writes today on corporate culture. <u+201c>what is critical to understand here is that people do not do what you expect but what you inspect . culture is not a prime mover. rather it is a derivative. it forms as a result of signals employees get from the corporate processes that structure their work priorities,<u+201d> says mr. gerstner . <u+201c>compensation is one of the most important of these processes. if the reward system pays a premium for one kind of behavior, that<u+2019>s what will determine employee behavior<u+2014> regardless of the words enshrined in the value statement .<u+201d>
trump<u+2019>s taxes - wsj
james freeman