Thursday, October 27, 2011

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Economic plans compared

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/gop-plans-compared/

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gop-candidates-offer-a-diverse-set-of-economic-plans/2011/10/25/gIQAxsVyGM_story.html

7 Ways to Play Stocks Right Now

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/7-ways-play-stocks-now-151458607.html

Monday, October 24, 2011

Why Companies Can't Find the Employees They Need - WSJ.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204422404576596630897409182.html

Stocks reach highest level since August - latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fiw-markets-20111024,0,4878242.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fbusiness+%28L.A.+Times+-+Business%29

Netflix Lost 800,000 Members With Price Rise and Split Plan

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/technology/netflix-lost-800000-members-with-price-rise-and-split-plan.html

Netflix Customer Loss Worse Than Forecast

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-24/netflix-3q-subscriber-losses-worse-than-forecast.html

VP speaks in my home county

From: "Larry Trout" 

'Biden:'We think the federal government in Washington, D.C., should say to the cities and states, look, we're going to give you some money so that you can hire back all those people. And the way we're going to do it, we're going to ask people who have a lot of money to pay just a little bit more in taxes....
 

No problem, says the vice president. We're going to "ask" people who have "a lot of money" to "pay just a little bit more" in taxes.

Where are these people? Evidently, not in York, Pa. But they're out there somewhere. Who has "a lot of money"? According to President Obama, if your combined household income is over $250,000 a year you have "a lot of money." Back in March, my National Review colleague Kevin Williamson pointed out that, in order to balance the budget of the United States, you would have to increase the taxes of people earning more than $250,000 a year by $500,000 a year.

Okay, okay, maybe that 250K definition of "bloated plutocrat" is a bit off. After all, the quarter-mil-a-year category includes not only bankers and other mustache-twirling robber barons, but also at least 50 school superintendents in the State of New York and many other mustache-twirling selfless public servants.

So how about people earning a million dollars a year? That's "a lot of money" by anybody's definition. As Kevin Williamson also pointed out, to balance the budget of the United States on the backs of millionaires you would have to increase the taxes of those earning more than 1 million a year by 6 million a year.'

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/280986/biden-s-fourth-grade-economics-mark-steyn

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Full Report: The Economic Elite Vs. The People of the United States of America

This makes a real interesting read. It is closely related to the economic protests happening right now.  It is worded with the same tone as The Communist Manifesto.  There are a few valid points...  I also have concerns about the Federal Reserve System, as did J.F. Kennedy. 

I think that the article plays very loose with the facts.   It blames the top 1% of income earners, who by the way make 24% of the national income and pay 40% of all federal income taxes.  The article claims that if we tax these people more, the other 99% of the population can triple their income and can get free houses and free medical care.   There is no way mathematically that this could be true, by a factor of 10 to 1, assuming you took most of the income of the top 1%.   These lies make the article seem like snake oil.   Many of its other claims seem exaggerated as well. 

The main problem with the logic is that there are indeed people who do extraordinarily well, but they are few and far in-between.  I have often heard that if you tax everyone who makes a million dollars per year at 100% of their income, you wouldn't make much of a dent in the federal budget deficit.  

Not all the top 1% are CEO's as the article implies.  Many are small business owners and farmers.  In terms of accumulated wealth, and not income, the majority are retirees or near retirees who spent a lifetime saving for their retirement. 

Individual income and standard of living have improved dramatically in my lifetime.  Obviously the long term economic trends have been very favorable for most Americans.   One bad recession does not justify demolishing the entire economic system.  

The article does not go into the real cause of the economic collapse, which was major government intervention in the housing credit market. 

"Redistribution of Wealth: Due to the rigging of our economic and political system, vast sums of wealth have been hoarded by the Economic Elite over the past 40 years. This money must be redistributed to the 99% of Americans who have been robbed and exploited. There will be much heated debate over how this money should be distributed, but we all need to agree that we must first hold the Economic Elite accountable and *our* wealth must be seized from them."




High-Upside Industrials To Buy On Dips

http://seekingalpha.com/article/298921-high-upside-industrials-to-buy-on-dips?source=yahoo