My morning reads:
• Revolt of the Rich (The American Conservative)
• Tough Crowd: Notes from the John Paulson Call (The Reformed Broker) see also Paulson Assures Bank of America, Clients in Call (WSJ)
• Low volume? Forgetaboutit! (MarketWatch)
• Hard-Hit Cities Show a Housing Rebound (NYT) see also Connecticut Homes Biggest Losers as Wall Street Cuts (Bloomberg)
• The unintended consequences of QE (not what you think) (FT Alphaville)
• Mass. AG Martha Coakley Fires Shot Across Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s Bow Over New Foreclosure Law (Massachusetts Real Estate Law Blog) see also SEC filing in ResCap case indicates broad sweep in MBS probes (Reuters)
• U.S. monetary policy since the financial crisis (Econbrowsers)
• Donors Invest Millions in Romney for Billions in Returns (Bloomberg) see also Unleashing the Campaign Contributions of Corporations (NYT)
• 5 secrets of investor happiness (Market Watch)
• New Device Can Measure the Mass of a Single Molecule (Smithsonian Mag)
What are you reading?
For Romney, Florida Win Is Key
Source: WSJ
Category: Financial Press
Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor implied. If you could repeat previously discredited memes or steer the conversation into irrelevant, off topic discussions, it would be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.
I found it a chuckle that on the day after you post this article in the LA Times…
When firms pay CEOs more than Uncle Sam, the tax system is broken
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus-20120828,0,6977864,full.column
…this THING comes out of the Wall Street Journal…
US Firms Move Abroad (because of taxes, of course)
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-firms-move-abroad-024200566.html
…sparking in the Yahoo comments section a wave of rants from ne’er-do-wells bitching about corporate taxes and big gubmint.
If democracy should ever fail in this country, the common people have no one to blame but themselves.
I thought this was brilliant.
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/08/neoliberalism-rise-of-machine-and.html
This assertion of natural market efficiency sounds good, especially when it is delivered by academics in nice suits with lots of degrees and titles, backed by a multimillion dollar PR campaign that contains well crafted, thinly disguised appeals to more visceral emotions.
Thanks for the American Conservative link; I am sharing it with my Libertarian friends. I’m thinking the Mises drones will call it heresy.
I have to second “spooz’s” comment. Revolt of the Rich should be required reading. It presents a simple, clear thesis and the truth about the 1% that should concern people on both sides of the political spectrum.
Just an aside here about carried interest for hedge fund managers who don’t want to pay any taxes…beyond carried interest it is really never necessary to cash out your profits, just take out a low interest loan against your assets ( a la Larry Ellison). Then if we can just get the “death tax” repealed your money can go to your heirs intact.
And what do they need all those billions for? In the movie Chinatown Mr Giddes (Jack Nicholson) asks Noah Cross (John Huston), “What do you really need all that money for? What can you possibly buy that you don’t already own?”
“Why, the future, Mr. Giddes, the future.”
‘In 1950, payroll and other federal retirement contributions constituted 10.9 percent of all federal revenues. By 2007, the last “normal” economic year before federal revenues began falling, they made up 33.9 percent.’
Like most ‘entitlements,’ Soc Sec and Medicare featured front-loaded bennies and back-loaded costs.
Too bad ERISA and Sarbox don’t apply to political programs and their cockamamie accounting.
Machinehead, SS and Medicare are pay as you go programs. As the baby boomers reach retirement age, it is entirely natural that payments and revenues should rise. I don’t care if they are 10% or 90% of revenues, it’s a separate tax and a separate expenditure.
> 5 secrets of investor happiness
These are also good life lessons, applied on a broader scale . . .
The election is an IQ test for Florida, with Ryan on the ticket, with plans to gut Social Security and Medicare, we’ll see if the Florida Republican commits economic suicide.
Beliefs Drive Investors More Than Preferences
ScienceDaily (Aug. 28, 2012) — If experts thought they knew anything about individual investors, it was this: their emotions lead them to sell winning stocks too soon and hold on to losers too long.
But new research casts doubt on this widely held theory that individual investors’ decisions are driven mainly by their feelings toward losses and gains. In an innovative study, researchers found evidence that individual investors’ decisions are primarily motivated by their beliefs about a stock’s future.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120828163011.htm
What does it feel like to be a self-made millionaire under the age of 25?
http://www.quora.com/Wealthy-People-and-Families/What-does-it-feel-like-to-be-a-self-made-millionaire-under-the-age-of-25
Currently reading through Taibbi on Romney & Bain
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/greed-and-debt-the-true-story-of-mitt-romney-and-bain-capital-20120829
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Thought this was good for a laugh. After my jaw started working again:
“Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s campaign on Wednesday partied with wealthy donors on a 150-foot yacht that flies the flag of the Cayman Islands, according to an ABC News report.
Members of the Romney Victory Council, who have each raised more than $1 million for the candidate, mingled with Romney’s brother, Scott, and other relatives in Tampa aboard the luxury yacht “Cracker Bay.””
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/29/romney-party-yacht-cracker-bay-flies-cayman-islands-flag-in-tampa/
a couple of the comments:
- “Cracker Bay ” you’ve got to be kidding , why don’t they just fly the confederate flag or the jolly roger .
- Exactly what I was thinking. Why not just buy Anne a new horse and call it “White Privilege” to go with the yacht.
A Troubling Chant on the Convention Floor
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2012/08/hbc-90008805
Two RNC delegates ejected following ‘incident’ involving Black CNN camera operator
http://thegrio.com/2012/08/29/rnc-black-cnn-camera-operator-allegedly-pelted-with-peanuts-told-this-is-how-we-feed-animals/
It’s great to see you, GOP. Great when America gets to see the People Nixon targeted with his Southern Strategy which Reagan continued from his deplorable Neshoba County Fair Speech to his made up “Linda Taylor” lies. Then with Bush’s and the current GOP’s voter suppression, etc…
These people need a generation in the political wilderness. Someone defend these assholes, please.
Sorry to those who are democratic leaning, but just a 3-4% swing in vote from Obama to Romney this year in the 2008 swing states, and Mitt is your next President. Obama is like Carter, decent fellows both, but not big enough for the lowsy economic times they inherited. This is by no means any endorsement that Mitt is big enough for those shoes. Every 40 years or so a Great American President shows up, but our history is filled with long runs of mediocrity. We are in such a period. We will know we have such a Presdient when that person takes on the “crimes” of Wall Street like a Teddy Roosevelt or Andrew Jackson did. Obama has not; and who really expects Mitt to do so?
See: http://pilogic.net/2012/02/05/just-a-3-4-vote-change-in-swing-states-and-obama-loses-in-2012/
~~~
BR: Do you know what it takes to move 1/2 of 1%? Your statement is just as silly a saying “Just a 3-4% swing in vote turns a narrow Obama victory into a Obama landslide.”
Fun with dumb counter-factuals!