Inflation and money illusion

If you are of a certain age already, though, you should be grandfathered in. :wink:

Pete

We are talking about the “starve the beast” wet dream being realized, a sudden collapse that requires the immediate closure of the Trillion Dollar deficit. Grandfathering anyone would not realize the immediate, huge, cut needed.

Steve

A 10% wealth (not income) tax on anyone with $10-million or more in assets (any kind) would pay that off very quickly.

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This movie and that character have ruined William H. Macy in my eyes. I can’t watch him in other roles without hoping he dies a painful death. He is a great actor.

JimA

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I just saw an article about the “Armpit of New England”, Worcester MA where I attended college. The cheapest apartment available requires an $85,000/yr income to qualify for renting it.

intercst

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“Inhibit government growth” I don’t care who you are, that is some funny stuff!

How much spending was cut to finance the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act? Oh, that’s right nothing. Inhibit government growth. You guys crack me up.

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Try a scenario that would have been unimaginable ten years ago:

There is another coup attempt. For a couple weeks, no-one is really sure who is in charge. Our trading partners start wondering about the security of the US Treasuries they hold, and start selling at fire sale prices, for anything BUT Dollars. The trading partners refuse to accept US dollars for their goods, because they don’t trust the government to make them good. Imagine a USAF squadron in Europe having it’s fuel supply cut off, because the local oil company wants to be paid in Euros, or Yen, or Yuan, NOT Dollars. Then the US has to buy Euros or Yen on the open market to finance the imports it needs. How does the US pay for those Euros or Yen? Sell off the gold supply? With that much gold hitting global markets, the price of gold would plunge. Sell off land and resources?

Steve

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That sounds like the story of Bausch & Lomb and Ray Ban sunglasses. I remember reading a story about how a WPI engineering grad was someone able to fake an MBA on his resume and become CEO of the company. The company Board deemed him too valuable to fire, once the fraud was uncovered. {{ LOL }}

free link:

intercst

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I love “nitrogen in tires”, marketing doesn’t get any better than that.

intercst

Taxes on capital gains, corporations and the wealthy will be going up substantially.

The US is rising. As WEB says never bet against the US.

But METaR would not be itself without the chicken littles.

Must add the American public overwhelmingly wants the tax hikes. Our generation won’t relate.

He wasn’t the only one. Wonder if this guy was given a “golden parachute”?

In January 2005, shortly after RadioShack announced that Edmondson would be taking over as CEO, he was arrested in Southlake, Texas, for driving while intoxicated, his third such charge. Edmondson pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 days in jail. The incident prompted the Fort Worth Star-Telegram to begin looking more closely at his past.

Edmondson resigned in February 2006, after the Star-Telegram disclosed that he had falsified his résumé and biography, claiming two non-existent college degrees

While a Texan having an armload of DWI convictions on his record may not be out of the ordinary, the fake degrees Edmonson claimed were supposedly degrees in theology and psychology from Heartland Baptist Bible College. (RS had an affinity for Bible bangers, sponsoring scholarships at Texas Christian University)

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Sounds awfully similar. :innocent:

But he didn’t fake an MBA on his resume, he just didn’t proofread his resume carefully. :joy:

Fortunately, I (and my shares) were long gone by this episode.

Oh, so many stories, so little time.

I use nitrogen in my tires. Didn’t do any scientific testing, but I didn’t have to “air” them up all winter (it was a really warm winter). But I just use the nitrogen filling tank at Costco, it’s free.

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I was about to post the same thing. You don’t have to be a Costco member either. Just go there and fill your tires with nitrogen for free. Which I can’t do at the local gas station. Even if the nitrogen benefit is tiny, it is still cheaper to go to Costco. And they have cheap gas and a $1.50 hot dog.

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Would that be a one-time thing? Or an annual tax until their wealth is reduced to less than 10 million (or whatever limit we choose)?

Interesting happened similarly to an MIT department head with an international reputation. She kept claiming degrees. She had none. She got promotions with each degree till she was incharge of her department.

She wrote a speech and gave it to a fact checker. The young fact checker called my sister, the HR in the office. There were no degrees.

She was fired immediately.

Sales in corporate America are a moralistic joke.

What? Why pay it off? That is why the country is wealthy and powerful. Why would you want to pay off the debt?

Have you been misled?

Just curious Steve. Are you able bodied? Would your plan require you to go back to work?

And I know this wasn’t your idea, but why tax $10 million and above? How about $5 million? Or $1 million?

This all reminds me of an old saying I once heard.
“I was all in favor of taxing the rich…until they told me I was rich”

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I’d set it a $1 million (and yes, I’d be paying the tax on a large majority of my net worth.)

It makes no economic sense that the top 10% wealthiest Americans are paying much lower taxes (when you include all the income categories that get excluded) than people who have the misfortune of needing to work for a living earning wage and salary income.

The worst of it is the stepped up cost basis on death for Estates. That’s a tax gift with no socially redeeming value.

intercst

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I’m pretty confident that, at 70 years old, I could do the job I was doing at retirement, 58, just as well as I did then, as it was mostly sitting at a computer. Not so sure that I could do the job I was doing in the early 90s, picking and packing delivery orders, as that involved a lot of heavy lifting: 10 ream cases of paper, particle board RTA office furniture, and such. I walk two miles per day, weekdays for the exercise, and I can stand and walk around at a car show for 3-4 hours at a stretch, so could probably do most retail jobs.

So, yes, I would be forced back to work, vs paying thousands per month for private health insurance.

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