10/05/2021
Today Aaron Brown, RCM "To tax the rich, you don't need guns, or money, or even numbers. You just need the will to do what the other guy wouldn't." Keyser Soze, The Usual Suspects (paraphrased) I'd like to supply a tax commentary striking a happy medium between ten letters written in red on a dress and thick tombs of wonk analysis. It is possible to tax the rich, at least according to some definitions, but it requires policies that no mainstream politicians are willing to consider; and that wouldn't satisfy the emotional underpinnings of the slogan. The discussion can also make some sense out of the bewildering... |
Nick Hanauer, The New Republic Democrats: If you screw this up, lose my phone number, because I'm done with you. |
John Tamny, RCM There are surely more ridiculous narratives (about money in particular), but the one from President Biden about his $3.5 trillion economic plan being "paid for" is right up there. Nothing is "paid for" when it comes to government spending. It's all cost. To see why, please ask yourself why Congress can spend trillions every year, but the political class in Honduras consumes $5 billion or so. The answer to this riddle isn't challenging, but economists and politicians are plainly in the dark. |
Christopher Smart, The Hill If Congress starts to regularly ignore warnings in the future when the ceiling hits, markets will not always be so benign. |
Peter Coy, New York Times She has repeatedly voted against the agency's deregulatory agenda. |
Joseph Calhoun, AP How often do you check your brokerage account? There is a famous economics paper from 1997, written by some of the giants in behavioral finance (Thaler, Kahnemann, Tversky & Schwartz), that tested what is known as myopic loss aversion. What they found was that investors who check their performance less frequently are more |
Gerald Posner, Forbes The reform-minded Francis hopes the upcoming trial of one of his top Cardinals will show he's serious about cleaning up the Vatican's finances. New information indicates that the troubles may boomerang back onto the pontiff himself. |
Rainer Zitelmann, Washington Examiner According to Greek mythology, Pandora's box contained all the evils known to mankind. When Pandora opened the box, she released them into the world. |
Dion Rabouin, Vox The latest investing trend is fractionalization, but it's not for everyone. |
Michael Bernick, POLITICO People with autism often need intensive, one-on-one assistance to find and keep jobs. Here's how the government can help. |
Arpit Gupta, City Journal With more remote workers opting for suburban life, city policymakers take steps to retain residents. |
Mark Anthony, RealClearMarkets It's not often that a newcomer to the smartphone industry hits a homerun on their first at-bat, but the Freedom Phone has done just that. The brainchild of Erik Finman, most commonly known as the world's youngest Bitcoin millionaire, the Freedom Phone is a new take on privacy, free speech, and decentralization. Built like they had a bone to pick with Silicon Valley from the start, the Freedom Phone has leveraged an antagonistic attitude that was echoed by thousands of Americans. |
Jeffrey Kleintop, Charles Schwab Japanese stocks have rebounded to 30-year highs and became the world's best performers in September and the third quarter. |
Market Minder, Fisher Investments Manufacturing PMI contractions aren't unusual in China. |
James Picerno, Capital Spectator Global markets suffered their broadest retreat in a year during September. The bullish exception: commodities, which delivered a solid gain last month. Cash, as usual these days, was flat. Otherwise, red ink dominated performances for the major asset classes last month. |
Brad McMillan, Commonwealth A perfect storm of concerns hit the markets in September, but Commonwealth CIO Brad McMillan says the outlook for Q4 2021 remains positive. |
Hayden Adams, Charles Schwab Tax-loss harvesting—offsetting capital gains with capital losses—can lower your tax bill and better position your portfolio going forward. |
Christine Benz, MStar Even savers whose assets exceed their healthcare outlays have some escape hatches. |
Jessica Anderson, The Hill If Democrats prevail here, this would be the final nail in the coffin for all that Donald Trump was able to accomplish. The success from Trump's tax cuts, pro-life policies, and overall America First agenda will all be erased. |
Jane Coaston, New York Times Coastal elites may have power. But so do the wealthy — all over America. |
Bruce Thompson, Washington Examiner A new congressional report shows that the tax increase bill approved by the House Ways and Means Committee would increase taxes on millions of taxpayers making less than $400,000. That would violate a pledge President Joe Biden has made repeatedly. |
Dan Mitchell, International Liberty There are lots of reasons (here are five of them) to dislike the version of the Biden tax hike that was approved by the tax-writing committee in the House of Representatives. From an economic persp… |
Robert Anthony Peters, AIER "The Chinese government seems much more interested in punishing the Hong Kongese for their truculence, rather than including them as full citizens. So every year China celebrates National Day. And every year we mourn the loss of a free Hong Kong." ~ Robert Anthony Peters |
Shirin Ghaffary, Vox Internal evidence shared by former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen shows Facebook has known — but ignored — the harm it causes. |
Martin Kulldorff, Brownstone Among many surprising developments during this pandemic, the most stunning has been the questioning of naturally acquired immunity after a person has had the Covid disease. |
Maurie Backman, Motley Fool If you're approaching retirement with a mortgage hanging over your head, know that you're certainly not alone. Here's what to do. |
Kenneth Rogoff, Project Syndicate The Chinese government may yet succeed in insulating the broader market from the financial crisis at real estate giant Evergrande. But the larger challenge is to rebalance an economy that has depended for far too long on the bloated housing market for jobs and growth. |
Eric Boehm, Reason Among Americans who aren't liberal pundits, the debt and deficit rank as major concerns. It's about time Congress noticed. |
Debra Kamin, New York Times Three-dimensional printing can create nearly any object. A partnership in Mexico is putting that theory to the test, building a village for residents living in poverty. |
Paul Ford, Wired The free market has plenty of grandiose ideas about how to fix our broken planet. There's just one problem: We can't afford another bust. |
Fisher Investments Editorial Staff, Fisher Investments |
Fisher Investments Editorial Staff, Fisher Investments |
Fisher Investments Editorial Staff, Fisher Investments |
Fisher Investments Editorial Staff, Fisher Investments |
Caleb Ecarma, Vanity Fair Leaked financial records reveal how the rich and powerful are sheltering their wealth in the Mount Rushmore State. "My concern," says one former state senator, is that "we become like Switzerland or Panama." |
Dave Sekera, Morningstar Best opportunities remain in value and small caps. |
Christian Britschgi, Reason Pandemic bans on evictions were supposed to be a temporary measure, but politicians keep extending them. |
Shirin Ghaffary, Vox Internal evidence shared by former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen shows Facebook has known — but ignored — the harm it causes. |
Mike Zaccardi, Humble Dollar CAST YOUR MIND BACK 10 years—to Oct. 3, 2011. There was a fire-sale on Wall Street. Two months earlier, brinksmanship on Capitol Hill had culminated in Standard & Poor's first-ever downgrade of the U.S. government. Meanwhile, Greece was on the verge of collapse, prompting the European Central Bank to take extreme measures to combat the region's debt debacle. It was a scary time. But—as is so often the case—the dire stories on financial television marked the beginning of a great period for long-term investors. |
Claire Lehmann, Quillette Facebook has recently paused the development of their "Instagram Kids" project after a whistleblower leaked internal documents showing that Facebook's own research finds a link between poor mental health and Instagram use. "We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls," said a slide in a presentation. |
Raghuram G. Rajan, Project Syndicate Like the earlier campaign against corruption, Chinese President Xi Jinping's effort to control China's private sector is agreeable in its stated intentions, but questionable in its implementation. Quite possibly, the campaign for "common prosperity" will undermine the economic sectors that China needs to reorient its growth model. |
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