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washparkhorn

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Everything posted by washparkhorn

  1. Energy storage is a fundamental problem - but their are promising solutions. Simple overview of the issue. Pumped storage overview at 2:11:
  2. The President is abroad. The Vatican now. Glasgow is the centerpiece. Biden can say the US is doing better, maybe. But we certainly do not lead. G-20 will determine posture on China by potential allies. Euro wants to expand engagement with China. The Administration needs to reinforce the need for economic unity given conditions in the Pacific.
  3. The plan included a slow phase-in for the 700 billionaires. Don't you fret. From what I have read in simple terms - if one of the 700 used the asset as collateral for a loan, then the asset has been converted into income. With the armies working for the 700, they can handle it (and they know what the assets are worth in present dollars). Closing the buy-borrow-die loophole for 700 billionaires is warranted. That should be separate legislation; as evidenced by this thread, we live in a land of confusion when it comes to the ultra-wealthy (the 700 billionaires) and tax policy. The ultra-wealthy are not the enemy (well, some are (see panama papers) and some are idiots). But they all need guardrails for us to have a working representative democracy. It's not just tax policy at issue here. They need to be part of the solution. The "billionaires, please pay some taxes" proposal is dead. They have armies working for them who are quite good at what they do. Same as it ever was.
  4. The 700 billionaires subject to the plan killed it in Congress. The proposal was aimed at how the ultra wealthy (700 billionaires) borrow against their wealth without adverse tax consequences. WSJ story on the issue: Rising stocks and rock-bottom interest rates have delivered a big perk to rich Americans: cheap loans that they can use to fund their lifestyles while minimizing their tax bills. Banks say their wealthy clients are borrowing more than ever before, often using loans backed by their portfolios of stocks and bonds. Morgan Stanley wealth-management clients have $68.1 billion worth of securities-based and other nonmortgage loans outstanding, more than double five years earlier. Bank of America Corp. said it has $62.4 billion in securities-based loans, dwarfing its book of home-equity lines of credit. The loans have special benefits beyond the flexible repayment terms and low interest rates on offer. They allow borrowers who need cash to avoid selling in a hot market. Startup founders can monetize their stakes without losing control of their companies. The very rich often use these loans as part of a “buy, borrow, die” strategy to avoid capital-gains taxes. Many wealthy people are also borrowing against their portfolios. When Tom Anderson started at Merrill Lynch & Co. in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 2002, many of his fellow advisers had just one or two securities-based loans in their book of business. Over the years, he encouraged more clients to borrow and noticed peers doing the same. Now it is common for advisers at big firms to have dozens of these loans outstanding, he said. Merrill Lynch is now a part of Bank of America. “You could buy a boat, you could go to Disney World, you could buy a company,” said Mr. Anderson, who now consults with banks on how to manage the risks associated with these loans. “The tax benefits are stunning.” For borrowers, the calculation is clear: If an asset appreciates faster than the interest rate on the loan, they come out ahead. And under current law, investors and their heirs don’t pay income taxes unless their shares are sold. The assets may be subject to estate taxes, but heirs pay capital-gains taxes only when they sell and only on gains since the prior owner’s death. The more they can borrow, the longer they can hold appreciating assets. And the longer they hold, the bigger the tax savings. “Ordinary people don’t think about debt the way billionaires think about debt,” said Edward McCaffery, a University of Southern California law professor who says he coined the buy-borrow-die phrase. “Once you’re already rich, it’s simple, it’s easy. It’s just buy, borrow, die. These are planks of the law that have been in place for 100 years.” https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2021/07/buy-borrow-die-how-rich-americans-live-off-their-paper-wealth.html Again - this is all moot. The 700 billionaires killed the legislation through the Congress Critters they own.
  5. I think Biden will end up backing the 15% minimum corporate tax. It dovetails nicely with his trip to Europe (where the global minimum corporate tax is part of the agenda). What other options are left?
  6. The billionaires killed the Billionaire Tax swiftly. Shocking.
  7. Snap GDP numbers from the Atlanta Fed look like shit: Nasty set-up for a financial sector addicted to $120 billion a month welfare payment from the Fed and negative interest rates.
  8. Sneaking in this before the chart jihadists have their way . . . Deflationary headwind as seen in GDP forecast product from the Atlanta Fed. Awful trend (GDP at less than 1), but hopefully this is transitory data skewing the model.
  9. Cathie Wood (intelligent crypto-bull) understands the deflationary headwinds in the economy: In 2008-09, when the Fed started quantitative easing, I thought that inflation would take off," Wood tweeted in response on Monday. "I was wrong. Instead, velocity - the rate at which money turns over per year - declined, taking away its inflationary sting. Velocity still is falling." In a lengthy Twitter thread, she argues that the price increases impacting consumers should wind down after the holiday season due to three sources of deflation. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/cathie-wood-elon-musk-weigh-in-on-jack-dorsey-hyperinflation-tweet/ar-AAPZ5i6
  10. Yes we do. And it sits doing nothing - testing the credibility of the public investment multiplier effect. Easy fix - inject the free money at the human level, not the ultra-wealthy/corporation private spigot of free cash. Humans spending reestablishes the fiscal multiplier effect. It will all trickle up anyway. It always does. Money supply chain broken. See below.
  11. When you own the political class . . . why not?
  12. Promising pardons? From Trump? That's treason. For the ringleaders, the Constitution spells out the due process they are afforded.
  13. So much narcissism for a human with baby chicken calves. Very naughty to skip leg day, MJT.
  14. Underrated villainy. On the non-political side, I see:
  15. All this new math . . . I was taught - Some Old Hags Can’t Always Hide Their Old Age.
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