TRUMP AND THE "FAKE"MEDIA - THE REAL STORY (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHE 2/5/17)

If you really want to get confused, remember that CNBC really should not be in the business of giving investment advice to the public.  What an abomination.

There is no such thing as the free press and media.  There are however less than a dozen large companies that control practically all of the TV stations, radio stations, Internet access, newspapers, etc.

They are Disney, Viacom, Comcast, CBS, Fox and half a dozen others.

These are companies whose sole objective is to increase the value of their shares by attention getting words and pictures.

ALL OF THE PEOPLE WE SEE ON TV ARE ACTORS AND EMPLOYEES OF THESE LARGE CORPORATIONS.  THEY ALL WORK FOR A HIERARCHY OF MANAGERS AND MUST ADHERE TO THE CORPORATE POLICIES AS SET FORTH BY THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND THE CONTROLLING SHAREHOLDERS.

In addition, almost all the so-called media are reading from teleprompters words that are produced and written by people in the back room probably with an average age of less than 40.

A small group of executives control the media so when President Trump says fake media he is not too far off base.

I will close with one example. In the New York Times Sunday Magazine section dated February 26, 2017 there was an article about the increase in private school enrollment..  If you look at the statistics in the enrollment in private schools you will  find the left wing writer made up the story based on completely inaccurate facts. Private school enrollment is down.  A perfect example of completely fake news.

So when you are watching TV or reading the news,  it is not free speech it is entertainment.

If you really want to get confused, remember that CNBC really should not be in the business of giving investment advice to the public.  What an abomination.  

HIGH FREQUENCY TRADING...(ORIGINAL POSTING 8/6/11)

When the housing boom was taking place it developed huge vested interest in the continuation of the housing bubble. A voice in the dark could point out the absurdities of what was happening but the enjoyment of inflated prices and profits overwhelmed sanity, logic, discipline and history.

In my opinion, we are now being faced with a "time bomb" that will far exceed long term capital management, the insurance protection decline of the 1980s and the financial collapse of 2008. This huge "Black Swan", huge beyond comprehension, will hit when least expected and we will wonder why it wasn't dealt with before. The answer will be found underneath the rubble of certain greedy Wall Street types and vested political interests.

We cannot permit automated machine type trading, with no relationship to companies outlook, etc. to dominate the volume of trades in the stock market. There is no excuse, none whatsoever, for creating a machine driven gambling casino mentality in order to justify the existence of capitalism.

Here is what's going to happen. A computer driven decline will occur and the brakes will fail due to human error or whatever causing the equity wealth of the country to be sharply cut again. Because there will be something happening in the world at that time, recovery will not be as fast as it was in the late 2000's. All computerized trading, of the type we are referring to, should be made illegal and stopped before its too late.

The vested interest will tell you otherwise and make their case. Just like in the long term capital case they are mostly using other people's money and are more concerned with their chance of winning than losing. The monies not theirs anyhow and there is no concern for the system, only their own profits.

Look at the erratic swings in the stock market that have occurred in the last few weeks. We draw this as a small example, a very small example, of what is coming if we don't stop this type of computerized trading.

CAPITALISM WILL FAIL IF THIS IS HOW IT'S CONDUCTED.
P.S. Please remember that I am a very strong supporter of capitalism and many of the activities that our financial firms participate in. The probably isn't a better system than ours.

amazon microsoft

And the money kept rolling in.Until it didn"t. Evita.The contract dispute between Amazon and Microsoft may seem like an ordinary battle between 2 giants with powers far beyond the money kept rolling in.It   is almost impossible to believe that we could even joke about the concentration of power that bezos is aiming for; As our stock rises the money keeps rolling in but underneath beware, Why would this small piece of business be so important to risk it all. He sees that our cohesion is so befuddled that just maybe the real story is way over our pay grade/

peace but not at any cost

IF you punch someone right or wrong there are all kinds of risks.president Lincoln was told to forget slavery and stop the civil war;So many were dying.He kept going against huge out cries to forget the slaves .Of course there was the Peace in our time man, Chamberlain.  50 MILLION died, Didn't we learn from Pearl Harbor. The list of impossible choice is endless but sometimes they must be made.

drones unknown

drones over Colorado.don't know whose they are or what they are doing. But tv can say DRONES take out Iran general. What does this lackadasical security remind you of.

medical costs will keep on rising

In THE 1950s the democratic congress was going berserk about drug prices, Like it or not the new York times was up in arms in support of the the robbing OF drug profits The price of medical care has risen ever since. medical care  is bankrupting the country and cancer heart disease and everything else  are not cured/ the government has failed.and the people have followed along.  I AM 82 MOST MEDICAL dollars are spent on people my age or older.

THE FALACY OF BEING WELL KNOWN

nytimes headline  heart procedure costs 32000 //elsewhere well under ten.TOTALLY FAKE NEWS.LIST  EVERY COST ITEM. ASK WHAT ACCOUNTS FOR THE DIFFERENCE. LABOR COST Number OF WORKERS INVOLVED ETC. THE DIFFERENCE WOULD BE LABOR AND NUMBER OF PEOPLE INVOLVED/ THEN WRITE WHAT U WANT BUT STOP THE FAKE NEWS

the end game unless amazon the enemy dont kid yourself

once there was a super market. You bought all different items. That was your food portfolio.Then it happened that a super  market of every stock was invented due to computers. That became your stock portfolio. Then china figured out how to make every  product. That became your ;product portfolio.  Then amazon figured out how to put every product online  and sell them all from one place.China, amazon and financial indexes  the real unfolding problem By the way we created an index of news the ultimate illness. Pres trump see  the very negative implications of what occurring.People will care but just not yet  good luck.

the real truth

The impeachment process is only about one thing that is PREVENTING THE PRESIDENT FROM POSSIBLY APPOINTING ANOTHER SUPREME COURT JUSTICE .The rest is fake news.

taxes

we all file our taxes with the gov
THE irs has enormous oversight powers, Our tax info is expected to remain secret,If  we break the confidentially of the tax process it will break down.The next political claim will be  you went into a trump property  ,spent money so maybe you commited a crime. We the congress need to see your taxes. The irs process isn't enough. Everyones taxes will become public for one reason or another. Pelosis child worked for the wrong company   We must see his taxes. What nonsense

deutche bank

cnbc\ had a headline that income  inequality  is the big 2020 problem That was from someone at deutsche bank. .Lets keep the record straight; This bank is the biggest failure among all big banks, They get it all wrong.. But the dangerous CNBC continues to quote them . take a look  at the pay structure in that bank, Cnbc must be closed down.the german bank is a true  danger to our economy.

pelosi son

lets not forget that pelosis son worked for the most fraudulent mortgage banker .

the press really are fake

a well known news interviewer was asking  the head of a major company; in essence why are u making so much pay. The corporate executive stumbled all over himself and finally said its up  to the board. THE ONLY MEANINGFUL ANSWER,should have been and  WHY IS YOUR PAY SO HIGH,What do executive producers of this show get paid, why is an intelligent women like you asking such dumb questions when u know betterI .THE COMPANY U WORK FOR IS A PUBLIC COMPANY U KNOW THAT BUT U STILL USE YOUR POSITION TO POISON THE VIEWERS  EXPAIN WHY.

the simple reality

   inflation low  profits decent, no active wars,  technology creative ,health care plentiful; economy still growing , savings assets growing ,real estate prices solid ,Russia not so bad.  attempt to work out china problems, middle east somewhat quite, unions not on strike every few months ,watts isn't burning ,kids still  go to school  mkts at new highs, interest rates still low 

Absorb  the following and put it into prospective. IN  THE 1700hundreds and 1800 hundreds America hardly existed. AMERICAN WERE ALL EUROPEAN ETC. BLAME THE IMMIGRANTS IT WOULD BE TRUE... ABSORB  THOUGHTFULLY/

el paso

Blaming part of  recent shootings on video games is correct. BUT it is a distortion of the more real story.The real story is so much more complex.Everything that may teach violence is just not two paragraphs in a text book.Turn on   your   tv and easily find full courses on the Art of warfare. The battle of this or that , the great battles of history  Ceasar ,Hannibal the greeks the romans the persians the mongols the gauls:endlessly we indulge ourselves and glorify the heroes of war. We elect generals to the presidency, We glorify in the gladiators of government opposing each  other, usually with verbal attacks. We glorify wyatt erp ,billy the kid, Godzilla ,boxing football stories of rape and murder by the thousands of books. THE GREAT EMPIRES WERE ALL BASED ON WARRIOR LEADERS. Bigger legions more tanks planes guns now coming  space weapons . Who teaches the meaning of kindness love empathy etc. These words have no meaning;violence sells . DERANGED people can find justification in hate its all we teach. The gunslinger is revered .if its not racism, its antisemitism or anti feminism of anti  the whole long list of bullshit..we are now stupidly telling people to speak up when they see something   they think is wrong  ,The bad ones practice violence so the population is fearfull, Wake up America its not guns its who we are ,not everyone is a hero. even  the suicides are an attempt,often, to stand up to the tormentors.

.

x

TRUMP IS NOT THE ONLY NAME CALLER - ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 6/5/12

My Mother tried to teach me that calling people names was a highly ineffective way to live life. But sometimes when I see the liberal left (for lack of a stronger description) talking about the RICH people, I cringe in disgust.

Barbara Streisand is rich - could you be Barbara Streisand? Lebron James is rich - could you be Lebron James? Bill Gates created the operating system for most computers - could you be him? President Obama is rich - could you be the President?. Bruce Springsteen is rich - can you sing like him? Frank Sinatra was rich and Warren Buffet employs 300,000 people - do you? The absurdity of using the word RICH instead of attaching it to the people that are rich and evaluating their contributions to our lives, would expose the destructive liberal propaganda.

Wall Street people are mostly not rich. Employees in banks are generally not rich and most stock brokers are not rich. The hard working back office people in the finance industry are not rich.

Get with it America - don't let the democratic politicians and liberal media get away with keeping you ignorant and getting your vote based on bigotry, prejudice and single issues.

P.S. If Romney ends up with absurd ultra right wing views after he is nominated he'll be just as bad.

health care

THE invisible hand.The majority of health clear money  is spent on those closest to dying.Everytime you make a purchase you are paying for someone elses health care.labor is by far the largest health care cost.IT wont go down.BUY a box of  cherrios your paying health care to the company for its   health care costs.THE  company raises the cost of its cherrios ,at least equal to its healthcare cost per box.HEALTH CARE IS AIR YOU CANT DO WITHOUT IT.BUT AT 90?

MEDICAL COSTS - THERE IS NO "AFFORDABLE" CARE AND NEVER WILL BE(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 3/27/17)

The chess battle over health care will cost you a lot of money.  It doesn't matter what your ideology is it will cost you a lot of money, each and everyone of you.

Simply put, this is the story.  Approximately 65% of medical dollars spent go to labor, directly or indirectly.  That's the millions of people who provide the health care system, whether they work for a hospital or a biotech company.  Labor is 65% of every dollar received by the medical profession.

The revenues for the medical industry (in entirety) can either be paid for by the government (TAXES) or by individuals (PREMIUMS).

When you pay the taxes to the government for the medical industry they are either called Medicare, Medicaid or something similar.  When you pay the premiums to your insurance company they are paid for by your personal income.  So you either pay taxes or premiums, both are used to pay the workers in the medical profession 65% of those two numbers.

No politician is willing to tell the people who don't work in the medical profession that medical expenses are destined to rise PERMANENTLY.  The cost of labor is not going down so we will have a continuing rise of medical care costs.  There is no competition.  There is basically a single payer system and that's just the way it is.  So forget the politics.  It's bogus.  

DEMOCRACY AT WORK

 Afederal judge has decided to question an approved merger between to Aetna and cvs. His case is the public interest. HUNDREDS of thousands of shareholders voted in favor of the merger.BUT judge leon thinks he may be smarter.  Many people are clambering for boeing to pay billions for the crash of there two new jets.it is absolutely certain that leon has no idea of whats in the public interest.  If he did he would only focus on labor cost .. All else is a diversion.    And as far as boeing is concerned it maybe the greatest asset we have. Please remember how many presidents and generals completely planned battles incorrectly. Tens of thousands of lives lost because of incompetent decision making.   Were any of them sued? ERRORS WILL ALWAYS  HAPPEN NO MATTER HOW MANY SAFEGUARDS  AND FIREWALLS WE ERECT.YOU CANT ELIMINATE ERRORS.HOWEVER IF THERE WAS FRAUD OR AN ILLEGAL RUSH TO COMPLETION THAT MAY BE CULPABLE. ERRORS ARE EVERYWHERE AND THEY ALWAYS WILLBE And on the subject of reparations for slavery decedents,,, how about reparations for the hundreds of thousands of killed and mangled northern soldiers  who fought to end slavery,  madness.

cheating

During the civil war it was common for the rich to buy their way out of serving,PAY 600 dollars, to a sub and you were out. Cheating to get into college is wrong  but why not do the same as other rich people. Its the system . Pay or die it was your choice.

brainless democracy

 oMAR WILL FALL BY HER OWN THOUGHTS. If she wasn't a girl and a minority she would be ignorned by the mainstream BUT OUR MEDIA ONLY CARES ABOUT viewers, truth and quality don't often count. Imagine if a jewishAmerican started attacking the catholic church. ,  She  has huge problems in her congressional district but she is using her position to attack israel.A GOOD EXCUSE FOR DOING NOTHING FOR HER AMERICAN NEIGBHORS.

the rise of more bigoty

Hatred means to dislike intensely. Look it up. Now according to the democrats if you dislike something they say they like you are labeled  bigot, racist  gay hater etc etc.Their are so many things to dislike intensely I wrote a long blog about sexual exploitation listing a long list of democrats/Are they hate able. I think so.There are  1.5billion moslems and only 15 millions jews in the whole world. Its easy to attack jew BUt most are scared of 1,5 billion moslems Omar should not be tolerated. Sorry to say it but that's how hilter gained power ….wakeup

wrecking our potential

When certain ,usually democratic politicians ,attack  google amazon facebook etc etc left wing voters plus others forget that thay re attacking the millions of employees who work in these companies.No wonder we can never fix our problems  most don't understand how to prosper, easier to complain about success.

Brennen total loser

you worked at a doctors office.After you leave job you still want access to patient record.  You work for a company. When  you quit you still want access  to company info.Your a teacher. you leave.You still want test scores of students.  Only government employees demand continued access to information. It makes no sense on any level,,Its all about a 300 year old power structure.  One democrat went so far to say this isn't a great country,.Only he is great.He can judge the whole country  . .

WHO IS REALLY TO BLAME...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 10/17/11)

There is a man by the name of Stanley O'Neal. He is a black man. He was also the CEO of Merrill Lynch. He also presided over Merrill Lynch during the near bankruptcy of the firm.

After the finanacial crisis of 2008, Vanity Fair magazine wrote a scathing article about the enormous failures of this man and his enormous contribtuion to the housing and related crisis. (November 2010)

The name of the article was "The Blundering Herd". STANLEY O'NEAL WALKED OFF WITH HUNDERDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF COMPENSATION. According to the article Mr. O'Neal left the firm with "161 Million in retirement benefits and Merrill Lynch stock."

Why in the world did the Occupy Wall Street people march to the homes of white people who had relatively nothing, if anything at all, to do with the financial crisis of 2008? Why hasn't our President spoken to this man's (O'Neal) enormous failures and greed.

Picking people for jobs of any sort based on gender, race religion, etc. is self defeating but being politically correct, when there are facts that suggest the falseness of that approach, is equally as dangerous.

TRUMP - "HE IS WHAT HE IS, NOT WHAT HE ISN'T"

How not to feel good.  I had cancer.  Pretty advanced state.  My blood pressure probably went up.  The good things in my life seemed to stand still.  How could I have cancer?  I'm feeling good.  Yeah, I had this little ailment and that little ailment.  I was feeling fine.  Then the Doctor told me "you don't know what it is to feel good anymore. You have gotten so used to feeling bad that you actually feel it's good.  But you are sick, you just don't know it." So be the path to believing that you are good even when you are bad.

That's what's happened to  the psyche of a large segment of the American public from constantly being told how bad we are as a nation and how much is wrong with us.  It's the exact opposite of thinking you are well, when you are really sick.

The continual attack by the Democratic progressive liberal establishment has told us there is so much wrong, how can we ever feel good about ourselves.  This may sound like alot of words but its vital.

According to a major Democrat the new tax bill is the worst thing that ever happened in the history of the country.  The climate changes are going to drown us all and stop us from breathing.  The coal is going to pollute us.  The nuclear reactors are going to blow us up. The anti abortion people are racists. The statues should come down. The football players can use the public airways but disrespect the country. The bathrooms should no longer be for men and women,. The military should be allowed to be weakened. Prayer in school is prejudice against minorities. The wealthy are too rich.  The meaning of marriage should be changed. Merry Christmas is abusive. The Pledge of Allegiance is offensive.  Immigration laws are discriminatory. There are too many guns. Health care should be free.Profits are a disease, and on and on it goes.

I was feeling well even though I was sick.  We have been made to feel we are sick even though this nation has never been "weller".

The new administration is trying to make us feel well again respectful of the greatness of our nation   The left wing Clinton Obama Alinsky panic is so overwhelming that they will stoop to any lengths to  make us believe we are feeling sick and are in a terrible place.

"Give Peace a Chance".  Don't let them drag us down under the guise of being sick.

TARRIFS THE NEW BALONEY

 THE ECONOMIC RESOURCES OF THE COUNTRY ARE BECOMING FULLY  UTILIZED. PRODUCTIVITY BENEFITS ARNT LIKELY TO KEEP INFLATIONARY PRESSURES  SUBDUED AS MUCH AS THEY HAVE BEEN.           CONSEQUENTLY  SOME FISCAL TAX INCREASES MAY HELP   TO SLOW DOWN WHATEVER INFLATIONARY PRESSURES ARE BUILDING.  THE TARRIFS ON IMPORTS AND EXPORTS TEND TO SLOW DOWN ,HOWEVER SO LITTLE, BOTH CHINIA AND USA OVER ACTIVITY.. THE ARE A GOOD THING. DONT PAY ATTENTION TO THE PUNDITS OF DOOM THEY ARE ALMOST NEVER RIGHT.

sex the story your all afraid to tell

She had a short skirt.Her\sweater was very low cut.Her legs were not crossed .HER BREASTS were large, her  figure way above average, in todays standards. The man said , you are really attractive. If we meet again please dress a little less provocitively. Five years later, the law suit, sleaszy lawyer.You objectified her. You looked to closely at her.You had no right to notice her sexuality, Almost as there is no such word. Before you know it, we will be marching backwards and covering up.MAYBE THE SAUDIS ARE RIGHT? Men will become afraid of women, Women will lose job opportunities. In the workplace no on will dare be friends. We will be sure male female relationships will weaken considerably. Men will not want to marry, They will even want less children..   This will all happen because a few  cowardly bulling men lost there sense of loving and caring. Instead  they became abusers  of power. They were weak  and they were criminals.   But filing charges years and years later  unless you were raped by force, threated  with punishment or similar action will do more harm that good. As the men were bullies , the women can be even worse, THEY HIDE BEHIND SUBTLEY OF BEING THE WEAKER SEX, AS THEY EXPLOIT SYMPATHY, OFTEN NOT DESERVED. WOMEN ARE OFTEN THE ABUSER  WITH DIFFERENT METHODS BUT THE SAME  RESULT.WEAK WOMEN USING OTHER TRAITS INSTEAD OF PHYSICAL  POWER .(WHY DO SO MANY MARRIAGES REQUIRE PRENUPTIALS?) Rule number one. keep your hands off other people and that means women too.)

SCHNEIDERMAN

THE LAST BLOG WILL BE BACK ONLY WITH MORE FACTS

rape of the Male

Only men are being accused. Women thru the centuries have used sexual favors psychological manipulation and  and lies to gain favor with the opposite sex. I know of one  case of such a woman who loved to drink lie and cheat in order to get what she thinks she needed. Because of the climate towards accusing men i will be writing about the female version of the weinsteins Let the   two sided story bring light to who things really happen to.( i am not talking about rape and drugging.IN this novel truth and fiction will collide so that the real facts seem to get lost in  a vast coverup. BUT YOU WILL SEE THAT THE RELENTLESS VICTIM GETS THE  THE PROSECUTOR TO SEE T.HE negativeEFFECT ON SOCIETY.The cliché words  protecting the crime are defeated by truth .

CHINA TARIFFS - CHEATING...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 3/2/11)

With all the rhetoric about everything,very little is said about the greatness of America's ingenuity. Caterpillar, Boeing, Microsoft, Drug companies, Google, Facebook, Cisco, IBM, General Motors....I could go on and on and on. In the process of globalization, it's easy enough to copy our high labor content products but how many great drugs have come out of China, Venezuela, Russia, North Korea, Mexico...I could go on and on and on.
Yes we make what seem to be continuous mistakes and we don't solve some big problems, but to call the American contribution to human and industrial development anything but great is to be looking in the wrong direction.
When China announces its going to make a commercial jet its just a copycat. That's all.
Unfortunately, the copycats of the world are a significant competitive force. When our own government doesn't realize that much more money is saved by the creation of new drugs, than is achieved by all the generics in the world, is to add "insult to injury." Stay Tuned...

GUNS, ENTERTAINENT AND MY TRUTH...

This is a short blog about things you already know.  Violence is taught thru many mediums.  It could be the parents, books,  movies, television or video games.  We live in a culture of violence.  Many Hollywood people find ways to deflect the nature of their violent products away from themselves.   It seems like almost every television program or movie pertains to violence and crime whether it be historical or current.

The greatest hypocrisy is someone like George Clooney who is busy blaming everyone else while he hides behind guards in huge mansions.

There are 150,000 elementary and high schools in America. That equals 150,000 school openings per day and 750,000 per week which  is 3 million openings a month and 36 million openings and closings per year.

Those of you that want to have an honest view of the situation can look at the few blogs I have written on school safety.  Clearly our schools have not been made safe enough.  That doesn't detract from the honest view that school shootings are already close to zero.

Just to keep the records straight 19 year old kids shouldn't be allowed to buy automatic weapons.  Parents should be held accountable for their children's actions.  Background checks shouldn't take three days, they should take three months.  There should be no rush to give people automatic weapons.

At the very least if you are a consumer of the violence prepared by the "ton" in Hollywood, at least  recognize that you don't know if the entertainment business educates people, with a tendency towards violence, to actually act on what society make readily available.  

TRUMP PUTIN AND THE MEDIA LIES...

Anyone who thinks, in spite of Russia's weaknesses, that we have the political will and military strength to threaten Russia is asleep at the switch.  Putin is going to be President again for a long time. We have to deal with him whether we want to or not.  Even before WWII the American people would not stand up to Hitler until the Japanese attack on Hawaii.

The Internet will never be private.  If you don't like it , don't use it.  

THE SUPREME COURT SEES THE LIGHT - WHISTLE BLOWERS (ORIGINALLY POSTED 1/2013)

I am seventy five years old.  I was a young boy during WWII.  It was commonplace to be exposed to stories about the Germans in which children were rewarded to come forward to snitch on their parents or family.  These young children were following the Nazi propaganda line.

Many adults looked in dismay as a country rewarded children for being whistle blowers.  It was considered an abominable breach of most American's ethics.

Now in America we reward, with substantial gifts, those who help our Justice Department and SEC prosecutors capture and then punish who are often their friends and colleagues.  Our sense of justice is to tell people if you whistle blow, you can get rich and if necessary go into the witness protection program.

As Americans we have actually come to accept this as an appropriate approach to the pursuit of crimes.

I have great difficulty understanding how we abhor the actions of the children of Germany, but find little ability to speak about whether we want such behavior in our own country.

TRUMP AND AFRICA

President Trump has now brought attention to poverty.  Being politically correct buried the story. Continuation of the problem is allowing it to get worse.  The six poorest countries in the world are all in Africa. They are Burundi, Niger, Malawi, Gambia, Liberia and Congo Kinshasa which were all European colonies. 

APPLE VS. CALPERS...(YOU DECIDE (ORIGINALLY POSTED 2011)

For years I wanted to write about Calpers. I just never got around to it. It epitomizes one of the things that have been wrong in the investment arena.

Calpers had several hundred billion dollars under management for California state employees. They have long made a practice of complaining about corporate managements who their investment personnel thought were not managing their companies effectively.

The people who made these complaints knew next to nothing about managing companies. They were concerned with self serving publicity. Many of us have known for years that if Calpers had been held accountable for their own mismanagement of the investments under their areas of responsibility, the beneficiaries of Calpers assets might have been rewarded.

The New York Times ran an article today stating that Calpers lost about a quarter of their total investment portfolio during the last few years. Investment professionals will best serve their clients if they stick to money management and not corporate management, which is usually used to serve as a total distraction from their own lack of money management skills.

BITCOIN? TODAY'S PRICE 12/27/17 $15,500.00 (EXERPT OF BLOG ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 2011)

PART TWO:In order to understand where I'm going with this you will have to allow me to tell you a quick story. My wife Sally and I, during the Internet bubble, were invited to attend a presentation by one of the best asset management firms in the world. This firm had scrupulously avoided investing their clients money in the overpriced dot.com companies. Unfortunately, it's performance had lagged its peers that had invested in those companies and the firm lost thirty percent of its assets under management, solely because they were thought to be an old dowdy company. At the meeting we attended, we were immediately introduced to the new Internet guru of this wonderful asset management firm. We were told he had appreciated money at an annual rate of 500% in the last year and now was the time for all the money that had left their firm to return and they would do all they could to compete with their new investment guru. Only a few "special clients", like us, would be "invited" into this "fantastic investment opportunity". In other words, at the very peak, the rate of asset loss to this money management firm and the enormous emotional pressure they felt was so great, they could not stop themselves from attempting to participate in the craziness. The Internet boom went bust a few months after this presentation, the young money manager was fired, all the money was lost, over $200 million dollars, and quite successfully, this money management firm continues to deliver a steady investment product.

MORNINGSTAR SHOULD WATCH ITSELF..(JIM ROGERS - ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 6/7/12)

It was 1987. The book was called "The Great Depression of 1990". It was close to a number one bestseller. The writer was regularly on TV, was left-wing and a major university economics professor.

The Dow Jones was less than 3,000. The book concluded you should sell all your stocks and real estate.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average immediately began an ascent from less than 3,000 to close to 12,000 in the 1990's. Real estate prices doubled and tripled to absurdly overvalued levels.

The sensationalist professor in my views, attempting to become famous with extreme projections and recommendations, fell out of favor.

Today we have other people, mainly professors, often using extreme views to obtain attention. One of them is a man called Jim Rogers who doesn't seem to have managed any publicly recorded money in almost thirty years. He too follows the trampled road using intellect to prepare extremist advice geared towards scaring the average investor into oblivion.

Rogers has created the "Rogers" commodity index which is the kind of thing that can be put together by most anyone with a computer in my opinion.

Just as the Depression of 1990 fell off a cliff in it's timing and significant number of wrong commentary, I think it would be wise to beware of the pundits of either extreme optimism or extreme pessimism.

Please note that Warren Buffet tends to go against the crowd and does not often establish extreme views in either direction. Watch out for marketers wearing the cloak of financial acumen without having any recent or current public investment record.

QUICK BLOG OF THE DAY (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 8/14/12)

In general terms many politicians have found it advantageous to attack American companies. They get away with this because the people that work at these companies haven’t clearly figured out that attacking companies (which are basically are pieces of paper) is really an attack against the employees that work there.

I have not seen a figure published that shows how many dollars have been saved in medical costs because drug companies created products that eliminated many illnesses. Yet it’s easy to attack drug companies; when they don’t vote and the employees have not banded together to unite against such attacks. The real cost in the medical system is not prescription drugs, by a long shot, its labor outside the drug and medical equipment companies.

Hopefully distortions of reality will be overcome by time and patience.

TERROR ..THE TRUE AND ONLY STORY..(ORIG. PUBLISHED 7/11/14)

What looks like scattered chaos is really an expansion of the Arab "Plan of Phases" manifesto.

Knowing that it was unlikely than any coalition of  terrorist groups could militarily defeat democracy, the plan was expanded.

In essence it says that it will keep on attacking, through one means or another, for so  long a period of time as is necessary so that ultimately capitalism  would collapse from within, as the left and the right can no longer find common ground.

President Obama's appeasement policies have helped expand the "plan of phases" so that it will become worldwide.

It looks as if we just didn't provide enough help to Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and our southern borders.  The reality is that a vast plan has been developing for years where a slow and steady encroachment of our preferred way of life would be under assault from an increasing number of directions.

We have had to create the transportation safety department, increase the NSA surveillance, face immense problems on our borders and are finding that every where we have left militarily the opportunity for the "bad guys" to annoy us has been increased.

It's unfortunate that we are in such a position.  Look at it this way.  Israel does not want to be in its continual state of military and security preparedness, but it is.  President Obama's policy of retreat has failed.  Every day that passes it's becoming more probable that the risk of reversing the plan of phases against us will be higher and higher.

This didn't start on 9/11, it's been in the planing stage for real long time.

PRESIDENT ELECT TRUMP'S DISTORTED VIEW ON THE DRUG INDUSTRY..(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 1/17/17).

Total national health expenditures are reported to run about 3 1/2 trillion dollars.  Total drug expenditures are reported to run about 385 billion dollars.

If the cost of drugs could be reduced 100 billion dollars, the drug industry would be forced to close down because of huge losses.

HEALTH CARE EXPENDITURES WOULD DROP FROM 3 1/2 TRILLION TO 3.4 TRILLION.  OTHER LABOR COSTS WOULD LIKELY RISE OVER 100 BILLION AND HEALTH CARE COSTS WOULD NOT GO DOWN AT ALL.

THE FLOW OF NEW DRUGS WOULD STOP AND THE ABSURDITY OF OUR POLITICS WOULD HAVE CREATED A MEDICAL DISASTER.

TRUMP - WE WOULD ALL BE DEAD WITHOUT DRUGS...ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 6/4/12

Three major drug companies spent $100 billion dollars on Research and devleopment in the last five years.

Three major generic drug companies spent under $10 billion on research and development in the last five years.

Since important new drugs are almost impossible to find the major drug companies are likely to find fewer new drugs over the next ten years as their cash flow will decline.

Since generic companies don't do much research or find too many new drugs, the net result will be less drugs, more illness and consequently, more expense.

Unless we get very lucky and the drug companies have a few more breakthroughs.

Furthermore, there is a strong likelihood of declining morale and a significant weakening of the talent who are able to find new drugs.

DRUGS....MORE NOT LESS....(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 12/16)

Doctors and drugs are a small percentage of medical spending.  If it wasn't for the drug industry, we would all be dying horrible deaths.  There wouldn't be a need for hospitals because they would not be able to treat even simple infections.  Almost all the money spent in the medical industry is spent on administrators, technicians, floor sweepers, exterminators, etc.

The Senators and everyone else who attack drug prices instead of providing incentive for more and more drug development, are fools.

When one of them gets a significant disease as for sure some of them will they will understand that they ought to get out of government.  

AMAZON..MACYS..KOHLS..HOW WILL IT PLAY OUT...(ORIG. PUBLISHED APRIL 2011 AND REPLUBLISHED OCTOBER 2016)

Im having difficulty putting into words what it is I am currently thinking.  Several years ago we wrote about the Apple IPad and the implication for sales of personal computers.  The Ipad seemed to be what is called a disruptor but its impact on overall economic activity was and is minimal.

 If there is going to be a serious economic decline,  there is one main place to look in my opinion.  That is Amazon.  We all use Amazon. Its getting bigger and bigger and is run by an obvious genius.  He is on the fast path to destroy "all" retail businesses which account for a large portion of our jobs and GDP.

Amazon is becoming so huge that it is on the road to becoming every manufacturers largest customer. The manufacturers, because of this phenomenon,have to do business with Amazon.  Amazon  in turn is putting pressure on the sellers of goods to provide products at a discounted price.  This will eventually lead producers to cut back on their costs which will lead to job loss and deflation.

Amazon, which was already selling most anything you could want is now branching into auto parts, office supplies, groceries, television shows, fast food delivery, etc.  Who knows where this will all lead.  Unfortunately it appears from the weakness in  the retail industry, not to a good place.

Point made!

THE OBNOXIOUS CASE AGAINST HISTORY...

I don't write too often anymore.  It's not because i don't have important things to say, its because the level of the dialogue in my opinion has degenerated.

Now that we are taking down statues and attempting to change American History, it's only a small step before we start to empty the libraries and museums of books and paintings that some well funded group finds offensive.

Most of the young men that fought for the South did not have anything to do with Slavery. They were simply young men who were brave and fighting to defend their home states.  The great majority owned no slaves and in any case at that time Lincoln "supported" slavery.

On one hand we like to call ourselves a "melting pot", on the other hand a "melting pot"of statues and books and everything else is offensive to this one and that one.

My dear friend is a devout Lutheran. He attends a fantastic Lutheran church every week and through him I have come to know many of their parishioners.  By and large they are as fine a group of people as you can find.

Should we tear down the Lutheran church because its founder was as bad a antisemite that ever existed?

Most of the current church has nothing to do with something that was 700 years ago.

HEALTHCARE - NO TRUTH, NO FIX? PART ONE (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 7/10/11)

Let this sink in over and over and over again. According to easily available sources:

A. Half of the population spend little or nothing on health care.
B. 5% of the population spend about half the total amount of health care costs.
C. To put it in clear terms, 5 people in every 100 account for 50% of U.S. health care spending.

It's another example of not putting the real facts on the table because it's politically unpopular. Therefore we waist billions of words and we never solve the problems.

OBAMA, CLINTON, CARTER - THEY DON'T WANT THE TRUTH...THEY JUST WANT TO BE ELECTED (ORIG. PUBLISHED 5/16/14)

A Democratic President decides to become the largest shareholder in General Motors; results in a manufacturing debacle.

A Democratic President files an antitrust case against IBM,; the company has never been the same since.

A Democratic President decides to file an antitrust case against Microsoft, the company has been in "trouble" every since.

A Democratic President decides we cant help Syria, Russia gains all the influence.

A Democratic President decides Ukraine is none of our business, Russia gains additional power.

A Democratic President draws  a red line for Iran two years ago, the red line evaporates and nuclear proliferation marches on.

Saudi Arabia announces the potential need for nuclear weapons and begins looking away from U.S. for support.

Russias' able to "threaten all of Europe" with energy supplies.  A Democratic President looks on passively.

Hundreds of people die from guns in Chicago, a Democratic President looks on passively.

No wonder there aren't enough good jobs and stability.

IRAQ & SYRIA...THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS REVISITED AGAIN...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2013)

North Korea was on the front pages just a few months ago.  Obviously the Chinese, who are the major suppliers of everything to North Korea, told them in strong terms to cease and desist.  There is no possible way the North Korea leadership would or could stand up to the Chinese.
Crisis resolved, off the front pageS, on to the next thing...

As Russia is the major supplier to Syria, you would suspect that they could have very significant influence on the Syrians behavior.

Russia's economy is extremely dependent on energy prices.  Crisis in the Mideast causes prices of oil and related commodities to rise.  Russia's economy is able to sustain itself on the higher energy prices.

As a general rule, the United States doesn't like energy prices this high and would like to see the chaos in Syria come to a halt.

President Obama goes to the Russians and says; "Hey you can bring a stop to this so please do it".  The Russians know the Americans can't stand confrontation.  They foresee the chaos in that part of the world potentially leading to increased influence of the Russians over the entire Mideastern oil supplies.

Here is the "real story";  what we are witnessing in Syria has little to do with the sociopathic Assad and the rebel terrorist organizations.  It is totally a confrontation between the United States and Russia and has the potential to move in the direction of the Cuban Missile crisis, not just a Mideast conflict.

Russia could easily bring an end to what we see going on in Syria by joining with the US and western nations.  They see little need to do that because so far President Obama is neither President Kennedy, President Reagan, President Roosevelt or Churchill.  He is hiding behind his "bodyguards", the "CONGRESS", and is afraid to confront the real perpetrators of the catastrophe in Syria.  

THE TERRORISTS OF THE IRS...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 5/17/13)

It was during the Abraham Lincoln administration that the first federal income tax program was legislated.

It was also the beginning of the progressive tax, where the more you made the higher percentage you paid.  In effect, if you made more you were TARGETED to pay a higher percentage of your income.

Since then each political party has targeted one thing or another to benefit one constituency or another.  We have special tax programs homeowners, investors, municipalities, charities, stocks, solar energy, education, natural resource discovery, etc. etc. etc. Its the American way to use the tax system for both political and economic purposes.

Consequently, as repulsive as it is, it should not be surprising that people in the current administration may have been involved in targeting groups that they may have wanted to penalize.  The IRS does not have a random lottery system approach to its auditing program.  It targets based on specific criteria, which in many cases have nothing to do with breaking any laws.

We really don't want to get into a long dialogue about the IRS. Unfortunately the question now is; has a rogue group of left wing politicians, so hell bent on destroying political forces that do not support agendas other than theirs, been able to use the office and powers of the IRS to achieve their goals.

Some very evil people have come to power world wide using the force of corrupt government to wipe out opposing views.

GAS ATTACKS & SYRIA.."400,000 DEAD"...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 8/29/13)

When the Syrian insurgency began President Obama was given a "one time only" opportunity to quickly prevent escalation.  Inaction was followed by inaction and well over 100,000 people have been killed, wounded or misplaced.

The complexity of facilitating an end to the carnage now, creates a much more difficult, expensive. risky and limited set of options.

As we wrote in an earlier blog, the cost of ending atrocities early would have been much less than the cost is today and the longer term implications of inaction are not any clearer.

The character of any President is most tested when issues of life and death for many take over the landscape.

TRUMP-DOES HE REALLY HAVE IT CORRECT? RUSIA & UKRAINE - A COUNTRY THAT WAS ONCE ONE...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 9/11/14)

Sometimes common wisdom is way off the mark.  Over the last few years we have pointed out that the PC wasn't going to disappear, the price of gold  was overblown, the pundits of gloom were mostly not worth listening to, the occupiers had little case, the deficit was substantially media hype, and the appeasement of enemies is generally not a winning strategy.

What I am going to say now seems absurd on its face, even to me who is writing it, but here I go.

My parents were born in Russia. Their citizenship papers say they were born in Russia.  Specifically they were born in Ukraine, Russia.  In my family it was taken as a statement of fact that they were from Russia. I took a look at Wikipedia and it was obvious, for several hundred years, Ukraine was considered Russia.

Somehow or other the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the name Russia was called by, ceded Ukraine to its own independence.  Now there is man by the name of Mr. Putin who thinks that breaking up the union was a very negative development for his country.

The Civil War in the United States was initially about maintaining the union between the North and the South, it was not initially fought over slavery.  I'm not sure that maintaining the Russian union is not as important to them as it was to us during the Civil War.

What am I missing?

OBAMA, CLINTON & SOROS - THEIR ATTEMPT TO OVERTHROW AMERICA (ORIG. PUBLISHED JUNE 2012)

Saul Alinsky pontificated in his Rules for Radicals that to destroy the American system that a realistic radical is completely unconcerned about the verification of facts and that they are only interested in their agenda. He states that the purpose of radicals is to sew discontent and to seek to create an environment so they can influence the generally ignorant population to support political goals that would otherwise be unsupportable in the face of the facts. 

"CUT THE BULL" MOST OF THE MEDIA IS OUT FOR RATINGS NOT AMERICA...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 8/2011)

It's time to cut the bullshit. People like Paul Krugman win Nobel prizes and generally don't know what they are talking about. The Tom Friedmans of the world, write books forever, make tons of money and make no contribution to peace in the Middle East, just a bunch of words and high fluting explanations that lead to nowhere constructive.

Who in their right mind would give good G'D what the S & P says considering their historic track record. Who are the people in S&P who pontificated this one notch reduction in the rating of U.S. government debt? How many jobs have they had in their lifetime, how much money have they made individually, who is this committee, S&P is nothing but a company.

The atrocity that we have created of the journalistic talking heads on the TV that if a compilation was ever made of what they have said, they would be the laughing stock of the worlds.

Why doesn't our government inform the populous that the talking heads are just trying to get you to listen to them so they can get ratings and advertising and line their pockets with the total inaccuracies of a lot of what they say.

We have become a hodge podge of radicals on both sides of the political equation. That might have worked 100 years ago but we've given away our leadership under  President Obama in many respects.

The country's supposed to not require great leaders because the strength is its ability is to function within the diversity of problems and opinions. But when a NY Times Editorial Writer and Nobel Prize Winner, by the name of Paul Krugman, can spew one incomplete sentence after another the question has to be asked again, "What if Stocks become like Houses?" Even low interest rates, which probably have done more harm than good, show you the depth of the problem.

President Obama has been a destroyer of confidence, a creator of class warfare, and instituting his important "change, change change" in anything.  God willing, whether you believe in God or not, (I do) a Leader will emerge that believes America has to be the Leader not in nation building, but in raising the standard of education and living among our own citizens.

I close with the following; I attended PS73 in the Bronx. I am now 74 years old. The same crummy old building is educating a bunch of black and Hispanic children and according to public releases they are failing on almost all levels. I call that a failure. It has to change...instead of fighting about abortion, gun control, gay rights and Don't ask don't tell.

A lot of you may hate me for writing this but it's like cancer, you got to get it right or you die. 

UNION DESTRUCTION STARTS AGAIN...(ORIG. PUBLISHED 9/17/12)

We are reprinting our blog of January 11, 2011. It was titled "Are Votes Worth It?" It should have been titled "Are Destructive Union Votes Worth It?"
Tuesday, January 11, 2011ARE VOTES WORTH IT?
On August 27, 2010, we said in a blog that "Almost every significant unionized industry in America has failed. Now the largest unionized segment in America is government."
In the January 8, 2011 issue of the Economist magazine the lead story is titled "The battle ahead - Confronting the public-sector unions."
If you accept the thesis that I'm even partially correct about the negative effect of unions and their inflexible total compensation costs being responsible for destroying the competitive condition of significant industries, you will be well advised to ask "Are unions likely to destroy the government?"
Isn't it only a matter of time before some union representing the fire department, police department or the post office, goes on strike? Obviously it will happen. It's tough to change people. Note carefully the behavior of certain union members during the recent New York City snowfall.
During the ongoing turmoil in Wisconsin, a prominent Democrat exhorted the public to "stick by their friends." This may have been true a few decades ago when people took government jobs based on their security, retirement benefits and often a lack of complexity.
Today we have evolved a system where the unionized government sector indirectly threatens to strike and withhold their votes from the government politicians who don't give them what they want.
Government gets its money from taxes; so what these unions are saying to their so called "friends" is give us more of your tax dollars or we will take away your services.
During the formative years of our republic, there was serious debate about what functions the central governments would serve, both at the local and the federal levels. After Hamilton's persuasive arguments for a collective defense among the states, it was also agreed that government would stay close to the people by providing all types of services, and thereby make it easier for existing members to get reelected.
Think carefully about what some of the things the government does for us. We go to a post office, they hand you your mail. You go to a motor vehicle office, they hand you a license. You apply for a passport, they mail you a passport. They send you social security checks. These are simplistic functions that can just as easily be done by the private sector, for profit, save money, and reduce the deficit significantly.
Functions that don't have to be done by government should be taken out of the hands of government. It's time for a more introspective America, especially in some of our big cities where people think that the sharing of ideas around water coolers actually adds merit to the city.

"LEAVE IVANKA ALONE"...

When individual companies start targeting a child of the President it hard to imagine the panic that they feel by being uncovered as ignorant.

Go buy an Ivanka accessory - say no to corporate executives abusing their power  by not representing all their shareholders.  

TRUMP IS PROBABLY RIGHT BUT NO ONE WANTS TO FACE THE MUSIC...

Consider the following very carefully.  Here is the real reason many tech companies are upset over  Trump's immigration policies.  Tech companies have saved hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, by importing labor at cheaper prices than American workers.

Conversely, the amount of money made by tech executives is generally out of proportion to their real individual contributions to the firms. These top corporate executives could have stood the test of greatness by allocating larger amounts of monies to training American workers.  

THINK WHAT YOU WANT BUT IS THIS THE REAL STORY?...

Presidents come and Presidents go. Bloggers come and bloggers go.   Protests come protests go.  Some have mojo and some just blow. Yet everyday things ebb and flow.

What's not going to come and go is going to be the continual belly aching of the Democratic party against the recent election.  Why is that so?

Its similar to the "plan of phases" that's been carried out by the segments of  the Arab community against the nation of Israel.  The basic premise being Islam will never accept the existence of the Israeli state.  I believe the Democratic party won't accept the existence of the Trump presidency.  President Trump has discovered the long term democratic plan to undermine capitalism and institute a more and more socialistic population. 

TRUMP? (THE FOLLOWING BLOG WAS COPIED FROM ANOTHER SITE)

The President-elect won the election with less than 40% of the popular vote but had the majority of electoral votes. The Republican Party had put forth a candidate to win several crucial states that could swing the electoral college. The election was a bitter one with the Democratic Party fractured between two candidates.

The incoming President received so many death threats that he chose to arrive in Washington in secrecy. The security for the inauguration was the tightest ever with troops stationed on buildings throughout the day. This was an unprecedented amount of protection for any PresIdent-elect. Many members of Congress chose not to attend the ceremony.

Despite all this Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as our 16th president on March 4, 1861.

WITHOUT CALIFORNIA HILLARY WON NOTHING...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 10/11/12)

The issue of race in America is well above my pay grade.  In a perfect world race, religion, gender, etc. would have little to do with most of society's decisions.  The Supreme Court is weighing race as a factor in college admissions.  Before you know it, colleges will be required to have a certain number of union members, a certain number of gun advocates, etc. etc. etc. It looks like its becoming a matter of whether you fit into a group so the college can say it fits some type of diversity standard.  Most of these attributes seem to be totally unrelated to the purpose of education.

Here is the point of the prior paragraph.  Ninety Five Percent of  Blacks voted for President Obama in the last election and are estimated to have the same voting pattern this November in spite of the fact that Obama has done little to help his own race.  There is no way that this percentage of the black voting population felt that Obama was the strongest candidate, maybe 75% or 85% did, but not 95%.  In my opinion, a significant portion of this vote is based on race.

It is true that some White voters probably vote on race also, but not nearly to such an overwhelming extent.  If White voters were to have a racist attitude and vote 95% based on color, it would be a long time before any minority group would be voted into positions of government power.  As long as the government perpetuates a policy of race related decisions, the same rules should be acceptable in individual decision making and then all these discriminating descriptions of people will never be eliminated.

Decisions based on race, religion, gender etc. are not the road to prosperity, equality or stronger feelings of self esteem in individuals.  Selections based on one's color, not one's achievements and skills, is only working to separate our society further. Politics, religion, and education should be color blind.  

GANDHI, OBAMA AND CHURCHILL...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 3/2012)

President Obama at a fundraiser yesterday spoke about how difficult it was to bring "change" in politics.  In his speech he drew attention to himself within the context of Gandhi and Mandela. 

It is quite astonishing to see our President bring himself into the company of these two men.  He obviously was attempting to point out their greatness and even they needed time to attempt to bring change.

It just so happens within the last year I had reread a book by Arthur Herman named "Gandhi & Churchill".  Those of you who are ardent supporters of our President will unfortunately not appreciate the paragraphs I am extracting from that book. If you want to stand within the world with these unique people you must stand on pedestals with multiple sides.

From the book Gandhi & Churchill:
In 1938, Gandhi urged the Czechs to use non violence against the Germans instead of bullets.  He urged the German Jews to do the same.  "The Jews of Germany can offer satyagraha under infinitely better auspices than Indians in South Africa." Gandhi actually said that the German Jews were more gifted than the Indians of South Africa.  Gandhi said a passive attitude would win the world's admiration and perhaps even that of the German people.  "The German Jews will score a lasting victory over the German gentiles..." Gandhi even urged the Jews to disarm their persecutors by praying for Hitler.  "If even one Jew acted thus he said confidently it would save the whole of Jewry".  Gandhi even felt that "the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher's knife..."  In 1939, he wrote a letter to Hitler begging him to renounce violence and telling a friend that Hitler is "not a bad man".  He said that future generations would "honor Hitler as a genius, as a brave man, a matchless organizer and much more".  In 1941, Gandhi praised Hitler's bravery and devotion to his fatherland and stated that we don't believe that you are the monster described by your opponents, namely Winston Churchill.

And so ends Gandhi's Pro-Hitler missives as the war picked up its momentum and surrender was no longer an option. 

I'm sure we all agree that the importance of avoiding war cannot even be put into words that would adequately express the horrors of such events.  But woe to the Israelites and to those who have been brought into slavery by the tyrants throughout history. As a Harvard graduate, if Obama wants to stand with Gandhi, I presume he is aware of the full picture. 

DEMOCRATS..SNAKE OIL SALESMEN AND MUCH, MUCH WORSE...

One thing about the Democrats and Obama is they know how to stir the pot by using false and malicious accusations.

For an example, if you like the possibility of charter schools you are a bigot.  If you are against abortion, you are a destroyer of women's rights.  If you stand against appeasement, you are a war monger.  If you believe in the Second Amendment, you're a racist.   If you believe in not disgracing the American flag, at best you are against free speech.  If you are not a major supporter of welfare without being vetted for a job, you are not appreciative of people with needs or people who may not be as well off as you.  If you believe that raising the minimum wage does more harm than good, you are a heartless jerk.  If you believe students that borrow money to go to school should pay back their debts, you are a capitalist when you should be a socialist.  If you don't believe that men made into women and vice versa should be allowed to use whatever bathroom they want, you are a bigot. 

The Democrats make thoughtless attacks on any views but their own. 

P.S. Just remember the "reason" the German populous couldn't fight Hitler even if they wanted to, is because they didn't have guns. Sixty million people died. Let that sink in.

"DELUSIONS" OF THE AMERICAN JEW...

The great majority of Jews in the election voted for Hillary.  The delusional thinking that peace with Palestine would change the Mid East situation is not only ridiculous, but to Israel it's down right dangerous.

Israel is surrounded by millions of people who want their destruction, whether there is peace with the Palestinians or not.  There can not be peace with religious fundamentalists as long as they think they are winning. 

GOLD BUBBLE ("WHEN INTEREST RATES RISE, GOLD WILL CRASH") ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2010

A friend of mine bought a home for $300,000 ten years ago. By 2007, the price of similar homes in their neighborhood had tripled in value.
During the period when the price of housing was rising so rapidly, banks were criticized for collecting deposits in one impoverished area of the country and lending it out in other more prosperous regions. The quality of the loans was not a factor, the equitable distribution of loans seemed more important. People all over the country were ecstatic over their increase of wealth through home ownership.
The government, in spite of everything, had created Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac and everything possible to increase home ownership. Practically no one was telling homeowners to liquidate their homes. Construction of homes was booming, millions of people were employed in the sector and no one dared to stop this lucrative bubble.
When the house I mentioned above was purchased in 1999, it would have taken approximately 1000 ounces of gold to pay for the home. Today, it would take only 250 ounces of gold to buy the same $300,000 house. Housing prices have “crashed” and gold has soared. In effect, gold has gone from $350 per ounce in 1999 to $1300 per ounce today.
Gold is basically a useless commodity. The price is a “bubble” that may sustain itself forever and ever, but it is a bubble. You can’t eat gold, it’s hard to carry, it earns you no money and its industrial uses are limited. Again, no one dares to tell people to sell their gold even though you can now buy it in vending machines. No one dares to tell the mining industry to stop the production of gold, for fear of destroying yet another industry that is responsible for the economic livelihood in many struggling countries.
Keynes said that in the end investing is nothing more than a game of musical chairs and that when the music stops; we don’t want to be the ones without a chair.  When interest rates rise, gold will crash.

UNIONS..THE REAL REASON COMPANIES LEAVE THE US (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 8/1/11)

The bottom line is the following, a two trillion dollar cut in projected expenditures over ten years, for the Federal Government,for all intense purposes, is not a cut at all. It's too far out, totally unforecastable and too small to have any real meaning. We have written about this before and explained the folly of the politicians rhetoric directed toward the economically naive portion of the population, emphasizing budgetary balance.

The fact is that the federal government, minus defense, is significantly a unionized workforce. In spite of constraints on the federal unions to strike, some problematic events seem almost certain to occur if nothing is done to recognize this issue.

These unionized employees have become accustomed to regular raises and continually improving retirement benefits from the tax paying portion of the population.

But the tax base is not growing at a fast enough clip. As time passes, unless things change, the raises will be forced to stop which will lead to illegal work stoppage threats. History suggests that most unions want what they want when they want it, with little concern for reality.

As the number of people in government, both federal and local, reaches record highs, the ability to provide raises will end and strikes and slowdowns will become one of the next crises that the nation will face.

Only increasing profits, personal income, capital gains, dividends and interest will provide stability.

TRUMP PROTESTERS SAME AS THE OCCUPIERS.. (ORIGINALY PUBLISHED 1/24/12)

The same affliction to our sanity involves the media abuse of the slogan "top one percenters". Recently the median salary of the public university presidents place them all in the top one percenters.

The Presidents of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Michigan, Amherst, Williams, Stanford are all in the top one percenters. The same is true for hundreds if not thousands of University Professors.

Okay, so is the head of the American Red Cross, the American Cancer Society, the President of the United States, Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore, Hillary and Bill Clinton, Herman Cain, Jesse Jackson, Jeb Bush, Michael Bloomberg, lots of Senators and Congressman and the head of the AARP (a real disaster). NBA and NFL's top players such as Dwayne Wade, Kobe Bryant, Shaq, Dan Marino, Tom Brady, Michael Vick,; Musicians and Artists like Beyonce, JayZ, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Janet Jackson, Taylor Swift, Toby Keith, Garth Brooks, Jennifer Lopez, Hank Williams Jr., Mariah Carey, Harry Belafonte, Barbara Streisand Actors, Actresses and Media celebrities such as Angela Jolie, Steven Spielberg, Justin Bieber, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Jerry Seinfeld, Jennifer Aniston, Oprah Winfrey, David Letterman, Tyra Banks, Kim Kardashian, Larry King, Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, Ariana Huffington, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Friedman, Jim Cramer, Eddie Murphy, and top people that run hundreds of thousands of employees and many of those like Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, and Steve Jobs who created unbelievable changes in society and millions of jobs, are in the one percenters club. I could keep listing people...the media lies...look at the truth.

I was in Austin recently and there was an Occupy Wall Street group. I decided to sit down on the lawn with some of them and found out from about 15 different conversations that everyone of these "Occupiers" knew absolutely nothing about salary levels and economics. One young woman was telling another young woman how much she loved her. They really didn't know each other. Maybe I overstepped my bounds but we were kind of chatting and I said to the better dressed young lady; "Why don't you give this woman you love your hat - she seems to be getting sunburned". That went about as far as I could throw an elephant. For some strange reason the media hypes and the police in this situation were busy placating the group as they trashed a substantial piece of property. None of the people I spoke with knew anything at all about who the "one percenters" were.

A LEFT WING OF GANGSTERS...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISED 11/4/11)

When you talk about sleaze its almost impossible to beat the lying hypocrisy of the fat man, Michael Moore and his stupid cap. But if you want more hypocrisy think about the fact that Jon Corzine was so greedy that he acted as if the financial crises of 2008 took place a hundred years ago. Solyndra was an example of amateurs working for the government with the power to give out $600 million dollars for what was ostensibly a start up. Obama knows that our problem is cars not electrical generation. The one thing these three groups have in common is their attachment to the Democratic party and the "culture of corruption" along with the deception that lies deep within our President's soul. It just isn't coincidence that these three situations all exist at the same time. Look within the Celestine Prophecy to grasp the intimidation of the weak by the democratic party's desire for power at almost any cost.

THE FORGOTTEN MAN IS AMERICA - NOT THE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 9/6/12)

It's almost impossible to convince the "forgotten man" that increased taxes on the so called rich is a bad idea. The environment is one of very high unemployment, declining standards of living and interest rates for treasuries which are close to zero.

There was a day when the politicians of America sought individual votes but then they learned that it was easier to group the electorate into "special interest groups" and convince groups rather than individuals to vote for them.

That was the beginning. In a fabulous book written by Amity Shlaes called the "The Forgotten Man" we can see the historical development of how the mass of the population has been forgotten. There are tens of millions of people who go to work in this country, pay their mortgages, educate their children, don't end up in jail, pay their bills, don't require welfare and live their lives with no representation in the government.

If you are part of a special interest or minority group you have representation. If you are just a plain old "forgotten man", the backbone of the country, you have very little representation if any. The politicians have actually made the forgotten man feel guilty. Why in the world should anyone pay their mortgage or their debt if so many people are allowed not to? This is one of the coming crises of rewarding those who fail and penalizing those that succeed.

It's time for the forgotten man to stand up in a concerted way without riot and revolution and say enough is enough. You are responsible if you bought a house even if you didn't know what you were doing. More and more people will "opt out" of the system as they realize if you succeed you are the enemy.

BLOG OF THE DAY...

There probably is no  major media company that has failed as miserably as the New York Times.
The CEO takes at least 7 million in compensation and probably lives in an apartment worth 10 or 20 million dollars.

Today's article about the failures of Donald Trump totally leaves out his fabulous recovery from near bankruptcy and the fact that he is a billionaire several times over.  His company is private.  There are probably not 10 individually owned companies as successful as the Trump empire.

Take a look at Trumps children and use that as a measure of success.

BEFORE YOU VOTE...

Before you vote you may want to know who was really responsible for the housing crisis.

Then you must read a book called "Reckless Endangerment".  It is written by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner.

BUBBLES A NECESSARY EVIL? (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 11/18/10)

I looked at the tax receipts and expenditures for the federal government for the past twenty years. This period covers Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama. There was a surplus for a few years in the late 1990’s.

A U.S. Treasury report of May 2008 stated that “Much of the growth during the late 1990s can be attributed to the extraordinary performance of the stock market and its effects on individual income tax receipts”. It further stated that “Capital gains income more than quadrupled between 1994 and 2000. Tax receipts from capital gains realization more than tripled during this period, even though the tax rate on capital gains was reduced beginning in 1997”. As to the increase of taxable income the report stated “Taxable personal income grew faster than GDP during this period. Much of the rise in wages was related to the exercise of stock options and bonus income".

On July 17, 1995 the NASDAQ stock index closed above the 1,000. On March 10, 2000 the index reached a high of 5,132. The NASDAQ bubble of this period under a Democratic President Clinton and a Republican controlled congress contributed significantly to creating a budget surplus. Unfortunately the NASDAQ (DOT.COM) which kept strong receipts flowing into the treasury was destructed by the crash of Bubble Number One. A surplus of any significance was only achieved for a couple of years.

When President Bush took office the budget surplus was already declining. Then the staggering September 11 attacks took place. President Bush and the Congress enacted an emergency tax relief program to attempt to stop the slide in economic activity. The results of those tax cuts are best described in the same Department of Treasury report. The report states: “After 2004, tax revenues again grew faster than the economy. Between 2004 and 2006, capital gains realizations grew by approximately 60 percent. Growth in corporate income tax receipts was especially strong recently, nearly doubling in levels between 2004 and 2007”.

As the economy began to recover bubble number two, the housing market got completely out of control. When this bubble burst the economy was in a free fall. The very large deficit of 2009 and 2010 were caused by a response to Bubble Number Two. Again both Presidents Bush and Obama and the Congress along with the Fed responded very effectively.

Where we sit today our country is still facing double digit unemployment in many areas. Increasing taxes is not supported by official U.S. Treasury commentary. The deficit is not a partisan problem.

Requiring two bubbles to keep this economy in a prosperous state for the last two decades is an unfortunate state of circumstances. The problem is that it’s almost impossible to stop bubbles in free economic democracy. Stay tuned…

WHAT TRUMP (ORIG. ROMNEY) NEEDS TO SAY TO GET ELECTED..(ORIG. PUBLISHED 8/13/12)

I am personally against abortion but if you want an abortion you should be able to get one without any problems. 

Gun Control is like the problem we face with illegal drug use.  It's impossible to keep guns out of the wrong hands completely just like its impossible to believe that illegal drug use will ever go away completely. We should continue to maintain laws that protect the innocent and persecute the guilty in both matters. 

I am not in favor of rich people, poor people or any other particular group, I am only in favor of economic policies that work to make our country better for as many people as possible. 

I am not against Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security, but I am in favor of policies that will make them last permanently.

I won't appease any particular group or interest in order to be elected. 

I am in favor of an education system that raises the accomplishment of a much larger segment of our school populations.  I will find a way to sit down with the top school union representatives and work out a mutually agreeable plan that will get this well on the road during my administration. 

My administration will be color blind, religion blind, gender blind, handicapped blind, minority blind and sexuality blind.  

I will pick people who will do their jobs for all Americans even when decisions create controversy.

I will not run the traditional political play game of buying votes.

I will do the best I can even if I am not elected to a second term if I win the first.

I will not allow Israel or any of our allies to be scapegoated by politics. 

TRUMP -DOES HE HAVE IT CORRECT? ( ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 5/2/14)

It will be easy to criticize me for taking a serious matter and trivializing it.  The Russians are holding some Germans as prisoners.  They obviously don't care what Germany thinks.

Any further discussion of Crimea seems to be over and the Russians have walked off with many millions of people.  Europe has no military clout. It is obvious if Russia decides to reclaim Ukraine there won't be anybody to stop them.  We haven't been able to stop the Syrian situation, the Cuban situation, the Iranian situation, the Venezuelan situation and on and on.

The issue is not about Ukraine; it is does Russia have designs on further incursion into Europe?  If it does, no combination of forces in Europe can stop them.  Putin sees that underneath recovering economies and strong stock markets lies a broad undertone of socialist and populist voting positions.

Russia needs a bigger population and its clear they intend to get one, one way or another. Trade trumps threats.  We lose, they win and the long term is unknown.

Welcome to a Putin's Russia instead of a Gorbachev one.

JOBS...THIS IS A LOSING ROAD (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 11/29/11)

There is nothing new about this. It's old hat, it's sad, it's destructive but it's the real story.

On November 22nd we titled a blog "Stop worrying about Globalization...Start Worrying about Ourself". We can't reiterate the importance of that blog except maybe a bit through the following vignette.

We had to make a change in one of our computer programs. We asked the two young people at the American company's service office operating in the Philippines a number of questions. We knew the answers, but we wanted an update.

Some of the questions were: Did you go to college...yes. How old are you...27. Do you like your job...yes. Is there room for advancement...yes. Would you consider yourself upper, lower or middle class...middle.

These young people remotely scurried through our computers with the agility and talent of a computer PhD which they were not. They spent an hour assisting us on the phone, they were extremely polite and the overall experience, from our point of view, was top notch.

THESE PEOPLE WERE PAID THE EQUIVALENT OF $11,0000 USD PER YEAR. If an American college graduate wanted to do this job they would probably earn $50,000 plus per year. This would be an additional $40,000 paid for the same service. It is one of the main reasons why jobs available to Americans has struggled.

Furthermore, as we have stated over and over again, the largest blocks of the unemployed would have no ability to do these jobs. We can create all the technology jobs we want but the minorities unemployed in this country will not be helped for an awful long time. Not only have we lost our manufacturing ability but we have lost the labor cost differential and its not going to change for a long time.

Just remember if you are a foreign company, the probability of giving these types of jobs to Americans is an extremely low number.

We need a government who will support our people's call for the equalization of unfair cost and currency advantages.

WE WILL ALL BE DEAD BY THE TIME THINGS CHANGE.(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 11/23/11)

Anyone who is against profiling is just plain wrong. If you are looking for a woman you don't stop men. If you are looking for someone who is 7ft. tall and is male you don't stop a 5ft. tall grandmother. If you are looking for blacks, you don't stop whites, and vice versa. Profiling is necessary, prejudice and bias are not. Period, end of subject.
Guns are bad. I'm a registered member of the NRA and have a concealed weapons license, but guns are bad. If we didn't need them they should be outlawed, but we do need them. When the underlying fears of crime, etc. go away, guns will go away. Period, end of subject.
A fetus is a baby the second it's conceived, not three months later. Abortion, equal to the killing of a baby, is obviously a bad thing. Unfortunately, babies are conceived into all kinds of circumstances where they are not wanted by the carrying Mother. Which is worse, forcing a Mother to term or terminating an unwanted baby? This question will never be agreed upon by the opposing opinions. Both sides should choose their own path and moral order. Period, end of subject.
Obviously war and fighting are horrendously bad things but letting your guard down by appeasement or weakness can be even worse. Period, end of subject.
People should be able to practice any sexual activity they want to as long as its between consenting mentally able adults where abuse of either parties is not taking place. Period, end of subject.
Illegal immigrants is another subject that has to be put to rest. Obviously illegal immigration should be stopped or why have the law. If we want these people coming into the country it should be done legally. Aren't we still a country of laws? If we don't want them coming here and doing what they do then we should just face the consequences of higher labor cost especially in food production. Period, end of subject.
The reason I'm writing this is because these are some of the important issues clouding the political agenda. We have more than enough to focus on within education, poverty, sickness, crime and terrorism. Period, end of subject.
When the Democrats talk of special interest groups they forget that the biggest perpetrator of group thinking is our current President followed nose to nose by his Republican opponents. It's time to stop all the baloney as we slide backwards. Period, end of subject.

THE PEOPLE HAVE DECIDED PHASE I - DONALD TRUMP - A MESSENGER OF REALITY OR A RACIST? - YOU DECIDE...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 7/8/15)

The "Merciless Indian Savages" so says the Declaration of Independence.  Hard to find words but in the Declaration, nonetheless.  Were they Savages?  We certainly don't think of the American Indians as 'Savages' today.  If one were to call the current Indian population, "descendants of  savages', immediately the media would outcry that the "speaker" was a racist or a bigot.

All Indians obviously were not "savages", maybe some were.  Maybe even alot were, but not all.

Today the buzz word is immigrants.  We know that there is a vast difference between legal immigrants and illegal immigrants.

Why would it not be obvious that illegal immigration should not be allowed.  If we want illegal immigration just take down the immigration laws.

Change the word immigrants to people.  Change the word immigrants to poor people.

Now the question becomes not  who the people are that are coming to the country illegally but do we want the illegal people.  It's hard for me to believe that Donald Trump is a racist.  It shouldn't matter if the people coming into this country illegally are black, white, yellow,purple or green.  It should matter if we want a country of laws.

I wrote a while ago that PS 73, where I went to school in the Bronx, would act as my anchor for whether significant improvement is occurring in the poorer sections of our country.  A review of the test scores at my old school indicates abject failure among the primarily Black and Hispanic children attending the school. A blight on the system, not the children.

That subject is buried, never really brought out as an unacceptable failure, similar to our inability to deal with the illegal immigration situation effectively.  Seventy years after I left that school, the same old building is where the current children attend.  Donald Trump may have presented very inadequately on the illegal people in and coming into this country.  He certainly has presented us with a challenge to decide if we are a nation that fixes problems or accepts the status quo because of political expediency.

WHEN GETTING RE-ELECTED IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN DOING GOOD FOR THE PEOPLE (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 10/5/11)

In any dialog among or between people, especially in debate or argument, name calling is considered inappropriate. Consequently, although I would like to call our President a liar, I will refrain.

He uses the "inciting" words of let's close the tax loophole. The choice of the word loophole attempts to rally the economically uneducated. There are no loopholes in the tax code.

Charitable deductions are the government's attempt to incentivize contributions to charity. The interest on mortgage deduction is an attempt to incentivize the purchase of homes. (Could you imagine advocating the reduction of an incentive for home purchase under current economic conditions?) The lower rate on capital gains is another incentive for us to invest our savings for the longer term.

There may be a few so called tax incentives (loopholes) that don't serve an economic purpose. These are few and far between. President Obama recently quoted Ronald Reagan. He completely took out of context what President Reagan said. Watch out for Obama. Most of his advocacy is self serving and destructive.

Buzz words like loophole are meant to rally your spirit to vote for him. Look more closely at the impact of his suggestions.

THE LIES POLITICIANS TELL (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 7/11/11)

Public corporations prepare financial statements. One of these statements is generally called an income statement or profit and loss statement.

Simply put, a company first reports revenues, then subtracts its expenses that created those revenues and then reports whats left as pretax profit.

From the pretax profit federal taxes are subtracted. What's left is called Income after government taxes.

This income is generally used for three or four things. One is to pay dividends, since the majority of shares in America are owned by pension funds, mutual funds and individuals, the dividends are paid to the American public. The second thing the money is often used for is to buy back company shares. When this happens the money is paid to selling shareholders who then deposit it in their bank, reinvest it or spend it. Thirdly the money is spent on capital expenditure; putting up plants and buying equipment. Whatever little is left is retained in the corporation in order to maintain more employment and stability for the company.

NOW THE GOVERNMENT COMES ALONG AND SAYS "WE WANT MORE TAXES". TAXES ARE AN EXPENSE LIKE ANY OTHER EXPENSE OF RUNNING A BUSINESS. THE IMMEDIATE REACTION OF THE COMPANY IS TO THINK ABOUT RAISING PRICES OR REDUCING EXPENSES TO OFFSET THE TAX INCREASE, THEREBY REDUCING CONSUMPTION.

THE NEXT THING THAT HAPPENS IS THAT THE MUTUAL FUNDS, THE PENSION FUNDS AND OTHER SHAREHOLDERS RECEIVE LESS, CAPITAL EXPENDITURES ARE REDUCED, EMPLOYMENT IS REDUCED, AND A TAX INCREASE GENERALLY DOES NOTHING BUT ATTEMPT TO TRANSFER MORE MONEY TO THE GOVERNMENT. THE GOVERNMENT CAN THEN HIRE MORE PEOPLE AND MAKE THEM MORE BEHOLDEN AND THEREFORE VOTE FOR THE PARTY THAT RAISED THE TAXES AND PRODUCED NON-GROWTH GOVERNMENT JOBS.

THIS IS CALLED A NEGATIVE CAPITAL FORMATION ENVIRONMENT. IT'S SOMEWHAT MORE COMPLICATED THAN THIS SIMPLISTIC EXPLANATION AND ALTHOUGH IT MAY MAKE THE FINANCIALLY UNEDUCATED FEEL THEY ARE GETTING A FAIR SHAKE, IN REALITY IT DOES THEM MORE HARM THAN GOOD.

THE STANDARD OF LIVING MUST GO UP (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 7/18/11)

Charlie Rose was interviewing Larry Summers. He asked him what steps have to be taken in order to get growth to accelerate.

Mr. Summers listed five points. I thought they were all smart. Then Charlie asked Mr. Summers "What about the social compact the government has with the people?"

It never hit me so clearly as it did that moment, the government is like a corporation, it's just a piece of paper.

So who was he talking about that had this social compact with the people? He couldn't be talking about the government because the government is just a provider of services for which it taxes the people.

BUT IN TODAY'S WORLD, MOST AMERICANS DON'T PAY ANY FEDERAL INCOME TAXES OR PRACTICALLY NONE. THAT LEAVES A SELECT VERY FEW PEOPLE WHO HAVE MADE MONEY AND NOW ARE THE ONES BEING ASKED TO HAVE THIS SOCIAL COMPACT WITH THE PEOPLE.

In other words, if you are successful in American, you are a charity machine to everyone else. The democratic party argued that this approach prevents revolution and allows some people to succeed. The implications of this kind of a society are negative for the masses. A standard of living that hasn't increased for ten or twenty years won't until there is a system where everyone is taxed for those services received thru their "compact with the government". That is one of the things that has to be done to create growth.

BLOG FOR THE DAY...(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 8/14/12)

I said in an earlier blog that the political rhetoric, name calling and class warfare commentaries would inhibit the solving of the problems that exist in our society.

To make this discussion even clearer if someone makes a lot of money they either spend it or invest it. If they build a huge house, their money is transferred to the contractors, brokers, furniture manufacturers, plumbers and everyone else. If they buy stock the money is transferred to the seller, it’s not put under pillows. The same is true for money left to heirs, it circulates through the economic system.

The poorer among us don't want to hear about creating more wealth.  Unfortunately a dynamic, growing, thriving business community is exactly the recipe that will assure an increasing percentage of the population achieve the so called "American Dream".

DISTORTION OF THE TRUTH (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 9/23/11)

There's another crazy article in the New York newspaper where a "ultra liberal" professor, who is very good with words, pontificates about the so called "wealthy Americans pay remarkably little in taxes". He doesn't point out that one of the main reasons may be that they have invested their money in tax free bonds. The tax free nature of the bonds is federal government policy in order to provide lower interest rates to states and municipalities. The low capital gains rate is government policy to increase investments in capital assets and to protect the savings in mutual funds, pension funds, 401ks, etc.

The writer then maliciously claims that Representative Ryan (who I often don't agree with) wants to exempt the very rich from bearing the burdens of taxes. No matter how you slice it, most of the taxes in this country are paid by the successful. In any case, so few people are in the "rich" category one has to ask, why not spend your time figuring out how to make more people rich.

Let's get it straight. No matter who you tax it takes money away from them, reduces their consumption of goods and services and drives the country further downward. Basically the attack on the few rich people increases unemployment and reduces economic activity. The silly writer talks about the top 100th of 1 percent of income distribution and how much their supposed income rose. That number can easily be affected by just a handful of people and is of no consequence. Who cares about the top 100th of 1 percent anyway?

The writer also talks about a sustained attack on organized labor. Its too bad the writer doesn't point out that almost every major industry that's been unionized has been a total catastrophe. The last time I looked organized labor was already causing dysfunction in the auto industry even before it can really recover.

As regards financial deregulation, it had very little to do with the economic disaster of 2008. Government policy, greed and a bubble were more responsible for what occurred.

I won't comment on the rest of this politically, left wing and inaccurate editorial except to tell Elizabeth Warren and the writer of this article that you should both go live in another country, in one bedroom with a shared bathroom. Then you should give the rest of what you have away, so you can pay your share to "fulfill the social contract" that you don't understand in the slightest.