Recent comments

  • Nope, this is classic Republican behavior as refined and perfected by BushCo. Presents us with a good opportunity to work on the 'Republicans are worse than Terrorists...' meme.

    Think I will do a post on same.

    Reply to: Supporting the Aristocracy: Wall Street Pays Out $70 Billion + in Bonuses   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • This was actually on Minyanville, a Fox affiliated blog and they are making sarcastic episodes on the fact that these CEOS can do anything and walk away with millions each.

    This is super cool because it uses funny with some damning facts.

    Reply to: Supporting the Aristocracy: Wall Street Pays Out $70 Billion + in Bonuses   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Boy, they are just stuffing their pockets before this administration is out the door.

    blogging stocks has a good post.

    Reply to: Supporting the Aristocracy: Wall Street Pays Out $70 Billion + in Bonuses   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • That is absolutely incredible. They have the money to recapitalize and put it in their own pockets.

    Might break down those bonuses further because I sincerely doubt they are spread evenly between employees.

    What's more amazing is how scant attention this will get in the MSM. Nope, just more reasons why they need to squeeze working people even further.

    Reply to: Supporting the Aristocracy: Wall Street Pays Out $70 Billion + in Bonuses   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Maybe you would like to create an account and write up your thoughts as a blog post? This is quite a long, dense comment, deserves more attention and it would get it in a blog post.

    Welcome to EP!

    Reply to: Industrial Output Drops Most in 34 years   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • I've seen a few analysis and they are saying in terms of the middle class they are coming up about even in effective tax rates. Don't quote me because there is a lot of spin.

    and yes I've for a Progressive tax system so it's not like I'm trying to defend the idiotic supply side steal from the poor give to the rich.

    Even amount expert groups I trust I'm seeing a lot of misinformation, probably because details keep changing or other policies aren't added in.

    Here Urban institute and if they say neither one is good or would stimulate the economy, I have a tendency to believe that. Now we have this massive deficit just recently added too.

    Reply to: Obama vs. McCain vs. America on the Economy   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Before the Crisis began, and the beast began to bite, many in the progressive populist group saw the looming crisis and argued for infrastructure. Roubini, economicpopulist.com, manufacture.org, many others foresaw the crisis years ago.

    To end the 'mainstreet crisis', the important questions are:
    - What are the infrastructure projects appropriate for public finance (the private markets are dead for the time being)
    - How should we finance our way out of the worst crisis since the Great Depression?

    The approach is to understand that none of us is smarter than all of us banded together. Welcome to economic democracy. We, the people, will make the first and important decisions, corporations, governments, will follow.

    So what is a concrete plan is capable of implementing economic democracy? Such a plan will allow the people to choose what is the appropriate list of economic infrastructure investments. Next, we will use public finance based upon 'full faith and credit' at first, then, private entities after confidence and success. We have enumerated the investments.

    Let us define investments. We mean those projects with a regular commonly understood, stream of economic benefits ('cash flow'). Let us not intend subsidized government activities such as education, on-going health-care, and other operations of government at local, state, and national level. We need to rebuild means of production, transport, energy, manufacturing. The private means of finance are presently, dysfunctional (to be polite).

    To be diligent, we confine investments in designated projects with secured lending. Taxpayer dollars are at stake. If a worthy project with a significant entity should fail, another player takes over assuming the obligations and facilities. We should include all players, domestic and foreign, willing to invest locally. That principle is not meant as chauvinism, but an international universal. The danger of the balance of payments deficit is enormous.
    An object of INDEREFI is to minimize SWF and foreign source to keep the balance of payments minimal.

    So how do we finance initially? Full faith and credit obligations. Later we can replace public with private finance, such as Mutual Funds, Mutual Insurance, Private Equity and others. Left side of the the balance sheet is infrastricture investments in secured assets. Right side of the balance sheet is full faith and credit obligations of the U.S. and States.

    So where is democracy? People make the choice of individual investments. Dollar investments by US citizens may range from $10 to $10 billion. In all cases, the money goes the to projects chosen by the people. In that sense, we call this democratic. Critics will say that big money has too much say in this approach. I answer that mow they have too much say and nothing contra-cyclical, anti-recessionary gets done. Unless we follow a democratic approach. Critics of the U.S. in Europe say the the U.S is in a 'State Finance Capitalist System'. To that we must answer with a Jeffersonian, democratic, solution, democratic in nature.

    Economic Democracy actuates when the people take control, aport from the state and corporate solutions. State and corporate solutions are parallized by fear. Time for economic democracy is arrived.

    What are examples of projects? Listen to Boone Pickens, McClendon, Paul Krugman, and others. What all good infrastructure project do is to end the energy crisis, stop the balance of trade/payments deficits, create jobs, and ultimately, end the climate crisis. We know we are succeeding when we see Greensburg, Kansas times one thousand from Texas to the Canadian border and west from Texas to California, and again with Appalician Gas.)

    A starting list of projects is what we discussed before. A democratic list will be chosen by the investors in the INDIREFI list of projects.

    This is an incomplete list of choices. Please contribute. The criteria for inclusion is :
    1) job creation 2) trade deficit minimization 3) energy crisis appropriate tech 4) assets kept locally

    First Tier - basic auto component industries-specialty steel, generic microprocessors, copper, aluminum

    Second Tier – fortify and build capacity of Polymer Lithium Batteries, direct solar, wind turbines, specialty steel tubing drilling), and custom microprocessors

    Third Tier – increase cement and non specialty steel capacity
    or highway construction and railroad rolling stock and rail and airport runway and management systems

    Fourth Tier – auto shop floor capacity and automation for building
    next generation automobiles, local financing to utilities for wind turbines, nuclear power, land fill methane, small hydro, co-generation

    Fifth Tier – nanosolar fabrication capacity, next generation wind turbines, advanced vehicle designs and identifiable cutting edge technologies entering production stage but short of capital

    Let the people choose each and every.

    Reply to: Industrial Output Drops Most in 34 years   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • I think there is a distinction to be made that exposing frauds and shills for what they are is different than character asassination. The first is using information and facts to set the record straight , the other is using innuendo, associations, misinformation and the like to diminish credibility.

    With that said, going after Joe is largely a futile excercise with potential backlash consequences.

    My point is that once again, the democrats missed yet another golden opportunity to discredit the right's meme that somehow lower taxes for the wealthy and prosperity are linked (which the last 8 years have proven wrong) and that there was much more shared prosperity and opportunity when taxes were more progressive, as well as hammer home that the wealthy benefit greatly from the privileges and infrastructure the taxpayer provides and therefore have a moral obligation to contribute back to society. Obama once again missed an opportunity big enough to fdrive a truck thru and flubbed instead with a poor choice of words to an obvious shill.

    Reply to: Obama vs. McCain vs. America on the Economy   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • New York Times.

    Appears they were served about a dozen subpoenas. Problem is if Lehman is guilty of giving bogus reports to investors....they should be putting all of 'em in jail, including Standards and Poors.

    I don't know how many CEOs were on CNBC and how many reports were given claiming all was well just about 3 days before they were bailed out, given loans and so on.

    I can't think of any who came out and said "yes we're screwed investors", can you?

    Reply to: Banks admit bailout won't work   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Or at least, not enough to overcome the main problem, which is that thesame people who lied to us to get us into this mess are still in the same positions of power.

    It might grant us a respite, but it will be a *brief* respite, and the basic problem (that the world's production to debt ratio is smaller than any reasonable collective interest rate for bad debt) is still in existence.

    Reply to: Why the recession *should be* ending   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • yup

    Robbing the coffers directly and of course nothing will trickle down. What is even more frightening is how Congress and the two Presidential candidates said this was all good! Then, twists of all twists, it's McCain who is calling for a HOLC, not Obama! and that's straight up New Deal method to refinance bad mortgages so people don't get foreclosed on...

    so how many twists and turns can this scam have?

    Reply to: Banks admit bailout won't work   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Just unreal, unreal.

    the only good news today is an analyst just recommended shorting Manpower because they are 90% in overseas markets, plus a 3rd party wedge between employer and employee. (they deal in trading people and taking profits off of the backs of workers and they deal in global labor arbitrage).
    A better target for the shorters, well anything from this category is good in my view.

    Even more stupid is they are recommending open borders so those immigrants will buy up the supply of houses.

    Just ridiculous, this CNBC idiots specifically mention we should wage repress by manipulating immigration policy and also want create a flood of new immigration so they can be the new suckers to prop up the housing market and keep the ponzi scheme going.

    Just completely clueless that wage repression means no one can afford the homes and prices going up simply cannot be sustained.

    No mention of US workers, a production economy, making things, increase of middle class wages/salaries...not a word.

    What universe do these people live in? We really need to offshore outsource stock analysts on CNBC so they might just get a little clue on the real economy.

    Reply to: Wall Street bailout causes mortgage rates to rise   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • really? Because of the massive deficit, increase in money supply.....hmmmmm....(this is for the 2009 projection).

    Then on oil, it's in free fall but here comes OPEC moving up their meeting, planning (I guess) on cutting production, shooting for $80/barrel, although due to overall global economic slow down there are many who debate they can do that....I think they probably can. I also appears that hedge funds are dumping assets right and left due to their own losses, which supposedly is affecting commodities right now. so to me at least, but I'm certainly not an expert, it seems like the deflationary argument has a lot of counters.

    On your just in time for the election on this one I would not be surprised!

    (yeah people are going to read this post and think you're nuts, but probably miss your respite point which I don't think is so nuts)

    Reply to: Why the recession *should be* ending   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Boy, talk about no information, including the supposed non-partisan tax analysis sites ....I could not find a comparison contrast on sole proprietorship, S-corp, LLC., C-corp to save my soul.

    It does appear that Obama will effectively raise the self-employment tax and that is a real problem.

    While one might have self-employment taxes on net income of a business, there are further deductions one gets as an individual, but the employment tax is figured on the net income of that business. So, raise that and we have a real problem in terms of increasing taxes on small business, esp. those who use cash based accounting.

    This is a 1st pass but it does appear to potentially raise taxes over 50% margins on these types of businesses and that's due to increased taxes on social security and medicaid, which small business pays 100% FICA on. (when you're a W-2, you split that with your employer).

    This is a TBD, I'm not a tax expert, hoping to find some answer out there and frankly the non-partisan groups are not doing their job on small business tax entities and how it all works. Yuck.

    Anybody else find analysis feel free to post but it must be about the effective self-employment tax rates, not individual income taxes that we're looking for.

    If he passes this stuff I will do a C-corp, start a "Side business" with some sort of capital gains or try to turn something into capital gains if it has a zero tax rate, sell stock to myself, try to find some sort of pass-through..so I imagine tax havens will be the new booming business.

    Bottom line, business taxes are not at all the same as individual taxes and they are very complex, all sorts of deductions, one can play games with retirement fundings...but not accurate to give percentages of the numbers or raw numbers...would be more accurate in terms of analysis by number of employees and actual wages of those employees and just how much is part of GDP as well.

    but comparing this by raw percentages or trying to apply personal income tax rates to this is not valid.

    Reply to: Obama vs. McCain vs. America on the Economy   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • I'm sorry but going after Joe the Plumber is just absurd. There are 1 million guys just like him out there, all with their foreclosures, tax liens, not licensed or whatever...

    the main issue he was going after, which is coming from the Populist right....are taxes on small business...so instead
    of really explaining that issue, which is assuredly different from personal income taxes...

    they are out to character assassinate this one guy...
    when there are over 1 million guys just like him.

    It would be much better to see an objective comparison contrast on effective tax rates on Sole Proprietor, LLC, S-corp, C-corp where employees < 10 and gross receipts < 500k versus just trying to character assassinate some guy out there...who is just like us (but right leaning), who just happened to get on TV...asking some real questions.

    Character assassination is selective. If Joe the Plumber was an illegal immigrant, getting a home loan, working in an underground economy with a stolen identity or fake one, working as a plumber with no license, or an electrician with no license....registered to vote....
    Lord knows anyone who pointed out that would be called a racist.....

    Reply to: Obama vs. McCain vs. America on the Economy   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Just saw this article:

    - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating a Pennsylvania school district's derivative trades with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley that paid at least $8 million in fees to the banks and advisers.

    The Bethlehem Area School District received a request from regulators in Washington last month for records on interest-rate swaps it entered into with the Wall Street banks, said Don Spry, the school district's solicitor. He said the SEC sought the records as part of a broader examination.

    ``Bethlehem's not the only one,'' he said. ``I understand they are doing it to a lot of other governmental entities.''

    What were schools doing in derivatives trades in the first place and check out the fees.

    Does this just sound completely odious to you? Seriously what is a school district even doing in the derivatives market?

    The racket is explained:

    The derivatives sold to school districts are known as interest-rate swaps, in which two parties agree to exchange periodic payments whose amounts are based on an underlying bond issue. The contracts are usually paired with municipal bonds whose interest rates are reset sometimes daily. The derivatives are designed to protect customers against the risk of higher interest rates, though they also can be used to speculate on movements in global lending rates.

    Reply to: The Evil Doers of the Financial Crisis   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • More and more is coming out about Joe the plumber

    he is not licensed plumber, and his boss says the business is not for sale. He is also a regular caller on the local RW radio

    My grampa was a union plumber/pipefitter in Toledo - this is a reliably democratic constiuency.

    Looking moire and more like a shill as the reports come out.

    Joe is a living "straw man" creating a hypothical (and therefore unprovavable) argument to then knock down to prove the agenda

    Reply to: Obama vs. McCain vs. America on the Economy   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • means your business taxes and personal are one and the same. But one would have gross income and then write off business operating expenses, payroll and so on.

    The same is true for a pass through LLC. If one owner, those have a self-employment tax which is double than W-2 taxes.

    Found a good comparison table.

    Self-employment tax is required on Sole Proprietor, LLC and is 15.3%....so that's on your net business income and you would have additional income tax on your personal income, but you get to subtract half of the self-employment tax from what is owed on personal income.

    Hit > 105k a year and it's time to incorporate or do something different because the tax bill goes way up.

    They are not being clear here I agree, but it's really complex and one can incorporate, do a LLC, S-corp, all sorts of things for tax purposes...

    but in terms of Obama trying to claim a zero capital gains is going to help "small business", that's only for C corps, then qualifying for a small business AND they have to issue stock...

    now I don't know the statistics but Mom & Pop electrical contractors as far as I know are not busy issuing stock for their C corp.

    VCs, private equity, start ups would possible qualify as small business stock but hello....let's have Dot Con 3.0 if there are zero capital gains on such stuff...

    Mom & Pop or Joe the Plumber even if they have a good accountant are simply not running around selling shares in their C-corp and holding them for 5 years.

    Odds are they are a Sole Proprietor, a LLC or something along these lines.

    Im not an expert on taxes but private stock issues are a huge deal for startups, VCs, private equity, hedge funds.

    Not Joe the Plumber.

    Reply to: Obama vs. McCain vs. America on the Economy   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • That this is actually somewhat reasonable- and I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear, going forward, of international waters piracy increasing. Hit the right ships, and there's an awful lot of "international water" outside of the shipping lanes to anchor your ill gotten gains in. You'd have almost all the consumer goods Americans are used to, and the seized ships themselves make pretty darn good housing- a place to go for the millions of people who are going to end up homeless from this crash.

    Reply to: Piracy in Somalia threatens international trade   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:
  • Where is the original data because attributing 2% to Hurricanes...I just do not buy it, the region just wasn't that badly affected.

    historical data for Industrial Production, capacity, total industry.

    Look at 2008,-2.8, yet in all of 2006 or at any time is there such a sudden spike down like this....

    So, how can Gustav be the cause when we had Katrina, Rita in 2006?

    Reply to: Frightened consumers have stopped spending   16 years 2 weeks ago
    EPer:

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