Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and HAPPY NEW YEAR to all !
This short video was sent to me by a friend a couple of years ago
It really resonated with me, so I like to share it at Christmas time.
… back with you after the New Year
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click picture to launch ( best with audio on)
There’s spin … and then there’s dizzying spin.
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I like to tune in to MSNBC to get a sense of what the far left is saying … and, for pure entertainment value.
To say the least, I was surprised that a constantly looped headline following Trump’s signing of the tax reform package was:
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I had to scratch my head: What Obama tax cut?
At first, I assumed that they might be referring to Obama’s billion-dollar stimulus program which gave a dollar-a-day Tax Credit ($400 per worker and $800 per couple) in 2009 and 2010.
Nope.
Here’s what they were talking about …
Will Amazon Prime be next?
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You had to know that this one was coming.
According to Bloomberg:
“Using someone else’s credentials to stream for free will soon be a $10 billion problem for pay-TV companies.”
Apparently, the problem isn’t just a matter of sharing passwords across extended families.
There’s reportedly a thriving market for passwords-to-buy (at deep discounts, of course) or password swapping (I give you my NFL password and you give me your HBO password).
And, the problem has reached epic proportions: as many as “30,000 simultaneous streams from a single account.”
So, what is the cable industry going to do about it?
… and still, nobody seems to be talking about it.
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Now that the tax reform package is in the books, I should be elated, right?
But, I’m quite ambivalent.
On the plus side, I do think that the stock market will stay el fuego.
Selfishly speaking, that dwarfs all of the negatives.
But …
And. my biggest concern is the long-run tilt in voting dynamics. Tax cuts will no longer have any campaign whallop.
Why?
Remember Mitt Romneys ill-timed observation about “47% of Americans”.
No, they weren’t deplorables, they were simply the folks who pay no Federal income taxes.
Well if the GOP tax plan goes through, the 47% will be be alive .. and well … and growing.
Let’s start with some data…
Marist Poll releases 2017 list … mine wasn’t on it.
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Every year, the Marist Poll conducts a survey to ID the word that most annoys Americans.
For the 9th consecutive year, this year’s winner: ‘whatever…’.
According to the folks at Marist, ‘whatever’ first gained infamy about 20 years ago in the movie Clueless.
Here are the runners-up and my pick ….
You might have missed this in the flurry on news last week…
President Trump issued an Executive Order redirecting NASA’s mission:
The directive I am signing today will refocus America’s space program on human exploration and discovery.
It marks a first step in returning American astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972, for long-term exploration and use.
This time, we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprints — we will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars, and perhaps someday, to many worlds beyond — and bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities.
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I know what you must be thinking: What’s newsworthy about that … hasn’t that been NASA’s mission all along?
Nope.
President Trump’s Executive Order reverses former-President Obama’s marching orders for NASA.
In case memories have faded, let’s flashback to 2010 ….
Gomer Pyle observes: Surprise, surprise, surprise.
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MSM is taking great delight reporting polls that show a near- majority of opposing the emerging GOP tax plan.
Some polls have the opposition as high as 55%.
USA Today reports that 48% oppose it and explains:
“53% of those surveyed predict their own families won’t pay lower taxes as a result of the measure.”
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Let’s unpack the survey results ….
Experts say that’s too hot … not “flavor optimal”
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Taste research conducted by Sydney Wine Academy and Taylors Wines observes that most people drink red wine at room temperature … and, concludes that’s to hot.
Conversely, most people serve white wine too cold for optimum flavor.
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Here’s the logic …
The WSJ and FT disagree on the impact. I disagree with both.
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Let’s start with some background …
Currently, when a company earns money abroad, it’s taxed in the local jurisdiction where it’s earned … and then the Feds collect U.S. income taxes when the company brings the cash associated with the earnings back to their U.S. accounts.
Most folks agree that represents punitive double taxation.
So, companies tend to keep the cash associated with offshore earnings parked offshore … deferring U.S. income taxes as long as possible.
Currently, the 50 top overseas cash holders have almost $1 trillion parked outside the U.S.
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The GOP tax plan moves towards “territorial taxation” … meaning that U.S. companies will only be taxed in the jurisdiction where money is earned.
That makes complete sense to me.
The GOP tax plan also includes a one-time “deemed repatriation rate” on earnings now held abroad … that rate is proposed to be 14% to 14.49% … lower than the current corporate rate of 35% or the proposed rate of 20%.
Why not a deemed repatriation rate of zero?
I guess the logic is that the current stockpiles of offshore cash were earned under the old double taxation rules … so the companies “owe” the Feds around 35% … offering a deemed rate of 14% roughly splits the difference between 35% and zero.
Here’s were things get interesting …
Looks like it might just be rich folks paying their fair share.
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Everybody knows that tax-payers in liberal-leaning states (CA, NY, NJ, MA, CT) will get hit the hardest when the GOP plan to eliminate the SALT (state & local taxes) deduction is disallowed.
And, everybody has probably heard Chuckie Schumer whine about how New Yorkers toss more into the government coffers than they get back.
The Rockefeller Institute of Gov’t pulled together those 2 observations into an interesting (albeit a bit complicated) chart.
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Let’s decode the chart …
The vertical axis basically indicates if a state puts a low or high SALT burden on its residents.
The horizontal axis indicates if a state’s Balance of Payments with the Feds is positive (to the left) or negative (to the right). That is, does the state get back from the Feds (in goods and services) more or less that its residents pay in Federal taxes.
For example, Hew York is in the upper right quadrant.
Chuckie is right: New York (a high SALT state) pays more to the Feds than it gets back.
Maryland and Virginia are in the upper left quadrant: residents pay high SALT but get more back from the Feds than they pay in Fed taxes.
All of which illuminates a couple of interesting points …
CNN goes from the sublime to the ridiculous.
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MSM reporting has had a bad couple of weeks …
Off the top of my head:
Now, CNN has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Yesterday, a mere hour after the Port Authority bombing, CNN started headlining another breaking news story.
Source: TownHall.com
Note that the times on the 2 screen shoots are identical … then glance at the headlines.
Fox was still on the bombing story.
CNN, not so much.
They were reporting leaked information that President Trump drinks up 12 Diet Cokes every day … and, on the campaign trail, would often down a couple of Big Macs every day.
They failed to present some exculpatory evidence: To keep his svelte physique, Trump doesn’t eat the Big Mac’s buns.
You just can’t make this stuff up …
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Here’s a simple online calculator that rudely awakened me.
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My son who admonished me to “stop calling it a tax cut until you run your numbers” … I finally did run my numbers.
For me — a discounted-rate college prof – my Federal income taxes will go up about 30%.
Whoa, Nelly.
What’s going on?
The key drivers: (1) loss of personal exemptions ($4,050 times 2) (2) non-deductibility of state income taxes (Virginia has turned purple with a Dem governor) and (3) loss of 1/3 of my local real estate taxes (assuming the House version that still allows $10,000).
The alleged reduction in rates doesn’t offset those deductions lost.
Nuts.
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If you want to see what the likely impact will be on you, pull out the first couple of pages of your 2016 tax return so you can plug a few numbers into the CALCXML online tax calculator.
Here’s an example for a family of 4 – husband, wife, 2 kids under 18 … filing jointly … $150,000 combined income … no “unearned investment income” (dividends & capital gains which get taxed at a preferential rate) … $500,000 mortgage @ 4% …. $5,000 local real estate taxes .
click for CalcXM’s online tax calculator
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And, the answer is …
According to the Census Bureau’s “American Community Survey” …
The five richest counties in the United States are all suburbs of Washington, D.C.
Loudoun County, VA tops the list … the median household income there is $125,672.
As a benchmark, the median household income in the U.S. $55,322.
Following close behind Loudoun are:
New York, New Jersey and California have a total of 8 counties on the top 20 list.
Here’s the full list …
Some pillars of management theory are weakening.
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Interesting article in The Economist asserts that “business gurus have lost touch with the world they seek to rule” and that “management theory is ripe for a reformation, especially at Business schools — the cathedrals of capitalism.”
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More specifically, the author argues that: “Management theories are organized around four basic ideas, repeated ad nauseam in every business book you read or business conference you attend, that bear almost no relation to reality.”
Here are some snippets on those four disputable basic ideas …
Answer: Probably a majority of Alabama voters.
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Have you noticed what’s been happening in the Alabama Senate race?
Note that – after a couple of weeks of losing poll numbers – creepy old Roy Moore has pulled back into the lead.
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Let’s dissect the numbers a bit …
To win Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski’s vote on the tax reform bill, a provision was slipped in to open part of the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. Source
Though the provision hasn’t got much coverage, I suspect that it will eventually cause an uproar.
To prep HomaFiles readers, we thought it would be a good time time to reprise a HomaFiles blast-from-the-past …
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According to Jonah Goldberg, writing in the National Review Online:
Both the New York Times and Washington Post editorial boards enthusiastically supported drilling in ANWR in the late 1980s.
The Post noted that the area “is one of the bleakest, most remote places on this continent, and there is hardly any other where drilling would have less impact on surrounding life. . . . ”
ANWR is roughly the size of South Carolina …
However, the area where, according to Department of Interior estimates, some 5.7 billion to 16 billion barrels of recoverable oil reside is much smaller and … would amount to the size of Dulles airport.
Tempted to vacation there? Keep reading …
An interesting question posed in a WSJ commentary …
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Answer: We’d be in deep yogurt … and it just wouldn’t be an inability to drive to an unfamiliar destination.
To that point, according to the Department of Homeland Security has identified “18 Critical Infrastructure and Key Resource sectors” … and, 15 of the 18 are GPS-reliant.
That makes sense since the satellite-based Global Positioning System was built primarily for U.S. military ops and then repurposed to civilian applications air traffic control, weather monitoring and precise time-synchronization.
For background, according to NASA:
The Global Positioning System is a United States space-based radionavigation system that helps pinpoint a three dimensional position to about a meter of accuracy (for example latitude, longitude and altitude) and provide nano-second precise time anywhere on Earth.
GPS is currently comprised of a constellation of 24 US government satellites flying in six orbital planes … circling about 12,550 miles above the Earth … monitored by an extensive network of land-based receiving stations.
So, what’s our Plan B if the satellite-based GPS system goes down?
… and, why isn’t it part of the tax reform conversation?
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I’ve been scratching my head over what the Senate & Congress are going after under the “tax reform” umbrella … and, what are being treated as sacred cows.
For example, the deductions for mortgage interest and state & local taxes are on the chopping block … but the biggest “Federal tax break” according to Simpson-Bowles and the Pew Foundation is the tax-free status of employer-paid health insurance.
Real tax reform would put employer-paid health insurance under a microscope: it’s clearly compensation that should be recorded on W-2s and taxed at ordinary income tax rates, right?
And, the loophole creates a severely unlevel playing field.
Think of the small business owner (or his employees).
They have to buy their health insurance with after-tax dollars …
That’s not fair, is it?
Before you hit me with the “healthcare is different (and untouchable)” argument, consider this:
The Homa Files 