(Dan here…I missed this piece by AB contributor Linda Beale, January 28, 2020. There are a few more) by Linda Beale at ataxingmatter (https://ataxingmatter.blogs.com/) Everybody’s Talkin’ ‘Bout Taxes–especially Wealth Taxes and Mark-to-Market of Capital Gains Not surprisingly for those of you who are members of the ABA Tax Section, there is a meeting of that group next week in Florida when a thousand tax lawyers (give or take a few)...
Read More »Impacting Oil Pricing with SPR Oil Releases
Commenter and Blogger RJS at Focus on Fracking and MarketWatch 666 brought up the past history of US SPR oil releases and the impact on oil prices in the Comments section. Since 1990, each time releases (SPR) have been made, there has been a countering reduction of oil by OPEC which could include Russia this time. Taken from Tyler Durbin’s Zero Hedge post entitled “Saudis, Russians Consider Pausing Oil Production Increases In Retaliation To...
Read More »Now *that’s* good news: another blockbuster real retail sales report
Now *that’s* good news: another blockbuster real retail sales report Yesterday I wrote that the financial and production sides of the economy still looked very positive and that today’s retail sales number would be especially important. Well, they were very positive, clocking in at up 1.7% month over month in October. Even after inflation, “real” retail sales were up 0.7%. September was unrevised. Although real retail sales are down -2.2% from...
Read More »Essential Freight
Seldom do we get the chance to build something the way it should be. For the internet, the first chance was back in the 1990s. Not enough was known then. We’ve learned a lot the hard way since. Let us begin our design by asking, “How best to utilize the internet?” It is apparent that everyone needs, should have basic access. Access on the order of that afforded by the U. S. Postal Service all the years. Like the Postal Service over all the years,...
Read More »Three reasons for the decline in Biden’s (and Democrats’) popularity
Three reasons for the decline in Biden’s (and Democrats’) popularity Dan Guild follows presidential approval closely and uses it to model election outcomes, including State level as well as Congressional and Senate races. He’s been very consistent, and very good. For the past several months, his hair has been on fire about a real decline in Biden’s approval ratings, for example, here. He is particularly concerned about the big decline among...
Read More »Three reasons for the decline in Biden’s (and Democrats’) popularity
Three reasons for the decline in Biden’s (and Democrats’) popularity Dan Guild follows presidential approval closely and uses it to model election outcomes, including State level as well as Congressional and Senate races. He’s been very consistent, and very good. For the past several months, his hair has been on fire about a real decline in Biden’s approval ratings, for example, here. He is particularly concerned about the big decline among...
Read More »September 2021 Income and Outlays Report
September Personal Income Fell 1.0%, Spending Rose 0.6%, PCE Price Index Up 0.3%; Savings Rate Lowest Since December 2019, Commenter and Blogger RJS, MarketWatch 666 Friday’s release of the September Income and Outlays report was concurrent with the GDP release on Thursday, and all the PCE data in the 3rd quarter GDP report we just covered actually originated with this report . . . and like that GDP report, all the dollar values reported here...
Read More »3rd Quarter GDP Grew at 2.0% as Real Final Sales of GDP Ticked Lower
Commenter and Blogger RJS, Marketwatch 666, 3rd Quarter GDP Grew at 2.0% Rate even as Real Final Sales of GDP Ticked Lower Our economy grew at a 2.0% rate in the 3rd quarter, quite a bit slower than the growth rate of the second quarter, as increasing consumer outlays for services, greater nonresidential fixed investment, and inventory improvement were offset by decreasing consumer outlays for durable goods, shrinking residential investment, lower...
Read More »Democrats Introduce Plan to Fix Social Security
“Democrats Introduce Plan To Fix Social Security, the way we fixed the cat,” Commenter and Social Security Expert Dale Coberly assesses the latest plan coming out of Washington DC “Congress has a new plan to fix Social Security. How it would change benefits,” CNBC in the House. Dale was one of the creators of the Northwest Plan which was submitted to Congressman DeFazio who sent Dale Coberly’s Northwest Plan to the Social Security Administration –...
Read More »My Big Picture
My Big Picture It’s a Sunday (Dan here…I put this up late), and it’s been a while since I put up some generalized thoughts on where we are, so let’s update. I’ll go in order of my optimism on the economy, COVID, and the political situation. The economy I am pretty happy about the place the economy is in right now, and for the near term future. Yes, we have inflation and supply chain issues, but we always have issues. And Q3 GDP will...
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