The drive by media has a lot of heart—giving President Trump a hard time about GM (Government Motors) cutting jobs—running headlines that he’s “Angry” and is “Threatening” the company. Talk about inheriting a government disaster. It was the Obama administration’s misguided bailout of the autos in 2008 that lead to this mess to begin with. And it was put on Trump’s plate. An industry reckoning was simply delayed as Obama doled out $11.3 billion to resuscitate—essentially an underfunded pension plan that happens to make cars and trucks—a dying business. And it was under Obama’s watch … [Read more...]
Top Gun: The Fed’s Powell in a Danger Zone
“When we were first starting out our mortgage rate was ten percent, not a two percent adjustable.” --says any parent who bought a home in the 1970s Remember when you understood how the banking system worked? They lent you money, you bought a home, paid them back for what felt like the rest of your life and dreamed of a mortgage burning party. The bank was happy, you had a roof over your head and they spread more money around town. In other words, the fractional banking system worked. Today? Sure, houses are being bought and sold. But who’s really … [Read more...]
The Second Amendment and the Senate’s Most Endangered Man
Doug Jones (D-AL) is likely the Senate's most endangered member. After his unpredictable win against accused child-abuser Roy Moore, Jones entered the Senate holding a set of liberal beliefs in contradiction to the conservative electorate he represents. In a recent interview Jones made an Orwellian hash of the English language by claiming that "he is not for “gun control,” just more gun regulations." Alabama news outlet, Yellowhammer News, reported on Jones' attempts to reconcile his anti-gun beliefs with the pro-rights stance of Alabamans. Sean Ross wrote: When Hammontree, later in the … [Read more...]
Cryptocosm and Life After Google Part IV
You’re witnessing what happens when markets dry-up as shown here with bitcoin (see chart below). I've been warning readers about what George Gilder calls the "cryptocosm." (Read Parts I, II and III). If you have been hitching your wagon to cryptocurrencies, you might have been enduring a rude awakening this week. Steven Russolillo, writing at The Wall Street Journal, calls it bitcoin's "Week from Hell." He explains Now, another worry has emerged: Cryptocurrency miners, the outfits that solve complex equations to generate new digital coins, seem to be losing interest. The amount of … [Read more...]
Camp Fire Mountain Boys
Brad Weldon wasn't about to leave his blind, 90-year old mother behind when the Camp Fire hit, reports the Sacramento Bee. Weldon is one of a small group of self-proclaimed "mountain boys," who have "defied evacuation orders and are surviving on meat stored in their generator-powered freezers, bagged lunches dropped off by PG&E crews and supplies provided by a mysterious band of volunteers that Weldon calls 'the redneck underground.'" Nothing can truly describe the horrors families have faced, and are facing, with the California Camp Fires. One takeaway here for all of us is that if you … [Read more...]
Maximize Your Retirement by Leaving Income Taxes Behind
If you have a solid retirement portfolio, chances are you are paying federal taxes on the income it generates. If you're unlucky enough to live in a state with its own income taxes, you could be paying even more. There is one foolproof way to get more from your retirement revenue streams, and that is to move to a state which doesn't force you to pay taxes on your income. I have written a number of posts on how you can determine where best to live in retirement. Here's a sample: Your Retirement Life: Looking for Tax Freedom? Here’s Where to Find It Your Retirement Life: How Do You … [Read more...]
Your Retirement Life: You Can Keep Working
I've discussed before the threat of working in "retirement" involuntarily because you haven't saved enough, and must rejoin the workforce to make ends meet. (Read Part I, II, III, and IV of my series on How Many “Retirees” Will Keep Working?). Working through your golden years because you can't afford to stop is an unfortunate reality for too many Americans, but there are some people who, for reasons beyond finances, may find working past retirement age beneficial. Some people enjoy the routine and the social interaction of their jobs. For them, living 30 years of retirement with no plans … [Read more...]
Democrats Threaten the Economy
With a host of proposals to hamper economic growth, Democrats could undo all the progress made by the Trump administration. Nancy Pelosi has promised to pass a minimum wage of $15/hour, without regard to the fact that such a move could devastate America's small businesses. Not only that, but the future Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, Maxine Waters, has said the era of regulatory reform for banks has come to an end. So much for expanding credit to America's entrepreneurs. Watch job growth come to a screeching halt if Waters has her way. At The Hill, Alfredo Ortiz … [Read more...]
Stock Markets Scaring Gun-shy Retirees
The common theme I espouse to you here at Your Survival Guy is the elimination of risk and a focus on your margin of safety. Whether the risk be to your personal safety or to your financial portfolio, I want you to focus on preventing negative events from affecting you and your family. After 2008, some retirees and those who were planning to retire understood the dangers of market risk, and began insulating their portfolios against future shocks. They spread out their investments among different asset classes, buying counterbalancers to smooth any market swings. They also began focusing … [Read more...]
Here’s Why Cities Lose by Subsidizing Companies like Amazon
Chris Edwards, the director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, explains that while there will undoubtedly be certain winners in the cities that Amazon decided to open its new headquarters in, there will surely be losers as well. Edwards suggests that "Rather than subsidizing big businesses, the states should aim to create a diverse business ecosystem - an Amazon, if you will - by cutting taxes and regulations for all types of investment." He explains many of the drawbacks of such subsidies in detail, writing: Fairness. With Amazon adding thousands of workers, hiring will be … [Read more...]
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