A central bank official quoted by the Wall Street Journal's Steven Russolillo and Andrew Jeong referred to bitcoin as the combination of a bubble, a Ponzi scheme, and an environmental disaster. That trifecta is only a symptom of the frenzied buying of bitcoin in recent months, followed by the somewhat predictable sell-off. Central banks are likely to cut short any attempt to make bitcoin great again. The WSJ writes: “If authorities do not act preemptively, cryptocurrencies could become more interconnected with the main financial system and become a threat to financial stability,” said … [Read more...]
Illinois’ Answer to Saving too Little? Borrow More and Hope
After years of under-funding its state pension programs, Illinois has come up with an idea that can be described as risky at best. Illinois plans to borrow money, and then invest that money, in the hopes of earning more than it must pay back in interest. If you don't see the danger in using money invested in volatile markets to pay fairly predictable pension payments, you're probably an elected official in Illinois. The Wall Street Journal's editorial board highlights something that I have been discussing for years here on YourSurvivalGuy.com (see here, here, here, and here). The … [Read more...]
Media Finally Acknowledges the Best Part of Tax Reform
After months of negative press over the prophesied ill effects of tax reform, the liberal media has come to admit the greatest benefit of all from tax reform: rising wages. The AP wrote today that despite the tax bill being "contentious," workers are starting to take home more pay. Big corporations across America have announced wage increases and bonuses as a direct result of the cut in their corporate tax rates. While some have called these benefits for employees "crumbs," the numbers are really beginning to add up. The AP writes: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has estimated that the new … [Read more...]
Is My Bezos Law About to Hit Healthcare?
I've discussed my Bezos Law before. It's my theory that any industry Jeff Bezos enters will see lower prices. Now, Bezos' Amazon.com and consortium of investors including JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway is about to enter the employee health care market. What does this mean for the future of health care? David Marino-Nachison writes in Barron's Next: When Amazon.com takes concrete, public steps into huge industries—which it did Tuesday, announcing a joint venture to tackle employee health care with JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway—it should make investors blink. But what else … [Read more...]
Could You Ever Make it Back in Bitcoin?
Bitcoin has lost half its value since mid-December. The arithmetic of losses continues to tighten its grip on the late arrivals. … [Read more...]
Connecticut: Big Government Utopia Begins to Crack
After decades of close relationships with the public sector unions working for their towns and cities, mayors are begging to be protected from collective bargaining. With money running out, and undiminished power held by unions, mayors are finally beginning to understand why having powerful public sector unions makes it hard to balance budgets and provide services to citizens. As negotiations have become deadlocked with public unions demanding more from the ailing cities and towns in Connecticut, the mayors are begging state legislators to change the rules to give them more power in … [Read more...]
Illinois is About to Stick its Head Deeper in the Sand
For years Illinois has underfunded its five pension systems. For years I have been waving a red warning flag about the American pension charade (see here, here, here, and here for a small sample), but public pensions are controlled directly or indirectly by politicians. Those politicians don't ever want to subject their constituents to the painful measures it will take to fully fund pensions, and so rather than doing what is necessary to make the systems solvent long term, they place their faith in overly optimistic return assumptions. Illinois is trying one last ditch effort, using the … [Read more...]
Southern States on Tax Cuts: Bring it On!
While high tax Northern states are desperately attempting to find ways around new rules in the tax reform legislation passed at the end of 2017, the South is cheering them on. The problems stem from high state and local income and property taxes in the North that will no longer be fully deductible for federal tax purposes. Meanwhile, in the low tax South, those issues aren't a concern, and a lower federal corporate rate looks great to the states that have made themselves attractive to big employers with Right to Work laws and low state taxation. Cameron McWhirter and Arian Campo-Flores … [Read more...]
It’s Only ‘Safety First’ That Will Make You Money: Part I
Originally posted February 28, 2017. Don't miss Part II and Part III. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, on the heels of releasing his annual report, said, Monday, that the stock market isn’t in a bubble and “measured against interest rates, stocks actually are on the cheap side compared to historic valuations.” In the same interview, he also warned “That doesn’t mean the stock market can’t go down 20% tomorrow.” A buying opportunity he’d welcome with open arms. It’s good to be Warren. It’s funny how life works because, coincidentally, later that day I was speaking with clients who … [Read more...]
A Difficult Phrase to Say: “Enough Already, I’m Retiring”
When a client of mine called it quits from a successful career working for start-up companies in California, he was young enough to keep working, but old enough to realize the cost was too high. He was stressed out, out of shape, out of the country at times, and plain old tired of the endless hours it takes to get a company off the ground. But not having something to do every day can be terrifying and not having a steady paycheck even more so. Sometimes it’s hard to say, “enough already, I’m retiring.” But he did it. He retired. We talked about part-time work and nothing came of … [Read more...]
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