Global Economy Bursting?

[Randolph Kinney]

Central Banks Unanimously Prefer Gold Over Paper

(Despite what Bernanke says,) all of the world's foremost experts on "money" are showing a 100% preference for one kind of money: gold. The message from the world's central bankers is absolutely unequivocal: only chumps would choose to hold paper over gold; and The only reason why the world's central banks have shown no interest in silver is because inventories have been decimated to such an extreme (more than 90% lower than 15 years ago) that (relative to gold) there is no silver for the central banks to start hoarding.

 

[Restrain]

Comment on "Gang of Six" plan for the Debt Ceiling. This includes a reduction or removal of the mortgage deduction, removal of "loopholes" and increased taxes, while setting up a "committee" to reduce spending. The problem is that no Congress can, by law, restrict the actions of a future Congress. This can only be done by a Constitutional Amendment (very high hurdle).

So, the end result is a minimal reduction in spending, $1.5T in new taxes, and no controls on future spending. And the thing is, this is likely to be the final bill.

 

[EDWARD BERRY]

We Get Heirloom Seeds Also.
Fr Watering, Try The Flat Tape Drip System, Under Plastic Or Newspaper.

We Still Get Normal Garden Plants 4/$1.00, (not Wal-mart)i Cannot Watch Them For That.

I Do Grow The Exotics At The Office=takes Alot Of Labor.

Ed

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Comment on "Gang of Six" plan for the Debt Ceiling. This includes a reduction or removal of the mortgage deduction, removal of "loopholes" and increased taxes, while setting up a "committee" to reduce spending. The problem is that no Congress can, by law, restrict the actions of a future Congress. This can only be done by a Constitutional Amendment (very high hurdle).

So, the end result is a minimal reduction in spending, $1.5T in new taxes, and no controls on future spending. And the thing is, this is likely to be the final bill.

One little important change - the CPI index is modified for Social Security, diminishing the COLA. I wonder if that would aslo apply to all indexing like the tax brackets?

 

[Randolph Kinney]

City in Rhode Island Asks Retirees to Sacrifice

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/20/us/20centralfalls.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23

CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. — The retirees came from near and far, gathering in a muggy auditorium here to listen to an urgent pitch: give back a big chunk of your pension or risk losing it all. This city of 19,000 is broke and headed for bankruptcy. Prichard, Ala. stopped paying retirees in 2009 after its pension fund ran out of money.

Now add the proposed CPI modification to reduce any COLA.

 

[Austin]

The irony of all this is that the people who will suffer the most are the ones that elected the idiots that did this to them and the same sheeple are still voting for them. I am convenced that the government knows it is insolvent and is doing a slow burn to ease back into the dark ages. That way the people will be docile and not put up a fight.

 

[Couch Potato]

Comment on "Gang of Six" plan for the Debt Ceiling. This includes a reduction or removal of the mortgage deduction, removal of "loopholes" and increased taxes, while setting up a "committee" to reduce spending. The problem is that no Congress can, by law, restrict the actions of a future Congress. This can only be done by a Constitutional Amendment (very high hurdle).

So, the end result is a minimal reduction in spending, $1.5T in new taxes, and no controls on future spending. And the thing is, this is likely to be the final bill.

It does not increase tax rates, but lowers them to increase revenue. Think Ronald Reagan. If you currently make $100K and pay $20K in taxes, but due to changes in the law you now make $150K and pay $25K in taxes did the law increase or decrease your taxes? :new_all_coholic:

 

[Riick]

It does not increase tax rates, but lowers them to increase revenue. Think Ronald Reagan. If you currently make $100K and pay $20K in taxes, but due to changes in the law you now make $150K and pay $25K in taxes did the law increase or decrease your taxes?

Depends on what that $125k net net net will buy.
I used to be able to buy a 4-door Porsche, an have enough left over for a really nice cruise on $80k net, but now, in 2015, $125k only buys me a VW 4-door Jetta A5, and not even a Chickin'-Flickin 2-day cruise to nowhere.

.

 

[Couch Potato]

Do do the partisan knee jerk.

Depends on what that $125k net net net will buy.
I used to be able to buy a 4-door Porsche, an have enough left over for a really nice cruise on $80k net, but now, in 2015, $125k only buys me a VW 4-door Jetta A5, and not even a Chickin'-Flickin 2-day cruise to nowhere.

.

And if the same economic changes occurred under the old rate...

You make $100K and are able to deduct $6K in mortgage interest (we will even assume you get the full benefit because you have enough deduction to itemize without the mortgage interest, which is rare) with a 30% tax rate. The mortgage interest deduction is eliminated and the rate is lowered to 28%. Are your taxes lowered or raised?


(For those that struggle with math thirty percent of sixty is eighteen and two percent of one-thousand is twenty.)



Lowering tax rates is not a tax increase just because it invariably increases revenue.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

the people who will suffer the most are the ones that elected the idiots

For city managers who were having pension growing pains as early as the 1990s the real question is why were they giving out big pensions so freely in the first place except to grease their own wheels? I am really getting sick of this "kick the can down the road" statement that is absolutely worn out on TV. I bet you hear that term 40 times on Bloomberg, FoxBiz, or CNBC every day.
But nothing describes what managers and pols were doing for 20 years before Depression 2.0..(and this is a DEPRESSION - a long term recession) better than shoving the problem off into the future in some vain hope that the economy would improve and the tax base improve to the point that tax takes could cover pension commitments.
I blame the pols no more than the voters and the non-voters who sought to get our government involved in everything in the world. Stop and think....Did the world come to an end in the 1960s because we didn't have an EPA?? or an Energy Department? How much does those departments cost? The Dept of Education. What does it do except impose unfunded mandates upon the states? And just how much has it really helped....now. Try to get rid of them. It won't happen.
We have snowplows in the South for the infrequent snow storms. And 363 days a year those plows sit and rust. It costs thousands of dollars for just outfit the trucks for the plows. We have taxpayer funded signs promoting who picked up the trash. What private business is nearby. What private motel or restaurant is nearby. We pay for stoplights that are there only because some big box store built there.
In my county we have two dog catchers at least and I bet they haven't caught 2 dogs all week...all because someone demanded that even farm dogs be penned. And that hasn't happened. And a few weeks ago a pit bull attacked someone anyway. WE have a fire marshall that used to declare a burn ban anytime it wasn't raining every day. We've been droughty for a month and we are the only county around that hasn't declared a ban...go figure. And constantly constantly the fire marshall is begging for new tax money to fund advanced rescue techniques, fire equipment, etc.
That's why this country is overburdened with debts. Look as licensing. We've collected a lot of money from appraisers. We have a director and staff that are paid salary, benefits, and retirement...for ever. The appraisers pay the cost of the agency but not the state bennies...and did it stop a financial crisis? nada.