If Bill Gates and Warren Buffett make about 5% on dividends and 5% oncapital gains on about $100 billion, did they stop by the White Houseto thank Obama for giving them what could be an extra $1,477,351,600over 2 years, by charging America’s children about $1,600 a piece?

President Obama met with Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett
in the Oval Office this morning.

...During the visit, they also discussed ideas for growing the economy
and making America more competitive including investment in education
to better prepare the next generation
and investing in innovative areas with opportunity for growth.

USA Today

If Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are worth about $100 billion,
and make about $10 billion per year between long term capitol gaines and dividend interest
could they save about $1,477,351,600 over two years if Obama’s Tax Deal passes?

…….……………………….…………..…Tax Cuts Extended…………….Tax Cuts Expired

Dividends and LT Capital Gains………..$10,000,000,000…………………$10,000,000,000?

Tax Liability……………………………….…..$749,741,250 ……….$1,488,417,050?

Average Tax Rate………………………………..14.99%…………………..……. 29.77%?

$749,741,250 – $1,488,417,050 = about $738,675,800 x 2 years = about $1,477,351,600?

Tax Plan: Tax Cuts Extended vs. Tax Cuts Expired    
Tax Year:  2011
AMT Patch:  AMT Patch in effect

Tax Calculator

 

If about 1,699,000 US households make more than $250,000,
and their portion of the tax cuts cost $120 billion
are America’s elected leaders
about to charge everyone’s kids $1,600 each
to give Bill Gates and Warren Buffett about $1,477 billion?

$120,000,000,000 / 75,000,000 Kids = $1,600 per American Child?

If Michael Bloomberg made 5% per year on $20 billion, and paid half his taxes on long term capital gaines and half on dividend interest, will he "earn" an extra $295 million over the two years with Obama’s Tax Deal?

"President Barack Obama should tell Democrats angered by his compromises with Republicans

on extending tax cuts to “suck it up,” New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

“He says, ‘Look, this is what I did, this is the best I can do. Suck it up,’” Bloomberg said,

when asked how Obama should deal with Democrats angered by the tax measure

and other compromises with Republicans."

Molly Peterson and Gopal Ratnam

If Michael Bloomberg is worth about $20 billion,
and makes about $1 billion per year on long term capitol gaines and dividend interest
could he save about $295,470,320 over two years if Obama’s Tax Deal passes?

.......…………….............…………..…Tax Cuts Extended…………….Tax Cuts Expired

Dividends and LT Capital Gains...........$1,000,000,000…………………$1,000,000,000?

Tax Liability…………………................…..$149,948,250 ………………….$297,683,410?

Average Tax Rate………........................…..14.99%……………….....……. 29.77%?

$297,683,410 – $149,948,250 = about $147,735,160 x 2 years
= about $295,470,320?

Has everything happened the way you think it did?

You are so intent that you believe
only what you believe that you believe
that you remain utterly blind to what you really believe
without believing that you believe it

Orson Scott Card

Would you rather be happy
or know?

You take the blue pill
the story ends
you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe

You take the red pill
you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes

Morpheus
The Matrix

If there were thousands
of relatively independent media companies in the mid 1900’s
~50 by the 1980’s
and less than 10 after 2000
mostly owned by conglomerates with conflicting interests
dependent on legislative initiatives for regulatory concerns
and advertisers and political campaigns for profit
is most mainstream information relatively more objective or less?

Power in America…
is control of the means of communication

Theodore White
Political Journalist

Did the founding fathers want the communications industry
to keep an eye on the government for the people
or an eye on the people for the government?

Could some who follow statistical irregularities, take advantage of relative unawareness of the many, prior to collective realization?

There’s been some suggestions that the payrolls report

had been distorted by the way the Bureau of Labor Statistics

accounts for business births and deaths

 

There’s been talk that the birth/death model

 a little-noted detail in the monthly report

 came in with a huge statistical discrepancy for this month

 effectively adding as many as 220,000 jobs to the reading

 

In a conference call with reporters, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis

...insisted the BLS number was correct

 and that no changes would be needed

 

Market Reaction Hints At False Note In Jobs Report

Bob O'Brien

Barrons, June 5, 2009

  

 

 

What is the likelihood

that the Bureau of Labor Statistics Birth/Death adjustment

which guesstimates employment at new businesses

added 220,000 hypothetical jobs in May 2009

including 43,000 new construction positions

as new small business loan availability cratered

77,000 in Leisure and Hospitality jobs

as hotel occupancy hit new lows

and 7,000 Financial Services positions

 

if 174,000 jobs were estimated in May 2008?

   

Is it conceivable

that the US created more construction and leisure/hospitality jobs

in April and May of 2009

than in April & May of 2002, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 2008

considering current economic circumstances?

 

 

Why Greensboro’s, Guilford County’s and America’s Political System is Broken

In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.

 

In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee

 who is incompetent to carry out his duties.

 

Work is accomplished by those employees

who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.

 

Dr Laurence J Peter

 

Market Failure

 

…market failure exists to the extent that innovation is blocked by incumbents. If innovators can succeed by out-competing incumbents, then the market is working. If incumbents have a self-reinforcing system that keeps out innovators, then we have market failure.

 

…Suppose that we have a group that wants enormous political power. The group rewards people who justify its power by calling them "experts." It punishes those who question its power by dismissing them as "hacks." If you want money and status, you want to be labeled as an expert. In order to be labeled as an expert, you produce analysis that justifies concentrated political power for the elite group.

 

This process is self-reinforcing...only "reliable" people are allowed to be CEO's or policymakers. A requirement for being "reliable" is sharing the views of other "reliable" people as to what constitutes reliability.

 

It is like the tenure system in academia. Who gets tenure? Above all, it is people who support the existing tenure system.

 

…Of course, incumbents never want to change the process, but markets can force change.

 

…There is a market failure in health care. Instead of innovation, what gets rewarded are ideas and policies that entrench the existing system.

 

…There is a market failure in education. Educational institutions are evaluated not on the basis of rigorous standards but instead on the basis of a system of credentialism that is self-referential. X is acceptable because X has been certified by Y, which is acceptable because it has been certified by Z, and so on. In order to climb the ladder in academia, you have to display allegiance to the credentialist ideology. You have to reinforce the incumbents and help snuff out innovation. Our program is accredited, and yours is not. So there.

 

…The key is whether a reputation system is reasonably open to innovation, or whether it serves primarily to maintain the status of incumbents.

 

The reputation system…serves the incumbents, who want to centralize political power. The relationship between politicians and experts is the most serious market failure of all. It is our version of what I have called the Moral Rot Factor.

 

...I think that there is still a high probability that we are on a path to a system in which a political elite ruthlessly rewards its friends and punishes its enemies, leading to a society with much less innovation and much more corruption. I do not foresee gulags and mass murders, but there is plenty of potential for moral rot in cronyism, and that I do fear lies ahead.

 

Arnold Kling

Library of Economics and Liberty

Are rising financial markets in the best interests of the financial news industry?

 

Sales of new homes rose in February

for the first time in seven months

…another sign that the housing market is thawing

 

New-Home Sales Rise 4.7%

The Wall Street Journal

March 26, 2009

Why would a mainstream news story entitled

New-Home Sales Rise 4.7%

not mention year over year sales were down 41%

or that January 2009 new home sales fell 10%

to the lowest level since reporting began in 1963

48.2% below January 2008 estimates?

 

Who controls the past controls the future

 

Who controls the present controls the past

 

George Orwell

If $100 loses 50% and then rises 5%

how should most feel about having $52.50 instead of $100

after enduring conjured platitudes?

 

If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed

 

 If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed

 

Mark Twain

Think does not = Chess II

The great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearance
as though they were realities,
and are often more influenced by the things that seem than those that are.

Niccolo Machiavelli

If opponents don’t begin with pieces of the same number and value,
and players can think they’re winning when losing ,
can influencing others’ thoughts enhance results,
and vice versa?

If opponents think you have more influence and power,
do you?

If Mitt Romney is worth at least $190 million and makes about 5% of dividends and 5% on capital gains, could he bring in an extra $5,656,178 by charging America’s children about $1,600 a piece?

Should Mitt Romney have disclosed his conflict of interest in his USA Today Op-Ed?

..............................Tax Cuts Extended   Tax Cuts Expired 

Taxable Income........  $18,981,000   $18,990,350?
Tax Liability.............    $2,839,650........$5,622,239?
Average Tax........ Rate    14.95%............29.59%?

$5,622,239 - $2,839,650 = $2,782,589 x 2 years = $5,565,178?

Married, No children
Tax Plan: Tax Cuts Extended vs. Tax Cuts Expired      
Tax Year:  2011
AMT Patch:  AMT Patch in effect

Tax Calculator

If about 1,699,000 US households make more than $250,000,
and their portion of the tax cuts cost $120 billion
are America’s elected leaders
about to charge everyone’s kids $1,600 each
to give all the households making more than $250,000 per year
an average of $70,629.78 each?

$120,000,000,000 / 75,000,000 Kids = $1,600 per American Child?

$120 billion divided by 1,699,000 = $70,629.78?

If Us Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) was worth about $80.40 million in 2008, about how much did he just vote himself over the next two years?

The 50 Richest Members of Congress (2008)

If about 1,699,000 US households make more than $250,000, and their portion of the tax cuts is about $120 billion...?

If US congressman Darrell Issa is worth about $303 million and makes about 5% of his net worth per year, could he charge every US child $12,000 to vote himself about $1,387,836 in Tax Cuts over two years?

Could US Senator John Kerry charge every US child $12,000 to vote himself about $500,036 in Tax Cuts over two years?

If Britney Spears makes about $64 million per year, could she bring in another $5,876,704 from President Obama's Tax Deal over the next two years?

If Michael Bloomberg makes 5% per year on $20 billion, and pays half his taxes on long term capitol gaines and half on dividend interest, could he bring in an extra $295 million over two years with Obama's Tax Deal?

If Rush Limbaugh makes about $78 million per year, could Obama's Tax Deal give him about $15,324,704 more over the next two years?

If there are about 75 million kids in the United States of America, will congress and the president charge them $12,000 a piece to bail out the financial mismanagement of their parents?

Can any American legislator who votes for a $900 billion deficit increase run as a "fiscal conservative" in 2012?

How could some American legislators opposed to raising the debt ceiling, vote to increase the nation's deficit by $900 billion over 2 years?

How could Virginia US Senator Jim Webb explain why he may vote to charge each and every US child about $1,600 each to give US congressman Darrell Issa what could be about $1.3 million in Tax Cuts over the next two years?

If about 1,699,000 US households make more than $250,000, and their portion of the tax cuts is about $120 billion...?

If US congressman Darrell Issa is worth about $303 million and makes about 5% of his net worth per year, could he charge every US child $12,000 to vote himself about $1,387,836 in Tax Cuts over two years?

Could US Senator John Kerry charge every US child $12,000 to vote himself about $500,036 in Tax Cuts over two years?

If Britney Spears makes about $64 million per year, could she bring in another $5,876,704 from President Obama's Tax Deal over the next two years?

If Michael Bloomberg makes 5% per year on $20 billion, and pays half his taxes on long term capitol gaines and half on dividend interest, could he bring in an extra $295 million over two years with Obama's Tax Deal?

If Rush Limbaugh makes about $78 million per year, could Obama's Tax Deal give him about $15,324,704 more over the next two years?

If there are about 75 million kids in the United States of America, will congress and the president charge them $12,000 a piece to bail out the financial mismanagement of their parents?

Can any American legislator who votes for a $900 billion deficit increase run as a "fiscal conservative" in 2012?

How could some American legislators opposed to raising the debt ceiling, vote to increase the nation's deficit by $900 billion over 2 years?

How could US Senator Charles E. Schumer explain why he voted to charge each and every US child about $1,600 each to give New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg what could be about $295 million in Tax Cuts over two years?

If about 1,699,000 US households make more than $250,000, and their portion of the tax cuts is about $120 billion...?

If US congressman Darrell Issa is worth about $303 million and makes about 5% of his net worth per year, could he charge every US child $12,000 to vote himself about $1,387,836 in Tax Cuts over two years?

Could US Senator John Kerry charge every US child $12,000 to vote himself about $500,036 in Tax Cuts over two years?

If Britney Spears makes about $64 million per year, could she bring in another $5,876,704 from President Obama's Tax Deal over the next two years?

If Michael Bloomberg makes 5% per year on $20 billion, and pays half his taxes on long term capitol gaines and half on dividend interest, could he bring in an extra $295 million over two years with Obama's Tax Deal?

If Rush Limbaugh makes about $78 million per year, could Obama's Tax Deal give him about $15,324,704 more over the next two years?

If there are about 75 million kids in the United States of America, will congress and the president charge them $12,000 a piece to bail out the financial mismanagement of their parents?

Can any American legislator who votes for a $900 billion deficit increase run as a "fiscal conservative" in 2012?

How could some American legislators opposed to raising the debt ceiling, vote to increase the nation's deficit by $900 billion over 2 years?

How could US Congressman Howard Coble explain why he may vote to charge each and every US child about $1,600 each to give US Senator John Kerry what could be about $500,036 in Tax Cuts over two years?

If about 1,699,000 US households make more than $250,000, and their portion of the tax cuts is about $120 billion...?

If US congressman Darrell Issa is worth about $303 million and makes about 5% of his net worth per year, could he charge every US child $12,000 to vote himself about $1,387,836 in Tax Cuts over two years?

Could US Senator John Kerry charge every US child $12,000 to vote himself about $500,036 in Tax Cuts over two years?

If Britney Spears makes about $64 million per year, could she bring in another $5,876,704 from President Obama's Tax Deal over the next two years?

If Michael Bloomberg makes 5% per year on $20 billion, and pays half his taxes on long term capitol gaines and half on dividend interest, could he bring in an extra $295 million over two years with Obama's Tax Deal?

If Rush Limbaugh makes about $78 million per year, could Obama's Tax Deal give him about $15,324,704 more over the next two years?

If there are about 75 million kids in the United States of America, will congress and the president charge them $12,000 a piece to bail out the financial mismanagement of their parents?

Can any American legislator who votes for a $900 billion deficit increase run as a "fiscal conservative" in 2012?

How could some American legislators opposed to raising the debt ceiling, vote to increase the nation's deficit by $900 billion over 2 years?

Pork in the Tax Deal that will cost every American child $12,000

"The bill also now extends dozens of other expiring provisions, usually for a year or two. Among them: help for elementary and secondary school teacher expenses, those who employ people who work on or near Indian reservations, domestic film and television producers, economically depressed areas of Washington, D.C., and areas devastated by 2005's Hurricane Katrina.

"This is a great day for American workers," added Denise Bode, the chief executive officer of the American Wind Energy Association, after learning that the bill would extend a key investment tax credit for a year.

Many of the small breaks are for education and energy interests, which have strong constituencies on Capitol Hill. Seven breaks are education-related, while 11 deal with energy interests, affecting biodiesel and renewable diesel, refined coal, marginal oil and gas wells, and electronic transmission, as well as ethanol and alternative energy sources.

Next year, the same interests could return seeking another extension, said Williams of the Tax Policy Center — and that's what's troublesome about the system.

"In theory, extending these provisions for a year implies they'll look carefully at them next year," he said, "but they rarely do.""

David Lightman

Jane Bryant Quinn on the Tax Cuts

"...The deal eliminates Obama’s signature tax cut, Making Work Pay.

...Low-income families got more from Making Work Pay than they will from the reduction in their payroll taxes, so their tax bill will go up.

Taxes for about 5.7 percent of federal, state, and local government employees will rise, too.

They pay into public pension systems instead of Social Security.

They lose the Making Work Pay credit and gain nothing from the payroll tax cut.

...Rising federal deficits look like the answer for sparking near-term growth, but they also risk America’s position in the world.

Creditworthy governments normally spend no more than 10 percent of their revenues to service their debt. The United States gets wiggle room, because of the country’s underlying strength.

But if we start paying 14 percent of revenues, as we might in 2015, the markets could turn on the dollar  – reducing its value, driving interest rates sharply higher, kicking the stock market down, and tumbling the world into another deep recession.

...Given the options, economist Sinai would choose spending cuts and slower growth, regardless of the harm. His fear is that the global market will suddenly force austerity on us, as it has with Ireland and Greece. ...he reads bad signs into the recent spikes in long-term interest rates."

Jane

Why should Americans believe the folks who missed it last time, for a strategy that is going to borrow about $12,000 per American child?

"...We should keep in mind President Obama's governing assumption about the economy,
which is that we are in a recovery that is just not proceeding as fast as we need it to.

...If his assumption is correct, a stimulus -- any stimulus,
even one he acknowledges is inadequate or based on the wrong kind of measure
-- that gets us through the next few months
 until the economy "turns around" and "gets moving again"
is a victory.

The problem comes about if it turns out
Obama's governing assumption about the economy is not correct.

In that case,
what he has just agreed to is a massive transfer of private sector debt to the public sector,
and a prolonged period that will see many millions of hitherto middle class Americans
in great economic distress while the federal government does nothing
-- beyond sending out unemployment checks...

The people advising Obama on economic affairs
did not think the financial crisis two years ago would be as bad as it was,
and did not foresee unemployment and underemployment rising to the levels we see today.

This does not guarantee they are wrong about a recovery that just hasn't moved fast enough.

Nor does the historical fact that recessions following asset price crashes
tend to take much longer to turn around than cyclical recessions
like those of twenty and thirty years ago.

The evidence, though, suggests that Obama's hopeful talk
about what the tax cut compromise means
contains a very large component of wishful thinking
-- not just about the politics, but also about the economy."

JB

$12,000 per American Child "Obama Tax Cut Plan would Increase Taxes for the Poor"

"...the plan would actually slightly increase taxes for the poorest Americans, economists say -- at a time when some leaders in Washington are trying to bring attention to the nation's widening income disparity.

...the "Make Work Pay" credit enacted under Mr. Obama's stimulus plan would be allowed to expire, and a one-year payroll tax cut would be enacted in its place.

Those on the bottom rung of the income ladder, however, are at a disadvantage. Individuals making under $20,000 per year or households making under $40,000 would receive more money from the "Make Work Pay" credit, since the two percent payroll tax cut would amount to less than $400 or $800.

The difference amounts to just a couple hundred dollars per year...

..."A few dollars a week can mean your bus fare getting to work"...

"If you're making only making $10,000 a year, you're only getting $200 a week
-- and $4 out of $200 is serious money"

"It is a big deal if it's the difference between having lunch one day or not having lunch that day,
or putting breakfast on the table for the kids."

...Mr. Obama campaigned on the platform of revising the tax code to address income disparity.

"This turns that on its head""

Stephanie Condon

$12,000 per American child: “The package would leave only about 3,500 of the largest estates subject to federal taxes next year”

"More than 40,000 estates of between $1 million and $10 million wouldn't have to pay inheritance taxes next year under the deal struck by Republicans and President Barack Obama.
 
The package would leave only about 3,500 of the largest estates subject to federal taxes next year, a boon for the wealthy that many House Democrats say they can't accept.
 
...House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the lower estate tax "a bridge too far," while others in her caucus said it was a giveaway to the rich that would do little to create jobs.
 
The federal estate tax reaches fewer than 1 percent of inheritances...
 
...under current law, the estate tax is scheduled to return next year with a top rate of 55 percent for estates larger than $1 million for individuals and $2 million for married couples.
 
The package Obama negotiated would set the top rate at 35 percent and exempt the first $5 million of an individual's estate. Couples could exempt $10 million.
 
At those levels, the tax would affect just 0.14 percent of all estates in 2011...
 
Under the current law, more than 44,000 estates would be taxed next year, generating $34.4 billion in taxes.
 
...It is a "sensible estate tax agreement," the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said."
 
ASSOCIATED PRESS

"...Fed Chairman. Mr. Bernanke...delivered two massive distortions:"

"This past Sunday on the CBS program "60 Minutes", ...Fed Chairman. Mr. Bernanke...delivered two massive distortions:
 
Lie #1 - The Fed isn't printing money. Bernanke stated: "The amount of currency in circulation is not changing...the money supply is not changing in any significant way. What we're doing is lowering interest rates by buying Treasury securities." Given that it is the Treasury Department's Bureau of Engraving and Printing, not the Fed, that actually prints paper money, his statement is technically correct while substantively false. However, Bernanke is buying bank assets with Fed credit. With such an arrangement, printing becomes unnecessary.
 
...His stated purpose is to boost bond prices and lower yields in order to stimulate borrowing and aggregate demand. So pushing up bond prices is an act of inflation. Bernanke similarly contradicts himself by saying that he isn't creating inflation, while at the same time claiming that his easing campaign is designed to boost asset prices to combat the phantom of deflation.
 
...the Fed is causing money supply to increase significantly. The compounded annual growth rate of M2 is over 7% in the last quarter. Apparently in the eyes of the Chairman, a 7% annualized increase in the broad money supply isn't considered significant.
 
Lie #2- Bernanke is "100 % confident" that, when necessary, the Fed can control inflation and reverse its accommodative monetary policy. He stated, "We've been very, very clear that we will not allow inflation to rise above 2 percent. We could raise interest rates in 15 minutes if we have to. So, there really is no problem with raising rates, tightening monetary policy, slowing the economy, reducing inflation, at the appropriate time."
 
...In claiming he is 100% confident in his ability to control inflation, Mr. Bernanke ignores the record that during his tenure he has misdiagnosed the economy.
 
...Bernanke was completely unaware that the Fed actions had created an economy that had become completely addicted to artificially-produced low interest rates and inflation.
 
Shortly after the collapse of the real estate market and the ensuing truncated deflationary-depression, Bernanke took interest rates to near zero percent.
 
...the U.S. economy has become more addicted to free money than at any other time in our history.
 
Commodity prices are soaring once again and the real estate market, banking sector, and the overall economy cling precariously on the arm of government induced bailouts and low interest rates.
 
...our government has massively increased its level of debt
 
Bernanke was accurate in saying that the economy is not expanding at a sustainable pace.
 
Of course, his prescription was the same as it always is; print more money in the misguided belief that inflation will lead to growth.
 
As such, he indicated that it's possible that the Fed may actually expand bond purchases beyond the $600 billion announced last month. (Remember that the $600 billion comes after the $1.7 trillion that has already been printed, which failed to produce anything much beyond a weaker dollar)."
 
Mike Pento

"...Under the agreement reached with Republicans, the top 1 percent will receive breaks of about $70,000."

"...families with an income near the median of $55,000 would owe about $2,700 less in taxes than if the Bush-era cuts had been allowed to expire.
 
A two-income couple earning $146,000 would owe about $7,000 less than if the tax cuts were allowed to expire, and about $3,400 less than they did in 2009.
 
...the $120 billion payroll tax reduction...will nonetheless lead to higher tax bills for individuals with incomes below $20,000 and families that make less than $40,000.
 
The estate tax — which was allowed to lapse this year and was scheduled to resume at a rate of 55 percent on most assets above $1 million — will be reinstated under less onerous terms. Estates over $5 million will be subject to a 35 percent tax.
 
The proposal will also maintain the current rates on dividends and capital gains, averting scheduled increases to ordinary income and 20 percent, respectively.
 
The marginal tax rate on high incomes will also remain unchanged.
 
The top brackets had been scheduled to increase to 36 percent and 39.6 percent, from 33 percent and 35 percent.

Is the tax package borrowing from future taxpayers
to pacify the present populace?

...Under the agreement reached with Republicans, the top 1 percent will receive breaks of about $70,000."
 
DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI

If there are about 75 million kids in the United States of America, will congress and the president charge them $12,000 a piece to bail out the financial mismanagement of their parents?

$900,000,000,000 / 75,000,000 Kids = $12,000 per American Child

What should happen to economies
in which elders consume more than their children’s inheritance?