Friday, May 12, 2017

How do the rich keep getting richer?

How do the rich keep getting richer?
Are they really that much smarter than us or pick the right ‘next big thing.’ Think of Don Trump. His father loaned him money and he received an inheritance some say was over $200 million. If he had just left that sum in a stock index account, it would be worth $6.5 Billion today. The Miracle of Compounding is the secret, not great deals. Remember, Don went bankrupt 4 times and avoided income and business taxes along the way. Compounding can work for you too. You can make a sound financial plan on $3.50 a day over time. Investing $100 a month in a stock index fund for 40 years can provide $700,000. Most of us don’t learn Compounding in school and so don’t know how it works. Most rich people learn about Compounding when they are teens and start receiving their trust fund “allowance” to buy a Porsche. What can you buy for $3.50?

Don Trump could be a great president
Trump could create a huge legacy in American history by ending tax shelters for corporations and their overseas subsidiaries—Apple, Google, Amazon pay less tax than you and I because a “trick” of accounting. Congress had a hearing on Apple avoidance. Buffett suggested every firm pay 30%. All The Don has to do is end all the tax loopholes and subsidies to business. Almost every type of business has special deals that make it more profitable. It is how capitalism becomes socialism for the rich. Consider the Apple deal: It pays 0.005% to Ireland, Bloomberg says. Its effective tax rate is 26%. Double Irish and Dutch Sandwich is the name of this tax avoidance. Instead of helping us, our reps keep giving subsidies to big agriculture for ethanol, subsidies to big oil for drilling, subsidies to aerospace for planes, even subsidies to Congress people who claim to be ‘farmers’. We give even more $ billions to businesses in the form of “income tax expense” – that’s B.S. for tax credits for losing money. Our government has no accountability in our cost overrun spending for projects like building a hospital or a bunch of F35 fighter planes that don’t work. ‘Smoking crack’ was given as an excuse for the poor planning and authorization by officials. Meanwhile the average taxpayer is hit with 97 taxes that take an average of 33% of income. Rich people like Warren Buffett, Mitt Romney and John Kerry pay 17% or less. Most foreign firms avoid taxes too. This is Socialism for the Rich pure and simple.

Is an annuity right for you?
Before you talk to your advisor, you need to understand the market price of what you are really buying. Annuity buying is like car buying. Before you even step in the door of a car dealer, you better understand what you are looking for or you may NOT get what you need. Our financial planner is on salary so there is no reason to tilt the presentation to one product. Consider if you could benefit from a better deal before you enter into the non-cancelable annuity contract. For instance, you can generate a $1,100 a month from a $200,000 nest egg and ADD eggs at the same time. An annuity of the same deposit provides $1,100 only for your life but NO more eggs. If you die, you lose your deposit.

Details of TrumpCare: actually cuts taxes for the wealthy and businesses
The 12 things you should know about TrumpCare: the AHCA includes state waivers, elimination of standard benefits of health insurance plans, Medicaid expansion phase out and block grants, subsidies for risk pools for Pre-Existing Conditions, elimination of $1 Trillion tax and ability of insurers to charge 5 times the premium for sick people. Buffett alone will get $680,000 tax break. AHCA pushes health savings accounts for rich people. For larger employers, the AHCA allows them to pick a plan that offers a significantly lower level of benefits to employees. Employers can put annual and lifetime limits on its essential health benefits. In fact, they could pick a plan with no EHBs. Employees could in effect be on their own since there is no mandate and no penalty for employers to provide no assistance. As in the past, employers are under no obligation to offer real health benefits beyond that needed to retain workers. Congress members will NOT lose their ObamaCare guarantees in this version. GOP made the bill acceptable to many by NOT defining what is specifically covered and ultimately leaving the benefits to the states and insurers. For instance, the bill does not specify what a Pre-Existing Condition is, nor does it allow insurers to deny coverage outright, although potentially they could set premiums we can’t afford. Trump claims PEC is covered but at what cost? “PEC in bill.” We have failing health care,” Single-payor system of Australia better than our system, Trump admits.
FoxNews agrees, US headed to “a single-payer health care system.” 24 million uninsured

Buffett reveals his secret to shareholders and everyone
His investing secret is simple and he told us about it in his annual report: he earned 20.8% a year for his shareholders over time from compound interest. He has told us in many of his reports how he lost money and made bad decisions. However, he has returned DOUBLE the stock market rate by using his secret: Compound Interest. Since most of us don’t use a brokerage account, how can we follow his advice? Well, he put it in very easy formula. We can buy a low-cost stock market index fund. He advises us to put our money and faith in the American economy.



GOP votes to end our financial protection from financial predators
GOP presented Financial CHOICE Act 2.0 today, signaling the first move to roll back consumer protections. You will no longer be able to see complaints about other financial firms overcharging, abusing and defrauding us. All fines and shut down actions will have to be approved by the whole Congress. Cancels requirement for banks to undergo stress tests every other year. Cancels protection against banks tricking us into opening accounts not in our best interest. Cancels oversight of payday lending industry. Banks and lenders can go back to the good old days when regulators ignored what happened to Wells Fargo customers: Customers charged extra fees on bogus accounts.

Is a "SAFE" deal right for you?
You may have heard about a new product known as SAFE or "simple agreement for future equity" instrument. The SEC regulator is warning us to make sure we understand the risks involved. You don’t get dividends or interest while you wait. You can purchase the opportunity to become a future equity holder in a company, if certain events are triggered such as the company goes public or raises a substantial amount of funds. Sound good for risk takers? SAFEs are being sold to investors through crowdfunding which help small companies raise up to $1 million from average investors. Disclosures don’t cover all the possible negative outcomes so whatever you invest must be considered money you can afford to lose. Nothing is every ‘safe’ or ‘simple’ in investing.



Trump’s bank, Deutsche Bank, gets pass for mortgage disaster
The Securities and Exchange Commission has decided not to punish Deutsche Bank for its part in the mortgage disaster of 2008. The decision was made inside an agency that has been facing possible budget cuts under President Donald Trump. The SEC has eliminated dozens of contractors who were hired to help root out Wall Street fraud. It also now has a new chairman, Jay Clayton, a former lawyer for Sullivan & Cromwell which represents Deutsche Bank. Deutsche Bank was bailed out by US tax payers for its losses from its failed mortgage hedging strategy. Deutsche Bank is Trump’s major lender and in dispute with him over his payments. But because it’s his bank, it is probably safe for your cash. Deutsche Bank is probably the first to get bailed out in the next financial disaster.

Has America become a “banana” republic?
A “banana” republic: A country where the large corporations and the wealthy receive all the income and pay an ever smaller part of the tax bill. Since 1980, 99% of all American income has gone to the top 10% of families. A country where the people’s representatives are millionaires but must beg for campaign contributions 70% of their time. And the decisions by these representatives as a group help the wealthy and their companies remain in the bonus column.
How could our House Reps condemn 24 million people to no insurance again?
Reps ask for proof of citizenship for Town Hall entry yet donors are from out of state. Iowa’s Blum receives money form North Carolina, DC lobbyists and Koch Bros, Kansas.
 Thousands of subsidies and tax loopholes are created by those already doing well so that the rules keep getting bent in their favor. Our taxes continue to subsidize companies already doing well. Even those institutions set up to fight inequality and unfairness—the justice apparatus and Supreme court—are swayed by the prejudiced, the rich and the powerful. Justice Department head meets with Dem presidential candidate’s team weeks before elections. FBI director announces just before election one candidate is under investigation without mentioning the other one is too. Intelligence agencies determine that a foreign power is pushing the GOP candidate. USSR planting fake news.
Supreme Court nominee is refused a hearing and vote by GOP contrary to our tradition. Justices are routinely given free vacations and trips by companies with cases to be decided by those justices. Institutions set up to keep our air and water clean are biased by those representing special interests. A country that gives the already wealthy, tax breaks in the name of jobs. As average family income has remained the same for 50 years as adjusted for inflation. All the increases in work productivity have been translated into a big raise for the wealthy few.
A country where the leader is elected after calling women vile names, groping them and admitting sexual assault. And his cabinet are all billionaires—mostly old men. And the leader fired the national organization charged with determining if the leader influenced by a foreign power to get elected and then meets with that foreign power in secret. Is the leader subject to any law? Dictator?
Is America becoming a banana republic?
Typically, the banana republic has a society of stratified social classes, usually a great and poor working class and a ruling-class plutocracy, composed of the business, political, and military elites of that society.[1] Such a ruling-class oligarchy control the primary sectors of the economy by way of the exploitation of workers; thus, the term banana republic is a pejorative descriptor for a servile dictatorship that abets and supports, for kickbacks, the exploitation of large-scale commerce especially global financial products. Corporate losses become public debt and only the little people pay taxes.

We could use some integrity in government—Sally Yates for president?
Bernie Sanders for Vice?


Wall Street brokerage changes as Vanguard eats their lunch, dinner, snack
Morgan Stanley just announced that they will change their business model in the face of Vanguard lowering the cost of making money for investors. The change was justified as “intended to "better align client costs" with brokerage services.” The largest U.S. brokerage by sales force, said on Wednesday it is dropping mutual funds from Vanguard Group, the largest U.S. mutual fund firm. Obama’s fiduciary rule, despite Trump’s delay on implementation, has had the effect of warning investors that advisors do NOT have their best interests at heart. Investors are now seeking less biased advisors and many firms have switched to continuous fees from product commissions. This may cost investors more in the long run. They see that cost is important to final returns.

Why is Jared’s family selling US citizenships to foreigners for personal profit?
Wealthy investors in China can buy American visas if they invest in one of the family’s properties — pure bribery – and not what Trump promised. Nicole Kushner Meyer at a Ritz-Carlton hotel in Beijing on Saturday pitched the deal to 100 investors: They could get green cards if they poured money into One Journal Square, a $150 million luxury Jersey City development from Jared’s family. The quid- pro-quo would come through the EB-5 program, which grants visas to foreigners who invest at least $500,000 in American development projects. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have often criticized the program as a golden road to citizenship for the wealthy. Is It legal if you have a connection to president. Is it moral to sell our US citizenship for personal profit?

Trump did NOT save Carrier jobs; government did
Carrier was paid a government subsidy by IN to stay in Indianapolis for a while. It is moving the Carrier Controls, Huntington, IN to Mexico because CEO pay is tied to profits and low wages make high profits. At a meeting with analysts to discuss the outlook for 2017, the head of the division, Robert J. McDonough, boasted that profit margins had doubled over the last five years. “Part of it has been moving factories to lower-cost locations, there is no question about that,” he said. “I think everybody knows that’s been part of the formula for us.” And even more jobs, paying more in 1 hour than Mexican workers make in a day, are marked to go south by Carrier and hundreds of other firms. Cutting costs to boost sales in competition with others is the only answer in a market economy. Government has paid for a re-training center in IN, but wages are being pushed down—not up. Education for the next generation is torpedoed by higher tuition.
Trump’s budget cuts re-training centers and his tax cuts for firms like Carrier will help build more factories in Mexico not America. His education policy hikes college costs.
Government of the people by the people for the people took a turn backward: https://www.amazon.com/Education-Funding-Save-right-plan/dp/1482549956



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TrumpWorld
We have entered the Twilight Zone:
"There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadowbetween science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone" where “alternative facts” and illusions of conspiracies are lived out. Lies are considered true. Incompetence is praised. Truth is what the loudest voice says it is over and over.  
Rod Serling
Trump threatens FBI Comey with secret tapes Trump made of their talks. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/863007411132649473

Free American press may be locked out of WH:
Trump may end press conferences—only TASS (Russia) will cover events.

The Don blackmails Comey: “secret tapes of his conversations with Mr. Comey
The Don asked for loyalty and Comey said honesty. FBI ideology ended with Hoover.

‘Trump’ brand is all he cares about—it is all he knows. Staff creates image not policy


Trump’s new China policy:


Trump tax cut for corporations and wealthy class adds $5.5 Trillion debt
“I’m the king of debt,” Mr. Trump said last year on CNN. “I love debt.” The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said the plan would probably lead to a loss in government revenue by roughly $5.5 trillion over 10 years.


Little Dictator wants war: Army to go back to Afghanistan
Trump wants to “start winning” again. He delights in war show. The military’s new strategy, (old strategy) which has the backing of top Cabinet officials, would authorize the Pentagon, not the White House, to set troop numbers in Afghanistan and give the military far broader authority to use air strikes to target Taliban militants (civilian centers). It would also lift Obama-era restrictions that limited the mobility of U.S. military advisers on the battlefield. Our longest undeclared war where fighters in civilian clothes will continue to kill soldiers.
Options to put down N. Korea are considered also. Two wars?

Obama already fired him—what better warning? Even Attorney Gen Yates warned.

The Don just lawyered up—is Trump above the law? Can he govern?
Trump just hired a Washington law firm to send a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee denying that he has connections to Russia. Lindsey Graham said he planned to look into Trump and associates business connections

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More Americans say Trump doesn't keep promises: poll Apr 9  Promises broken.

Pre-existing conditions are in the bill but you can’t afford that coverage
Like before ObamaCare, you can buy health insurance to cover your needs but cost is too great. The Don and GOP have tricked us by claiming to include ACCESS in their new bill. Access means your state can decide for insurers to offer cover in a pool with others and charge whatever the market will bear. They also did not mention that all the 10 guaranteed benefits are optional -- not required as in ObamaCare. The GOP wants to go back to the days when America was Great: Health Care was for the wealthy. Average person can afford only JUNK policy. The GOP bill gives the rich tax cuts that add up to $1 Trillion. The real TELL in this vote: Congress members will NOT lose their ObamaCare guarantees in this version. Trump has his WIN and we lose. 24 million people lose coverage. Even Fox News sees single payor in 7 years as a result.
Side by side comparison ObamaCare vs TrumpCare: http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-pol-obamacare-repeal/



Flynn as paid secret foreign agent while US official and campaign knew it--traitor
Flynn, as part of the Trump campaign and named security advisor, had access to all US secrets and was secretly in the pay of Turkey and Russian spy handlers. Flynn at Putin’s RT party. He received $530,000. Isn’t this treason? By law a US officer cannot receive money from foreign governments. Like Ben Arnold, he was official of US government while being paid by foreign powers. Flynn is not alone. Other Trump operatives are also under investigation by the FBI for potentially illegal contact with senior Russian intelligence operatives. Donald Trump also has a longtime pattern of open admiration for gangsters and organized crime. FBI is following the Steele memo on Trump activities in Russia. FBI, NSA said Russia sought to influence the election. 35% GOP say didn’t.
Did Trump do a background on his hires? Or were Flynn, Page, Manafort plants under Putin control and leveraged by the Trump scandal hidden in Putin’s video player?
Civilians conspire with a hostile power to end Presidential sanctions against that hostile power we are fighting in Syria and Ukraine. Isn’t this treason?
Flynn was warned not to take money from foreigners when he left Pentagon. Trump refused to give our committee on Russia probe any Flynn info or docs: Committee on Russian influence stunned. Yates warned Trump. Coverup? Treason?  Three key minutes of Sally Yates’ testimony before the Senate Judiciary subcommittee. 


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Regulators are the only protection against corporations since we can’t sue anymore

Water is contaminated for 77 million Americans, 80,000 violations; no money to fix it.
Fiat recalls 1 million Ram trucks for software that controls/not control airbags
We need regulation—GOP wrong—companies/cities wouldn’t fix bad products on own
GM killed 124 because ignition switch pin not replaced after knew it killed first in 2006.


Police want gun control.
When everyone has guns; your chance of being killed goes up. Police don’t know who to shoot. They assume everyone has one and shoot first. You and thief have guns. CO schools now allow teachers/administrators to carry guns in the classroom. Kid lesson! Since 2015, police have killed 86 people with realistic looking FAKE guns--suicide?

TX forces its police to become Gestapo—Trump’s national deportation Nazis
“Every major police chief in Texas, which includes some of the largest cities in the U.S., opposed the measure that allows police to inquire about the immigration status of anyone they detain, a situation that can range from arrest for a crime to being stopped for a traffic violation. It also requires police chiefs and sheriffs — under the threat of jail and removal of office — to comply with federal requests to hold criminal suspects for possible deportation. 

TX police kill teen at party
Jordan Edwards, a 15-year-old TX teen is the youngest of the 339 people shot and killed by police so far in 2017, according to a Washington Post database tracking such shootings. At least 10 people shot and killed by police this year were under 18.

SCAMS:
Poor people with no insurance die early just like GOP new plan calculates.

Ignoramus Award:
Trump’s EPA head dismissed half of the scientific advisers from analysis boards
Trump cut 95% of staff of the drug enforcement office

Why did Hillary send her emails to aide Huma Abedin who sent them to her husband, Anthony Weiner to print them? Clinton or Abedin had no printer? Too lazy? Book deal?

Trump threatens FBI Comey with secret tapes Trump made of their talks. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/863007411132649473


How our government wastes our money:
Afghanistan--$4 Trillion and 20,000 lives later—we can’t win and won’t leave.

Where have all the jobs gone?
More facts, not Don’s fake news, about NAFTA and job changes: It’s complicated, Don.

Which job board sites are best for your job search?

Cancel Robo calls with Mr NoMoRobo: https://www.nomorobo.com

Miracle: 10 year old subdues 9 foot gator
"I used what they taught me at Gatorland, so I put my two fingers up its nostrils and it couldn't breath and had to breath from its mouth and then let my leg out." Who knew!

IAN
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