Expanding the number of tax payers must be a priority.

Everyone should have income tax skin in the game

Wanna bet?

For a proper discussion of a fix, targeting tax cuts is the most important aspect I believe. One immediate issue is should taxes be used to shape culture and society. There are good points to both sides, government shouldn't pick winners and losers to government should level the playing field or at least call and penalize fouls. It's a terribly interesting discussion I think. As a small business owner who has always been anti-establishment, I have a unique perspective I think. One such is "should greed be regulated?"

Neither party can get us out of this mess. We will continue to jump from bubble to bubble for the next 50 years at least with no sound policy from either party.

This is one reason why I was initially happy with Trump winning, the mantra was run the government like a business. Unfortunately the US is being run like a reality TV show of a Waffle House at 2AM. Who wouldn't want to watch that?

Which as much as I like the tax cut I got is one thing I really don't like about the latest round of "tax reform". Expanded eligibility for tax credits and lower statutory rates along with a higher standard deduction will create less taxpayers ultimately.
We should be looking for ways to increase the number of taxpayers. Wages haven't risen significantly enough to rely on them to increase the number of taxpayers.

Shaun,
You can't regulate greed because the desire for more is in everyone. You can no more regulate greed than you can envy. Envy is what makes one person consider another "greedy"

And the price of A car went from $2500 to $40,000
And Detroit went into the dumps and turned into an apocalyptic unemployment war zone.
All because the gubmint stuck it's nose where it did not belong.

Having the gubmint tell the auto makers what they could build and not build is illegal. It is unconstitutional.
It is WRONG!

It is up to the PEOPLE to decide what they want to buy. It should be up to the consumer to dictate if they want to pay more for air bags or crash ratings.
The auto makers should make what the PEOPLE want, not what the gubmint tells them they can make.
That is what makes us stronger, makes us better, and what USED to make the US auto makers world leaders.

But some people can't handle making their own decisions for them. They need a nanny to decide for them. They like being told what they can do, and better yet like EVERYONE ELSE being told what they can do.
Because after all it is up to them, right?

Worse than that, some people are so friggin delusional they think everyone else should be told what they can and can't do. That everyone else should be told what they can do and can't do, either by the "know-it-alls" or the gubmint. Personal freedom and decisions must be eliminated!!!!!!

What made this country great was the emphasis on personal freedom and responsibility. PEOPLE deciding for themselves what path they will take, and their success or failure depended on their decisions and actions.

But the people who made the bad decisions and bad actions said HEY THAT'S NOT FAIR!!!
Why should someone else have more just because they were more responsible?
We can't have that, we need to gubmint to step in and fix it!!!


[/RANT]

Agreed.
Suppose a guy has .. .say ... $71,406.40 worth of skin in the game (YTD withholding).
I'd like to think that would be his share and then some.
Yet others who pay a tiny fraction of that say not fair, he got a bigger tax cut! Bah.

If it were up to me (and you are glad it is not) a person's vote would be reflective of how much "skin he has in the game".

Why do we let people who don't pay into the pot, get to help decide how much of it they get?

citation needed

It is all based upon perception and the emotion there in.

The day after T was elected Equities started to rise...It was all based upon the perception that the WH would now be business friendly and the economy would get better. Nothing tangible had been done to effect Equities nor the economy the day after the election.

In that both Shaun and Sammy are wrong.

It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

Hell of a lot more than just perception and emotions

S&P 500 earnings per ahare.

Q5 2015 18.70
June 2018 34.05

Have to correct. Wrong tables.
Check Table IV at the bottom of the page on each link.

Correct links
https://www.fms.treas.gov/fmsweb/viewDTSFiles?dir=a&fname=18092800.txt
https://www.fms.treas.gov/fmsweb/viewDTSFiles?dir=a&fname=17092900.txt

Market was flat today, maybe it's stabilized ;)

Maybe it was closed for mourning POTUS Bush ?

Sammy ain't that slow...sometimes I think he is too though ;). The stablization is about to cease in 3 hrs....will commence at 4:30 EST...

Y'all can blame who ya want too ...it's Bush's fault :)

Down 471 so far this morning. I figure that must have something to do with Jiminy Carter.
Who BTW looked pretty spry for his age at the funeral, Roselyn too.
Must be something in the peanuts keeping them young.

it's not something in the peanuts, it's building houses for Habit for Humanity that keeps them young.

Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1544113362.jpg

Down 691 based on this interesting tactic

Huawei exec's arrest opens a new front in the US-China trade war

The wealth effect is going away. Which will cause main street to contract.

I fear that next year is really going to be bad..and the begining of the longer term slide.

The FED will have to start to accommodate economy at first by holding rates steady and then lowering them. If they can, if they don't it means something bigger and more ominious about USD and Treasury equilibrium is going on.

The pillar of institutional solvency has been Equities.Take that away and...

Market has been artificially up for a few years now. More buyers than sellers. I think it's the Boomers. Be glad the average Joe working on an assembly line isn't in the stock market. First, they would further pump it up, second, they will be crushed and you will have to pay for them for the rest of your life.

Remember the Panic of 1873? That would be a walk in the park compared to what will happen today.

The average Joe on the assembly line is in the market. Most will have a 401k.

Aver 50 million 401k accounts are active.

You are far off base on that statement

Every average Joe with a 401k is in the stock market.

When the gubmint subsidized saving and investing by making it tax-deferred, that forced lots more money into the market which stimulated growth, but also propped up prices.

PE ratios that previously would be considered as horrible became not so bad.
Many short-term positives, but whenever the gubmint manipulates a free market it causes long-term damage.

Missed it by that much .....

oh good lord, yes, I had hoped you would know that that is as common knowledge as the sky is blue.

I meant managing individual stocks.

I'm a macro manager. I always assume people know what I'm talking about if the foundation is obvious.

Panic of 1873.

Do the joes have pensions? If they do then their retirements are spiraling down the drain. If they don't you are already paying for them now or are going to in the future with SS etc. SS is terminal..only the when is in doubt?

I thought it was already understood from what I have said that everything preceding the coming events is going to look like a walk in the park.

See above.

I would hate to be a micro manager and have to spell out every last detail that is obvious.

And I assume people paid attention in history class.

Lol

You tell it..tell it like it is..

You were unclear. Most assembly line workers are in the market. Only about 30% of workers have self managed accounts.

Even those 401k accounts allow for easy movement from one sector to another.

You said the sky is red.

Only an idiot wouldn't realize he was talking about a sunset.

OK, I will explain it.

401K. Money is automatically deducted from your paycheck. And typically a small amount. The average Joe worker making $50K/year acclimates to only making $45/year. Slow and steady. Lives within his means in regard to the market.

That same worker takes their life savings of $12,300 and buys the latest hot stocks. Those stocks crash, the market crashes, whatever, his $12,300 is temporarily gone. Add in some panic and we are doomed to repeat history.

I wish people knew how to think.

This is why we are totally ****ed.


Washington Examiner: Trump shrugs off future debt crisis: ‘I won’t be here’


One more time for the folks in the cheap seats:

That's Trump's plan for the national debt.

Most individuals are not directly invested in the market...but through various 401K, Mutual Funds, Annunities and Pensions..

Pensions including Public Employees funds...they need an 8% roi to keep from cannibalizing themselves..

As repeated ad nauseum Equities have been the only game in town for going on a decade now, hence FED accommodation that has cleared the path.

Main Street Joe is oblivious to what is going on and will most likely only notice his quarterly statement being down...??? The guys who are really fretting right now are the Institutional guyz, the big players...

When I speak I have the Institutional Investors...Players in mind... I could care less about main street joe, who is less knowledgeable than a monkey swinging by his tail in a zoo..

On this whole Board over the years there are maybe???? one or two of yu who have a fking clue...and or that does not have some prejudice that skews their thinking and thus makes them clueless. That doesn't mean you are not making a lot of money on the wave..you just don't know why..it might as well be all voodoo to you.

It all comes down to what do the guyz in the institutions feel about the numbers that they are seeing...how do they feel about T blabing, or election results or some Chinese guy getting arrested, or a coupla planes running in the WTC, or FED actions and comments....

You understand what that herd (there is a collective sentiment) is thinking and feeling and you know what is going to happen..it is predictable.

Trick is how do you read or gauge what they are thinking and feeling.

In late June I raised a RED FLAG warning..that was the herds sentiment...look at Equity action since then..

Now they are downright skittish...nervous...willing to unload their positions into any rally...They are afraid of a sword falling which will kill them all..a market crash..

Bottom line is that the FED guarntee to support the economy if it falters with an accommodating policy is uncertain and that makes Equities more risky. So they have become real skittish and will run at the drop of a hat...cause they do not wana get caught...

I am getting a lot of mixed messages here..which adds up to a confusion as to what is going on.

Interesting times indeed. Lots of elderly folks living on SS, and most youngsters under 30-35, I doubt many are in equities...and not for much imo.

Ltttle confusion.

You believe that Armageddon is near and inevitable

Others disagree.

I believe we need to get rid of computer trading. This **** is getting nuts. The market the other day went up based on nothing solid and is now dropping based on nothing solid. Computer sees "trade war" or "tariff" or sees the word "recession" and it triggers a selloff. OH GOD! The yield curve on the two year and five year is inverted! Run for you life!! Some Chinese CFA got tossed in the slammer! Run for you life.

Boy that is hysterical word for you to use...inevitable yes.. I thought that in March of 1980 and it certainly has been moving in that direction since.

Disagree all u like, it doesn't matter.

Really :)?

Armageddon seems appropriate. You constantly rant about the inevitable destruction of world economics. Crashes, riots , and loss of government control.

I don’t lknow what else to call your scenerio.

At age 67 I figured the equities run up was about over and started getting out of the market. At this stage in life I need stability and preservation more than I need growth. I’m down to about 25% equities now, 18 months later. I don’t want to be in the market when geezers like me start retiring, cashing in their 401s, and buying Harley’s and Winnebagos en mass. I’m actively buying land now - God ain’t gonna make any more and I’m keeping my eyes out and buying it right. It isn’t going anywhere.

1980, that's like nearly 40 yrs of telling people 'I told you so'.......:D

Over that amount of time the ozone layer had a hole and repaired itself, old islands have disappeared and new islands have appeared.

Tabs can you please narrow down your prediction to the nearest ice age as I'm starting to get a little worried I'm not sufficiently prepared for your Armageddon