From the Record:
NJ added 12,400 jobs in January; unemployment rate at 6.3%
New Jersey got a double portion of positive employment news Tuesday: Not only did the state add 12,400 jobs in January, but it turns out that it added more jobs than first estimated in both 2013 and 2014.
Even so, the state has lagged the nationwide pace of job creation, and still has replaced only about 65 percent of the jobs that vanished during and after the recession.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which annually revises state jobs data, reported that New Jersey added 35,500 jobs last year, up from earlier estimates of 29,000. The revision for 2013 was more dramatic: Instead of the 18,800 added jobs originally reported, the BLS said the state actually added more than twice that many – 39,300.
The revised numbers indicate “a much more robust job performance in the state” than earlier numbers suggested, said Joseph Seneca, a Rutgers economist.
In January, the addition of 12,400 jobs left the unemployment rate at 6.3 percent, unchanged from December but down from 7.1 percent in January 2014.
…
But even with the more positive job-creation numbers, the state’s unemployment rate in January was higher than the 5.7 percent national rate; the state rate has been consistently higher than the national level since 2011. Thirty-five states had lower unemployment rates than New Jersey in January.And while the U.S. has more than recovered all the jobs lost during and after the 2007-2009 recession, the Garden State has now recovered just about 60 percent to 65 percent of its vanished jobs, according to James Hughes, a Rutgers economist.
“We’re moving forward, but we’re a long way behind the national growth rate,” Hughes said.
Patrick O’Keefe, an economist with CohnReznick, an accounting firm in New York and Roseland, said with the revised numbers, the state’s job market has gone “from a snail’s pace to a tortoise’s pace.”
Looking at the Corelogic Negative Equity report from yesterday, and comparing to last year’s report, looks like Negative Equity properties in NJ have fallen from 14.3% to 13.1% in the last year. Near negative equity 3.5 in Q4 2013 down to 3.4% in 2014 (which is good news since it doesn’t appear that 1.2% just shifted from one bucket to the next).
Remember, this means 13.1% of mortgaged properties, not 13.1% of all properties.
We know about 30% of properties are owned free and clear in NJ, so negative equity as a percentage of all properties is 9.2%.
Does not go far enough, why only $500 to $1000? That doesn’t even account for inflation… From the Record:
North Jersey farmers face tightened rules for tax breaks
What defines a working farm — and qualifies it for an extremely valuable property-tax break — is about to get tougher for large landholders.
Starting in August, changes in regulations will affect all 9,071 current farmland-assessed properties statewide, 60 in Bergen County and 78 in Passaic among them.
The changes increase requirements for farmland-assessment status. Advocates hope they’ll make it harder for landholders who operate just enough of a farm to qualify for the tax break. But critics question whether the changes go far enough.
The revisions update the 1964 state law that gives property-tax exemptions to those who farm at least 5 acres. The old law required that such farms generate $500 in agricultural production revenue. Under the revisions, they’ll have to double that to $1,000. And there will be more paperwork — like providing proofs of sales or evidence of anticipated gross sales — to reinforce that it’s a genuine farm operation. Local tax assessors will need to be retrained on the revised law to guide applicants.
$500 in 1964 is equivalent to $3,800 today, still much too low. The law was not intended to subsidize hobby farms or wealthy landowners. The law was not intended to preserve open space. The law was intended to ensure that agricultural production in a rapidly urbanizing state could be sustainable for those who relied on it as a primary source of income. Property valuation follows a fairly consistent concept of assessing at the highest and best use, and not based on the productive value of the land. As suburbanization took hold, property assessments followed. It was a realistic scenario that a profitable farmer could find themselves significantly less profitable, simply because of the properties they were located in close proximity to.
That said, I spent many years looking at farm assessed real estate to purchase knowing full well I would be able to game the system. Every single client I ever worked with who purchased farm assessed property did it for the same reasons. This doesn’t close the loophole at all, only creates the perception of it … probably the point.
3 – There are a lot of influential people and politicians who directly benefit from the farm assessment. There’s little chance of it ever really being “fixed”. You are correct…..the increase from $500 to $1000 was absolutely for show.
The farm assessment should require evidence of a steaming heap of cow dookie on the property.
Those in the rich-and-famous category with approved applications for tax breaks in 2009 and 2010 include:
• Financier Michael C. Price, with a net worth of $1.4 billion, Bedminster: 92 farm-assessed acres, on which he paid $359 in taxes in 2009;
• Robert Wood “Woody” Johnson IV, heir to Johnson & Johnson and owner of the New York Jets football team, Bedminster: 269 acres, $1,470 in 2009;
• Publishing magnate Donald E. Newhouse, with a net worth of $5.4 billion, Hopewell Township: 273 acres, $1,787 in taxes for 2010; in West Amwell, 77 acres, $611 in taxes in 2010;
• Publishing magnate Malcolm “Steve” Forbes, including properties with his wife, Sabina, Bedminster: 450 acres, $2,005 in taxes in 2009;
• E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg, Middletown: 34 acres, $122 in taxes in 2010;
• Rock star Jon Bon Jovi, Middletown: 7.1 acres, $104 in taxes in 2010;
• Lamington Farm Club, under the corporate umbrella of entrepreneur and TV personality Donald Trump, Bedminster: 195 acres; $277;
• John Whitman, husband of former Gov. Christie Whitman, Tewksbury: 167 acres, $1,521; in Bedminster: 65 acres; $173;
• Vernon Hill II, former CEO of Commerce Bank, Moorestown: 29 acres, $79 in 2010.
Meanwhile, the average working slob pays 7 – 10 g’s on a 100 x 150 lot.
When they legalize choom, I’m going to fill my front yard with it and apply for a farm assessment.
“When they legalize choom, I’m going to fill my front yard with it and apply for a farm assessment.”
Sure. You’ll do it just after you listen to Eyes of the World for the 952nd time.
clot < Vigoda…… the question is how did he off himself…..
Not dead yet, bitch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grbSQ6O6kbs
Haute Cuisine (clot Edition):
Kraft Recalling Select Boxes of Macaroni & Cheese Dinners
Company says it’s possible some boxes contain small pieces of metal
@BillMoyersHQ:
“If everybody in this country voted,” John Kenneth Galbraith said, “the Democrats would be in for the next 100 years”
Amen!! One of the glaring examples of how the wealthy get away with paying anything close to their fair share. I have close to an acre in wayne, and paid 17,200 last year. My property in clifton was .10 of an acre and I pay 11,000 in taxes. I’m fine with paying taxes. I’m just not fine with a billionaire that owns over a 100 acres paying 200 dollars in property taxes. Beyond messed up. But let’s worship these individuals for making this country such a better place for joe public. No idea how these people live with themselves, knowing they are cutting corners and joe public, who is barely getting by, is picking up the cost. Such bs.
grim says:
March 18, 2015 at 6:21 am
$500 in 1964 is equivalent to $3,800 today, still much too low. The law was not intended to subsidize hobby farms or wealthy landowners. The law was not intended to preserve open space. The law was intended to ensure that agricultural production in a rapidly urbanizing state could be sustainable for those who relied on it as a primary source of income. Property valuation follows a fairly consistent concept of assessing at the highest and best use, and not based on the productive value of the land. As suburbanization took hold, property assessments followed. It was a realistic scenario that a profitable farmer could find themselves significantly less profitable, simply because of the properties they were located in close proximity to.
That said, I spent many years looking at farm assessed real estate to purchase knowing full well I would be able to game the system. Every single client I ever worked with who purchased farm assessed property did it for the same reasons. This doesn’t close the loophole at all, only creates the perception of it … probably the point.
I hate hippies.
Good read. America is not going anywhere. I think we are better positioned then anytime in the past 30 years.
“That term became shorthand for the period of U.S. geopolitical dominance that began around the end of the war. But from the moment the American century was born, Americans have fretted over threats to the country’s pre-eminence. In the 1950s the Soviet Union seemed poised to bury the U.S.; in the 1980s the Japanese were going to outwork lazy Americans.
Today a rising China is the great rival. A 2013 Pew poll of 39 countries found that most people believed China already was or would eventually become the world’s leading superpower–and that included nearly half of Americans.
To which Nye says: Not so fast. A pioneer in the theory of soft power and the dean of American political scientists, Nye knows geopolitics. In his new book, Is the American Century Over?, Nye makes a strong case that American geopolitical superiority, far from being eclipsed, is still firmly in place and set to endure. And the biggest threat isn’t China or India or Russia–it’s America itself.
It’s easy to forget what a global behemoth the U.S. remains today. Take military power: the U.S. not only spends four times more on defense than the No. 2 country, China, but it also spends more than the next eight countries combined. The U.S. Navy controls the seas, and the country’s military has troops on every inhabited continent. America’s armed forces have become more dominant since the dawn of Luce’s American century–not less. For nearly 50 years after World War II, U.S. power was checked by the Soviet Union. No longer.
The relative decline of American economic clout might seem obvious. By one measurement, China has already passed the U.S. to become the world’s largest economy. But that’s in part a trick of perspective. In 1945, thanks largely to the devastation of World War II, the U.S. produced nearly half the world’s GDP. By 1970 that share had fallen to about one-quarter, but as Nye points out, that was less a matter of American decline than a global return to normality. Nearly half of the top 500 international companies are owned by U.S. citizens, and 19 of the top 25 global brands are American.
But the most important reason the U.S. will continue to dominate is the lack of a viable rival. Nye dismisses each in turn: the European Union is too fractured, Japan is too old, Russia is too corrupt, India is too poor, Brazil is too unproductive.
As for China, Nye expects that as the country keeps growing, it will take up more space on the international stage. But Beijing faces major internal challenges that could derail its rise: a polluted environment, an aging population and inefficient state-owned industries. More important, China conspicuously lacks the ingredient that has made the U.S. unique–an openness toward immigrants. “As Lee Kuan Yew once told me,” Nye says, referring to the founding father of modern Singapore, “‘China can draw on a talent pool of 1.3 billion people, but the U.S. can draw on the world’s 7 billion.’”
It’s the potential loss of that openness that worries Nye. Should the U.S. decide to shut its borders or turn its back on international affairs–two recurring impulses in U.S. history–all bets are off. If political gridlock becomes permanent or income inequality keeps rising, that too could threaten American supremacy. “The question is whether we’ll keep living up to our potential,” says Nye.
He bets yes–and believes that on the whole, that’s a good thing for the world. A strong U.S. has helped keep tensions in check in East Asia and has worked to integrate a rising China into the existing international system. In July a NASA probe will visit Pluto for the first time ever, and our exploration of the solar system–led from start to finish by the U.S.–will be complete.
America is far from faultless: the invasion of Iraq and intransigence on climate change stand out as two major mistakes. But it’s difficult to imagine that the world would be a better place if Vladimir Putin’s Russia or Xi Jinping’s China were running things. “I believe this is a different country,” says Nye. Henry Luce couldn’t have said it better.”
http://time.com/3741856/the-american-century-isnt-over/
17- Those are two powerful closing paragraphs. For all the hate America endures being the alpha male and world police, could you imagine what this world would be like if China or Russia were in our position.
USA!! USA!!
I never understood the reason behind “rent controlled” buildings. Why not let the market decide what rents should be.
—–
Castellan real estate group pushes tenants out and jack up rents, despite Cuomo-ordered independent monitor
Early last year, Gov. Cuomo imposed an independent monitor on Castellan Real Estate Partners, owner of more than 50 rent-stabilized buildings in the city.
The order came after a probe by the state’s Tenant Protection Unit found the firm had been intimidating immigrant tenants to vacate their apartments in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods by improperly demanding proof of citizenship and income.
But one year later, Castellan has hardly changed.
It continues to push out tenants at an extraordinary rate and jack up rents to newcomers by as much as 50%, a Daily News investigation has found.
Six of the 12 Manhattan apartment buildings with the highest percentage of eviction proceedings in Housing Court last year, for example, were owned by Castellan.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-real-estate-group-forces-tenants-jacks-rent-article-1.2153178
Everytime I drive down Navesink River Road I see a cow grazing next to a Mansion! There is even a working vineyard on that road. Suburban farming it it’s finest.
There there are some “real” farms too.
This one is run by two former Hipster Brooklynites, they run a 20 acre farm and “retreat” for the Hipsters.
http://homestead.sevenarrowseast.com/
Boston news…..
—–
In a nightmare winter, no dream houses
But with spring approaching, “For Sale” signs have been as rare as daffodil shoots. The blizzards and snowstorms that began battering the Boston area weekly in late January have prevented owners from putting homes on the market, squeezing an already tight supply of properties for sale and delaying the usually bustling spring housing market by weeks, real estate agents said.
Agents report that the number of properties for sale in the second week in March is down anywhere from 18 percent in Sudbury to nearly 60 percent in Somerville and Cambridge, compared with the same time a year ago.
In Greater Boston, early March listings were down 15 percent from a year earlier and nearly 30 percent from 2013, according to MLS Property Information Network Inc., a real estate listing firm.
Even holding an open house is a trial as buyers must maneuver around streets blocked by dunes of snow, park blocks away, or tag-team with one member of a couple sitting in the running car, while the other dashes in for a peek inside.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/03/13/snow-delays-spring-real-estate-market/XlGKxjUcjRLFQP6aE0JnvK/story.html
[5] Lib – I used to know a girl who lived in Franklin Lakes 30 years ago. They would occasionally have one of the neighbor’s sheep fall into their pool. I think that sheep was half the flock of the neighbor. I bet JJ would be good at tending sheep.
The farm assessment should require evidence of a steaming heap of cow dookie on the property.
I know someone who has a deal with a landscaper who he pays to come and cut the grass….which he then sells back to him as hay. Boom now it’s a farm. (it even has an old barn on the property)
Lumber Liquidators Sends Thousands of Customers ‘Idiot-Proof’ Test Kits
Lumber Liquidators has sent thousands of customers free “idiot-proof” formaldehyde test kits after a “60 Minutes” report accused the company of selling contaminated laminate flooring from China.
Last week the company had directed customers to request the kits via phone, email, or online form, but at times, consumers calling its customer care line were directed to voicemail. The company has now created a new page on its site to process requests: lumberliquidators.com/ll/testkit.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102513203
As gary found out, trading up is for idiots, people under water can’t sell, and people in default can’t live anyplace cheaper than free.
Agents report that the number of properties for sale in the second week in March is down anywhere from 18 percent in Sudbury to nearly 60 percent in Somerville and Cambridge, compared with the same time a year ago.
Who does this remind you of?
How to Make Millions by Marketing Yourself as a “Douche Bag”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-18/penny-stock-guru-tim-sykes-embraces-role-of-rich-douche-bag-
I mentioned the below house back in the fall. Sold for $580K last month.
The Original NJ ExPat says:
October 27, 2014 at 7:56 am
Here’s an interesting canary in a coal mine. In 2012 a family from up here sold their $900K Brookline home and downsized to this Glen Rock home when they moved to NJ to take a new job. I even mentioned this in a post back then showing how money was being extracted from the market by those who were in a position to. Now it’s back on the market. Bought in 2012 for $605K, offered now at $599K now. Shows well:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/100-Concord-Ave-Glen-Rock-NJ-07452/37920371_zpid/
It took me a while to realize that this is not my father’s housing market. Post bubble purchases are simply a transaction to trade a dead asset from one dead muppet to another dead muppet. All the slick advertising known as great schools, exclusive neighborhoods, etc. is all a bunch of high flung dog sh1t. I’ll tell anyone that closes on a house today that they’ve just been hoodwinked whether it’s their money or was a gift from grandma. It’s really a rigged game and the chess pieces are the muppet m0rons. It’s astonishing and ironic that the game I was trying to throw myself into wound up saving me from my own harm.
Still blaming Bush..
“President Barack Obama is calling the rise of ISIS an “unintended consequence” of the United States invading Iraq in 2003”
Obama is the unintended consequence.
lmao….true
Juice Box says:
March 18, 2015 at 10:59 am
Still blaming Bush..
“President Barack Obama is calling the rise of ISIS an “unintended consequence” of the United States invading Iraq in 2003″
What about the people renting right now? They have to live. They have to pick an option and right now it’s better to own than rent. No matter how bad you think purchasing a house is right now, it’s worst to rent. The rental inventory is worst off and the rental prices are at all time highs.
I think I finally get it. I think I figured out your issue. You lived through a great time in America and want that era back. The standard of living has gone down, which means the cost of living has gone up. This is what is pissing you off.
Being a landlord, can’t say I’m complaining.
Fast Eddie says:
March 18, 2015 at 10:32 am
It took me a while to realize that this is not my father’s housing market. Post bubble purchases are simply a transaction to trade a dead asset from one dead muppet to another dead muppet. All the slick advertising known as great schools, exclusive neighborhoods, etc. is all a bunch of high flung dog sh1t. I’ll tell anyone that closes on a house today that they’ve just been hoodwinked whether it’s their money or was a gift from grandma. It’s really a rigged game and the chess pieces are the muppet m0rons. It’s astonishing and ironic that the game I was trying to throw myself into wound up saving me from my own harm.
Layoff day here in the office. Yeah acquisitions
Nothing to see here……
10 Law Schools whose 2014 graduates have on avg the Most Debt
1.Thomas Jefferson School of Law: $172,445 (91% of grads have debt)
2.New York Law School: $166,622 (83% of grads have debt)
3.Northwestern University: $163,065 (80% of grads have debt)
4.Florida Coastal School of Law: $162,785 (93% of grads have debt)
5.American University: $159,316 (83% of grads have debt)
6.Vermont Law School: $156,713 (84% of grads have debt)
7.Touro College: $154,855 (85% of grads have debt)
8.University of San Francisco: $154,321 (88% of grads have debt)
9.Columbia University: $154,076 (76% of grads have debt)
10.Whittier College: $151,602 (91% of grads have debt)
Let’s take a look at some employment statistics to see if all of that debt is really worth it. All employment data is from the class of 2013, unless otherwise noted.
•Thomas Jefferson School of Law: 29% employed in full-time, long-term legal jobs
•New York Law School: 44.5% employed in full-time, long-term legal jobs
•Northwestern University: 79.2% employed in full-time, long-term legal jobs
•Florida Coastal School of Law: 30.8% employed in full-time, long-term legal jobs
•American University: 45.6% employed in full-time, long-term legal jobs
•Vermont Law School: 54.5% employed in full-time, long-term legal jobs
•Touro College: 53% employed in full-time, long-term legal jobs
•University of San Francisco: 36% employed in full-time, long-term legal jobs
•Columbia University: 95% employed in full-time, long-term legal jobs
•Whittier College: 34.7% employed in full-time, long-term legal jobs in 2012
Pumpkin Seed,
The standard of living has gone down, which means the cost of living has gone up.
I think wage inflation will resolve this issue, don’t you?
Do you honestly think people are going to stop surviving? I doubt it. So how will this get fixed so people can continue surviving? Wage inflation. It’s the only way that the economy doesn’t crash into the ground. Even if the economy crashes into the ground, wage inflation will be the outcome. People have to survive and they can not survive without wage inflation. It’s impossible in a state of rising costs. So tell me why wage inflation will never come, please?
Fast Eddie says:
March 18, 2015 at 11:34 am
Pumpkin Seed,
The standard of living has gone down, which means the cost of living has gone up.
I think wage inflation will resolve this issue, don’t you?
lol! It’s “damn wage inflation” not just wage inflation. I think it’s those damn commies fault! You agree?
It’s amazing how the PassionPump thinks that Wage Inflation == People need more money so someone will magically give them more money.
When are people going to learn: never call the police for help
http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2015/03/family-releases-video-of-dallas-police-fatal-shooting-of-mental-patient.html/
I worked with a guy who bought a house in Tewksbury, who then, to maintain the farm tax break, raised 2 cows per year, and sold the meat to colleagues, to make his $500 revenues. I told him he should name cow 1 “tax”, and cow 2 “break”. Of course he was a liberal. Saved him at least $15k/yr, though that’s not counting the wasted time feeding his dumb tax breaks. Of course he also jumped onto the solar power subsidies bandwagon as well, getting paid by taxpayers and other utility customers to deliver his trickle of “green” electricity.
https://youtu.be/rQk_52bnp9k
The Original NJ ExPat says:
March 18, 2015 at 9:56 am
[5] Lib – I used to know a girl who lived in Franklin Lakes 30 years ago. They would occasionally have one of the neighbor’s sheep fall into their pool. I think that sheep was half the flock of the neighbor. I bet JJ would be good at tending sheep.
Sorry to hear you’re going through that Pain.
Painhrtz – aww f*ck it says:
March 18, 2015 at 11:19 am
Layoff day here in the office. Yeah acquisitions
You realize the function of money is to incentivize the participants of an economic system, right? Why will people continue to participate in the economic system if they can barely survive off the pay? Why would they keep participating if they are going nowhere, but into more debt to some wealthy debt holder.
This is why flipping out about debt is pointless. The world will not end due to debt, ever!! The money is owed to ourselves. The money is owed to wealthy people who have bought the debt to profit. My advice to them; turn off the debt faucet and pay them more, or don’t complain about people taking on debt to live in this society. Otherwise, you just lost on your investment because these people can not pay it back.
The Original NJ ExPat says:
March 18, 2015 at 12:00 pm
It’s amazing how the PassionPump thinks that Wage Inflation == People need more money so someone will magically give them more money.
You realize the function of money is to incentivize the participants of an economic system, right?
You realize this is something you made up, right?
I Love Ewe
chicagofinance says:
March 18, 2015 at 12:41 pm
https://youtu.be/rQk_52bnp9k
The Original NJ ExPat says:
March 18, 2015 at 9:56 am
[5] Lib – I used to know a girl who lived in Franklin Lakes 30 years ago. They would occasionally have one of the neighbor’s sheep fall into their pool. I think that sheep was half the flock of the neighbor. I bet JJ would be good at tending sheep
Then what the hell does money do? People kill for it, why?
The Original NJ ExPat says:
March 18, 2015 at 1:11 pm
You realize the function of money is to incentivize the participants of an economic system, right?
You realize this is something you made up, right?
deservingly so
Juice Box says:
March 18, 2015 at 10:59 am
Still blaming Bush..
“President Barack Obama is calling the rise of ISIS an “unintended consequence” of the United States invading Iraq in 2003″
In an age of “Uber for X” startups, it was inevitable that we’d start to see ride hailing services splinter into more specialized use cases.
Running to the head of that line is Shuddle, a new Uber-like service that arranges car rides for busy families. The app, launched officially last October, announced on Wednesday that it raised $9.6 million in new Series A funding in a round led by RRE Ventures, along with existing investors Comcast Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, and Accel Partners.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2015/03/18/uber-for-kids-shuddle-raises-10-million-to-replace-moms-minivan/
48-
Shuddle, which does not yet offer on-demand ride hailing like Uber, Lyft, Sidecar, and the like, allows parents to arrange scheduled pickups for kids. Rides from home to school or school to soccer practice are Shuddle’s bread-and-butter. In its first metropolitian area of San Francisco, prices are $9 per month, plus regular per-ride fees.
To protect kids and put parents’ minds at ease, Shuddle only hires drivers with two employee references for caregiving experience (like nanny, babysitter, teacher) and says it conducts more extensive background checks than its competitors. Booking rides over 24 hours in advance allows parents to review their driver’s photo and bio information. Then parents can monitor the GPS of their kid’s ride in progress.
Those who specialize in expense reduction would accurately argue that each dollar you earn in sales contributes a small percentage to profit. But, each dollar you save goes directly to the bottom line. Your cost cutting might be driven by a desire to price your products or services more competitively, to improve financial performance, or to better serve your customer. The decision is never simple. Just be careful to not make some of the mistakes I’ve outlined as the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Cost Cutting.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ianaltman/2015/03/17/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-of-cost-cutting/
@markets:
BREAKING:
FED DROPS PATIENT LANGUAGE. OPENING DOOR TO RATE HIKES IN JUNE
[3] grim,
The true measure of revenue (at least as a rough measure) ought to be sufficient revenue to account for the difference btwn normal valuation and farmland valuation. The reason is that an artificially low revenue threshold is meaningless if the tax savings are greater.
For example, lets say I grow Xmas trees and not very many of them, perhaps 30 total. That “farm” nets me $9,000 off of my property taxes (diff. btwn normal assessment and farm assessment). The threshold can be 5K but I don’t care. I will “sell” 5 trees to my BIL for 1K apiece. Assuming expenses of $1K attributable to farming, that leaves $4K of taxable income for which I pay $1,500 in taxes. So I have complied with the law but still netted $7,500 to the good.
On a tax neutral basis, my revenue threshold for farming ought to generate sufficient revenue to get me to an additional $9K in taxes, or in this case, $30,000 in farming revenue. At that point, I have no incentive to engage in sham farming because I am not saving anything by doing so. But if I were a true farmer, I may actually make out because I will have actual expenses versus revenues so my taxable income would be lower and I still get the tax break. So true farmers would not be harmed by a sliding revenue threshold.
This is very rough, I admit, and there are a lot of things that would have to be tweaked, but you get the idea.
@TheStalwart:
Dow now up over 100
“anon (the good one) says:
March 18, 2015 at 1:40 pm
deservingly so
Juice Box says:
March 18, 2015 at 10:59 am
Still blaming Bush..
“President Barack Obama is calling the rise of ISIS an “unintended consequence” of the United States invading Iraq in 2003″
If you are going to use the continuum of history argument to smear Bush (and if you listen to Comrade Obama’s comments, he makes clear that ISIS is an Al Qaeda outgrowth), then you must also blame Clinton. He had bin Laden in his crosshairs more than once and did nothing, nor did he seriously prosecute any meaningful action against AQ during his term in office despite their terrorism here and abroad.
Heck, as long as we are at it, let’s keep playing this game all the way back to Wilson. It’s possible.
[54] redux,
Of course, the crux of the blame for Bush argument is the argument that we should never have removed Saddam Hussein from power.
I happen to agree with it, but I can never seem to get democrats to own it, even though it is the unstated premise of their argument.
The function of money in this system punkinhead, is to make sure the 000s appear there but that the bill never comes due. Grasp your head around it. It does not function primarily to pay for goods services..at least not anymore. The ponzi scheme is over but a few hands will still be played…could be 10, 15,30 years but countdown is on. Your strong beliefs in equilibrium, fairness and American exceptionalism are naive. Sure, talk up your winning strategies but there will be internal war before you enjoy your steak dinner at retirement. That die is cast and all the Repub vs. Dem squabbling about who got us here won’t change outcome. The imbalance is too great and can’t be changed through policy or meaningless Fed meetings.
[54] Comrade
And that is US Foreign Policy…Repubs and Dems call plays from the same playbook.
Playing the look back game…. I think Reagan funded the training of a young Bin Laden when Afghanistan was fighting Russia back in the day. Guess you can say that kicking the can down the road is part of many government policies.
The meaning of money? I can’t explain it any better than Ayn Rand did:
http://capitalismmagazine.com/2002/08/franciscos-money-speech/
“So you think that money is the root of all evil?” said Francisco d’Anconia. “Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?
“When you accept money in payment for your effort, you do so only on the conviction that you will exchange it for the product of the effort of others. It is not the moochers or the looters who give value to money. Not an ocean of tears not all the guns in the world can transform those pieces of paper in your wallet into the bread you will need to survive tomorrow. Those pieces of paper, which should have been gold, are a token of honor–your claim upon the energy of the men who produce. Your wallet is your statement of hope that somewhere in the world around you there are men who will not default on that moral principle which is the root of money, Is this what you consider evil?
“Have you ever looked for the root of production? Take a look at an electric generator and dare tell yourself that it was created by the muscular effort of unthinking brutes. Try to grow a seed of wheat without the knowledge left to you by men who had to discover it for the first time. Try to obtain your food by means of nothing but physical motions–and you’ll learn that man’s mind is the root of all the goods produced and of all the wealth that has ever existed on earth.
“But you say that money is made by the strong at the expense of the weak? What strength do you mean? It is not the strength of guns or muscles. Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think. Then is money made by the man who invents a motor at the expense of those who did not invent it? Is money made by the intelligent at the expense of the fools? By the able at the expense of the incompetent? By the ambitious at the expense of the lazy? Money is made–before it can be looted or mooched–made by the effort of every honest man, each to the extent of his ability. An honest man is one who knows that he can’t consume more than he has produced.’
“To trade by means of money is the code of the men of good will. Money rests on the axiom that every man is the owner of his mind and his effort. Money allows no power to prescribe the value of your effort except the voluntary choice of the man who is willing to trade you his effort in return. Money permits you to obtain for your goods and your labor that which they are worth to the men who buy them, but no more. Money permits no deals except those to mutual benefit by the unforced judgment of the traders. Money demands of you the recognition that men must work for their own benefit, not for their own injury, for their gain, not their loss–the recognition that they are not beasts of burden, born to carry the weight of your misery–that you must offer them values, not wounds–that the common bond among men is not the exchange of suffering, but the exchange of goods. Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men’s stupidity, but your talent to their reason; it demands that you buy, not the shoddiest they offer, but the best that your money can find. And when men live by trade–with reason, not force, as their final arbiter–it is the best product that wins, the best performance, the man of best judgment and highest ability–and the degree of a man’s productiveness is the degree of his reward. This is the code of existence whose tool and symbol is money. Is this what you consider evil?
“But money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. It will give you the means for the satisfaction of your desires, but it will not provide you with desires. Money is the scourge of the men who attempt to reverse the law of causality–the men who seek to replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind.
“Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants: money will not give him a code of values, if he’s evaded the knowledge of what to value, and it will not provide him with a purpose, if he’s evaded the choice of what to seek. Money will not buy intelligence for the fool, or admiration for the coward, or respect for the incompetent. The man who attempts to purchase the brains of his superiors to serve him, with his money replacing his judgment, ends up by becoming the victim of his inferiors. The men of intelligence desert him, but the cheats and the frauds come flocking to him, drawn by a law which he has not discovered: that no man may be smaller than his money. Is this the reason why you call it evil?
“Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth–the man who would make his own fortune no matter where he started. If an heir is equal to his money, it serves him; if not, it destroys him. But you look on and you cry that money corrupted him. Did it? Or did he corrupt his money? Do not envy a worthless heir; his wealth is not yours and you would have done no better with it. Do not think that it should have been distributed among you; loading the world with fifty parasites instead of one, would not bring back the dead virtue which was the fortune. Money is a living power that dies without its root. Money will not serve the mind that cannot match it. Is this the reason why you call it evil?
“Money is your means of survival. The verdict you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is the verdict you pronounce upon your life. If the source is corrupt, you have damned your own existence. Did you get your money by fraud? By pandering to men’s vices or men’s stupidity? By catering to fools, in the hope of getting more than your ability deserves? By lowering your standards? By doing work you despise for purchasers you scorn? If so, then your money will not give you a moment’s or a penny’s worth of joy. Then all the things you buy will become, not a tribute to you, but a reproach; not an achievement, but a reminder of shame. Then you’ll scream that money is evil. Evil, because it would not pinch-hit for your self-respect? Evil, because it would not let you enjoy your depravity? Is this the root of your hatred of money?
“Money will always remain an effect and refuse to replace you as the cause. Money is the product of virtue, but it will not give you virtue and it will not redeem your vices. Money will not give you the unearned, neither in matter nor in spirit. Is this the root of your hatred of money?
“Or did you say it’s the love of money that’s the root of all evil? To love a thing is to know and love its nature. To love money is to know and love the fact that money is the creation of the best power within you, and your passkey to trade your effort for the effort of the best among men. It’s the person who would sell his soul for a nickel, who is loudest in proclaiming his hatred of money–and he has good reason to hate it. The lovers of money are willing to work for it. They know they are able to deserve it.
“Let me give you a tip on a clue to men’s characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.
“Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another–their only substitute, if they abandon money, is the muzzle of a gun.
“But money demands of you the highest virtues, if you wish to make it or to keep it. Men who have no courage, pride or self-esteem, men who have no moral sense of their right to their money and are not willing to defend it as they defend their life, men who apologize for being rich–will not remain rich for long. They are the natural bait for the swarms of looters that stay under rocks for centuries, but come crawling out at the first smell of a man who begs to be forgiven for the guilt of owning wealth. They will hasten to relieve him of the guilt–and of his life, as he deserves.
“Then you will see the rise of the men of the double standard–the men who live by force, yet count on those who live by trade to create the value of their looted money–the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you against them. But when a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law–men who use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims–then money becomes its creators’ avenger. Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they’ve passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter.
“Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion–when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing–when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that is does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot.
“Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men’s protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked, ‘Account overdrawn.’
“When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, ‘Who is destroying the world? You are.
“You stand in the midst of the greatest achievements of the greatest productive civilization and you wonder why it’s crumbling around you, while you’re damning its life-blood–money. You look upon money as the savages did before you, and you wonder why the jungle is creeping back to the edge of your cities. Throughout men’s history, money was always seized by looters of one brand or another, whose names changed, but whose method remained the same: to seize wealth by force and to keep the producers bound, demeaned, defamed, deprived of honor. That phrase about the evil of money, which you mouth with such righteous recklessness, comes from a time when wealth was produced by the labor of slaves–slaves who repeated the motions once discovered by somebody’s mind and left unimproved for centuries. So long as production was ruled by force, and wealth was obtained by conquest, there was little to conquer, Yet through all the centuries of stagnation and starvation, men exalted the looters, as aristocrats of the sword, as aristocrats of birth, as aristocrats of the bureau, and despised the producers, as slaves, as traders, as shopkeepers–as industrialists.
“To the glory of mankind, there was, for the first and only time in history, a country of money–and I have no higher, more reverent tribute to pay to America, for this means: a country of reason, justice, freedom, production, achievement. For the first time, man’s mind and money were set free, and there were no fortunes-by-conquest, but only fortunes-by-work, and instead of swordsmen and slaves, there appeared the real maker of wealth, the greatest worker, the highest type of human being–the self-made man–the American industrialist.
“If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose–because it contains all the others–the fact that they were the people who created the phrase ‘to make money.’ No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity–to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The words ‘to make money’ hold the essence of human morality.
“Yet these were the words for which Americans were denounced by the rotted cultures of the looters’ continents. Now the looters’ credo has brought you to regard your proudest achievements as a hallmark of shame, your prosperity as guilt, your greatest men, the industrialists, as blackguards, and your magnificent factories as the product and property of muscular labor, the labor of whip-driven slaves, like the pyramids of Egypt. The rotter who simpers that he sees no difference between the power of the dollar and the power of the whip, ought to learn the difference on his own hide– as, I think, he will.
“Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to be the tool by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of men. Blood, whips and guns–or dollars. Take your choice–there is no other–and your time is running out.”
re: # 4 7 – Problem with O blaming Bush for ISIS is Hillary blames O.
The FED speak game continues to make me laugh. It’s really no different than when the IBs upgrade or downgrade a stock and then profit off of their call. Or when rating houses, such as S&P openly lie about CDOs filled with toxic waste and receive nary a mention of wrongdoing, let alone a fine. But lets all concern ourselves with which party is responsible for ISIS for that’s what really matters. Baa.
Let’s go back to barter only.
Money isn’t the problem, it’s the IOUs.
[57] FKA
And then we can blame Carter for the loss of Iran, our standing in the region, the fomentation of violent anti-American sentiment, and establishing the precedent that we don’t back tyrants, even our own. See, I told you this game was fun.
We are on to Gerald Ford. You’re up.
A few months old and guaranteed to fry anon/Footrest/CCB’s onions:
http://www.gallup.com/opinion/chairman/169139/small-business-dying.aspx
FWIW, for the CEO of Gallup to do this is very ballsy, and means he is putting Gallup’s cred on the line, something one doesn’t do lightly.
63
The game is a pathetic embarrassment.
toxic I’m pissed I have a new job and was hoping for the layoff before I start. We have been through 3 in the last 18 months so you kind of get numb to it. Way of the world in pharma these days.
JJ, what’s the mood on the trading floor?
anon (the good one) says:
March 18, 2015 at 2:08 pm
@markets:
BREAKING:
FED DROPS PATIENT LANGUAGE. OPENING DOOR TO RATE HIKES IN JUNE
To recap: Obama is at fault for the following in order:
1. Causing the financial crisis that started 5 months before he took office
2. Bailing out the auto industry, which saved tens of thousands of jobs & the economy
3. The failed stock market, even though we’re back to record levels
4. Inflation, which never happened
5. The S&P downgrade of the US, even though it resulted from mindless Tea Party posturing
6. Flagging growth, because the US economy is booming more than other developed economies
7. The high cost of oil caused by pandering to environmentalist, even though it was $140/bl during the Bush administration and is $45 now (that’s 3x higher than todays price)
8. Failed energy policy, even though the combination of US production, increased energy efficiency and green production have reduce US imports of energy from 35% of production to 11% of production
9. High unemployment, even though unemployment is at Regan levels of 5%
10. Obamacare’s failure, even though it’s significantly increased insurance levels and stabilized medical costs.
If you all listen really carefully, you can hear the thousands of Americans dying at the hands of Obamacare death panels. Do you hear them?
[63] Comrade
Well played sir. Will have to come back to you.
http://www.gallup.com/opinion/chairman/169139/small-business-dying.aspx
“The official unemployment rate is an inaccurate mess, because it doesn’t count people who have quit looking for work. And an unemployment rate of 6.7% is not only horribly misleading, but now a cruel misrepresentation of the millions of unemployed and underemployed Americans who are growing discouraged and feel emotionally destroyed.
We need new metrics real fast, and Gallup has developed one. It’s called Payroll-to-Population (P2P), and it’s a very clear metric with no messiness or complicated formulas. Gallup’s P2P simply represents the percent of adults in full-time jobs with a paycheck as a percentage of the total U.S. adult population. P2P answers the most pressing question of the day: What percent of American adults have a full-time job?
While the federal government touted an improved unemployment rate, Gallup’s P2P rate fell to 42.9% in December, from 43.7% in November. The current rate is the lowest Gallup has measured since March 2011.”
[63] Comrade
Quick search on Ford, whose real name was Leslie Lynch King Jr.
Seems President Ford left the Kurds high and dry in their fight against Saddam Hussein. This was done because our puppet, the Shah of Iran made a secret deal with Saddam that forced us to withdraw support of the Kurds.
Also credited with the US’s First under-estimation of Iraq.
Whatever happened to that poster “Lone Ranger” who used to be a big silver bull?
I notice it’s been in the dumps for a while and now there are desperate sounding radio adds pitching silver for being below its cost of production. There is no one single “cost of production” for a metal.
I notice that often puppet leaders are better than the folks that a backwards people come up with on their own. I wish there was a stronger and more advanced country dedicated to preserving individual rights, rule of law, and constitutional governance that could install a puppet leader in the United States. Either that or more Americans wake up and do that on their own once again.
FKA [71];
Quick search on Ford, whose real name was Leslie Lynch King Jr.
Imagine that, a public vetting of the background of a president (candidate or sitting). How novel!
[73] Ragnar
America walking up and doing it on their own would be ideal but will never happen. You can’t win any significant election without financial support from a group that doesn’t care about the rights or laws. Do you think on a state level, we could cut out the cronyism (just the unperformers) and fraud?
Rags: here is something to warm your heart on a cold day….the Rock Star from 1977…..
https://youtu.be/RnMd40dqBlQ?t=9m23s
I agree. These debts are never meant to be paid off. The pension debt, SS debt, and Medicare debt (basically govt debt) are never meant to be paid in full. Those debts are working for wealthy individuals. No debt and they make no money. Or think of it like this, no debt equals no control over the population. As long as debts are owed, somebody will be someone’s bitch. The economic system is truly the greatest Ponzi scheme of them all.
Bystander says:
March 18, 2015 at 2:19 pm
The function of money in this system punkinhead, is to make sure the 000s appear there but that the bill never comes due. Grasp your head around it. It does not function primarily to pay for goods services..at least not anymore. The ponzi scheme is over but a few hands will still be played…could be 10, 15,30 years but countdown is on. Your strong beliefs in equilibrium, fairness and American exceptionalism are naive. Sure, talk up your winning strategies but there will be internal war before you enjoy your steak dinner at retirement. That die is cast and all the Repub vs. Dem squabbling about who got us here won’t change outcome. The imbalance is too great and can’t be changed through policy or meaningless Fed meetings.
77- that’s why I laugh when politicians like Christie use the debt of the pension system as a fear tactic to make his boys money. Bush was no different, trying to scare the public with some made up debt # for SS and Medicaid to privatize those systems. If SS is a Ponzi scheme, why in the world would it ever have to be fully funded, same goes for the pension. Nothing more than using debt as a scare tactic. Same goes for the govt debt. A-holes made a big deal about debt two years ago, threatening to shut down govt for what? Now the debt doesn’t matter? Total bs.
78- who is the debt owed to? Will they survive if this debt is not paid? I would think that they will survive and if not, tough luck. Should have never loaned the money. Nothing is guaranteed, so take the bonds and wipe your ass with it.
Sorry about the angry rant on debt. It just enrages me how they use debt on the population that is the equivalent of a dog chain around everyone’s neck. I sure as hell did not ask for this debt, it was forced on us. So I can care less about it. Go dig out the graves of the dead that took on this debt and ask them for it.
Pumpkin [79];
That’s your answer to the bankruptcy of SS? “Never should have loaned the money” in the first place? “F*@< you, sucker"?
Com/Statler — you guys are kind of dense huh?
Touting your gallup poll guy like he’s some kind of hero because he pulls some silly new test out of his arse. If you want to compare apples to apples (so we can figure out where we are from a historical perspective) you have to use the same metrics we have used historically. Sure he is free to come up with a new test that can skew things (probably to profit by selling it or running ads against it or whatever) but baffled that you don’t see the flaws with this new test.
Comparing it to the percentage of the adult population makes no sense…clearly there are more and more people in the U.S. as we live longer and technology improves (look up a US population growth chart) thus your denominator keeps getting bigger thereby making the percentage smaller. Plus there are lots of retired folks who don’t want to work and other rich folks, stay at home moms, etc. who also choose not to work.
It’s a silly test created so he can profit….happens to suit your agenda so you tout it without giving it any deep thought. Wasted too much of my time explaining this to you, won’t do it again. But you should be embarrassed.
Isn’t that what they say when they forclose on your house?
Anon E. Moose says:
March 18, 2015 at 5:27 pm
Pumpkin [79];
78- who is the debt owed to? Will they survive if this debt is not paid? I would think that they will survive and if not, tough luck. Should have never loaned the money. Nothing is guaranteed, so take the bonds and wipe your ass with it.
That’s your answer to the bankruptcy of SS? “Never should have loaned the money” in the first place? “F*@< you, sucker"?
Last minute of that video is a powerful message. In order to make unequal people equal, you must treat people unequally. Powerful stuff. Thanks for the share.
chicagofinance says:
March 18, 2015 at 4:57 pm
Rags: here is something to warm your heart on a cold day….the Rock Star from 1977…..
https://youtu.be/RnMd40dqBlQ?t=9m23s
83- also, it’s a Ponzi scheme. Don’t kid yourself, bankruptcy does not apply to a Ponzi scheme. You just need enough money to keep it going. Don’t be scared of that crap. Didn’t they say at one point that social security would be bankrupt by now? Well, still waiting.
85- Before I get attacked, let me explain what I’m saying. A true Ponzi scheme fails because of a panic. When everyone realizes what’s happening and wants their money back all at once. SS and pensions don’t have to worry about this. Everyone can’t make a run on them at once and a certain group is forced to contribute by law (hence, why I look at the pension issue with state workers and feel bad for them, not jealous of them). So please tell me why those two programs need to be fully funded? Why are they acting like it’s the end of the world? Why are they throwing out total debt owed numbers when it is never collected all at once by the participants? They use those high numbers as a scare tactic. Govt is 17 trillion dollars in debt….blah blah blah
[71] FKA,
Wow, I’m impressed. But that sticks me with Nixon. Feh.
[82] ccb,
That’s pretty much what I expected from you.
I’ll have more on this one later. Ordinarily, I’d give it the consideration it deserves (which is none) but it is so sublimely perfect for a certain type of snarky reply, I just have to go for it. It’s gonna be a lot of fun but it takes a little time to set up and I’m already late for being somewhere so you have to wait until the kids go to bed (mine, not you).
[63] joyce,
“joyce says:
March 18, 2015 at 3:07 pm
63
The game is a pathetic embarrassment.”
Aww, don’t be such a killjoy.
Great, go get that Encyclopedia Britannica old timer and get back to me.
You’ve shown yourself to be particularly adroit with the snarky remarks so far (that’s part of why you are so likeable) so I hope you won’t disappoint.
#’s 73 and 101 from yesterday.
73 – Yeah, wish I went ROTC instead of enlisted but ROTC is not for every college
age kid…would have done me good, though.
101 – Warren County, NJ. Multi-Family properties. Stuff that needs renovation but
not too much (know your limitations physically, financially and
remember…everything will take twice as long and cost twice as much as you
thought).
*As I’ve said before and will say again, the Landlord business is NOT for most,
especially if you aint the handiest man as having contractors to do renovations
and/or repairs will eat up your margin quickly. Also, you have to be a hard ass ALL
the time with tenants (no different than any other type of business).
If you have doubts about being able to handle the above…forget it.
If you can it’s a good gig where you don’t have to work everyday and have people
watching you. Um, wait, that’s wrong. NO ‘bosses’ looking over you shoulder except
of course the IRS.
Another plus is you’ll get to know local law enforcement, business owners ect.
(Bloomberg) —
“Target Corp., the second-largest discount retail chain, will raise employee pay to at least $9 an hour this year, following in the footsteps of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and TJX Cos., a person with knowledge of the matter said.”
# 92- They can afford it they laid off 1,400 in their corp office last week, and laid off 17,000 in Canada recently as they shut down operations. Meanwhile their CEO still flies private on one of their 4 Jets. Great news inbetween however my stock it way up, highest it’s ever been.
I heard and read through various sources Bain was hired to decide who got let go. That says it all.
Target’s expansion into Canada was an overwhelming failure.
Don’t try to point to those layoffs as anything but.
But Bain.
Grim – all Canada locations were a failure? Next comes the spin off of real estate, make no mistake buy now and sell after spin off.
They were a laughingstock since day 1, doomed to failure.
They assumed the leases of a shit retail outlet only to perform shittier than the previous tenants.
In the US target is looked at as the upscale version of Walmart for folks that don’t want to be associated with Walmart. In Canada, Walmart has the same advantage over target.
They thought they could impose their US style, preference, approach on the Canadian market, as If they skipped the week in the mba international business course where they studied idiot American companies that failed to take into account that there might be a local prefernce.
They tried to expand well beyond their means to grow.
Don’t ask me how I kbow.
Management should all be fired.
Grim – all management was fired,don’t believe for for a sec they won’t lever up and spin off. If you have any idea of who now runs the place do what I am doing wait for the spin off.
also, it’s a Ponzi scheme. Don’t kid yourself, bankruptcy does not apply to a Ponzi scheme. You just need enough money to keep it going. Don’t be scared of that crap. Didn’t they say at one point that social security would be bankrupt by now? Well, still waiting.
Might as well be. Both sets of my grandparents were forced out of Bergen County as social security doesn’t even cover taxes on a tiny home. When taxes exceed the SS payout, in places outside Bergen county, the jig is up. It will still pay out…but it will be worthless.
“Whatever happened to that poster “Lone Ranger”…
My dad bought silver in the 70s for around $10 an ounce. He sold it all in the 90s for about $10 an ounce. Had he invested in the DJIA he would have made 800%.
Does anyone here actually consider SS as part of their retirement income? How quaint!
Turd – you can retire elsewhere, just forget family. It’s been done before heck Florida was founded on it.
@ 91 – Thank you NJT. I am not naive about the effort required to make it work. I appreciate your insights and wish you continued good luck with your business.
Turd – you can retire elsewhere, just forget family.
Yup…I’ve done the math. It’s so much cheaper in Central America, you could afford to fly any family members interested in visiting pretty much as often as they would like and it would still be about 5 times cheaper than retiring in America. Best of all, politics are nary an issue.
I swear that I came up with all the posts about SS today on my own. I did not research it or read about it anywhere. They were from my own analysis of the structure of the pension and social security system. I applied logic and realize the total debt # is meaningless, so why do politicians like Christie make it a life or death issue when it is not? Global warming is a hoax? How about debt crisis is a stupid hoax?
Well I decided to google the social security bankruptcy issue and low and behold a ton of articles backing me up.
“Social Security has been providing Americans with old age, disability, and widow and orphan insurance for as many as 77 years. But like so many of today’s crucial financial topics, it’s also shrouded in myth. Here are five big ones.
Myth No. 1: Social Security is going bankrupt”
http://www.fool.com/retirement/general/2012/10/15/5-huge-myths-about-social-security.aspx
“It is a logical impossibility for Social Security to go bankrupt. We can voluntarily choose to suspend or eliminate the program, but it could never fail because it “ran out of money.” This belief is the result of a common error: conceptualizing Social Security from the micro (individual) rather than the macro (economy-wide) perspective. It’s not a pension fund into which you put your money when you are young and from which you draw when you are old. It’s an immediate transfer from workers today to retirees today. That’s what it has always been and that’s what it has to be–there is no other possible way for it to work.”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johntharvey/2011/04/08/why-social-security-cannot-go-bankrupt/
Ben says:
March 18, 2015 at 8:43 pm
also, it’s a Ponzi scheme. Don’t kid yourself, bankruptcy does not apply to a Ponzi scheme. You just need enough money to keep it going. Don’t be scared of that crap. Didn’t they say at one point that social security would be bankrupt by now? Well, still waiting.
Might as well be. Both sets of my grandparents were forced out of Bergen County as social security doesn’t even cover taxes on a tiny home. When taxes exceed the SS payout, in places outside Bergen county, the jig is up. It will still pay out…but it will be worthless.
Plain and simple. The state pension system is setup the same way as SS. This guy must be talking about the private pension, not public, where current workers are forced to pay into the pension system. I’m telling you, they used this pension myths as a power grab in a down economy. They knew people would lose it with big debt numbers and rally around them. They just forgot to tell people that the numbers really don’t mean much at face value or the way that they are being presented by politicians like Christie.
“It is a logical impossibility for Social Security to go bankrupt. We can voluntarily choose to suspend or eliminate the program, but it could never fail because it “ran out of money.” This belief is the result of a common error: conceptualizing Social Security from the micro (individual) rather than the macro (economy-wide) perspective. It’s not a pension fund into which you put your money when you are young and from which you draw when you are old. It’s an immediate transfer from workers today to retirees today. That’s what it has always been and that’s what it has to be–there is no other possible way for it to work.”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johntharvey/2011/04/08/why-social-security-cannot-go-bankrupt/
“The lesson from this is that if we want Social Security to “be there” when we retire, our efforts must be focused on increasing productivity and making sure in particular that these increases get passed on to workers in the form of higher wages. But raising the value of the trust fund is, in this respect, pointless. Even if we had an infinite amount of money in it such that we could reduce all workers’ taxes to zero and still pay retirees, the exact same thing is still happening: Bob is getting three fish from the basket of ten, leaving seven for the original fisherman. Whether we accomplish this via direct taxation or from a pool of funds is absolutely, totally irrelevant in terms of the underlying economic impact (except for the fact that paying retirees from a fund is likely to cause inflation–explaining why is a little complicated so I don’t pursue it here). We are fooling ourselves if we think that taking money from the trust fund is giving us a free lunch. If there are only ten fish, there are only ten fish. Nothing other than changing productivity can affect that. The trust fund is worth having as a buffer, but it has zero to do with the feasibility of the system. If it runs out tomorrow, we can still have Social Security because we still have ten fish.
Incidentally, there appears to be every indication that productivity increases should be sufficient for the Baby Boomers to retire AND allow the rest of us enjoy even higher standards of living (assuming the compression of wages ends). That’s good news. In fact, it’s the only news that’s important.
In closing, I’m not telling you whether you should be for or against Social Security, but the argument that it is going bankrupt is a non-starter. It is much ado about nothing.”
Gene Gene the Dancing Machine < Vigoda
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/gong-show-gene-gene-dancing-machine-dies-82-article-1.2149430