From CNBC:
Homes this spring are selling faster than ever
Homes are flying off the shelves this spring, as demand rises and supply continues to drop.
Record high prices in some local markets are not thwarting hungry buyers, as they rush to take advantage of the lowest mortgage rates of the year.
Home sales jumped nearly 9 percent in March compared with March 2016, even as the number of homes for sale plunged 13 percent, according to a new report from Redfin, a national real estate firm.
That demand dynamic further increased competition in the market, resulting in the fastest average sales pace since Redfin began tracking in 2010. The typical home went under contract in just 49 days, down from 60 days a year ago.
Steep competition also pushed the median price of a home sold in March to $273,000, up 7.5 percent year over year.
First
Damn you!
You will either find this one funny or not……the money moment comes at 4:10……”What about…xxxxx?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bFhYvADjl4
Sorry Stu – You should cut/paste that over.
For those enjoying my anti-anti-vaccination rant from yesterday…
You are pulling at straws. I can accept that I was not responsible for my brain damaged son. Medulloblastoma is caused by an improperly formed cell. It’s as simple as that. I am not looking for excuses. If say, I personally felt that disposable diapers was the cause (which by the way, Amish don’t use either); I certainly am not going to make up some sh1t based on anecdotal evidence at best to try to convince people that Unilever and Procter & Gamble are secretly out to cause children cancer in the name of the almighty profit.
How many people do vaccines save a year? Tens of millions! TENS OF MILLIONS! One of D’s doctors suffered horribly due to Polio. What a friggin’ nightmare it is to watch her walk. If the voodoo anti-vaccination crowd had their way, there would millions of these doctors running around once again.
I can accept that vaccinations might be a trigger, and that by spreading them out, you might reduce the chances the trigger to autism is activated, but by enlarge, many of those formerly non-autistic people would have ended up autistic anyway. And I would also make the humane argument that I’d rather have an autistic child than a dead one.
I thought there were some recent studies looking at potential linkages between Herpes Simplex 2 and Autism.
There are also lots of discussions regarding potential advances towards a new HSV-2 vaccine.
Imagine that? Vaccine could potentially be reduce the rates of autism.
Like religion and politics, vaccinations are one of those topics where you can’t change someones mind once it is made up. My 1.5 yo niece developed very dangerous neutropenia and always wonder if vaccination overload was culprit. I am a firm believer that there are way too many shots in a short amount of time. Parents should be able to spread them out as they see fit..but get them done.
If there is anything we can all agree upon, it’s that the current setup of our healthcare system makes it very susceptible for research dollars to be spent on what is most profitable and not what is most needed. I bet the research on the next diabetes drug, so insulin only needs to be shot up once a month rather than once per week has 10,000 times the amount invested than finding a test to determine if you are carrying any kind of cell disorder, such as mitochondrial disease. Vaccines are not terribly profitable. Drugs of convenience? Look out!
I can’t believe this one is still for sale. It was a hoarder house with rotted out sills around back doors and windows. The yard was spongy and moss-laden. They slapped up who-knows-what to cover up the evil behind the walls. They should drop this to a 4 handle or level the place and take the loss.
http://www.njmls.com/listings/index.cfm?action=dsp.info&mlsnum=1707336&openhouse=true&dayssince=15&countysearch=false
I completely agree Bystander. We spread ours out the most we could. Now we have to do them all again due to D’s three stem-cell transplant therapies. Worst of all, we really can’t send him back to school because too many ill-informed parents played the religious objection card in Glen Ridge. Where in Christianity does it say vaccines are forbidden? Because I guarantee you, Christianity is the following of all of the objectors. If I ran the school, I would bus them all out of there.
Sold for 1.1M in 2005; currently at 999.9K. That’s 12 years and no appreciation.
http://www.njmls.com/listings/index.cfm?action=dsp.info&mlsnum=1643655&openhouse=true&dayssince=15&countysearch=false
re: Imagine that?
Nanotechnology has some clinical trials going on in cancer research. We might see cancer along with lots of other diseases defeated in our lifetimes.
JB,
If one can afford it.
http://www.snopes.com/hepatitis-c-drug-prices/
There is currently an ongoing study in St. Judes to determine the efficacy of radiation as a brain cancer deterrent to relapse in 3 to 6 year old children. Currently, no one even knows if the benefits outweigh the side-effects. When doing our consults, the neuro oncs who worked on the study all say radiation first then chemo. Those whose names weren’t on the study say chemo first and radiation later if at all. For those not aware, radiating a young child’s brain can cause spectacular damage. As D’s parents, we quickly learned the huge importance of reading the medical studies ourselves. A lot of these experts are nearing retirement and are not as open to newer research as they should be. There’s not a lot of science out there and an awful lot of guessing. Especially when it comes to rare and life-threatening diseases. There is certainly not enough medical collaboration. Though thankfully, once you get away from the insurance companies and that battle, you’ll find plenty of practitioners who will tell you what you need to hear, but only off the record.
For tax experts, not looking for advice but a sanity check. All things are pretty much equal in terms of income from 2015 (within a grand or two). I don’t own any rental properties or have a side business. Pretty straight forward return. My big event was my second son born in 2016 which adds another dependent Would that alone trigger amt? I did not pay it last year and truly everything looks close to same.
Here’s a fun little toy that may give you a better picture of migratory patterns.
It’s raw data so further number crunching is required. But I suggest that it’s more reliable than moving vans.
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/1314nj.xls
There are a lot of triggers. Having a lot of kids is number 4.
Certain factors raise the AMT risk. The seven triggers are:
1. living where there are high state and local taxes, which produce big deductions on the regular return
2. exercising stock options
3. reporting large investment options
4. having lots of children
5. using a home-equity loan for something other than home improvement
6. having a pile of miscellaneous deductions
7. claiming business depreciation
It seems my AMT amount is all over the place. Some years, nearly nothing. Other years, big bites.
Tesla Parking Lot Is Poster Child For Congestion
http://gas2.org/2017/04/15/tesla-parking-lot-congestion/
Steam,
The science is probably better in the medical field than in “climate change” science, fortunately government doesn’t go in and declare early science “settled” in that field, forcing everyone to change behaviors and subsidize products that may be a total waste of time and money.
Thanks Stu. I am #1 and #4, like everyone. Still can’t believe triggered, looking $1600. Not end of world but stymied by it.
AMT is a rite of passage. Now go out there and spend spend spend.
I’m always in the AMT have been solidly for the last 4 or 5 years……it sucks nothing like sending the jackals in NJ and the Fed government nearly 35% of my annual income in addition to FICA for SS and medicare which the government will likely decide I’m “too rich” to receive.
As bad as AMT is, being above the AMT zone is even higher tax rates. Marginal combined Federal/FICA/NJ rate about 47% for me, and there are no loopholes.
AMT is cheaper than Attorneys.
I’ll be the person to say it, since no one else will. Paying taxes sucks, we get it, no one wants to give up money they think is rightfully theirs (it’s really not, but they convince themselves anyway). If you fall under AMT, you are doing well and should just stop complaining. You have more than enough money to support a very good lifestyle and should just stop acting like it’s your god given right to keep it all.
“The individual alternative minimum tax (AMT) primarily affects well-off households, but not those with the very highest incomes. It is also more likely to hit taxpayers with large families, those who are married, and those who live in high-tax states.”
If you ever attended public school, you need to stop complaining about taxes. You took a lot of other people’s tax money to get that education. So stop trying to cut it off after you already got yours.
If you think govt is a fraud for being used to socialize the costs of society, please do come up with a better idea. I’m all ears.
If we eliminate the tax system, and instead pay for the costs of society on a “take” basis, what will be the result? How many businesses will be able to make the money they do now? Not many. Who will use the roads when you have to pay for them on a per use basis? How many people will hold back from using this service, crippling the economy?
Another example, how many people will use education if they have to pay for it out of pocket? It will destroy the economy within a generation. The impact from only a portion of the population getting educated will have ramifications at every level of society. It would just destroy innovation and growth at every level. Just the amount of jobs and businesses (yes plenty of private business feeding off the public education supply line….technology, energy, and supplies just to name a few) lost in education from the lower demand will put so many people and businesses out of work.
Now add on the cost of a crime rate that will go through the roof with a lack of public education. You will start seeing gangs of little kids robbing you any chance they can get. Some of these kids would have been productive citizens, but no education, no chance. So now they are just a negative on society.
How about the impact on businesses trying to hire good workers. Good luck trying to hire workers with no public education system to feed it. The cost of good workers will be too much for businesses to bear, resulting in the end of American business as we know it. There is no way in hell you get the economic growth in the future if no poor kids are able to get an education today. Dream away. NO WAY in hell can the companies pay for the education of their future workers themselves. It’s a team effort folks, from top to bottom. Won’t work any other way.
So let’s rally for limited govt! The hypocrisy of the rich; they want it all….no taxes and social programs, but then expect the majority to take care of themselves with no money or help. Houston, we have a problem. Just don’t get it.
NO ONE DOES ANYTHING ALONE THESE DAYS, IT’S A TOTAL TEAM EFFORT. Therefore, the teammates with more money then they know what to do with, should help out their teammates struggling to find a dollar by supporting programs through their taxes to help their teammates get ahead. The stronger the bottom the pyramid, the stronger and better a nation. The stronger the top of the pyramid, the weaker a nation becomes as it falls over from the imbalance of the weight at the top.
America was the unique project that changed this. It was the first society to give so much to the bottom, and that’s what made it great. Every society before America was based on extreme inequality, hence, why every single one of them failed. They all failed due to the infighting within their society that comes with the massive inequality, or they failed by being taken over by another leader griped with greed and incessant on pushing more inequality on the rest of society so they can have it all. Why we are going back to the model of inequality is beyond me. Haven’t we watched it fail over and over again throughout history? Yet, here we are making the same mistakes again.
What does it take to get an enlightened leader or an elite class that realizes everything can’t be theirs, and that the best societies are the ones that share the spoils most equally. That’s when everyone is better off. Making one group work physically hard to go nowhere, while another group makes all the profit off this labor is never good for the long-term health of a society.
America used to be based on the idea that if you work hard, you will get ahead, and that’s what made this society so strong and great. You were rewarded for working hard and going the extra mile. In extreme income inequality societies (almost every society to ever grace this planet), workers work hard and go nowhere. They are told to be happy they have a job. This destroys society from the bottom up. Hope we are smart enough to avoid this trap, but it doesn’t seem like it. I’m usually optimistic, but in this case, I believe greed will win out over logical thought. It has happened over and over in history, so why is America any different?
Apologies to the board for bringing blumpy’s brain shart du jour. He is obviously the product of too many straight shot vaccinations to the cerebral cortex.
Complain about where your tax dollars go, then invest in the companies that feed off it. Mad about your tax dollars going to education(using education because thats what people seem to complain about the most), then buy google or apple stock. How much of their profit has been feeding off public education dollars? How much of these tax dollars helped fund their research and development? Nothing like a secure and steady flow of cash to feed your inovation. So before you think your tax dollars are magically put in someone’s pocket, understand they travel in and out of many pockets, making our society and economy stronger for it. Tax dollars pay for what nobody wants to pay, but we all need, hence, why the costs are socialized. Everyone needs this stuff, yet the cost is spread out based on the ability to pay for it. What exactly is so wrong about that?
Did you even bother to read what I wrote?
If I’m the dummy, and you are the smart one, then please provide to me the best way to pay for the costs of society since the system of taxation is nothing more than stealing in your eyes. I’m all ears.
Bystander says:
April 17, 2017 at 6:14 pm
Apologies to the board for bringing blumpy’s brain shart du jour. He is obviously the product of too many straight shot vaccinations to the cerebral cortex.
In last August’s post “Spread the Wealth“, I talked about the justifications for redistributive taxation. I felt that some of the issues raised in the comments deserved to be revisited – and since it’s tax time here in the U.S., it’s worth a reminder of why we pay them and what we get out of it.
The centerpiece of the libertarian rhetorical strategy is to refer to taxation as theft, robbery, slavery. I’ve heard these epithets and others like them many times. It’s easy to see what purpose this serves: to make your concerns seem more important, it helps to refer to them not as bloodless policy differences, but as raw issues of justice. “The government is stealing from innocent people!” is a lot punchier and packs more emotional heft than any proposal, no matter how passionately worded, to simplify unnecessary regulations and cut down on bureaucratic red tape.
But this overheated claim is being asked to bear far more weight than it can possibly support. Of all the libertarian policy proposals out there (many others of which I agree with), the equation of taxation with theft is the least defensible. The fallacies in this should be obvious to a moment’s thought, but some people seem unwilling to take that moment, so I’ll go over them again in this post.
Libertarians say that taxation is like theft because it takes property from the unwilling. What they ignore, time and time again, is the crucial role of democratic consent. Taxes are not arbitrary impositions decreed by a faceless government. Rather, taxes are the dues we pay in exchange for membership in a society and access to all the services it offers.
The situation can be compared to a private club that charges a membership fee in exchange for providing benefits and amenities to its members. Obviously, the club is within its rights to charge whatever price it believes fair in exchange for this. If you believe the price is too high, you’re free to renounce your membership and leave the club. What you’re not free to do is to refuse to pay, but demand that you still be allowed to sit in the club and use its facilities. Nor are you free, if the club doesn’t offer this option, to decide that you only use some of its services – only the swimming pool, say, but not the sauna or the tennis courts – and should therefore have the right to pay a prorated membership fee. But these options, clearly absurd in this thought experiment, are the same ones libertarians claim they have a right to exercise in the real world.
The analogy of the club can be transferred in a precise way to society as a whole. Society is the club, and taxes are the membership dues we pay in exchange for the services it provides. If you don’t want to pay, if you dislike its terms, you can leave that society and seek another one. But you are not free to unilaterally demand that society rewrite its terms to favor your particular preferences.
Going hand-in-hand with the fallacious equation of taxation to theft is another libertarian fallacy: the belief that a free market is the natural state of affairs and will spontaneously arise if only the economy is left to itself. This is wrong. A free market is a kind of infrastructure, and like all other infrastructure, it requires investment to create and effort to maintain.
As centuries of history show, the natural state of an unregulated economy is not free competition, but stifled and constrained competition. Large, established powers, if given the chance, will do everything they can to suppress competition – whether through means fair or foul. From medieval guilds to industrial robber barons, the tactics are always the same: seizing the distribution channels, the infrastructure, the intellectual property, or the sources of raw material. Governments want to control vital resources in the name of national security; industry groups may take a hand in designing regulations that make it all but impossible for new players to enter the field. Outright intimidation, fraud and violence are often used against those who refuse to play along. Even the staunchly libertarian Cato Institute admits this:
“It is no surprise, then, that throughout U.S. history corporations have been overwhelmingly hostile to the free market.”
To maintain the preferable state of a free market, we need structure and regulation from the government. Taxation provides, among other things, the resources that are necessary to keep the free market running.
In my experience, most libertarians concede that some regulation is needed, but argue that they should only be taxed for services that benefit them directly. This is like demanding that businesses sell their goods to you for exactly what it cost to make them and no more. Just like any business, the government is entitled to “turn a profit” on the services it provides. Just as with a business, these proceeds can be reinvested, resulting in greater productivity and efficiency that ultimately benefit all members of society.
Of course, elected governments can spend tax money unwisely, on pork or boondoggles, and we as citizens have every right to complain about this and to oust officeholders who abuse the public trust. But the solution is not to abolish taxation, just as the solution to corporate fraud and malfeasance is not to ban all corporations. Any power can be abused, but that is not a reason to get rid of all power, which is impossible in any case. If taxes are spent unwisely or wasted, the answer is to elect better politicians or put in place more stringent legislative safeguards.”
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/2009/04/taxation-is-not-theft/
Please read this and understand this! I know the last post was long, and you will ignore most of it, so please read this and understand this. So many on this blog carry this same sense of entitlement when it comes to taxes.
“The situation can be compared to a private club that charges a membership fee in exchange for providing benefits and amenities to its members. Obviously, the club is within its rights to charge whatever price it believes fair in exchange for this. If you believe the price is too high, you’re free to renounce your membership and leave the club. What you’re not free to do is to refuse to pay, but demand that you still be allowed to sit in the club and use its facilities. Nor are you free, if the club doesn’t offer this option, to decide that you only use some of its services – only the swimming pool, say, but not the sauna or the tennis courts – and should therefore have the right to pay a prorated membership fee. But these options, clearly absurd in this thought experiment, are the same ones libertarians claim they have a right to exercise in the real world.”
And like the example points out….if you believe the price is too high, and you can’t get ahead, you are FREE TO RENOUNCE your membership and go to another govt. Heard Somalia basically has no taxes, maybe this is more the type of govt you desire.
Pumps I Wil keep it short and sweet we all understand they are a necessity. What we don’t believe as opposed to you is that higher means better. Waste duplication of services corruption vanity projects outsized pensions etc that is what we are against!! It’s not that difficult to comprehend.
Some people like to use Venezuela as an example of why extreme social!sm doesn’t work, well Somalia is a great example of why not having taxation and regulation, aka govt, is not good either. Pick the middle ground and stay away from the extremes. If no regulation and taxes were a boom for society, Somalia would be killing it, but it’s not.
“The lack of taxation and regulation may mean a certain amount of freedom from interference.
But business people have to pay security firms to ensure the safety of their goods, and need to pay off different factions if they want to do any trade.
The risky situation does not deter all investment, but it would be a lot higher if a stable authority was in place.
Mr Farah thinks that mobile phone operators would welcome an effective government.
“They will have security, they will have stability and they will be able to do their business smoothly,” the telecoms expert says.
“So without a doubt, the telecom industry in Somalia needs a government.””
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-12278628
Government is my employee to protect my right to life, liberty and property. The fact that it has arrogated to its purview a vast number of inefficient services and wealth redistribution doesn’t give it unlimited title to my wealth. Just like you are employed by whomever as a crappy financial analyst. If you start giving your boss unsolicited handjobs or claim to educate him with your faulty economic ideas it doesn’t mean you can ask for unlimited raises.
Do you not understand that the taxes are a part of our economy? They are not just wasted (for the most part)or given away, they are a part of our economy. So take away the taxes, and you will still have to pay, it just won’t be in the form of taxes, it will be in the form of payment on goods. So go ahead and lower all the taxes, just understand that you will be redirecting the money to the rich by not taking the money out of their hands. You will have massive income inequality, and then cry why the country is in shambles when it can’t pay to fix anything. But hey, the billionaire got to keep another 10% of his money. Society will be so much better with so much capital (power) in a few hands.
You guys claim taxation is out of control in the United States; if it is, how the hell is the income inequality growing at such a fast pace? How? That money sure is being stolen from the rich, so much so that the poor have less and the rich immensely more….so explain exactly how this tax system is repressive. People claim they can’t get rich off it, that they can’t keep enough of their money, yet the richest have been killing it in the past 20 years. So please do explain how this system of taxation in America is too damn repressive, yet people are continuing to build wealth to extreme levels at a fast pace? Doesn’t make sense to me, so please explain it.
3b says:
April 17, 2017 at 6:48 pm
Pumps I Wil keep it short and sweet we all understand they are a necessity. What we don’t believe as opposed to you is that higher means better. Waste duplication of services corruption vanity projects outsized pensions etc that is what we are against!! It’s not that difficult to comprehend.
Pumps you are so feckin dense!
Eddie,
“They slapped up who-knows-what to cover up the evil behind the walls.”
There is a house two doors up from me that I looked at quite seriously. It was a foreclosure that a (respected) local developer rehabbed. But it sat for a long time. So I figured I could get it at a good price.
It looked good but it had some quirks and some shortcuts that made no sense to me. So we passed.
I later bought two doors down. Eventually it sold to a guy from Long Island, a harness driver who raced in Poconos in the spring/summer and in Florida in fall/winter. He had just moved in when he buttoned it up for the season and moved to Florida. Then we got a wicked ice storm and lost power for three days. His pipes froze and burst, and when the power came back on, so did the water. The place flooded and was a total gut.
When they started gutting, they found all kinds of crap that was hidden by the developer. The place was very close to being a teardown. I recommended some attorneys but never learned what became of it. Suffice it to say, they were able to remedy most of the quirks I identified. One remains and I warned them to deal with it.
3b, kiss my a$$!
Do you know how many times I have heard people complain about taxes? ESP in nj, I never ever stop hearing about how the state property taxes are driving everyone out by conservative propaganda pushers. Here’s a clue, high property taxes are not driving out the rich or anyone besides retirees. If this was the got damn case, the price of real estate ALONG WITH THE PROPERTY TAXES WOULD DROP LIKE A BUCKET in this state, but they don’t. Somehow, someway, I’m not seeing tons of forclosures or lower property taxes in high tax towns like Ridgewood or Montclair. So save me the bs, please!! I’m only seeing forclosures in places like Trenton and Atlantic City. Those are two got damn good examples of what happens when everyone leaves….the property values and taxes drop like a fly. And let me tell you, these locations were not losing millionaires. Every “wealthy” location that is so called “bleeding millionaires” seems to be replacing every millionaire that leaves with a new one. How do I know? The property values are not tanking in any of these locations. That’s all the evidence I need.
How is it that I was able to make the money I have by the age of 36 in this high tax state? If they are bleeding me dry so much, how the hell was I able to make this much money in this state by 36? I should have nothing to my name, but that’s clearly not the case. So I will respect the nj economy until I die, not many places that would have provided me with the education and opportunities to make my lifelong dreams come true at the young age of 31. Thank you, jersey! Thank you, America! I will continue to happily pay the tax (membership costs) to make more and more money. Hope I can give back and provide opportunities for the next generations to fulfill their own dreams.