patrick.net

Vicente says

He's a man who famously said "fraud doesn't exist." And I think that sums up how blinkered Libertopians are on economic realities.

It is not just economic realities, it is the realities of human nature in general. Libertarians -- like communists or anarchists -- have their hearts in the right place, and see the best in humanity. That is great, but you can't run a government on the idea that everyone is always going to play nice and be fair.

sbh says

But, still, diluting one's philosophy "for practical reasons" is the first posture of politicians

Running as a Republican vs Libertarian is not really diluting one's philosophy, it depends on what principles you run on, not your party affiliation. Ideally you'd always mix politicians from various parties, but we don't have those as opposed to other countries.

Vicente says

He's a man who famously said "fraud doesn't exist." And I think that sums up how blinkered Libertopians are on economic realities.

As opposed to Obama who has prosecuted numerous bankers for the fraud committed? Oh wait.. ;) I'm sure any other administration would have prosecuted more than zero, esp. the ones that stand against abolishing/undermining the rule of law, that's the first and foremost principle.

sbh says

As much as I see the wisdom in a few of their core ideas, your guys have already debased themselves, and made them untoward in the eyes of independents like me.

It's funny how afraid people seem to be and what scenarios they conjure when it comes to hypothetical 4 years of an alternative candidate. As I said, you can try and vote them off if they don't work for you.

donjumpsuit says

The chart below is what should disgust us.

The fact that the past two recessions have really only doubled the top 1%'s share of wealth.

So more or less the take home message is this. When the economy is stable, everyone wins. When it tanks because of financial games, real people loose jobs, homes, lifetimes full of wealth, and for the 1% it provides the opportunity to buy things on the cheap with borrowed money.

The great American experiment is at this point about about finding out whether the depression was an aberration in which case maybe the trend toward ever increasing income inequality can continue.

That is the goal of the right wing.

It's all about money and power. The only way to prevent evil, IMHO, is to make sure money and power don't get concentrated into too few hands.

Concentration of money is the root of all evil.

Historically, money concentrates at "the top" and those at "the top" use said money to oppress everyone else below.

Oh no! Short-term market movements!! I'd better act now before it's too late!!!

sbh says

They've become so extreme because they're terrified by what they see as inevitable demographic change. They are the ones truly afraid in this country

Yes they want to consolidate as much wealth into the top, before those scary changes occur. The truth though is understood in the big cities. Those demographic changes aren't as scary as they think. In fact we are very fortunate to have Mexico to our south, for times in the future when population growth from new births is insufficient.

There was a time when Irish, or Italian was consider vastly inferior to English (wasp) and there was fear that they would destroy our culture and our economy.

Nobody believes that anymore. Or almost nobody. But for some reason, now, in some circles the difference of darker skinned folks, relative to "whites," is seen as even more scary than the Irish or Italians were back then. The truth is it's the same story all over again. Eventually this kind of thinking will seem off the charts absurd.

But for now, the elites have a captive audience who buy their bs hook line and sinker in the fundamentalist, hillbilly, red neck crowd.

Wait wasn't the topic about income inequality and not race? Let's hope this doesn't turn into (yet) another "race war" thread.

control point says

bob2356 says

The fox brainwashing strikes again. You don't raise taxes on investments, you raise taxes on the profits from investments.

Or you raise them on investments.. asset taxes....

Which would be more effective at lowering income inequality? A higher tax on the income from investments, or a tax on the value of the investment itself?

A tax on investment itself is prohibited in the constitution. A wealth tax would require passing an amendment equivalent to the 16th which allowed income tax.

control point says

In short, the current structure is already skewed towards the top 1% - only those in that bracket pay 39.6%. But why does the top bracket stop there? WHy not have 45% over 1 million, 50% over 2 million, 55% over 5 million, 60% over 10 million, 65% over 20 million, 70% over 50 million, 75% over 100 million, 80% over 250 million, 85% over 500 million, and 90% over 1 billion.

Because Ronald Reagan said that if we got rid of that tax structure the wealth would trickle down. We just going have to wait a bit longer for it to trickle, it's only been 30 years. After all the Jews have been waiting for the messia for 2000 years. Trickle down wealth down may take just as long. Why are you a liberal commie who is against god, motherhood , apple pie, and freedom of the rich to get richer?

bob2356 says

Because Ronald Reagan said that if we got rid of that tax structure the wealth would trickle down. We just going have to wait a bit longer for it to trickle, it's only been 30 years. After all the Jews have been waiting for the messia for 2000 years. Trickle down wealth down may take just as long.

Ronald Reagan raised capital gains taxes, when he was the president he also got rid of tax loopholes as well. Just that tax structure did not last very long after he was gone. Because all those who buy our senators and their elections expect nice gifts in return from the taxpaying hard working americans.

FortWayne says

Ronald Reagan raised capital gains taxes

Source?

Kemp Roth cut Capital gains rates from 28% to 20%. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 eliminated a special capital gains rate, essentially raising capital gains rates to 28% in line with the max income rates.

mell says

I'm sure any other administration would have prosecuted more than zero

I don't think so. You can have your unprovable belief, but I didn't see any Republican majority in Congress calling for prosecutions either. As unpalatable as it was, I think most people you put in the White House would have to go along with Congress and Congress was in no mood for lynchings. Congress were all shit-scared by Hank Paulson, and wanted to patch things up an move on. Maybe you've forgotten the TARP vote where Congressmen were calling out falling stock indices as the vote was taken, but I haven't. Despite people's obsession with what goober is taking a turn in the White House, that's not where most of the actual power is.

Say hey! This was in the Wall Street Journal on March 30, 1999:

Holy cow/interesting/compelling ...!

And where is it up to date??? Right here ... see the first chart shown in this thread.
Recent Dow day is Wednesday, September 11, 2013 __ Level is 97.9

WOW! It is hideous that this is hidden! Is there any such "Homes, Inflation Adjusted"? Yes indeed, go here:
http://patrick.net/?p=1219038&c=999083#comment-999083

Vicente says

mell says

I'm sure any other administration would have prosecuted more than zero

I don't think so. You can have your unprovable belief, but I didn't see any Republican majority in Congress calling for prosecutions either. As unpalatable as it was, I think most people you put in the White House would have to go along with Congress and Congress was in no mood for lynchings. Congress were all shit-scared by Hank Paulson, and wanted to patch things up an move on. Maybe you've forgotten the TARP vote where Congressmen were calling out falling stock indices as the vote was taken, but I haven't. Despite people's obsession with what goober is taking a turn in the White House, that's not where most of the actual power is.

It's possible, but now you are hypothesizing a lot.

JH says

The four most dangerous words in investing are 'This time it's different.'

But this time it really is different! And if it isn't you can still come on here and say you did everything right and call yourself the Oracle ;)

humanity says

And the rich get richer when it comes to intelligence too.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/aF8wLg5Asgo

control point says

ource?

Kemp Roth cut Capital gains rates from 28% to 20%. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 eliminated a special capital gains rate, essentially raising capital gains rates to 28% in line with the max income rates

Singapore has zero capital gains taxes. Singapore has unemployment rate of 2.1%.

gsr says

Singapore has zero capital gains taxes. Singapore has unemployment rate of 2.1%.

#snort

Singapore is about as special and self-selected a population as there could ever be. Maybe Lichtenstein or Monte Carlo, too. If that's what you think is comparable to the US economy, then you get the income inequality you deserve.

I think I'll write a Rap song & title it - Pump Up The Hype

Speaking of delusions,I thought I could learn something from the comments. Fool me twice ,shame on me. rofl

HEY YOU says

I think I'll write a Rap song & title it - Pump Up The Hype

you mean your going to rip off the original artist...

http://www.youtube.com/embed/tpprOGsLWUo

Instead of patting yourself on the back, who don't you put aside your delusions of grandeur for a moment and answer my question.

Do you or do you not support an increase in rental income taxes?

Why aren't you on the phone with your representatives trying to increase the tax rate on rental income?

egads101 says

rental income is separately taxed in almost every city,

no its not.. no such thing as rental income taxes levied by cities or counties.

This shit is not about Demo and Repub. There are elitist greedy control freak piles of crap working on both sides of the aisle. Get that through all of your F'ing heads. They have succeeded in the division aspect of divide and conquer, we need to unify to break the brainwashing that has taken place. Stop with the Demo / Repub blame game shit and talk about the issues and how we can work to fix them.....

Call it Crazy says

HEY YOU says

I thought I could learn something from the comments.

What???? The comments are the best part of the articles!!!!

Yes,but I'm still dumb.

I'm not talking about practicing law.

I'm talking about slumlording.

And answer my original question if you want anyone to stop branding you as a hypocrite.

egads101 says

if it is down, why is the august 2013 number higher than the august 2012
number on your graph?

Hey,hey.........I wandered how long that it would be before some of the usual (self-professed)"economic" hacks would try and pull some revelation of the economy by using the witholding taxes. I was figuring that it would be Mush, but 0-sense isn't surprising.

It's all up to Uncle Ben. More money printing = higher asset prices, and visa versa.

As far as I can tell there are no true "bubbles" right now. Other than the bubble in calling everything a bubble.

Ok, maybe Tesla stock. But even there, there's little public enthusiasm or media hype....yet.

I do think stocks are overvalued (on average) based on long-term historical data from Case-Shiller.

http://www.multpl.com/shiller-pe/

But overvalued doesn't mean a bubble.

The weekly swings in application activity are essentially useless. In a prior week there could have been a three-day holiday or no holiday, there could have been a big storm the impacted a large part of the country or there could have been a political event that short-term set people on edge.

The report that showed a 13.5 percent decrease in weekly applications was also up 7 percent from a year ago.

http://mortgagebankers.org/NewsandMedia/PressCenter/85639.htm

Peter
OurBroker.com

Housing isn't supposed to "recover" to bubble levels. Housing should track inflation, on average.

Good to see the East Coast people are awake. The CA folks won't be up for another 3 hours. ;-)

Call it Crazy says

He expects bubble prices, and MORE!!

Where did he say that? He expects prices (where he lives) to go up, but not necessarily to "bubble" levels.

CA real-estate has always been crazy because of the nice climate and strict land-use laws (inelastic supply, which causes big price swings for relatively small changes in demand).

Call it Crazy says

It depends on how hung over they are!!

I always get wasted on Wednesday nights! ;-)

egads101 says

Here is a hint: how widespread a belief is held is NO INDICATION of how true it is.

Except in economics.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/us-economy-grinds-to-halt-as-nation-realizes-money,2912/

The payroll tax increased by 2% January 1 2013 and additional medicare tax plus there other increases up to 3.8% on investment income (don't exactly know where this would show up). You would expect to see the treasury withholding tax volume increase based just on changes in the tax rate. The data that needs to be teased out is the amount of the increase that is from rate increases and what percentage is from job growth. The reality is probably worse than what the graph illustrates.

Always beware of "financial gurus" who claim to know the future.

The unknown is scary. I want to be told "the truth" too. That's why pundits, televangelists, and the Catholic Church make so much money.

I woke up early with a whiff of impending housing collapse in the Cali air.