The Happy Capitalist

Ready?

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 08:35:00 -0800

Doggone it, people like me!

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 17:33:00 -0700

I really thought Al Franken was a funny guy as a comedian and actor. As a U.S. Senator, I've been less amused. But today, after learning about Al's tax woes, I'm amused once again.

It seems that Senator Franken accidentally forgot to pay some taxes. Not just a little bit, it was $70,000. And it seems he had stiffed 17 states.

From Politico:

The comedian-turned-Democratic politician announced on Tuesday that he will be paying $70,000 in back taxes and penalties in 17 states after several weeks in which the campaign downplayed the amount of money that his company owed and changed the reasons for why the taxes (and workers' compensation insurance) had not been paid. During this period of time, Franken has also been avoiding publicly commenting about the controversy, instead relying on his surrogates to offer explanations.

Franken says it's his accountant's fault. Of course it was.

The Biden Response

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 07:30:00 -0700

Starving orphans and grandma in a snowbank

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 10:06:00 -0700

The prospect of true health care reform evaporated a year ago in the political drive to put 30 million more Americans on the government heathcare dole. And, Obamacare does practically nothing to address the most contentious entitlement crisis we face--Medicare.

The core flaw in our current health care system is that consumers rarely have any incentive to seek out the best value for the money. The 2012 budget proposal put forth by Paul Ryan re-introduces the consumer to evaluating medical services on a cost-benefit basis and deserves serious consideration.

Ryan's 2012 budget proposal modifies Medicare by providing a premium support subsidy giving millions of seniors more control over their heathcare costs allowing them to create their own plan rather than Medicare's one-size-fits-all. Even Bill Clinton endorsed a form of premium support in 1999.

A piece in today's WSJ goes further:

But the key point is that premium support would reduce health costs over time by changing the incentives of the health market. MIT economist Amy Finkelstein's research suggests that Medicare's 1965 creation led to market-wide changes that explain about half of the increase in real per capita health spending between 1950 and 1990. Mr. Ryan's plan would be as consequential in reverse.

And...

Medicare "as we know it" will change because it must. The only issue is how. Mr. Ryan is offering Americans a reform rooted in consumer choice and private competition, rather than political control and bureaucratic rationing. This is why he is under such ferocious liberal assault.

It's going to be very interesting to see how Obama addresses this in today's speech. But if it's more drivel like what we heard last week about Republicans starving orphans and throwing grandma out into the cold, I think I'll pass.

Yippee!

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Sat, 9 Apr 2011 07:46:00 -0700

Budget deal reached! Crisis averted!

Really?

How about some perspective? What Boehner, Reid and Obama agreed to last night is to spend $39 billion less in 2011 than the federal government spent in 2010. Sounds like a lot of money until you look at the big picture. In 2010 the federal government spent $3.552 trillion. Do the math--that's only 1.1% less. Not to mention that our national debt is nearly $14.3 trillion and growing.

Such a big fuss over practically nothing. I can't wait until the fighting starts on a 2012 budget and raising the debt ceiling. Yippee!

Time to knock some heads?

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Fri, 8 Apr 2011 11:14:00 -0700

Okay, so it's been over a year since I posted anything here. What can I say? I'm retired and traveling the country with my wife and two cats in our motorhome, having a blast touring our wonderful country and I've just been too darn busy!

But that doesn't mean that I'm not up to date on politics, world news and other events that impact capitalism. Quite the contrary. I still manage to read the top stories in the online versions of publications like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Fox News. I just haven't been motivated or inspired to write about them. That may be changing.

The state of American politics is turning my stomach and raising my blood pressure. The vitriol is absurd and the lies and extremism abound. If I hear any more about "starving six million seniors" or "throwing women under the bus" I'm driving my Winnebago straight to Washington to knock some heads! Our elected representatives need to get their collective act together and do what's right for America. Too much is at stake.

In the meantime, check back here from time to time, I just might be inspired to post something now and then.

Obama is a lousey moderator (among other things)

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:36:00 -0800

The only real result from yesterday's health insurance summit in Washington seems to be more finger pointing. Dems are pointing critical fingers at Republicans for refusing to go along with this massive bill and Republicans point to Democrats' refusal to abandon legislation that most Americans find distasteful or, at least, suspect.

So why wasn't this day-long summit more fruitful?

For one thing, any experienced business leader can tell you that the success of any meeting depends on the moderator's ability to follow an agenda that is built upon stated and agreed upon desired outcomes. Obama didn't do that. If there was a written agenda, the viewing public wasn't aware of it. It there were stated objectives, they must have been secret. Instead, Obama, seemingly at random, picked on attendees to speak. And what's a politician going to do whenever given the opportunity to speak in from of a camera? You bet, grandstand. By the time everyone in the room was done bloviating the day was shot.

If the President wanted to produce any substantive results in yesterday's summit, he did a poor job going about it. But then, maybe he got exactly what he wanted.

It's not about health care!

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:05:00 -0800

Let's be clear about the reform being debated in Washington. It's not health care , it's health insurance. It has nothing to do with the delivery of health care, it is about who pays for it. The President and many members of Congress, for whatever reason, are intent on calling it the wrong thing. Is there some kind of hidden agenda or are they all just too stupid to know the difference?

The Week in Review

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 17:20:00 -0700

The DJIA rose 54.40 points, .75% to close Friday at 77278.38
The Nasdaq Composite gained 25.77 points, 1.80% to finish the week at 1457.27
The S & P 500 rose 11.99, 1.58% to 768.54
The 10-Year Treasury yield fell 0.263 percentage points to 2.626%
Crude oil rose $4.81, 10.4% to $51.06

The markets had a second consecutive week of gains and are showing signs that we may have the first monthly gain in stocks since August. The last two days of the trading week had investors trying to interpret the Fed's plan to buy treasuries.

The Week in Review

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 08:36:00 -0700

The DJIA rose 597.04 points, 9.01%% to close Friday at 7223.98

The Nasdaq Composite gained 137.65 points, 10.64% to finish the week at 1431.50

The S & P 500 rose 73.17, 10.71% to 756.55

The 10-Year Treasury yield rose 0.059 percentage points to 2.888%

Crude oil rose $0.73, 1.60% to $46.25

The absence of profit taking on Friday should be taken as a good sign as investors continued to buy on four consecutive days after setting 12-year lows on Monday. Oil prices have firmed and are up 43% in the last four weeks indicating that the economic shock of the last several months might be wearing off. But there's still lots of bad economic news ahead.

Let 'em fail

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Mon, 9 Mar 2009 06:53:00 -0700

From The New York Times:

John McCain and Richard C. Shelby, two high-profile Republican senators, said on Sunday that the government should allow a number of the biggest American banks to fail, The New York Times’s J. David Goodman and Brian Knowlton report.

“Close them down, get them out of business,” Mr. Shelby, the senior Republican on the Banking Committee, told ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.” “If they’re dead, they ought to be buried.”

While the Alabama senator did not say which banks to shutter, he suggested that Citigroup might be on that list, saying the bank has “always been a problem child.”

Mr. McCain, appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” echoed that sentiment without identifying any banks. Mr. McCain, who lost the presidential election last November, also accused the Treasury Department of avoiding the “hard decision” to let “these banks fail.”

Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without Hell.

The Week in Review

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Sat, 7 Mar 2009 09:32:00 -0800

The DJIA dropped 435.99 points, 6.17%% to close Friday at 6626.94

The Nasdaq Composite fell 83.99 points, 6.10% to finish the week at 1293.85

The S & P 500 fell 51.71, 7.03% to 683.38

The 10-Year Treasury yield fell 0.213 percentage points to 2.83%

Crude oil rose $0.76, 1.70% to $45.52

Just for grins, check out the last post before the hiatus, The Week in Review on August 26th, 2007, about six weeks before the market peaked in mid-October. Puts things in perspective, don't it?

Obama--already setting records

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Fri, 6 Mar 2009 19:55:00 -0800

From Fox News:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen faster under President Obama than under any new president in at least 90 years, according to a review conducted by Bloomberg.

Bloomberg reports that since Inauguration Day, the Dow has fallen 20 percent, leading at least one investor to dub this the "Obama bear market." The Dow has also dropped 31 percent since Election Day.

Despite a string of government bailout offers and Obama's advice earlier this week that Americans should be buying stock while shares are low, the Dow has continued to freefall.

At what point does Obama actually start to take some responsibility for this?

Who's big mess?

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Fri, 6 Mar 2009 17:57:00 -0800

President Obama keeps reminding us that it's not his fault. Again today at a police acadamy graduation in Ohio, he said, "We inherited a big mess." It seems to be his favorite line.

It is, after all, George Bush's recession, right? Sure, some of the pieces were put into motion long before W took office, but he didn't do anything to correct the developing sub-prime mess or the impending housing market collapse that triggered this recession. So, most of the blame should rightfully be placed squarely on Bush's shoulders.

Most of it.

But shouldn't others share some of the blame? What about Congress? What about the Clinton administration where it all started?

President Obama was a U.S. Senator for four years before being elected President. (Even if he did spend most of that time campaigning for his new job). And Joe Biden served in the Senate for 36 years.

Rahm Emanuel, Obama's Chief of Staff, was a senior advisor to Bill Clinton and then worked as an investment banker. Hmmm.

Obama's Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, besides being a tax cheat, worked in the Treasury Department under Lawrence Summers and Robert Rubin during the Clinton administration.

Eric Holder, Obama's Attorney General, served as Deputy Attorney General under Bill Clinton and was deeply involved in Clinton's controversial pardon of Marc Rich.

Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, a U.S. Senator for eight years and First Lady during the Clinton administration.

So when President Obama says "we" inherited a big mess, just exactly who is he referring to?

Barney Frank and The Young Liberal

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Mon, 2 Mar 2009 06:00:00 -0800

The Young Liberal in our office approached me the other day and started a conversation about the pitiful mess our economy and stock market are in and asked some pretty good questions about sub-prime mortgages and and the collapse of housing markets. I was so encouraged when he seemed to come to the realization that government meddling had a significant role in our present lot. There's hope for The Young Liberal, I thought.

Then he ruined it all. He said, "I've been seeing a lot of Barney Frank on the news. He's a pretty sharp Congressman."

Crap!

The hiatus is over

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Sun, 1 Mar 2009 07:35:00 -0800

So, The Happy Capitalist has been on a little hiatus. Okay, not so little. It's been a year and a half. Everyone needs a little time off, right?

Anyway, this seems to be a good time to bring back The Happy Capitalist as American capitalism and it's future are in question. We are caught in the midst of a painful recession, the likes of which have not been seen since the early 1980s. Our new President believes that the way out is through massive government spending in the form of bailouts, social programs and the nationalization of American businesses. His administration is rapidly moving away from the basic tenets of capitalism and individual productivity and responsibility.

In posts that follow we'll take a good hard look at Obama's programs and the other goings-on in his administration with a critical eye. We'll explore how the U.S. and global economies got to this point and who's responsible, anyway. We'll follow economic news, the stock market and changes in taxes, Social Security, Medicare and housing. It should be fun.

The week in review

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 10:56:00 -0700

The DJIA shot up 299.79 points, 2.29% to close Friday at 13,378.87

The Nasdaq Composite rose 71.66 points, 2.86% to finish the week at 2576.69

The S & P 500 gained 33.43, 2.31% to 1479.37

The 10-Year Treasury yield fell 0.040 percentage points to 4.633%

Crude oil fell $0.73, 1.02% to $71.09

Financial Planning Question of the Week

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 17:51:00 -0700

Feel like testing your financial planning expertise? Here's a real-life question I had recently...give it a shot.

A client is buying a new vacation home and selling an existing second home. She will need about $200k for the down payment next month and should be able to pay it back in 3-4 months when her existing second home sells. She is in the 35% federal tax bracket, 9.3% state and not subject to AMT. What's the best way to raise the money?

a) A home equity line of credit on her primary residence at 8.25%
b) Liquidate investments and pay capital gain taxes of $8k-10k
c) Take a $200k margin loan at 9.125%
d) Take a swing loan at 7% on the present second home

Take your best shot!

Cartoon Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 18:42:00 -0700

By Bob Englehart, The Hartford Courant

Baby I'm amazed

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 20:40:00 -0700

I've been an investment professional for almost thirteen years and I am still amazed at the extent to which the market will overreact to information that shouldn't even be news. This morning's non-news is a great example.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Construction of new homes fell in July to the lowest level in 10 1/2 years, and analysts said there is no end in sight to the deepening housing slump.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that construction of new homes and apartments dropped by 6.1 percent in July from the June pace to an annual rate of 1.38 million units.

For years mortgage pimps have been lending gazillions of dollars to people with credit scores of 425. Now that it's come back to bite them in the ass in the form of defaults and foreclosures, these Einsteins have quit lending the un-creditworthy any more money. And we're supposed to be surprised that new home starts are falling?

It's even more amazinging that it actually did suprise a lot of folks as the Dow slid 340 points (intraday) on the news. What will tomorrow bring?

Sell! Sell now!

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 07:38:00 -0700

It's definitely time to sell. No, not your stocks. Invest for the long haul.

It's time for Matt Murphy, the young New Yorker who caught Barry Bonds record-setting home run ball, to unload the thing.

While most sports memorabilia appreciates with age, we don't see any upside to hanging onto this used Spalding, only downside. Barry's image will likely become even more tarnished as the steroids scandal continues to unfold. Then there could be surprises that come out of left field. Perhaps it's revealed that Bonds has been spending the off season at Michael Vicks's little dog park. Or maybe he's been betting on basketball games with Tim Donaghy. Any revelations like those would devastate the value of the ball and Murphy's tax liability has already been sealed.

The ball is considered by the IRS as a "treasure trove" and will be taxed as ordinary income based on its value when acquired. Most estimates put the ball's value around $500,000 which throws Mr. Murphy into the top tax bracket. Tack on another 7% or so for the state of New York and the total tax bill is around $210,000. That leaves about $290,000; not a bad day's work, but I certainly wouldn't risk the ball's value falling below that tax liability by holding it too long. That's worse than striking out in the bottom of the ninth, bases loaded.

Cartoon Tuesday--One-sheet Sheryl

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Tue, 8 May 2007 20:52:00 -0700

By Gary McCoy, The Suburban Journals

Cartoon Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 06:40:00 -0700

By Mike Lester, Rome News-Tribune, Rome, GA

Cartoon Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 06:40:00 -0700

By Larry Wright, The Detroit News

The week in review

noreply@blogger.com (thc) — Sat, 7 Apr 2007 15:41:00 -0700

DJIA shot up 205.85 points, 1.67% and closed the week at 12,560.20.

Nasdaq Composite added 49.70 points, 2.05% and closed at 2471.34.

S & P 500 also rose, adding 22.90 points, 1.61% to 1443.76.

10-year Treasury yield rose 0.101 to 4.752%.

Crude oil dropped $1.49, 2.4% to $64.28.