Not if you have a good tax planning strategy.

ETA - Page 100 rentage.

 

Didn't they shut down the mob for 'protection' schemes like this? Oh yeah I forgot...'don't steal, the government hates competition'.

For a modern day example, how has Argentina fared in their "reclaiming" of a once prosperous society?

The Real Numbers Behind The US Economy Phony Recovery

 

 


 

 

 

I can remember a time when Argentina had the only credible aerospace ability in South America, and produced some pretty good aircraft. All that has been destroyed by the government(s) there. Even there, there will likely come a time when the people are fed up enough to do something. Given the recent lawlessness in Cordoba (2nd largest city), I would say that time is not all that far away.

Here, we have much more of an --ability-- to change the course of our government. The question really is, when will we have the --will-- to change it.

 













 

I am going to have to disagree on this. Approximately 75% of the people do need the government - 50% who depend on it for handouts and 25% who are employed by the government (local, state, and federal).

Appropriate for this thread.

http://www.ntrc.info/doorbell.html

Hmmm...as I understand children can't enter into legally binding contracts.

What, no post on the QE tapering yet?

More anecdotal financial news. As most of us know, today is unofficially known as "Exchange Day" for retailers. It is said some years to be the second busiest day of the shopping season. If that's the case, then there are a lot of retailers around here that are in deep squid. The local wallyworlds typically have corded line markers for the customer service counter to handle all the returns. This year, nothing. Not even that busy. Went to a Target, same thing, not that many people and few returns. Not sure whether this is a local phenomenon or more widespread. I guess we'll see if one of my predictions comes true about one or more major retailers calling it quits in January. I don't know if the lack of post-Christmas shoppers is due to the lack of pre-Christmas shoppers/sales, better buying choices this year (ie fewer f-ups), or folks just tapped out already coming in to the end of the month.

I guess what I'm seeing is the reason for this story: Retailers offering mad discounts to lure broke shoppers into store

nice, I'll be using that analogy.

I read an article where some retailers were offering after Christmas sale prices before Christmas.

When are people going to wake up and realize the truth behind all the smoke and mirrors?

lol.  Since you see what I see. You will be the next company i buy from. Thanks.

Trillion my friend, trillion

17,000 billion = 17 trillion

 














































































 

Well, for one thing, it has allowed them to create the so-called "ghost cities". Interestingly, unlike in the US where virtually all of the printed money from the Fed has gone to the top banks, which then turned around and gambled with it in the stock and commodities markets, much of the Chinese money appears to have been used to make things. One would be right to question the sanity of creating literally thousands of offices, condos, roads, schools, etc. where no one will inhabit, but at least it was actual production. The other part of the printed Chinese money has gone into acquiring massive quantities of raw materials over time and creating "licensed manufacturing" of foreign-designed products. They've been acquiring and stockpiling massive amounts of steel, copper, aluminum, as well as PMs like gold and silver, almost like they're preparing for war. The "licensed manufacturing" is a charade for stealing the technologies and production secrets of an all-too-willing multi-national corporation wanting to get a piece of the "huge Chinese domestic market". (Um, there is virtually no domestic market in China. Half the population lives in remote areas and would rather the government leave them alone and the vast majority of the rest work as slaves in a factory which is either partly owned or run by the Chinese Government. There is a microscopically small group of people in China who are wealthy, most fabulously so, but they are part of the ruling elite.) The remaining parts of the printed Chinese money has gone towards supporting their military industrial complex, which remains a drain on their economy.

The gold acquisition has been staggering, at roughly 2500 tonnes per year for a decade. This is in addition to their domestically produced gold. My guess is that they plan to get to a point where they have sufficient gold to issue a gold-backed currency, or back the yuan with gold. If that happens, the dollar is done and the yuan instantly becomes the world's reserve currency. And we are totally and irrevocably fooked.

It is difficult for most financial analysts to figure out exactly what's going on in China since the government controls both the people and the flow of information. It's entirely possible that there are massive asset bubbles in China that would dwarf the ones here. But again, it's all paper wealth (or lack thereof) and if it all comes crashing down, the vast majority of Chinese will see no difference whatsoever. There is also a school of thought that says the Chinese deliberately debase their currency so as to make their products cheaper to the West. If inflation hurts the Chinese people, the government there doesn't care. If the Chinese drive out of business many of their western counterparts by undercutting their labor cost and manufacturing cost, the Chinese government considers that a win. Notice they've also been buying up things like food producers (like our local Smithfield Foods) along with others. If they can incapacitate the West by not firing a shot, why would they not do that? Their horizon of vision is decades, not quarters. Keep in mind that there is NO large Chinese corporation that is not partly owned or controlled by the communist government. So when a Chinese firm buys a US firm, we have to view the acquisition from the standpoint of why the Chinese government would want to do such a thing. So, printed money being used to either drown out US firms, or if that fails, buy them out, appears to be their overall plan.

So far, I'd say their plan seems to be working splendidly. Countries like the US, Japan, and the EU are all trying to outprint each other in a race to the bottom. These "currency wars" will end badly. The only question is when.

 






















































 

China Working Quietly To Buy Up Gold

Chinese To Spend Billions On American Real Estate

China's Building Cities So Fast, People Don't Have Time to Move In

U.S. Official Warns About China's Military Buildup

in contrast:

$3.39T Quantitative Explosion: Fed Owns More Treasuries and ...

Treasury Scarcity to Grow as Fed Buys 90% of New Bonds

WSJ:

Fed Buying 61 Percent of US Debt

The student loan bubble is starting to burst

Some are better at this game of Smoke & Mirrors than others






 
 
 
 
 

No Q, the world does not; it cannot. Mankind in toto  cannot ever answer your question. There are, however, those amongst us who see it as their birthright to decisively answer the question you pose for the rest of us 7 billion humans.




Note the 1st Article inscribed on the "Guidestone" above.

Take utmost care and be ever piercing in your vigilance, Folks. Persons of such mindset I am now posting about are the greatest threat to the rest of us mere masses...

..."Death solves all problems - no man, no problem." -Joseph Stalin

that tool will only work for as long as the dollar is the world's reserve currency.

as soon as we have to pay an exchange rate to buy oil on the world market, that tool will no longer exist and interest rates and inflation will skyrocket out of control.

already half of the world no longer uses the dollar. The other half is the half we prop up with dollars in the form of aid.

the fed only has half a tool left.

A different perspective I never really heard before, but it's somewhat upbeat for America.






Just passing on tidbits of what I heard, draw your own conclusions...
WE are going through a 'Retirement' Correction caused by the Baby-Boomers.






The Baby-Boomers retiring ratio to the young work force, supposed to offset their costs, have been off, but the ratio should reverse over the next few  years, the 30-55 age group; The Triangle walls bowed in but are starting to straighten out.
Different People have been telling me that Technology will lead the next wave of growth, as it usually does, needed over the next 10-12 years, i.e. 3D Printers (Printers that can print an identical operating printer, parts *think space exploration, even food?), Robotics, Computer/Network Security, to try and keep up with the fast changes coming.




100 years worth of advancement happening at a very rapid rate over the next 10 years, thanks to the coming technological advancements; Of course a lot of bad could come from the new advancements.
WE are living through the early infant stages, so it's hard to imagine, but do some research; Fantasy is becoming reality.
The Part I found very interesting:






Most Nations are an Inverted Triangle, more at the top, less at the bottom.






•China will not be able to handle their Retirement, since their One child policy will leave them Empty handed in the end, i.e. always 30+ years behind the US. They are a ticking 'time bomb' waiting to go off; Very Big Demographic Troubles ahead.






•India, has the people, but things haven't changed their really for 1000 of years.






•Japan kept working hard, never making time to reproduce, so their retirees won't be readily replaced; They won't open their borders to allow workers in.






•Germany won't allow immigrants in because they are best, but they will run into problems, too.






•Canada also has major, major problems as well; 'Great' System, but won't have a enough of a working population to pay for it.






•Russia not only has a Population problem, but the next generation will be living through an AIDS/HIV Epidemic.






•Some Nations may have no choice but to Dissolve.
Hopefully, America will be/Should be the safest bet, again, and the money on the sidelines will start flowing.






As bad as things seem, the one thing WE should all learn is to keep Working Hard, at whatever WE do, and stay productive.






Focus on your future, and not your 'Sob' Story.
Position yourself and prepare yourselves for a Prosperous Future.






It's coming and those that can't/won't adapt could miss out on their full potential.
Of course, this could make an argument for the next wave of wars
Appreciate what WE have...Happy New Year!
 
 
 
 
 

$17 TRILLION in debt, with trillions more certain to come, and many TRILLIONS in unfundable entitlements, are not a "correction".  They are a death sentence for the republic.

The serious problems of other nations do not make us a success.  At best, they only make us one of the club.  At worst, they make the eventual reckoning that much more devastating.

Exactly!

Since the national past time of most of us is...

Fooling ourselves...

Don't expect anything to change for the better.

As an example of the problem with assuming other countries' problems will cause us to be "less bad" fallacy, I would suggest looking at the export rates. I read where we export roughly 20% of many goods produced here in the US to Europe. If they tank, guess what, some fraction of 20% of the GDP parts related to exports go in the tank, too.

I am convinced that unless "we" end up electing enough actual conservatives to make a difference, our country will have an economic calamity of some sort within the next 3-5 years. If there is such a calamity, everyone will be clamoring for the .gov to fix the problem but the sudden realization that it can't be fixed without a complete reset will be, in a word, problematic. So, we have (only) two potential paths at this point. Path 1 is that enough people who've had enough elect enough people who've had enough to get just enough done to slow the train and shift into reverse before the train goes off the bridge that's out over the gorge. Path 2 is the DC elite crowd continues to kick the can until the whole thing goes completely to crap.

Happy New Year!

Just my opinion!
The Powers that be will never allow a reset, they will start WW3 first.
Happy New Year!

A lot of interesting perspectives.

My opinion is that glockO has started his New Year's celebration a couple days early.

Happy New Year! (hopefully)

ETA

Hey, Hey, don't the Messenger


 

Soaring Interest Rates and Inflation will make those Trillions look like chump change...eventually, plus, Nation will have to implement some sort of Debt Forgiveness in order to stay relevant.





Today's Thousandaires, will be tomorrows, adjusted for inflation, Millionaires.
All WE can do is Stay Positive & self-reliant

That's the best way of telling the Political Pimps to F-off
 
 
 

I'm amazed that some of them are admitting it.  I am truly amazed the IMF has come out and publicly said this.  One might assume it's much worse then they are admitting here.  
























 

UPDATE:  Billionaires Dumping Stocks...
snip...




"It’s very likely that these professional investors are aware of specific
research that points toward a massive market correction, as much as
90%."
 

 

 

I found this incredibly interesting.  Peter Schiff makes some good points, especially about quantetive easing, bitcoin, and the coming recession.

check it out here

I have been working towards this goal for the last 5 years, since I "woke up" so to speak. It is maddening to me, as for the past few years I feel like I am only about a half step ahead of the game, and if I slow down in my goals, I wont make it. Just a few more years to go before I am almost as self sufficient as I can be. My wife and I pray we make it. I know that sounds a little crazy, but that is how we feel sometimes.

A few months ago, I finnally stopped watching global economic news. It has helped relieve the stress tremendously. I have my goals set forth and a timeline to complete them. I have stopped preaching to friends and family that do not get it. I have been teased by non believers and watch them continue to spend themselves well beyond their means. I simply shake my head. I think that as things continue to progess into the toilet, there will be more and more people scramble to get set up. Many do not realize just how much time and knowledge is required for even a basic sustenance living, let alone being in a position to do well.