Fabian, $6.4 billion / $2.8 trillion = .0023, not .002%. Check your arithmetic. Does anyone at the WSJ proofread anymore? I agree, the muni bond market is a disaster waiting to happen.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Muni Madness
Thursday, July 8, 2010
California Today, Texas Tomorrow-2
Our future looks bleak. Disagreeing with Murdock, there is another solution.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Why Rubashkin?
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
California's Gestapo-3
Monday, July 5, 2010
WSJ Shills For IRS
"The thinking was that the rush to grab tax-free income down the road would raise a $6.4 billion windfall. ... Government mistrust is another factor. A TD Ameritrade survey found that 36% of ideal candidates for conversion suspect that Washington will somehow change the rules later to help reduce the national debt, partially at Roth IRA holders' expense", JR Brandstrader at Barron's, 18 January 2010, link: http://online.barrons.com/article/SB126360927771630223.html.
What fools these experts are. I expect, one way or another, Roth IRAs to be taxed. LS apparently selected IRS shills as her "experts" in this piece. Having read a few of his articles, I think Slott a clown. Taxing salary twice? We tax: estates and social security. You pay sales taxes on items bought with after-tax income. Why not Roths? We may get increased taxes on the rich, i.e., those making over say $250,000 a year. Why not tax Roth accounts over say $1 million by "imputing "distributions to their holders? See my 2 January 2009 and 5 May 2010 posts: http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2009/01/hogan-v-mcquarrie-on-roths.html and http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2010/04/vampire-squidking-canute-of.html.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Yves Smith and Junior on TARP
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Wait Listed By Jail-17
Quoted without comment.
Continuing Wall Street Control of DOJ
"Since taking office at the height of the financial crisis, President Barack Obama has promised to hold Wall Street accountabel for the meltdown. Attorney General Eric Holder reinforced that message in November when he vowed to prosecute Wall Street executives and others responsible for the crisis. ... His [DOJ] took steps to fulfill that promise this week when it arrested the ex-chairman of one of the nation's biggest mortgage firms--the largest crisis-related criminal case--and announced 1,215 people have been charged with mortgage fraud since March 1. But that success masks difficulties in the highest-profile probes: those of Wall Street banks. ... And law enforcement sources say no such charges are imminent. ... Justice officials say Holder did not over-promise and that the task force is targeting all financial fraud, not just on Wall Street. ... The shortage of Wall Street prosecutuions is not for lack of effort. ... But investigators are encountering obstacles in what they call their top-priority cases, which souces saud include probes of JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and the former Lehman Brothers", Jerry Markon at the Houston Chronicle, 18 June 2010, link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7059317.html.
More DOJ guerilla theater. Why not Eric? When I see Lloyd Antoinette Blankfein sentenced to 30 years for securities fraud, I might consider the DOJ is fighting securities fraud. Maybe. Let's apply my "Blankfein Test" and see if I would have bothered with the 1,215 arrests in question. $2.3 billion / 1,215 = $1.9 million a person. I would have selected some of them and ignored the rest. As they total $2.3 billion, I consider pursuing them in the aggregate, a waste of DOJ resources.