Tax Reform: The Carrot and Glock Approach

Among our many problems in the U.S. is this one involving self-delusion about the bubble of “money, government, free lunch, and public debt.”

Problem’s this:  At some point the free lunch will run out.  This morning, Tax Reform is being outed for what it really is – just another scheme to give you a break today in return for a ball-buster tomorrow.  See “Republicans are scrambling to make gigantic last-minute changes to their tax bill that could include future tax hikes” for some insights.

(Continues below)

 

The stock market has been soaring the past couple of days (and I have been feeling like Ben Dover with my small short position) butt, in the end (so to speak), sanity may yet return.

Tomorrow in Peoplenomics, I will explain why the U.S. Budget Deficit is almost twice the publicly discussed figure.  For this morning, though, let’s look at the market which is set to open down 100, or so, on the Dow…

The main problem is that the Republicans’ tax reform drive hit by deficit projections.  Until now, this has been terribly glossed-over.  Maybe there is hope.

I characterize this as the “carrot and the Glock” problem. As a taxpayer, you’ll get a small carrot now and then you’re personal income will be taken out back and shot at close range in a year or three.

That’s because the “tax reform” plan (or any other scam that increases today debt per capita in the long-term) just cinches the Yoke of Debt tighter and tighter over time.

Remember: The carrot is that the bill would grant a small tax break but on the backside, there would be a large tax increase in future years.

It can’t be another other way since “accounting” has rules.

Accounting Principles say there are only a couple of choices for government here, given the high levels of current (and immediately projected) expenditures:

They can a) bump up the federal budget deficit (already at $20.5 trillion, but in reality really twice that number) OR they can try to hold the line of the deficit by having a tax increase in future years.

Hold on!

Let’s look at why they would do this!

The answer is simply:  Most of Congress (both houses) are comprised of publicly-minded sociopaths or miscreants.  They figure that if they hand out a little free lunch (tax break now) they can kick the can “down the road” AND get another bite of that fat cat retirement system they’ve built for themselves once they get into office again.

Thing is, if they can pull off the tax cut swindle that will probably be true.  They will blame that oh so bad past Congress…and this will be followed by the predictable promises that “If you reelect ME, I will go back there and give them the what-for and fix all that ails us….”

Since the electorate is, if anything, stupid, the data confirms this is the case.

If if entails blowing up the Nation’s money, every so often, then oh, well, cost of doing business.

Am I lying?  No.

Do you want me to begin with the First Bank of the United States which began to issue paper in 1791?

No, let’s go back to the Continental Congress in 1775 which began the Continental.  That was a short run.

After the failure of the First bank of the United States, the Second Bank of the United States came along in 1812.

That idea quickly hit the rocks so despite the Coinage Act, the period from about 1837 (a great depression, by the way) to the Civil War.  That’s when Treasury Notes prevailed.

The Civil War saw the issuance of Greenbacks.  And following this, there was a period of a different currency with bimetallic convertibility.

That is, until 1900 when the Gold Standard Act bounced silver’s role and declared a dollar was based on gold at 23.22 grains (1.505 g) of gold, equivalent to setting the price of 1 troy ounce of gold at $20.67.

Convertibility went along fine, for a while…but ended with the confiscation of private gold AND silver during the Great Depression.

Everyone knows about Executive Order 6102 that confiscated Gold.  But fewer know that Executive Order 6814 confiscated SILVER, as well.

Of course, this was followed by the notion that the U.S. Dollar (now sold as Silver Certificates) was really backed by gold and silver.

As we have discussed many times here, THAT system failed in 1971 when Nixon ended the sham of convertibility and since then, the dollar has been “sold” to us under a confidence scheme “backed by the full faith and credit” of the United States.

Why, if that “full faith” involved people like Franken and Conyers, you can see how thin that’s becoming.

There are several ways to count how many “currencies” this is.  One is by the notional papers that passed as “legal tender” – a term not even codified until the middle of America’s history.

We also know that Ben Franklin was credited with anti-counterfeiting techniques of printing, but in truth, many of these came from Joseph Breintnall, who few learn about in school because of the rewriting of American history to an agenda…but let’s put that aside for another time.

Since America has such a long and glorious history of blowing up its money (and confiscations) we have little doubt that we are still headed for the next currency crisis…and it’s just a matter of time until the ghostly inferences from compound interest materialize into a full-blow panic.

Which brings us back to the Fools on the Hill today.

Will they be able to once-and-for-all fix things?  Nope.  Regardless of the vote, the art is kicking the can and swindling the voters – which congress has an unimpeachable record of accomplishing.

One of the ways they do it is through the Exchange Stabilization Fund.  You really need to read up on this because it’s not transparent, at all.  Sure, there ae reports like the present one (the fund lost $243-million in the fiscal year to date as of Oct. 30). When you trade in markets, there’s a ‘thumb on the scale” of price discovery.

While se cannot accuse the Treasury of intervening in today’s market action, we noted that the Dow futures down more than 100 earlier were pulled-back to just down 50.

Arbing up the futures can be done, though, so we will wait for mid-morning to see how the “thumbs” are doing.

We do note that overnight, the global confidence bubble was running into trouble.  Reports out of Washington on the tax vote likely had something to do with it.

Whew!

An Odd Quake

We are not sure what happened over in Delaware with that 4.1 quake down 10 KM, or 5.2 miles.  However, the European earthquake sites are reporting it as a depth of 6 KM or about 3.75 miles deep.

That’s not particularly deep for a 4.1 quake.  Did someone drop something big down a hole?  Seems like a single shock, not a movement which is what most quakes are.

If you wanted to write a novel about how the U.S. has a secret network of “deep holes” around major metro areas to “drop undetonated ordnance” into, for us by NEST Teams and others, you might be onto something…just saying.

No, I don’t have access to “secrets” about such things, but it would only make sense that it would be part of a comprehensive Homeland response.

3.7 miles deep, which would be a hike into the hard-rock under Delaware says our geological consultant…yeah, that would contain a good-sized boomer.

Of course, there are no such holes or plans….ahem….

Everyone: Run From Street!

This is only a test:  ‘It’s Loud. It’s Frightening.’ Hawaii to Test Siren Intended to Warn of Impending Nuclear Strike.

Say, here’s something to look forward to: A war with North Korea would be hell: Millions could die.  ‘N’other cynical pill, anyone?

Oh, Poor George Department

Oh, the sorrows of Soros:  George Soros: Oppression in Hungary worse than under Soviets.

Which means the government there much be getting close to his nerve endings…

Bleeding Edge Leaks

If you have some time and want to be ahead of the curve a bit, go check the Google results for Qanon.

More productive than sitting on your butt this weekend…

Correctness Collapse?

Check out this little gem:  So LBGTQ groups get their rainbow colored crosswalks.  Except, now they’re a safety hazard!

(There are so many of these snake eating its own tail stories, it’s quite amusing.  But, in the spirit of monetizing everything possible to prevent the collapse of civilization (already a damn thin veneer, anyway), we generally bite our tongues around here.  Then there’s morning’s when the tongues are bleeding and we just have to point out how silly the world is.

By the way, what the hell is “online rape?”  I ask because of this one: Lawyer: Swede convicted of ‘online’ rape will appeal.

And how about this one: California students’ suspensions for ‘liking’ racist posts are justified, judge rules.

Total attack on free speech/free association, but are we surprised?  Hell no! U.S. District Judge James Donato was appoint by Barack Obama!  What would you expect?

I hope this gets flipped on appeal.  No, I am not supporting racism (hell no), but there’s this thing about free speech…and it makes the Left nuts.

On the other hand, B.O. does get something right now and then.  Like when Obama Warns Social Media Use Can Provoke ‘Snap Judgments’.

Back on topic:  I’m  all about de-racing everything.  Not a factor in our thinking.  But, by making race, gender, national origin, religion, yada yada something “in law” – well, now you can monetize the sh&t out of things.  Which is what we do.

Meanwhile, you can’t hardly buy a refrigerator – better yet, a microwave – that’s actually made in America. In fairness, monetizing ideas and other personal data field content is non-polluting and…oh jeez, let’s have some shots for breakfast and just be friends, right?  We’re still One Country Under God, Indivisible and all that, right?

No?  One Country Going Under, then…FMTT <–2nd day in a row!

Futures just went positive…on happy tax talk and maybe some “help.”  Forget shots…something stronger?

17 thoughts on “Tax Reform: The Carrot and Glock Approach”

  1. It is like I have always said, they are coming for your money on multiple levels. Get your cash reserves out of the system, before we all have another John Corsine moment !!

    • Good point, but in most cases you’ll have to put it back into the system for effective use. You can only pay for taxes and most other things in dollars.

    • I always keep old microwave ovens. They contain a fair amount of copper and a couple of good magnets. Other things too, if you’re sufficiently technical.

  2. George, well done!! Excellent. And I do have to admit it. I’m shocked by you on this tax cut thing. A Conservative that actually takes the time and effort to examine facts? And present cogent, well reasoned arguments that actually pertain to the subject at hand? And not about who’s knelling at football games? Wow. Isn’t that refreshing. Ha ha. I knew there was a reason I read you every day. Best, Mike.

    • I appreciate that, Mike. I have always believed that reasonable people can work out their differences…

  3. Regarding racial idiocy: We have college quotas(legal or customary) that favor specific minorities. Interestingly, Asians are discriminated against more than Whites since they are “overrepresented”. Now Brown University(a traditionally black institution) has announced that you can “IDENTIFY AS BLACK” to gain preference or acceptance into their system. WTF?

    I’ve always felt as George does: We need to stop talking about race, gender, and sexual orientation and start talking about the opportunities we should be pursuing. Instead of building structures and memes to increase divisiveness, start building cheap, reliable, maintainable, comfortable high quality transportation.

    • Exactly.. Put the past in the past and move forward.
      By bringing the atrocities of the past up over and over is doing nothing more than driving a wedge between all ethnic backgrounds creating deeper roots of hate and discontent on all sides. Today there isn’t anyway someone could walk down the sidewalk in another neighborhood of a majority of those living there are of a different ethnic origin.

  4. Here is a subject or topic at 10 year intervals ,what would you have done different ,if you could go back in time at each of those 10-year intervals going all the way up to the present. ??

    • I know everyone is different everyone starts out at a different time in life everyone finishes at a different time in life I remember when I bought the first 750 Honda on the East Coast from a dealership and at that time that was one of the fastest motorcycles, it would beat most any of the stock motorcycles on the market at that time this was back in the late 60s. I went to a AMA meeting and won a trophy for going the slowest from point A to point B from balancing the motorcycle without going forward with like I said the fastest stock motorcycle at that time. Damn I forgot my point. I guess the point could be hey slow down and see what’s around you and discover you don’t have to be on the fast track in order to be good at what you do you can be good at doing things that are slow.
      You know slow at taking something admiring it dissecting it very slowly and recording the parts that you notice where other people don’t notice.

      • I know you THINK this relates to today’s post by God as my Witness I’ll be dmaned if I kin figure it…

  5. The CBO numbers are in error, because they’re based on a 2% pop in the GDP. Trump is running nearly 4%, and may hit 6% before the market collapses.

    That said, it ain’t “reform,” and it is both dishonest and disingenuous to call it so. It is a revision to the tax rate, not to the tax code.

    There needn’t be a backside up our backside. If there is an actual shrinkage of government there will be a corresponding drop in the big number…

  6. Hi George,
    You reference “the option of bumping up the budget deficit (already at 20.5 Trillion).”
    I believe that number is nearer to the total national debt rather than the annual budget deficit.
    Not that it won’t be accurate at some point in the future the way this is going ;)

  7. As far as this pseudo-tax reform dog and pony show goes getting rid of the danged individual mandate under Obummer Care was my main priority. We may loose some deductions as ranchers but there’s nothing that’s gotten under my hide like this socialistic balderdash. If it does make it into the waste basket I’ll be willing to bet it doesn’t affect this year’s taxes, though.

    • Claim a hardship that’ll get rid of the individual mandate. Also, look up exemptions from obamaCare.

      • Then quit insurance high premiums and sky-high deductibles and join a health sharing ministry like Samaritan Ministries or Liberty Healthshare. Look them up on the internet. These are exempted under Obamacare. Don’t pay the fine, join one of these and you will have help in case of a health issue. People do not realize that you do not have to pay the fine/tax even if you make good money. Come on, I’ve given you a life changing lead, now do your homework!

Comments are closed.