Financial News

[caulfield12]

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/4264...in-conversation

 

Imagining a New Social Order, Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin

 

LONG but quite worthwhile read if you're on the left side of the political spectrum.

[Balta1701]

By my count, 3 Republican Senators have come out as opposing the tax reform bill (Johnson, Murkowski, Collins). Hopefully this works out like ACA repeal.

Murkoski just wrote an op-ed endorsing this tax bill and the health care removal parts of it.

[StrangeSox]

The Congressional Budget Office dropped a new analysis Sunday night of the Senate Republican tax bill that could pass later this week after zero hearings and minimal debate showing the bill would significantly cut taxes for people in the top income brackets while raising them for people making less than $30,000 a year.

 

 

 

The CBO said in addition to adding $1.4 trillion to the federal deficit and reducing the number of Americans with health insurance by 13 million, the tax bill would have a harmful impact on low-income Americans.

 

 

 

 

 

By 2019, the agency found, Americans earning less than $30,000 a year would see their tax bill go up under the Senate bill. By 2021, those earning $40,000 or less would see a hike. By 2027, most people earning $75,000 a year or less would have to pay more. At the same time, people earning more than $100,000 a year would see the biggest benefit over time.

 

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/cbo-gop-ta...ividual-mandate

 

The proposal would abolish Obamacare’s individual mandate and, according to the Congressional Budget Office, reduce the number of people with health insurance by 4 million in 2019 and 13 million in 2027. The people no longer pushed to enroll by the mandate are overwhelmingly lower and middle class and don’t get insurance from their employers. Instead, they typically sign up for Medicaid or for subsidized insurance on the Obamacare marketplaces.

 

That means that when looking at who wins and loses from the tax bill, you can’t just look at who pays more or less in taxes. You have to look at who gets more or less Medicaid and insurance subsidy money too. A new report from the CBO does exactly that.

 

The CBO breaks down the billions of dollars in annual changes to spending and tax revenue by income group, up to people making more than $1 million. What they find is that while the rich as a group benefit each year (as do people making more than $75,000, on aggregate) the desperately poor, earning $10,000 or less a year, lose out consistently — and by 2021, people earning $40,000 a year or less start losing out as well.

By 2027, when all the individual tax cuts in the law have been phased out to pay for permanent corporate rates, the situation is considerably bleaker. The combination of benefit cuts and tax hikes for people earning between $10,000 and $30,000 are one-third bigger than they were in 2025.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/201...health-cut-poor

[StrangeSox]

 

It doesn't sound like they have enough votes right now, but having to ride the "will Congressional Republicans screw us all over today?" roller coaster everyday again like we did with ACA repeal sucks, especially with so many other big items that Congress should be addressing.

[StrangeSox]

Sounds like they've found enough other garbage to cram into the Senate bill to get enough votes to pass it. Collins and Corker both sound like "yes" now.

[StrangeSox]

Q3 GDP growth revised upward to 3.3%, a three-year high.

 

The latest results for GDP, the value of all goods and services produced, show the economy was on a more solid footing as it entered the final stretch of the year, withstanding the damage from hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

 

While the revised growth rate is in line with President Donald Trump’s goal, economists generally see such a pace as unsustainable and expect growth to slow sometime in 2018. Trump and congressional Republicans are pushing a tax-cut plan with the aim of lifting GDP gains to 3 percent annually, though analysts expect any economic boost to be modest, on balance, if the proposal becomes law.

 

Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy, continues to be the main driver of growth, though revisions showed it was slightly weaker than previously estimated on purchases of both durable and nondurable goods.

 

The biggest improvement came in business investment, which made a 1.2 percentage-point contribution to growth, up from 0.98 point in the initial estimate a month ago. In addition to greater spending on transportation equipment, the data also reflected more software spending. Nonresidential structures were revised to a bigger decline.

[StrangeSox]

House GOP to Propose Sweeping Changes to Higher Education

Caps student loans, eliminates loan forgiveness, greatly reduces regulations on for-profit colleges (which are largely high-priced diploma mills)

 

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives this week will propose sweeping legislation that aims to change where Americans go to college, how they pay for it, what they study, and how their success—or failure—affects the institutions they attend.

 

The most dramatic and far-reaching element of the plan is a radical revamp of the $1.34 trillion federal student loan program. It would put caps on borrowing and eliminate some loan forgiveness programs.

 

The act would create winners and losers. Some student borrowers endure increased burdens and many established universities will face new competition and additional layers of accountability. On the other hand, community colleges will get more funding to team with the private sector and create apprenticeships and the for-profit college sector could get many changes it has lobbied for, including equal footing with nonprofit schools when it comes to limits on federal aid and measurements of graduate success.

 

As part of its plan to rein in student loans, graduate students and parents of undergraduates would face so far unspecified caps on how much they could borrow for tuition and living expenses—instead of borrowing whatever schools charge.

 

The bill would also end loan-forgiveness programs for public-service employees, who currently can make 10 years of payments and then have their remaining debt forgiven, tax-free. It would also eliminate a program that ties monthly payments to income levels for private-sector workers. Current participants in both programs would be grandfathered in.

 

One of the biggest winners in the new higher education legislation is the for-profit college industry, which faced a major crackdown under the Obama administration, amid concerns about students who failed to finish programs and were left saddled with major debt and no way to pay for it.

 

The rollback of those regulations has been under way since President Donald Trump took office. The reauthorization proposal goes a step further by prohibiting future action by the Education Department on what’s known as the gainful employment regulation, which ties access to federal student aid to whether career programs lead to decent-paying jobs.

 

Steve Gunderson, CEO and president of Career Education Colleges and Universities, said he is eager to eliminate the gainful employment rule, because it scrutinizes graduate outcomes almost exclusively at for-profit colleges.

 

 

 

 

[Dick Allen]

House GOP to Propose Sweeping Changes to Higher Education

Caps student loans, eliminates loan forgiveness, greatly reduces regulations on for-profit colleges (which are largely high-priced diploma mills)

Bring back Trump U.

[Balta1701]

I don't disagree with some of those reform concepts. University charges keep going up and that's driven in part by people's ability to take out larger loans - you have to do that setup delicately so that it doesn't wind up making elite schools "rich white people only" because no one who isn't a legacy at Harvard can afford to get in there, but something does need done about that because the schools are taking advantage of it.

 

The For profit schools stuff is the expected garbage you figure the Republicans will do. It's a great way to rip off lower income people.

[RockRaines]

People are going to lose so much money on bitcoin.

[StrangeSox]

This should surprise nobody, but:

 

Trump's Tax Promises Undercut by CEO Plans to Reward Investors

Major companies including Cisco Systems Inc., Pfizer Inc. and Coca-Cola Co. say they’ll turn over most gains from proposed corporate tax cuts to their shareholders, undercutting President Donald Trump’s promise that his plan will create jobs and boost wages for the middle class.

[southsider2k5]

People are going to lose so much money on bitcoin.

 

I won't touch that with a 10 foot pole.

[RockRaines]

I won't touch that with a 10 foot pole.

I know too many people buying into it like its free money. Its based on absolutely nothing, and thats what its going to be worth.

[StrangeSox]

It's based on drugs, money laundering and child pornography.

 

IIRC it uses as much electricity a day as a small country to not actually produce anything.

[southsider2k5]

I know too many people buying into it like its free money. Its based on absolutely nothing, and thats what its going to be worth.

 

It is s***ty internet stocks all over again. Once it pops, it will go down HARD. It might be this week, it might be six months down the road, but when it happens, look out.

[RockRaines]

It is s***ty internet stocks all over again. Once it pops, it will go down HARD. It might be this week, it might be six months down the road, but when it happens, look out.

Agreed. Eventually people will figure out it literally is vapor-currency and the first wave will pull out, and look out. There wont be enough actual currency left for people to get their "money"out

[Jenksismyhero]

I bought in about a month ago for a modest amount, nothing I can't stand to lose, and have earned about 60-65% so far.

[RockRaines]

I bought in about a month ago for a modest amount, nothing I can't stand to lose, and have earned about 60-65% so far.

When you pulling out?

 

I have a co-worker who has put in a couple hundred thousand pretty early. He needs to pull the plug now.

[Jenksismyhero]

Agreed. Eventually people will figure out it literally is vapor-currency and the first wave will pull out, and look out. There wont be enough actual currency left for people to get their "money"out

 

One thing to keep in mind is that the number of people actually buying bitcoin is still incredibly low. Less than 20 million and probably way less since those are just active wallets and people can own multiple wallets.

[StrangeSox]

When you pulling out?

 

I have a co-worker who has put in a couple hundred thousand pretty early. He needs to pull the plug now.

 

Jesus, depending on what "pretty early" means, that could be worth millions, tens of millions, or hundreds of millions (if he can actually get all of it out, lol)

[Jenksismyhero]

When you pulling out?

 

I have a co-worker who has put in a couple hundred thousand pretty early. He needs to pull the plug now.

 

That's just moronic unless he/she is worth millions.

 

Not sure when i'll pull out. I'll probably stick with it for the long term. I also bought some etherium and litecoin which should see their own growth if bitcoin crashes.

[RockRaines]

That's just moronic unless he/she is worth millions.

 

Not sure when i'll pull out. I'll probably stick with it for the long term. I also bought some etherium and litecoin which should see their own growth if bitcoin crashes.

He took the money he got from our options and put it right into it. I think its a mil now.

[southsider2k5]

I bought in about a month ago for a modest amount, nothing I can't stand to lose, and have earned about 60-65% so far.

 

Find yourself a good stop loss point.

[southsider2k5]

Jesus, depending on what "pretty early" means, that could be worth millions, tens of millions, or hundreds of millions (if he can actually get all of it out, lol)

 

80% return this MONTH. 1000+% return in the last 12 months.

[StrangeSox]

80% return this MONTH. 1000+% return in the last 12 months.

 

Yeah, I remember thinking "lol what a dumb gimmick thing, this is bound to crash" when it was at like $100.

 

If you managed to hold on to it and not have it stolen off one of the many scam exchanges and didn't cash out along the way as it kept going up, Up, UP, you could be sitting on 10,000% returns or greater in just a few years. A friend of a friend works at a financial services company, and they were trying to figure out how to withdraw a client's bitcoins into real cash a couple of months back. He had "sold" his friend an old beater car for bitcoins four or five years ago and had largely forgotten about them, not expecting them to ever be worth anything. He's now sitting on several hundred thousand dollars worth.

 

IIRC they're having to withdraw it in chunks at a time because the exchanges have limits and it's not easy to get more than $5-10k out at a time.