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Posts in category Economy

I Vote for Warren Buffett

Jul07
2011
Leave a Comment Written by jacob

On my hefty 75 minute commute to work each morning, I usually stimulate my brain by listening to the Opie & Anthony show on XM radio. Today, however, I found myself listening to CNBC’s interview with Warren Buffett.

Becky Quick, along with the rest of the Squawk Box team, threw question after question at Buffett. Though I claim to know a little about the stock market, simply listening to this man speak, you can tell how much of a genius he is when it comes to the economics and Wall Street.

At one point, Buffett brings up how he’d change the tax rate for the rich. His long standing belief is that the rich are under-taxed. In fact, he goes onto say,

…if you take the 400 richest Americans and the 400 people who paid the greatest income tax— the Treasury’s been putting those figures out for 15 years or so. If you go back 15 years, the average income of the 400 top people— the 400 top people’s around 45 million. They paid about 27 percent. Now it grew, the most recent figures, to 350 million. That is incredible. And that’s nothing like’s happened to the rest of the world. The tax then was 16.6. So while they’ve gotten ungodly richer, the rate has come down 11 points. Now, that is a big tilt in the world. And I would go after the very rich.

I think he is exactly right. By keeping the tax rate so low for the rich, America is truly beginning to divide itself into the haves and have nots.

The quote above is around the 3:30 mark.

It is clear that Warren Buffett is the type of man that we need in an office of power that will get us on the right path. He is for closing corporate tax loopholes and fixing our medical system (which has ballooned to 17% percent of GDP… while other civilized nations it’s around 10%). His analogy of the Euro crisis was brilliant, saying

…They linked 17 countries together. It’s like 17 people holding hands, and they start walking toward a cliff and some guy on the end is going to go over the cliff and he said it won’t make any difference because this guy’s going to keep holding my hand. And then you got two of them over the cliff. And the real question is whether the guy in the center, the big heavyweight, decides, you know, that— whether he wants to keep holding hands with this group.

The chances of Warren Buffett entering the political arena is 0%. That may not be bad though, as he may have more power in his current position.

If you’d like to view the read the transcript of the full interview, click here.

 

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Posted in Daily Life - Tagged Stock Market, Warren Buffet
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Extent Of CT Broadcasting School’s Close

Mar07
2009
Leave a Comment Written by jacob

I read of Connecticut Broadcasting School’s close on Facebook when Geoff Fox posted a update. I really didn’t understand the enormity of the situation. I thought that this was a single school with 50 students who no longer could operate. I just came across the story from WJLA – the ABC affiliate in Washington, DC. JLA reports that CT Broadcasting School operated 26 separate campuses in 16 different states. Geeze, I’m kinda shocked I’ve never heard of them.

The worst part of the story is how the students got treated. Apparently an email was sent to the students after finding the all the doors locked.

…said the school is closed. They’ll be no class until further notice [and to] contact the corporate office.

Wow. Some kids were only weeks away from graduation and won’t be able to get their diploma. The tuition was $12,000 and they won’t even get that back!

The school blames the closing on tightening private student loan markets. The school’s lender, Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial, seized control of all the school’s accounts. This rendered the school unable to proceed.

There is no good way to resolve this. I just sat thinking for 10 minutes on how I’d handle this and I didn’t come up with anything. I guess that’s why I’m not a college president.

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Tagged CT Broadcast School
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Sign Of The Apocolypse: $1.95 Gas!

Nov20
2008
1 Comment Written by jacob

As I was driving back from New Haven, I witnessed $1.95 gas. I haven’t seen gas this cheap in, well I can’t remember when. It realy feel good filling up my tank with $35 instead of $70.

Oil prices are now down to $49.55 a barrell, down from the summer high of around $147.00. That is so incredible for me. Just as the housing and credit bubbles have burst, so has the gas bubble. These prices have such a trickle down effect that it will end up effecting everything we as consumers come in contact with. Milk to snickers bars and everything in between should be lower because it won’t cost as much to ship them.

Hopefully now my McDonald’s double cheeseburger will go back to $1.00…

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Sign Of The Apocolypse: GM Is Failing

Nov11
2008
Leave a Comment Written by jacob

This is scary news for me. GM is burning through its cash like nothing. In 2005, GM was said to have $34 billion dollars of cash on hand. In less than three years, they are down to $15.8 billion. Richard Wagoner Jr, Chairman and Chief Executive of GM, sent out an internal memo on November 7, 2005 reassuring its employees that bankruptcy was unnecessary.

All signs are pointing to GM declaring bankruptcy by mid-2009 if things don’t change significantly. That means more car sales, lower operating costs, etc etc.

What would a GM bankruptcy mean to the world though? This would cause an unthinkable unemployment problem, to the likes of one never before seen. Upwards of 300,000 workers without jobs would cause so much stress to the economy that a collapse would be imminent. With all this news, people are less likely to buy a GM car simply because in six months are they going to be able to honor their warranty? Rental car companies will get rid of any and all GM cars on their lot so they don’t have to go through the trouble of liquidating the cars themselves. The value of GM cars would fall substantially too.

Retirees and the workers of GM would take a hit in bankruptcy. GM could scale down the pension payouts of retirees and the health care benefits of those employed.

Stockholders may be the hardest hit. After everything trickles down to them, there may not be anything left for stockholders.

The prospect of bankruptcy scares the crap out of me. But we, as a country and even on a global scale, may be facing this very soon.

Anyone wanna buy my Hummer off me? It only has a few miles on it and gets great gas mileage!

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Tagged bankruptcy, GM
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