Taxing America’s Future

By Lowell Ponte

The American Dream is being undermined by government policies. “The sweeping tax overhaul House Republicans introduced [November 2] would eliminate or scale back some of the biggest incentives for home-buying in federal law,” wrote Russell Berman in The Atlantic. This would, he said, cut in half the limit on deducting mortgage interest, cap property tax deductibility, repeal the tax deduction for moving expenses, and force more people to pay taxes on profits made from selling a home. 

The low-earning Millennial Generation has already postponed buying their first home, which has postponed marriages and couples starting a family, which has in turn helped spawn the lowest fertility rate in American history. Higher taxes, in other words, have unintended consequences. In this case, raising taxes on home ownership could mean far fewer children in this generation – and far fewer future workers to pay for Social Security and Medicare that are already speeding toward bankruptcy. [more...]

U.S. Economy Continues to Grow

By Michelle Seiler-Tucker

The U.S. economy grew 3.1% during the third quarter of 2017. This was higher than expected after several states were damaged by hurricanes Irma and Harvey. Many analysts believed that there would be a sharp slowdown in our economic growth following the devastating results of this year’s hurricane season. However, spending held steady, even though home building investment dropped. Consumer spending had a 2.3% growth, added with the increased growth of exports; business investments in equipment and intellectual property kept the GDP growth rate at 3%. This was despite the fall of construction spending, mainly due to the effects of the hurricanes this year. [more...]

The Financial Toll of Two Major Hurricanes

By Michelle Seiler-Tucker

Within the span of 2 weeks, U.S. shores have been hit by 2 major hurricanes. Harvey which hit Texas and Southwest Louisiana in late August, and Irma making its way through the Florida coast. With the devastation left in their path, the question now is what is the financial toll on the U.S. after 2 major disasters? The toll for Harvey’s destruction is estimated to be anywhere between $70 and $90 billion, with only $35 billion protected by insurance, by RMS a disaster modeling firm. Analysts have predicted that Irma’s financial toll can reach up to $172 billion in the U.S. alone. Countries in the Caribbean are expected to see cost of up to $65 million from Irma alone. [more...]

The Equifax Storm

By Lowell Ponte

Equifax, the Atlanta-based company – one of America’s three giant credit reporting agencies – announced this September that hackers had penetrated its computers and stole data for at least 10 weeks before being detected on July 29. What these hackers stole, Equifax reported, were the names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, and other data of 143 million “customers” – nearly half the U.S. population. (“Customers” is in quotes because you likely never asked or agreed to be an Equifax customer, and you have no ability under current law to make them stop gathering personal financial data about you.) This attack struck 143 million Americans (most of whom have not yet felt it) and could put our nation underwater for years to come – perhaps even drown our personal and national economy and prosperity. [more...]

Should the Trump Administration Pull Out from South Korea Trade Deal?

By Michael Stumo

The Trump administration is considering withdrawing from KORUS (the South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement). The data supports pulling out, but globalists - who support economic growth in other countries but support only Wall Street and Silicon Valley growth here - are freaking out. The case for pulling out of KORUS is stronger than the case for pulling out of NAFTA. First, Korea is a recidivist currency manipulator. It’s currency, the won, remained 14.4% undervalued in May, making Korean goods and services cheaper than they would be with a fairly-priced won. Mexico’s currency, in contrast, is not undervalued. Second, America's trade performance under the KORUS agreement is the worst among all U.S. trade deals. [more...]

Are You Prepared for an “Economic Eclipse”?

Are You Prepared for an “Economic Eclipse”?

By Lowell Ponte

Notwithstanding the coming solar eclipse... as noted in Craig R. Smith’s new free study of recent economic cycles, Crisis Timeline, our lives are influenced by more than the cycles of day and night, and of summer and winter. Scientists and analysts have discovered many such cycles that invisibly shape our world, from climate change, to the rise and fall of economic markets. To see the future, look for the cycles. Those unaware of such forces can be fooled, and taken advantage of, by those who are aware. Several of the most powerful economic cycles are about to converge, each at a low point. [more...]

Credit, Cash & the Coming Crash

By Lowell Ponte

Globalists are eager to impose a “cashless” society where everything is credit and debt, where values are easily manipulated, and where all financial transactions are monitored and taxed by government. This is why they are squeezing you out of cash and into credit. This is why they do not want you to convert any of your paper dollars into a form of money they cannot control or devalue, such as gold. And if the globalists get their way, an American economic and social crash is inevitable. Your credit will disappear instantly. What will you do then, without hard money? Neither a plastic card nor a worthless green piece of paper will save you on that discredited day. You can prepare now, or be helpless then. [more...]

Money from Nothing

By Michelle Seiler-Tucker

Traditionally, venture capital firms are the life blood of Silicon Valley-based tech startups; however, one type of technology, cryptocurrency, is flipping that relationship on its head. Simply put, digital currency startups don’t need the cash traditionally supplied by VCs; and now VCs are turning to cryptocurrency startups for a piece of the action. This reversed relationship is due to a phenomenon known as Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). In an ICO, a cryptocurrency firm offers a percentage of their currency to initial public backers of the project in exchange for other types of digital currency, mainly Bitcoin. Simply put, startup cryptocurrency firms can create their own currency and use mathematical contract algorithms to control the behavior and existence of this currency. [more...]

Study Finds 25.5-Percent Dollar Overvaluation Spurs Trade Deficit

The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) released a paper this week with an improved methodology for calculating exchange rate misalignment and its connection to the U.S. trade deficit, stagnation in wages and living standards, and slower economic growth. Michael Stumo discusses an innovative solution to the continuing problem of dollar overvaluation called the Market Access Charge (MAC).

“The U.S. dollar is 25.5 percent overvalued,” said Michael Stumo, CEO of CPA. “This bloated dollar problem amounts to a 25.5 percent export tax which U.S. businesses and workers must overcome to sell our goods and services competitively in global markets. Dollar overvaluation dramatically hampers President Trump’s ability to reduce the trade deficit, create good paying jobs and rebuild the middle class.”

The paper, entitled “The Threat of U.S. Dollar Overvaluation: How to Calculate True Exchange Rate Misalignment & How to Fix It,” reveals that the exchange rates of Japan, Germany, China, and South Korea are significantly undervalued, subsidizing their exports and severely limiting US market access. [more...]

America’s Secret Plan for the Debt Ceiling

By Lowell Ponte

Sometime this October, the federal government is going to run out of money. It will be unable to borrow more until Congress agrees to raise the debt ceiling, a vote that some Republicans want to use to shrink the government. If lawmakers cannot resolve the debt ceiling issue, then the government may employ what Bloomberg News on July 14 called a “once-secret plan written by the Obama administration that would lead to the first-ever default on U.S. debt.” “Bond traders are worried that [President] Donald Trump’s Treasury secretary may have to use it,” reported Bloomberg. [more...]

How to Rescue Your Retirement

By Lowell Ponte

Every day 10,000 Baby Boomers reach age 65, and this will continue until 2029. Many need to protect their life savings and prepare for retirement. Boomers expected a comfortable retirement, but for many the autumn of life seems to be going another way. People are right to be afraid, and to seek security; the signs that things are coming apart are all around us. But the way to “insure” your portfolio is to escape promissory paper, including paper money that politicians can confiscate via inflation. People would be wise to convert a portion of their savings into the universal store of value, gold. Baby Boomers need to act decisively to provide true security for their golden years. For a free copy of the White Paper The Annuity Trap, contact: David Bradshaw at 602-918-3296 or e-mail him. [more...]

American Tax System Makeover

By Michelle Seiler-Tucker

After years of rising tax rates and intensifying frustration among individuals and corporations, it appears the American tax system is finally getting the makeover it needs. President Trump unveiled a tax plan which, at its core, will grow America’s economy. By slashing corporate and individual tax rates, this plan will encourage more business to be done in our great country and result in more money in all our pockets. Under the current tax system, corporations are taxed at some of the highest rates in the world. This has discouraged them from reporting profits in America; and as a result, $2 trillion have been stashed abroad. In the new plan, both by decreasing the effective corporate tax rate and by applying a one-time amnesty tax rate for collecting offshore profits, corporations will begin doing business again in America. [more...]

Border-Adjustable Taxes, The Dollar and Alternatives

By Michael Stumo

The Republican business tax reform plan, also known as the House GOP Blueprint or the Ryan-Brady plan, features a type of border-adjustable tax (BAT). Border adjustability means that different tax rates apply within and outside the U.S. It is a potentially new feature in U.S. taxation that is attracting controversy and confusion. Border-adjustability has split both the Republican Party and the business community, with some supporting it, some bitterly opposing it, and some just trying to understand what it is. [more...]

The IRS Builds its Own Wall

By Lowell Ponte

Is the wall only to keep illegals out, or is it also to keep the rich in? The Internal Revenue Service, which many hope Mr. Trump will rein in, on January 25 asserted its power to revoke the passports of those the IRS says owe taxes. In our latest book, Money, Morality & The Machine, Craig R. Smith and I warned of this. This new Progressive rule declares that citizens who owe taxes would not be permitted to leave the United States. These citizens would be required to pay the demanded tax and penalties to exit, or live out their lives without leaving the United States under a kind of nationwide house arrest. [more...]

Business First Says Major Tech Companies

By Michelle Seiler-Tucker

Big news over the weekend came from states, organizations, and public and private companies speaking out against President Trump’s immigration restrictions. Moreover, the long-awaited Super Bowl commercials took their 30-second to 1-minute ad space to fuel the controversy. It seems that the heavyweights are trying to warn the country that this action could hurt our economy. On Sunday, major U.S. tech companies such as Alphabet (Google), Apple, Facebook, and nearly 100 others, argued in a letter to the President that banning visitors would hurt their businesses. [more...]

The Fiduciary Rule is the Obamacare of the Investment Industry

By Crista Huff

President Trump signed a memorandum on February 3, 2017 which directs the Department of Labor to undertake a new “economic and legal analysis” of a pending piece of Dodd-Frank legislation - the new Department of Labor Fiduciary Rule - which was to be implemented in April. The memorandum seeks to determine whether investors and the financial industry have been and will be harmed by the directive, in the areas of access to financial advice, access to investment products, job loss within the financial industry, changes in investment costs and increased litigation. Many news outlets misreported that the President issued an executive order that halted implementation of the Fiduciary rule, but that was not the case. “To the extent that the new analysis reveals problems, the Labor secretary is directed to ‘publish for notice and comment a [new] proposed rule rescinding or revising the rule.’” [more...]

2017 Business Trends Already Taking Shape

By Michelle Seiler-Tucker

With many expecting 2017 to be a promising year for businesses, it is important to be knowledgeable on the changing landscape of the professional world. Business trends which have taken shape over the last few years are now becoming mainstream. 30-year-old brick and mortar businesses and 2-week-old startups are increasingly approaching the workplace with similar strategies. Here are a few trends to look out for in 2017... [more...]