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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...]
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...]
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...]
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...]
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...]
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...]
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...]
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