More Fiscal Cliff Talks

My Quick Rant On This Topic

You know...this crap of fear mongering by the media is so elementary and obvious it's sickening.  This whole show about the Fiscal Cliff and taxes, and the wealthiest Americans paying more, and blah blah blah, is such a racket that is designed to divide us all.

When really looking at the numbers the top earners don't pay as much in taxes as you think they do folks.  Warren Buffet even said openly that he pays less in taxes in terms of percentage of income, than the average person does.

The very top earners pay people to find ways to reduce their taxes. Don't get me wrong I'm not against being wealthy and making money and living a very good life - who doesn't want to live a rich and fulfilling life? Everyone does that's a no brainer.. My point is this is a sneaky way to divide people through social stratification.

If you have money and ran a business or several businesses your goal would be to reduce your tax expense..duh.. Who likes to pay taxes? Nobody does.  The real people who pay taxes are the ones in the middle.  They carry the load which is why the soundbites are always targeted to "middle class" Americans which again the labels create a huge problem as it divides people into groups which leads to warfare...which is what they want!

If we're too distracted fighting a false paradigm, we can't actually come together as a nation and figure out a way to fix the problem.  "Class warfare" they label it ensues only worsening the problem.  It's trickery and is designed to keep us distracted, fighting, and living in fear and confusion.

What you fail to realize is that inflation is a silent tax and is way worse than what we're dealing with here on income taxes.  Have you noticed your food bill lately?

Oh but they want you to think that's a good thing because if prices are going up then that means your incomes will go up to match and plus the stock market is doing good and home prices are rising so just shut up and "feel" more wealthy when in reality you're income is not going up and the only ones profiting from the rising prices are the ones that control the lever...

If it's not a war on drugs, it's terrorism or taxes, or a bad economy, or murders, shootings, rapes, car wrecks, environmental calamities...It's a constant stream of bad news designed to keep people distracted, scared, confused, and worried all the time..

Jesse Ventura says it best when he describes our Congress as the world federation of wrestling as in front of the camera's they hate each other we have division, they're fighting it out but behind closed doors they're all buddies.

What you need to do is educate yourself and don't be fooled by what's going on around you.

This economy isn't going to get any better any time soon.  You need to decide how you are going to utilize your skills, talents, and brains to create extra income you can convert to stores of value like gold and silver and protect your family from the worst case scenario.

There are many ways to get started now in creating additional streams of income in your part time and start protecting yourself now - create your own economy and don't let this trash talk distract you or rob you of joy, happiness, and peace in your life.  Spend time with loved ones and cherish the special memories.

God Bless,

D...out...

Are We Headed to The Point of No Return?

Well in one week we lost Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch, some of the biggest financial firms in the country and the world. And now there are talks that Morgan Stanley will merge or be bought out as well, and then there was one, Goldman Sachs. Out of the five biggest investment firms in the nation only one may be left standing. So what happened? Well its complicated but simple. These firms used leverage to maximize profits while the housing boom was in full steam. Let me explain. Some of these firms borrowed up to $30 dollars for every dollar in assets and while this is a very risky strategy, it can pay big dividends if executed properly. It’s called trading on the equity or using leverage.

See companies get a tax break on interest expense paid to its creditors. For instance you have net income before taxes but after expenses of say $2 million dollars and an interest expense of $150,000. That $150,000 is deducted from the $2 million and then you are taxed on the difference. This will increase the bottom line by using the interest expense as a deduction. Companies have quite a few ways to raise capital to finance its operations but the two main ways is to issue stock or issue debt. Issuing stock dilutes shareholder ownership but is a cheaper way to raise capital. But by issuing more shares net income now has to be spread over more shares outstanding lowering its EPS or earnings per share. By issuing debt and not issuing stock the company can reflect a higher EPS, more income spread over fewer shares of common stock outstanding.

This is all fine and dandy when revenues are growing but in sharp economic downturns this can cause the insolvency of a company very quickly. Take Countrywide for example, this company operated on leverage and when investor confidence eroded, they started to dump shares of Countrywide reducing its market cap by billions of dollars in a matter of a few short weeks. When creditors wouldn’t renew their notes, and after they tapped their lines of credit, the company was then bought out by Bank of America for $4 billion in stock.

This may seem very frightening and the media has made the word mortgage an ugly word claiming that the subprime mess caused it all. Well that’s only a small piece of the puzzle. In 2006, which was the peak of the subprime boom, 20% of all originations were considered subprime, roughly $800 billion dollars. While this is surely a lot of money it pales in comparison to the roughly $3 trillion dollars in mortgage originated in that year. Alt-A is becoming a recent problem, which represented 13% of originations in 2006, and was responsible for the majority of Fannie and Freddie losses in the past quarters. However in the midst of all this bad publicity there are still a great percentage of subprime borrowers making their payments. The real cause of this financial problem was the greed on the Wall Street, bad news causing naked short selling driving down the stock prices of financial stocks, and the lack of transparency in risky securities like CDO’s (collateralized debt obligations).

The value of these assets were grossly overestimated and was shown clearly by the liquidation by Merrill Lynch for 22 cents on the dollar which pushed them to a huge loss in their last quarter.

Regardless of what is going on right now it is still a great time to buy a home. Right now interest rates are still at historical lows and prices have retracted in some areas in the double digits. The cost of waiting right now in this volatile market is too great to let it pass you buy. Its funny how they talk about how hard it is to obtain a mortgage but the media never wants to talk about FHA insured mortgages. Its being estimated now that FHA originations, after only being a mere 2% in 2006, will skyrocket to 30-35% for 2008 and even more in 2009. FHA insured mortgages are a great way to get into a home with little down payment and competitive interest rates. Conventional loans right now are being hit heavy with credit score and ltv adjustments to pricing that drives the interest rate up for borrowers who have less than 740 credit scores. Don’t wait now is the time to take advantage of this market cycle.

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