My appreciation for Andy Kessler’s way of thinking began with Wall Street Meat and Running Money. A few years ago I had the opportunity to hear him speak at a Cato 200 gathering in Laguna Beach, CA. I continue to keep up with him through his commentary at the WSJ where, in this piece, he shares some thoughts from another great mind, futurist George Gilder: My friend the futurist George Gilder outlines a theory in “Life After Google,” his forthcoming book. He suggests that while advertising prices might be correct, the free-service model cannot deliver sustainable growth. Mr. Gilder explains … [Read more...]
Tax Cuts to Improve Your Retirement Portfolio
President Trump has a golden opportunity for a second round of tax cuts by indexing capital gains for inflation. I can’t tell you how many times investors have wanted to make their portfolio more conservative but did not because of onerous capital gains. In other words, they kept more money in stocks, against their more prudent instincts, simply to avoid cap gains. This is how serious money is lost as witnessed in the markets twice so far this century circa 2000 and 2008. Kimberley Strassel of the WSJ explains how Trump could cut taxes with the stroke of a pen: What if President Trump had the … [Read more...]
How Red States are Winning the Jobs War
It turns out that one of the keys to business success is lowering costs. That doesn't just mean for raw materials, but also for government imposed costs like taxation. The places doing the best job of lowering those taxes and attracting more business are red states like Texas. In The Wall Street Journal, James Freeman explains how one private equity firm is making money moving software firms from high tax states to low tax states like Texas. Yesterday I told you that CNBC had classified Texas as the best state for business. This is an example of what makes that so. Freeman calls it the … [Read more...]
Price Controls: Bad Economics and Fuel for Instability
Basic economics dispels the idea that price controls are useful. Nevertheless governments (including America's) regularly try to control prices. Whether via direct price caps and floors, or quota systems, or through inflation or deflation of the money supply, government attempts to control prices are distortive to markets, and eventually lead to some kind of backlash. Sometimes the response is a black market, as is thriving in Venezuela today. Other times, hoarding takes place. Other times it's more violent. Sometimes, the hardest thing about price controls is removing them. People get used … [Read more...]
RAGE Gauge July: America the Satisfied?
Over the last month, Americans’ perception of risk hasn’t changed much. One factor of their perceived risk is at a very low level though, their dissatisfaction with their country. For over a decade now Gallup’s poll of American dissatisfaction with the country has been 61% or higher. Not since August of 2005 have only 60% of Americans been dissatisfied. That changed with this month’s survey results. For the first time in 13 years, dissatisfaction dropped down to 60%. Satisfaction is also the highest it has been since 2005, at 38%. Not since September of 2005 have Americans been so … [Read more...]
California: Driving Away Success
Despite the allure of Silicon Valley, Hollywood and it's natural beauty, California has succeeded in driving away a "small but statistically significant percentage of high-income residents after voters approved Proposition 30." If you don't remember, Prop 30 was a ballot measure Californians approved in 2012 raising taxes on high income earners. The measure turned what had been a net-in migration of high income earners to California into what is now a net-out migration. Kathleen Pender explains in The San Francisco Chronicle: For singles, Prop. 30 raised the rate by one percentage point on … [Read more...]
Your Retirement Life: How Do You Know Where to Live in Retirement?
If you are like many soon-to-be-retirees in America, you're looking forward to getting away from your cold, northern, probably-high-tax state and settling down in retirement in a southern locale with low taxes and warm winters. But, how can you know where you'll like it best in your Golden Years? (for information on choosing a low-tax state, see the Richardcyoung.com Liberty & Freedom Map here). Last month I encouraged you to do some A/B testing. Live short-term or spend a vacation in some of the places you'd potentially move to during retirement. Without actually staying there for a … [Read more...]
How do Millennials’ Finances Stack up Against Gen-X?
Researchers at the St. Louis Federal Reserve were tired of trying to decipher contradictory evidence on Millennial finances, so they decided to run their own study. The researchers compared Millennials' 2016 finances to (same age) Gen-Xer finances in 2001 to get an idea of their relative financial well-being. Here are the key takeaways from the study: Millennials and Generation X were the youngest working generations in 2016 and 2001, respectively. How do their balance sheets compare? Because of fewer assets and more debt, millennial households had an average net worth of about $90,000 … [Read more...]
Glamping is Big Business
As summer kicks into high gear, consider hitting the road for your next vacation. I wrote this piece about "glamping," back on December 4, 2017, but it can still inspire you today. Glamping is a big business as pointed out here by Spencer Jakab of the WSJ: For anyone who has gotten stuck on a mountain road behind a massive recreational vehicle, get used to it, there are a lot more on the highway. Recreational vehicles, ranging from bus-sized motor homes to retro trailers, have been a boom-and-bust industry since they first became popular in the early 1970s. Now a wave of retiring baby … [Read more...]
Conagra to Buy Pinnacle Foods: Is this the Beginning of a Mega-Consolidation?
News broke yesterday that Conagra Brands will buy Pinnacle Foods, tying together two midsize American food brands. The big companies selling food in America have been having trouble, and it's worth considering if this may be the first step in what may be a necessary consolidation of the industry. The WSJ Logistics Report explains: Big Food is getting even bigger. Conagra Brands Inc. will pay $8.2 billion to buy Pinnacle Foods Inc., doubling down on frozen foods and taking a new step toward resetting food supply chains in a fast-changing market. The deal would create a conglomerate with about … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 155
- 156
- 157
- 158
- 159
- …
- 258
- Next Page »