Labor Day, 2012

[intelligentjetsfan]

The American people are angry. They are angry that they are being forced to live through the worst recession in our lifetimes - with sky-high unemployment, with millions of people losing their homes and their life savings. They are angry that they will not have a decent retirement, that they can't afford to send their children to college, that they can't afford health insurance and that, in some cases, they can't even buy the food they need to adequately feed their families.

They are angry because they know that this recession was not caused by the middle class and working families of this country. It was not caused by the teachers, firefighters and police officers and their unions who are under attack all over the country. It was not caused by construction workers, factory workers, nurses or childcare workers.

This recession was caused by the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior on Wall Street. And, what makes people furious is that Wall Street still has not learned its lessons. Instead of investing in the job-creating productive economy providing affordable loans to small and medium size businesses, the CEOs of the largest financial institutions in this country have created the largest gambling casino in the history of the world.

Four years ago, after spending billions of dollars to successfully fight for the de-regulation of Wall Street, the CEOs of the big banks - JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and the others, went on a losing streak. The enormous bets they made on worthless, complex, and exotic financial instruments went bad, and they stuck the American people with the bill.

Wall Street received the largest taxpayer bailout in the history of the world. But it was not just the $700 billion that Congress approved through the TARP program. As a result of an independent audit that I requested in the Dodd-Frank bill by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, we now know that the Federal Reserve provided a jaw-dropping $16 trillion in virtually zero interest loans to every major financial institution in this country, large corporations, foreign central banks throughout the world, and some of the wealthiest people in this country.

And, instead of using this money to provide affordable loans to small businesses, instead of putting this money back into the job-creating productive economy, what have they done? They have gone back to their days of running the largest gambling casino in the world. In other words, they have learned nothing.

The American people are angry because they see the great middle class of this country collapsing, poverty increasing and the gap between the very rich and everyone else grow wider. They are angry because they see this great country, which so many of our veterans fought for and died for, becoming an oligarchy - a nation where our economic and political life are controlled by a handful of billionaire families.

In the United States today, we have the most unequal distribution of wealth and income since the 1920s. Today, the wealthiest 400 individuals own more wealth than the bottom half of America - 150 million people.

Today, the six heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune own more wealth than the bottom 30 percent.

Today, the top one percent own 40 percent of all wealth, while the bottom sixty percent owns less than 2 percent. Incredibly, the bottom 40 percent of all Americans own just 3/10ths of one percent of the wealth of the country.

According to a new study from the Federal Reserve, median net worth for middle class families dropped by nearly 40 percent from 2007-2010. That's the equivalent of wiping out 18 years of savings for the average middle class family.

The distribution of income is even worse. If you can believe it, the last study on this subject showed that in 2010, 93 percent of all new income created from the previous year went to the top one percent, while the bottom 99 percent of people had the privilege of enjoying the remaining 7 percent. In other words, the rich are getting much richer while almost everyone else is falling behind.

Not only is this inequality of wealth and income morally grotesque, it is bad economic policy. If working families are deeply in debt, and have little or no income to spend on goods and services, how can we expand the economy and create the millions of jobs we desperately need? There is a limit as to how many yachts, mansions, limos and fancy jewelry the super-rich can buy. We need to put income into the hands of working families.

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsro...E-AC673747A346

[southparkcpa]

The fact that the Walton's, Gates and the like are super wealthy is of no difference to me. Do you use windows, IPOD, shop at Walmart? You don't have to. Clooney, Speilberg? Why don't they lower ticket prices? how about they vow to donate all earnings in excess of say 500K?


Yet...I am forced to pay property taxes, income taxes , sales taxes to support what? We have too much government with workers retiring in their 50s. Please, take an economics class.

[neevsmazda07]

Originally Posted by southparkcpa

The fact that the Walton's, Gates and the like are super wealthy is of no difference to me. Do you use windows, IPOD, shop at Walmart? You don't have to. Clooney, Speilberg? Why don't they lower ticket prices? how about they vow to donate all earnings in excess of say 500K?


Yet...I am forced to pay property taxes, income taxes , sales taxes to support what? We have too much government with workers retiring in their 50s. Please, take an economics class.

^THIS^

[JetsfanfromtheBURGH]

Originally Posted by southparkcpa

The fact that the Walton's, Gates and the like are super wealthy is of no difference to me. Do you use windows, IPOD, shop at Walmart? You don't have to. Clooney, Speilberg? Why don't they lower ticket prices? how about they vow to donate all earnings in excess of say 500K?


Yet...I am forced to pay property taxes, income taxes , sales taxes to support what? We have too much government with workers retiring in their 50s. Please, take an economics class.

Might be a tad off topic:

Park your a CPA right? What is your take on the wealthy basically overfunding life insurance policies to take advantage of current tax laws? Funding policies up to the threshold of making it a MEC contract. I know a lot of my clients are taking this approach.

[southparkcpa]

Originally Posted by JetsfanfromtheBURGH

Might be a tad off topic:

Park your a CPA right? What is your take on the wealthy basically overfunding life insurance policies to take advantage of current tax laws? Funding policies up to the threshold of making it a MEC contract. I know a lot of my clients are taking this approach.

I am very anti insurance product for investing unless it is a well designed variable annuity for a certain investor. A MEC was basically collapsed in 1988 by congress and the only tax benefit is tax free growth. A MEC is sold by a greedy commissioned base salesperson who is convinced it is a good idea.

I say bunk.... Want tax free growth, try something with no restrictions. I am fairly well off and manage client money. Would never sell one of these. In fact, when I see them, it is typically becausenthey buyer wants out and now sees the penalty.

Glad you asked?

[JetsfanfromtheBURGH]

Originally Posted by southparkcpa

I am very anti insurance product for investing unless it is a well designed variable annuity for a certain investor. A MEC was basically collapsed in 1988 by congress and the only tax benefit is tax free growth. A MEC is sold by a greedy commissioned base salesperson who is convinced it is a good idea.

I say bunk.... Want tax free growth, try something with no restrictions. I am fairly well off and manage client money. Would never sell one of these. In fact, when I see them, it is typically becausenthey buyer wants out and now sees the penalty.

Glad you asked?

You see I was the same way when I began my career in the financial service industry. I completely changed my point of view because of a CPA. I read a book called confessions of a CPA. That's why I wanted to get the opinion of another CPA.

From a commission stand point, I make more when it's fee based planning than life insurance.

As far as using it as an investment: tax free growth, tax free withdrawals if managed properly. For me, only my high net worth clients are taking advantage of this.

[Warfish]

Originally Posted by intelligentjetsfan

The American people are angry. They are angry that they are being forced to live through the worst recession in our lifetimes - with sky-high unemployment, with millions of people losing their homes and their life savings. They are angry that they will not have a decent retirement, that they can't afford to send their children to college, that they can't afford health insurance and that, in some cases, they can't even buy the food they need to adequately feed their families.

I am a moderately stupid, lazy, emotionally troubled procrasticanator of no appreciable skills or talents.

Yet, somehow, I remain employed, have lost no assets, am not worried about my retirement, am paying for college for myself (better late than never), have never been without health insurance, and have never missed meal.

Why am I different? How does someone with no talents or skills get by, but so many do not?

[JetsfanfromtheBURGH]

Originally Posted by southparkcpa

I am very anti insurance product for investing unless it is a well designed variable annuity for a certain investor. A MEC was basically collapsed in 1988 by congress and the only tax benefit is tax free growth. A MEC is sold by a greedy commissioned base salesperson who is convinced it is a good idea.

I say bunk.... Want tax free growth, try something with no restrictions. I am fairly well off and manage client money. Would never sell one of these. In fact, when I see them, it is typically becausenthey buyer wants out and now sees the penalty.

Glad you asked?

You should really check out "confessions of a CPA" and "pirates of manhattan". It might change the way you think about things.

[JetsCrazey]

you can't talk about wealth inequality without talking about the the fact that private banks control the money supply with money they create with no backing, and lend it out at interest to the very citizens whose taxes guarantee that the money is good.

as long as this injustice continues we will only become further stratified.

[JetsfanfromtheBURGH]

Originally Posted by JetsCrazey

you can't talk about wealth inequality without talking about the the fact that private banks control the money supply with money they create with no backing, and lend it out at interest to the very citizens whose taxes guarantee that the money is good.

as long as this injustice continues we will only become further stratified.

Thats the fed for you. Big IOU's. Which in turn causes the biggest tax of all - inflation.

[Winstonbiggs]

They may be angry but the real menace to a vast amount of people's future is the future itself. The Internet has reduced the need for a vast army of decently paid middle managers and deft robotics is about to replace millions of workers around the world doing all kinds of semi-skilled and skilled manual labor.

Risk ain't going away no matter how much the left wants to legislate it out of existence to protect a union worker. Houses will be built in factories manned by robots, as will cars and planes, bank on it. The Labor day of the future will be parades of robots stopping at booth’s that dispense high end lubricants.

[Frequent Flyer]

Originally Posted by intelligentjetsfan

This recession was caused by the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior on Wall Street.

Any indictments?

[quantum]

I'm angry we have a president that sucks, and lies his ass off. And is shredding the Constitution. And the lack of good jobs so I can get out of where I am.

All that other **** is....****.

[32green]

Two killed, two shot at the West Indian day parade....again.....and no mention?



-

[southparkcpa]

Originally Posted by Warfish

I am a moderately stupid, lazy, emotionally troubled procrasticanator of no appreciable skills or talents.

Yet, somehow, I remain employed, have lost no assets, am not worried about my retirement, am paying for college for myself (better late than never), have never been without health insurance, and have never missed meal.

Why am I different? How does someone with no talents or skills get by, but so many do not?

What type of company would employ someone who fits that description?

Not everyone can work there.....

[acepepe]

Originally Posted by intelligentjetsfan

The American people are angry. They are angry that they are being forced to live through the worst recession in our lifetimes - with sky-high unemployment, with millions of people losing their homes and their life savings. They are angry that they will not have a decent retirement, that they can't afford to send their children to college, that they can't afford health insurance and that, in some cases, they can't even buy the food they need to adequately feed their families.

They are angry because they know that this recession was not caused by the middle class and working families of this country. It was not caused by the teachers, firefighters and police officers and their unions who are under attack all over the country. It was not caused by construction workers, factory workers, nurses or childcare workers.

This recession was caused by the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior on Wall Street. And, what makes people furious is that Wall Street still has not learned its lessons. Instead of investing in the job-creating productive economy providing affordable loans to small and medium size businesses, the CEOs of the largest financial institutions in this country have created the largest gambling casino in the history of the world.

Four years ago, after spending billions of dollars to successfully fight for the de-regulation of Wall Street, the CEOs of the big banks - JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and the others, went on a losing streak. The enormous bets they made on worthless, complex, and exotic financial instruments went bad, and they stuck the American people with the bill.

Wall Street received the largest taxpayer bailout in the history of the world. But it was not just the $700 billion that Congress approved through the TARP program. As a result of an independent audit that I requested in the Dodd-Frank bill by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, we now know that the Federal Reserve provided a jaw-dropping $16 trillion in virtually zero interest loans to every major financial institution in this country, large corporations, foreign central banks throughout the world, and some of the wealthiest people in this country.

And, instead of using this money to provide affordable loans to small businesses, instead of putting this money back into the job-creating productive economy, what have they done? They have gone back to their days of running the largest gambling casino in the world. In other words, they have learned nothing.

The American people are angry because they see the great middle class of this country collapsing, poverty increasing and the gap between the very rich and everyone else grow wider. They are angry because they see this great country, which so many of our veterans fought for and died for, becoming an oligarchy - a nation where our economic and political life are controlled by a handful of billionaire families.

In the United States today, we have the most unequal distribution of wealth and income since the 1920s. Today, the wealthiest 400 individuals own more wealth than the bottom half of America - 150 million people.

Today, the six heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune own more wealth than the bottom 30 percent.

Today, the top one percent own 40 percent of all wealth, while the bottom sixty percent owns less than 2 percent. Incredibly, the bottom 40 percent of all Americans own just 3/10ths of one percent of the wealth of the country.

According to a new study from the Federal Reserve, median net worth for middle class families dropped by nearly 40 percent from 2007-2010. That's the equivalent of wiping out 18 years of savings for the average middle class family.

The distribution of income is even worse. If you can believe it, the last study on this subject showed that in 2010, 93 percent of all new income created from the previous year went to the top one percent, while the bottom 99 percent of people had the privilege of enjoying the remaining 7 percent. In other words, the rich are getting much richer while almost everyone else is falling behind.

Not only is this inequality of wealth and income morally grotesque, it is bad economic policy. If working families are deeply in debt, and have little or no income to spend on goods and services, how can we expand the economy and create the millions of jobs we desperately need? There is a limit as to how many yachts, mansions, limos and fancy jewelry the super-rich can buy. We need to put income into the hands of working families.

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsro...E-AC673747A346

You're part of the worlds 1% and, since dear leader has declared us all "world citizens YOU need to give back (to the U.N.) 90% of YOUR income. Let us know when you write the check!