Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Yahoo - Reuters - Insight: Why Citi wants to rack up U.S. taxes. Here is how the game works, mulit-national companies will move their holdings when they won't get taxed. They can even get tax credits if they do it well. Citi showed losses in the United States so they kept their profits oversees; but, now they have enough tax credits that they can bring that income back to the United States because they won't be taxed on it here either. This is unfair to their shareholders and to the nation in my humble opinion. You watch, the solution will be an international scheme for taxing.

PressTV - America feeds the rich. So, there is this congressman that wants to cut $20 billion in food stamps when more people then ever need them and increase the subsidies to agribusiness. There was a time when farm subsidies made some sense. We didn't want everyone farming the same thing just because it was a cash crop. Farming is a very risking business and one bad year could kill a family farm. That is not who is getting these, these are going to mega agribusinesses, corporations with the ability to handle a bad year or two.

The Street - Real Money - Weiser: Bernanke's 'Clint Eastwood' Moment. An interesting possibility by the author, the idea that the federal reserve might keep buying bonds and treasuries; but, stop buying short term and switch to long term bonds. My question is, if they do that, might it create another inverted yield curve something that is the number one indicator of a coming economic recession or depression.

Yahoo - AP - Obama: NSA secret data gathering 'transparent'. I haven't really spent a lot of time on the PRISM/NSA "scandal" because it is basically nonsense. Firstly, it is legal as nothing that goes over the airwaves or the internet is protected by the Constitution. Sorry; but, it is true based on past court cases. Secondly, it is not going to go anywhere. Here is a quote from the linked article"

""We're going to have to find ways where the public has an assurance that there are checks and balances in place ... that their phone calls aren't being listened into; their text messages aren't being monitored, their emails are not being read by some big brother somewhere," Obama said."

Now let me explain what he said and did not say. He said that your stuff was not being listened to, monitored or read and you know what that is absolutely true. They are being recorded and stored in case they ever need to listen to, monitor or read them. Here is the thing about "monitored" by the government, you are and you are not. Believe me, if you start a blog about knitting, nobody cares and they will seek to filter it out, there are only so many hours in a day. They are looking for patterns and subject matters. If you start writing about how to make a bomb, they might be interested in that. I repeat, they are not looking for people who smoke pot or are cheating on their spouses. 99% of all of you do not matter to the intelligence agencies in a direct way. The fact that you hate paying taxes doesn't even get their attention, post that you lied on your taxes and you might get their attention.