The Nation's Financial Condition

[youthathletics]

Then why so much push back by every person on the left and in the media?
Why the 50b? Probably because Trump is a business man and knows full well he is not going to get the full amount, then he can say he built the wall under budget.

Because the wall works both ways, and our immigration and work visa program is broken.

For me at this point? Build the thing so we don't have to hear about it anymore.

You're still thinking that it's free.....how about we raise taxes to pay for it? Then we'll see how important the wall is. (same goes for everything else we're buying, but I digress).

50 Billion pays for an awful lot of roads, plates of food, or scholarships. And no, there's no way it cost that little.

Let's get those damned drugs stopped first, they are killing our kids and adults at an alarming rate.

[youthathletics]

$50b....if we don't know how many illegals there are 11-20 million, how can we know the cost of wall that another country is going to pay for.

Oh...they're gonna pay for it one or another. When they are stuck with the riff-raff and drugs that are much harder to move, they will implode and eat their own. At that point, they will pay us and any other willing country to bail them out. Then that is when the re-negotiated NAFTA trade deal will pay dividends. You just have to play chess a few moves ahead, but prepared for what you may have over looked.

It'll all work out, Trump has your back.

Wager you a steak dinner that installing the wall will be a net loss in the hundreds of billions of dollars. You game?

Deal. That's a win -win for me.

[ggait]

The president, whose approval rating remains stuck around 40%, will trounce any challenger in two years’ time “if the economy is anywhere close to where it is now,’’ says Stephen Moore, an advisor to Trump in 2016 and co-author of the recent book “Trumponomics.’’ But he acknowledges that there’s an experimental side to what Trump is doing.

Who knows where the economy will be in two years. But the economy was pretty good in 2016 (and had been good for a while) but that didn't help Hillary. Economy (aside from the debt) is good now, but it is a minor issue in the 2018 election. And it hasn't increased Trump's approval ratings at all over the last two years.

The data is now pretty clear that economics had/has very little to do with Trump's success. Below is a summary of a fascinating study of Obama/Trump voters. You'd think there wouldn't have been any of those -- turns out there were 7-9 million in 2018 and they were very likely the deciding factor in Trump's victory (although Comey and the Russians helped out too).

Conventional wisdom is that those had to be economically driven voters, since they voted for Obama. While that seems reasonable, that's completely wrong. It wasn't the economy, stupid.

Turns out they were motivated by race and, to a lesser extent, sexism. Check it out. Fascinating reading.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... 18-midterm

[a fan]

$50b....if we don't know how many illegals there are 11-20 million, how can we know the cost of wall that another country is going to pay for.

Oh...they're gonna pay for it one or another. When they are stuck with the riff-raff and drugs that are much harder to move, they will implode and eat their own. At that point, they will pay us and any other willing country to bail them out. Then that is when the re-negotiated NAFTA trade deal will pay dividends. You just have to play chess a few moves ahead, but prepared for what you may have over looked.

It'll all work out, Trump has your back.

Wager you a steak dinner that installing the wall will be a net loss in the hundreds of billions of dollars. You game?

Deal. That's a win -win for me.

Was hoping you would notice that! We'll keep an eye on it.

[a fan]

Hey, how's that "Trump's playing Chess" trade war going?

When adjusted for inflation, the goods trade gap increased to an all-time high of $87.0 billion in September from $86.3 billion in August.

The government reported last week that the trade deficit subtracted 1.78 percentage points from gross domestic product in the third quarter. That was the most since the second quarter of 1985 and reversed the 1.22 percentage points contribution in the April-June period.

Sweet. Trade gap worse than ever with China----yeah, THAT should bring them to the table.

Not only are people losing their businesses because Trump thinks he's Emperor, and has all the time in the world to seal these Trade Deals, our GDP and therefore deficits are only going to get worse.

Who cares, right fellas? So long as it's not YOUR 20 year old business that's flushed down the toilet because of Trump's wins, this stuff just doesn't matter. Every man for himself, amiright?





https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- ... SKCN1N71DL

[youthathletics]

You left out this little piece....

Exports of goods and services rose 1.5 percent to $212.6 billion in September. Exports were lifted by shipments of industrial supplies and materials, which were the highest on record.

Remember, speed kills...

[a fan]

What is it with you guys and looking at one side of the ledger, while ignoring the ledger as a whole?

Youthathletics "hey everybody, Enron has had record sales here in 2001".

A fan: "uhhhh, youthathletics? Might want to consider....oh, never mind."

Remind me never to get into business with you guys.

[youthathletics]

You have to spend money to make money, unless you already have plenty.....which in our situation, both are true.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Lowe's to give some employees bonuses of up to $1,000 and expand benefits due to tax reform

"We'll continue to make investments to improve the employee and customer experience," Lowe's wrote to its workers.

Lowe's is closing 51 stores in the US and Canada

The stores will be closed before Feb. 1, 2019. The company will try to find jobs at nearby stores for its employees affected by the closings.

[youthathletics]

Will be interesting to see if hey can turn it around. They did just acquire the "Craftsman" brand form Sears. Not so sure the CEO from JCP was a great choice....considering they are hanging on b a thread.

Interesting that the store count on the link was only around 20 in the US but 31 in Canada...seems more like management issue.

[Typical Lax Dad]

It often is management.... like when the auto industry tanked and gave way to Japan. It was the union labor's fault that the cars were poorly designed and union labor gave luxury car technology to Lexus, Infiniti and Acura for small car technology..... not a management decision......see how that turned out. Union Labor was so bad the Unions decided to move jobs to Mexico....what is funny is as we were moving US car manufacturing out of the country, The Japanese were moving manufacturing into our country....I guess they were not interested in "maximizing shareholder value"...Thanks Ronnie.

[runrussellrun]

Lowe's to give some employees bonuses of up to $1,000 and expand benefits due to tax reform

"We'll continue to make investments to improve the employee and customer experience," Lowe's wrote to its workers.

Lowe's is closing 51 stores in the US and Canada

The stores will be closed before Feb. 1, 2019. The company will try to find jobs at nearby stores for its employees affected by the closings.

Bc the economy is doing well, and REAL contractors don't step foot in box do it yourself stores. And why would you do it yourself, when you can afford to pay someone else?

[a fan]

You have to spend money to make money, unless you already have plenty.....which in our situation, both are true.

Right. We're going to "make it up on volume".

We'll keep checking these numbers. At some point, you'll have to recognize that, shocker of all shockers, Trump knows nothing about Trade, and nothing about finance.

Heard one of the Shark Tank geniuses on CNBC today. He said that he thought China would capitulate in 2019, because "things are rough in China".

Yeah. Because Chinese leadership really cares about the 99.99%, and wouldn't want them to have things "rough" for a whopping 12 months.

Good luck with this brilliant strategy.

[youthathletics]

Lowe's to give some employees bonuses of up to $1,000 and expand benefits due to tax reform

"We'll continue to make investments to improve the employee and customer experience," Lowe's wrote to its workers.

Lowe's is closing 51 stores in the US and Canada

The stores will be closed before Feb. 1, 2019. The company will try to find jobs at nearby stores for its employees affected by the closings.

Bc the economy is doing well, and REAL contractors don't step foot in box do it yourself stores.

Truth, unless they need it NOW.

[MDlaxfan76]

Lowe's to give some employees bonuses of up to $1,000 and expand benefits due to tax reform

"We'll continue to make investments to improve the employee and customer experience," Lowe's wrote to its workers.

Lowe's is closing 51 stores in the US and Canada

The stores will be closed before Feb. 1, 2019. The company will try to find jobs at nearby stores for its employees affected by the closings.

Bc the economy is doing well, and REAL contractors don't step foot in box do it yourself stores. And why would you do it yourself, when you can afford to pay someone else?

Except that Home Depot is flat out-performing Lowe's. Same business, better managed?

[Typical Lax Dad]

Lowe's to give some employees bonuses of up to $1,000 and expand benefits due to tax reform

"We'll continue to make investments to improve the employee and customer experience," Lowe's wrote to its workers.

Lowe's is closing 51 stores in the US and Canada

The stores will be closed before Feb. 1, 2019. The company will try to find jobs at nearby stores for its employees affected by the closings.

Bc the economy is doing well, and REAL contractors don't step foot in box do it yourself stores. And why would you do it yourself, when you can afford to pay someone else?

Except that Home Depot is flat out-performing Lowe's. Same business, better managed?

Maybe Lowe's should have scaled its huge bonuses like Home Depot:

The sliding scale looks like this, a Home Depot employee said after attending a company meeting regarding the news:

Less than two years: $200 bonus
Two to four years: $250 bonus
Five to nine years: $300 bonus
10 to 14 years: $400 bonus
15 to 19 years: $750 bonus
20+ years: $1,000 bonus
Home Depot declined to comment on these amounts.

Thanks Hayseeds!

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway buys back nearly $1 billion of stock as profits double after Trump's tax cuts

[foreverlax]

Foxconn Considers Bringing Chinese Workers to Wisconsin as U.S. Labor Market Tightens

"The Taiwanese supplier to Apple must meet hiring, wage and investment targets by various dates to receive tax and other ‘performance-based’ benefits"


Did Scott Walker and Donald Trump Deal Away the Wisconsin Governor’s Race to Foxconn?

"....costs include taxpayer subsidies to the company totalling more than $4.5 billion, the largest subsidy for a foreign corporation in American history. ....

.... Depending on how many jobs are actually created, taxpayers will be paying between two hundred and twenty thousand dollars and more than a million dollars per job....

....Legislative Fiscal Bureau, a nonpartisan agency that provides economic analysis to the Wisconsin state legislature, the earliest citizens might see a return on their Foxconn investment is in 2042.....

...By a 6–1 vote, the board designated the entire twenty-eight-hundred-acre area “blighted,” which will allow Mt. Pleasant to issue bonds that are exempt from both federal and state taxes, and may also grant the village a more expansive use of eminent domain to seize the property of the few remaining holdouts...."

[CU77]

The sliding scale looks like this, a Home Depot employee said after attending a company meeting regarding the news:

Less than two years: $200 bonus
Two to four years: $250 bonus
Five to nine years: $300 bonus
10 to 14 years: $400 bonus
15 to 19 years: $750 bonus
20+ years: $1,000 bonus
Home Depot declined to comment on these amounts.

You left out the best part: those ginormous bonuses were funded with tax-cut money. The tax-cut money was borrowed. Who was it borrowed from? Effectively, the 1%. Who will insist on getting it all back. With Interest.

[seacoaster]

A report on the Administration's strategy:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/busi ... n=Business

"Cheerleaders for the tax cut argued that the heart of the law — cutting and restructuring taxes for corporations — would give the economy a positive bump, giving companies incentives to invest more, hire more workers and pay higher wages.

Skeptics said that the money companies saved through tax cuts would merely increase corporate profits, rather than trickling down to workers.

JPMorgan Chase analysts estimate that in the first half of 2018, about $270 billion in corporate profits previously held overseas were repatriated to the United States and spent as a result of changes to the tax code. Some 46 percent of that, JPMorgan Chase analysts said, was spent on $124 billion in stock buybacks."

"Supporters of the tax cuts repeatedly claimed the bill would increase economic growth enough to offset the decline in tax receipts. “I'm totally convinced this is a revenue-neutral bill,” said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, when a preliminary version of the bill was approved in the Senate in December 2017.

Despite a remarkably strong economy, the fiscal health of the United States is deteriorating fast, as revenues have declined sharply. The federal budget deficit — the gap between what the government collects in revenues and what it spends — rose to $779 billion in the 2018 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. That was a 17 percent increase from the prior year.

It’s highly unusual for deficits and borrowing needs to grow this much during periods of prosperity. A broad variety of analysts attribute the widening deficit to the tax cuts (along with increased military and other domestic spending ushered in through a bill Mr. Trump signed earlier this year).

Corporate tax revenues are down one-third from a year ago. Federal revenues as a whole ran $200 billion behind the Congressional Budget Office’s forecast for the 2018 fiscal year — even though economic growth was faster than the C.B.O. expected. The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget reports that nominal federal revenues are down by at least 3.6 percent since the tax cuts took effect.

The growing budget gap means the Treasury must borrow more to keep the government running. The Treasury expects to borrow a total of $1.338 trillion from global investors this calendar year. That would be 145 percent higher than the $546 billion the federal government borrowed last year. That would be the highest level of borrowing since 2010, when the American economy was struggling to recover from the great recession."

[a fan]

Corporate tax revenues are down one-third from a year ago.

Welcome to dumbassville, folks. This bill is so bad that not only are deficits through the roof-----revenues are actually down. I didn't think that Republican voters, who swear that they want to run our nation "like a business", could have math skills that were this bad. But here we are.

What everyone who STILL thinks this Tax Cut was a swell idea is saying: "I don't want you to tax Morgan Stanley, or Goldman Sachs, or GE.... I want you to tax me, my kids, and my grandkids. Yep. I'm a special kind of stupid."

Only in America will you find people this financially obtuse. You all wonder why millenials are so pro-socialist? It's because they've figured out that their parents and grandparents can't freaking add and subtract.

Party is almost over. Anyone paying attention to how much debt US citizens are accruing? Just as they did before the last financial crash, all the analysts are focused on businesses...they're not paying attention to how citizens---customers---are doing.

Cradleandshoot had this squared years ago, and didn't buy a word of this nonsense. Tip of the hat to you, sir.