Tags: Senate Passes Tax Cuts 89-11 Obama Dems Vote Yes Good Reasons
After thinking a little more about this bill and getting additional information, the Dems had to pass this bill even though I had to hold my nose to accept it. It is great politically and may indeed help Dems in 1912. I watch the first half hour of my DVR of the Morning Joe show 6-9 AM ET and 3-6 AM PT to get the more moderate establishment positions.
Mika Brzezinski is a minor co-host of along with Joe Scarborough (R) who does the most talking. Joe loves Joe Biden and when Biden is on the show, he is the main attraction for at least 30 minutes. The advantage of this show and the Rachel, Keith, and Dylan Ratigan shows is that they discuss important things in a way we gain an understanding of what is really going on. Ratigan's 10 minute talk with guests that reveal why we have such an dysfunctional government. http://dylan.msnbc.com
The only way we can solve it is for citizens such as the Tea Party to get angry and participate in the political process. I discover daily that many of my readers have such a degree of cynicism that some may not even vote, that my efforts to educate my readers often has been less than useless.
Even regarding health issues, many have ignored the scientific data and only trust their local doctors. Well, think about this. It takes 17 years according to President Obama for only half the doctors to adopt best practices. I am lucky to have doctors in Eugene and my hospital to adopt best practices after thinking deeply about them. Both agreed with me about the scientific proof that vitamin D3 is crucial for our health and prescribing it to all their patients.
The hospital that takes my monthly comprehensive blood test and comprehensive metabolic tests change the optimum health levels in my blood chemistry as new data comes out. Other tests such as thyroid, testosterone, iron, C-Reactive Protein, Lipids, and other tests which reflect my health status are also routinely taken each year. The PSA test is close to useless because the only cancer that is really quite deadly grow on the surface of the prostate. In Europe, they rarely do anything, but watch to see if the PSA goes up. Here we make men impotent and incontinent well before their time. Cancer equals fear.
I hate to tell you we have cancer cells all the time. If our immune system is up to par with vitamin D3 at levels from 40-60 nanograms per milliliter of 25-hydroxy Vitamin D non-active metabolite, it will most likely not grow and spread. The non-activate metabolite is activated in our kidneys to produce the active form in our bloodstream and the rest goes to our individual cells and are activated there. The kidneys make enough active metabolite in the blood for the bones and our parathyroid regulates how much is there regardless of how much vitamin D3 we take in within reason or a maximum of 10,000 to 20,000 IU of Vitamin D3.
However, when patients are deficient and have osteoporosis, it takes several months to 50,000 IU of vitamin D3 to get up the non-active metabolite 25-hydroxy vitamin D up to 40-60 nanograms per milliliter. A nanogram is one billionth of a gram.
Skimming is OK for something familiar to you if you are looking for specific information as we do when we Google. It is best to take the time to read it slowly. Put it down for a day or two and re-read it. I normally read it slowly once and it is enough for me because I am familiar with many things I write about very well. Many of you are not.
Many of you ignore political knowledge because you have learned to hate politics. But politics will likely have a greater influence on your life and your future generations than four years of college. Watch Ratigan http://dylan.msnbc.com on MSNBC at 4-5 PM ET and 1-2 PM PT M-Friday. He worked at Wall Street and was a former commentator for CNBC financial news.
I normally watch the first 30 minutes of In Business with Margaret Brennan who use to be at CNBC and is now at Bloomberg
10 AM-12 PM ET and 7-9 AM PT. I am a face and eyes man, but I also appreciate her womanly curves, but what I appreciate most is her mental abilities in talking about the markets.
From Bloomberg’s Dec 13, 2010, www.businessweek.com 2-Years: Estate Taxes 35% rate for those with estates less than $5 million. (Much better than the old Business Week.)
1-Year: Business Write Off 100 percent of capital spending next year.
Capital Gains and Dividends 15% tax
1-Year extension 13 months Unemployment benefits to 7 million by Nov 20111 which would increase economy by about 0.5 to 1.0 percent. Comparing those who left their jobs voluntarily verse those who were laid off indicates that about 0.4 percent who had the opportunity to get any job will stay on unemployment. This number is hard to determine accurately.
A union sheet metal worker said work is party a matter of pride and partly a matter of necessity. Jobless aren’t enough to live on: “When you’re in the working part of America, you typically live to what your paycheck is, aside from putting a little money aside. When that paycheck is taken away, you’re living beyond your means.”
Do tariffs hurt the domestic economy? Not so in Brazil! It costs twice as much to buy an iPad in dollars than in the USA. The pain is not as much because Brazil’s Real went up plus 39 percent compared to USA dollar. With the 50 percent tariff on products from other countries, domestic companies have thrived.
In the USA, only those with political power get no tariffs if they are importing, but we also, for example, have tariffs to protect our genetically modified Beet Sugar and rice farmers. Our economy in the past grew faster when tariffs were rather high because we had the opinion that cheap labor from other countries should not harm our workers. No so anymore.
Investing Getting More Complicated Areas of concern: Can China hold down inflation? For the short term perhaps, but putting Trillions of Yuan in the Chinese market will be difficult to cut off as the USA has also found. They plan to cut loans from 7.5 Trillion to 6.5 Trillion. The important question to follow is whether the Chinese will embrace being a consumer.
European Union: Savvy hedge fund investors are starting to think that the survival of the current European union is not likely to last. At some point the weaker countries such as Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and Greece will declare bankruptcy and leave the Union. This could very likely have a large effect on the Emerging countries who trade the most with Europe. I am now heavily in Emerging market bonds. Since no one can accurately predict when and if these events will occur, we all have to decide when we might bail out of these investments.
Those who worry about this got out of Argentina before everything collapsed in 2001.
European countries that bought bonds might expect that they will be forced to accept much lower interest rates to prevent defaults. The smartest investors are starting to hedge their bets.
As I said a number of times, it is important to take the time to understand financial markets as best we can so that we do not panic when the sh-t hits the fan. Learn and plan what to do when the inevitable happens.
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