Politics

The Hunt for Taxes In Spain | Armstrong Economics

Posted on by johnbarleycorn12

COMMENT: Dear Marty, Hope you are doing great. Recently you may have heard Cristiano Ronaldo, the best football (what you guys wrongfully call soccer 😉 ) player in the world has left Spain’s Real Madrid and signed for Italian Juventus. There are many reasons behind this which involve broken promises of a better salary and especially lack of support on his situation with the Spanish tax department which has been very aggressive on him and other football players lately; now it has surfaced he is even planning to cancel a construction of a hotel of his own in Madrid, sources point to the tax witch hunt as the main reason for this decision as well. This way Spanish La Liga has lost one of the two best players in the world who happened to each play for one of the two biggest clubs in Spain, now the most important football match in the world has lost a lot of appealing as well. It’s incredible how governments destroy all good things in their despair to find money, not realizing they only dig themselves deeper into trouble. Btw, Cristiano sold about 520,000 Juventus jerseys with his name only on his first day at his new club making around 52 million Euro which is half what Juventus paid for his transfer and way more than the extra 18,8 million the Spanish government is demanding from his pockets, if you add what the guy generated in publicity and TV audience one doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to see that running him out of Spain was not a wise business decision. JC REPLY: Those in government NEVER make wise business decisions. All they ever do is envy people in the private sector. You generally have two types of people who work in the bureaucracy (excluding Department of Justice). They tend to be there because they are afraid of risk and seek government jobs because there is ZERO chance of getting fired. The other person is there to punish the world for their own lack of talent. Far too often they will hunt down people with money to abuse them as much as possible as a pay-back to society for their own failures. The Department of Justice is either a parking place for people who CANNOT find a real job in the REAL WORLD, or they are there to win prosecutions and then pretend to be selling their experience to get those big paying jobs. They are either looking for such a job or they enter that field and then become a politician. As Nigel Farage said: Politicians are dominated by lawyers, but they are the failed lawyers.
— Read on www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/taxes/the-hunt-for-taxes-in-spain/

Trump Revolution Spreads to Democrats & They Miss the Point of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez | Armstrong Economics

Posted on by johnbarleycorn12

The Trump Revolution has clearly now spread to the Democrats. People do not understand that the Trump Revolution is NOT about a particular philosophy. It is about just throwing those in power out. The year 1933 was the same thing. That year saw the extreme-right elect Hitler, the left elect Franklin Roosevelt, and the extreme-left put Mao and communism in power. It did not matter then and as we head into 2019, this will be 86 years from 1933 so expect more dramatic political changes as we have seen in Malaysia, Catalonia, Hungary, and Italy. We should also not forget BREXIT as it enters the critical year 2019. People are rising up against career politicians on both sides of the political spectrum. In New York City, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old who’s never held elected office and was a waitress/bartender, ousted New York City Congressman Joe Crowley in the primary. This has really shaken up the Democrats. Crowley had been considered to be a candidate to become House speaker if Democrats win the majority in November. Now the California Democratic Party issued a stunning rebuke of Senator Dianne Feinstein by decisively handing their official endorsement to State Senator Kevin de Leon, who has been the longshot Democratic challenger against Feinstein. Yet Alexandria has no experience in anything to contribute. She was a bartender and co-workers claim she was greedy, which seems to be a curious trait of socialists for they eye-up what other people have and want to take it with the rule of law. Of course, Feinstein will be THE oldest politician in Congress. She refuses to step down but the establishment Democrats are facing the Trump Revolution themselves. After the primary victory of 28-year-old Democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democrats see this as a new lease on life. The fact that she is a socialist, this is what the Democrats have focused on. They think she won simply because of her political stand against capitalism instead of the fact that the people voted for her because they are sick and tired of career politicians regardless of their political philosophy. This is the danger I see directly in Washington. As I have said before, there are no mirrors. Consequently, they look at Bernie Sanders who they cheated out of the nomination to stuff Hillary in the White House and now Alexandria. They conclude they want more socialism rather than they do not want career politicians. This will result in the Democrats moving EXTREME-LEFT because they cannot understand what this Trump Revolution is really about – THEM!
— Read on www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/politics/trump-revolution-spreads-to-democrats-they-miss-the-point-of-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/

Never thought of it this way

Has 95 become the New 65 for Retirement? | Armstrong Economics

Posted on by johnbarleycorn12

One of the more interesting downsides of the collapse in socialism is the impact upon the elderly. The data now shows that since the 2007-2009 recession, about twice as many elderly are still working. When interest rates decline, income from savings collapsed. So while the theory was to lower interest rates to “stimulate” the economy, the central banks have discovered a dark hidden secret — demand-side economics has utterly failed. Saving for retirement has failed. Your house has failed to provide a savings account and states are broke so they keep raising property taxes. Government pensions keep demanding higher taxes to exploit the public so government unions survive. In many states, the promises handed to union workers are bankrupting everything as one of the main benefits was free healthcare for life for the members and their spouses. Today, a record number of folks aged 85 and older are still working. Most are just trying to supplement losses from tax increases and decreased interest income. States make no accommodation for people when they retire. The property taxes keep rising and that is forcing many to sell their homes even in down markets to try to make ends meet. The youth are finding that their degrees are worthless. More than 60% cannot find employment in what they have worked to get a degree in these days. Even those with a law degree are often waiting on tables. When I was looking for office space in Florida, nearly 100% of the vacant spaces were former law firms. So 85 may be the new 65, but it appears that might be 95. Justice Kennedy is 81 so even he did not retire at 65. As the Washington Post reported, some 255,000 Americans who are 85 years old or older were working over the past 12 months.
— Read on www.armstrongeconomics.com/history/americas-economic-history/has-65-become-the-new-95-for-retirement/

Retirement