Day: July 2, 2010

GOLDBUG: A buying opportunity

Published on by reinkefj2 Comments

Like the guy on the TV says: “Wealth Protection”. Gold has never been worth zero. Unlike the Zimbabwe dollar, the German pre-WW2 Mark, and countless other fiat currency (i.e., printing press printed paper that is only “money” because guys with guns say it is). Even the most wildly bullish tout like Kudlow, and “the every feeling is expressed” Orman, wouldn’t argue with 5 to 10% in gold. Due to the “interesting” numbers in the CFTC, the number of contracts outstanding, and the various derivatives around commodities, I’d suggest that bullion coins from a low cost / low overhead reputable dealer is the best way to have that investment. Call it Gooferment Insurance. I’d further suggest that you want “good delivery” where they put the coins in your hot little hands. Then you can put them in an interesting place (e.g., curtain rods; taped to the hidden in the wall side of your medicine chest, or (my personal favorite) inside some furniture that ain’t easy to move like a grandfather’s clock. (No fire risk. Gold doesn’t burn. Like paper money.) I don’t recommend burial because you, or your heirs, will forget where you stashed them. (And, for my fellow tin foil hats, the gooferment has ground penetrating radar.) :-) And, please, don’t even consider “numismatic coins” from ANYONE. (Overpriced misgraded and in some cases fakes and frauds. And, the Gooferment will seize them as quick as anything else if they’re desperate enough.) Remember FDR broke into bank vaults during the “bank holiday” for folks’ gold stashes.

imho ymmv faiwwypfi tanstafl!

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From: APMEX News <news@apmex.com>
Date: July 1, 2010 6:28:53 PM EDT
To: @reinke.cc
Subject: APMEX – Gold Now Below $1,200 Per Ounce

Dear ferdinand,

TAKE ADVANTAGE – GOLD NOW BELOW $1,200 PER OUNCE!

APMEX has the largest selection of bullion products anywhere, and our customers are taking full advantage of this recent dip in prices. Join thousands of APMEX customers who have already taken advantage of this price reduction before our most popular inventory sells out. Three of the fastest moving products today at APMEX.com are:

2010 Gold American Eagles

2010 Silver American Eagles

2010 Gold Maple Leafs

Take advantage of the recent pull back in prices now before the next run in pricing occurs.

As you might expect, we have seen a huge increase in order volume today as a result of this consolidation of price and inventory is moving very quickly. Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to save money at APMEX today.

http://www.apmex.com/

This email was sent to by news@apmex.com.

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POLITICAL: DIck Morris starts a rant

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/2010/07/01/obamas-immigration-hypocrisy/

OBAMA’S IMMIGRATION HYPOCRISY
By Dick Morris And Eileen McGann
07.1.2010

*** begin quote ***

When Obama could have passed comprehensive immigration reform – when he still had 60 Senate Democrats – he didn’t lift a finger to push it. Now that he can’t pass it – it is too late in the year, he doesn’t have 60 votes, and many Democrats will defect – he aggressively pushes it in a national speech.

The opportunism and hypocrisy of his attempt to manipulate America’s Latinos into forgetting his previous inaction is transparent and obvious.

*** end quote ***

Dick Morris made an interesting point. When BHO44 had the majority in the Senate, he couldn’t be bothered with immigration reform. No that he can’t get it done, he wants to push it. Argh! Typical Chicago politician. He wants the political power from the fight about it. He can posture as the “immigration reformer” while painting his opponents into the corner as anti-immigrant anti-Latino. Voters are so stupid.

If I was the R’s, I’d immediately propose: eliminating all personal and corporate welfare and throwing open the “golden door”. We need imigrants who want to come here to work. I’d ask for a DNA swab, a fingerprint, a quick check for communicable diseases, and then immediately issue them a new combination visa, work permit, and tax id number. Welcome to America, the land of opportunity, and fat poor people. We want those people, we need those people, we can definitely handle those people.

At the same time, I’d end the drug war. (What does a drug dealer do when Walmart sells marijuana, crack, cocaine, and speed; all for the price of aspirin. I’m confident that they Walmart and the other Pharmacy Companies will do a far better job of controlling drug addiction that the Gooferment. Look at the business made out of weight reduction and smoking cessation.

(What will the Colombian Drug Lords do when WalMArt insists on low cost high quality “junk”? Take up tourism? And, what will the Taliban do in Afghanistan when WalMart doesn’t have to pay top dollar for their poppy plants? Go back to being a fourth world country? Argh!)

AND, we won’t have children die from “illegal drugs” of unknown strength and unknown quality. (Who’s body is it? Isn’t the decision what to put in it the ultimate expression of self-ownership.) (Given that youth like to rebel and do “cool” stuff, won’t making drugs “legal” take all the allure out of taking them? Kinda hard to envision yourself as a James Dean type rebel when you are in the queue at WalMart with Granny buying pot for her glaucoma!)

Pardon the non-violent offenders in Federal prisons. We could then close more than half the prisons. And focus on the really bad human beings who kill and hurt people.

And along with “fixing” (i.e., nuking) the drug laws, let’s eliminate the death penalty nationally. Aside from it not being cost effective, the gooferment should NEVER have the power to kill its citizens. I agree with Bill O’Reilly; Alaska sounds like a nice tropical resort for criminals. Create a place like the French Devil’s Island. No cruelty; just isolation of the truly dangerous.

And, let’s talk energy. France gets 80% of its electric power from nukes. They have a few national “standard designs”. If a company uses one of them, then there is expedited approvals. Now we need to import less oil.

Why does the Federal Gooferment have any role in the national electric grid? Sell it to the power companies.

Why does the Gooferment run airports? Sell them to the airlines. Why does the Gooferment run airport security? Turn it over to the airlines.

Suddenly we need a lot less gooferment workers! With bug salaries and big pensions.

And speaking about pensions! Why can’t we get out of the pension business completely.

Like any other fraud, we should prosecute any crime with the objective to make the victim whole. Restitution! Not incarceration or even rehabilitation. Let’s make sure that crime doesn’t pay.

The Gooferment should only be a referee; not a participant. And certainly not an operator. Gooferment skrules, gone. Clearly we need a 20 or 40 year transition plan.

Gooferment “social security” fraud, gone. Clearly, we need a fifty year transition plan.

Argh! There so much to do. Old Wall Street expression: When you’re in a hole, stop digging. We should not be creating more “holes” for future generation to dig themselves out of.

(Where do politicians, bureaucrats, and the elite send their children to school? Certainly not the “public school”! Argh!!)

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MONEY: Benefit are a big loser for employees

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

Home » 2010 » 07 » 01 »

COLUMN: Can we put an end to corporate socialism already?
Thursday, July 1, 2010 | 12:49 p.m. CDT; updated 3:04 p.m. CDT, Thursday, July 1, 2010
BY George Kennedy

*** begin quote ***

New state employees, most of whom will earn less than $25,000 a year, will have to start contributing 4 percent of their salaries to their pension program, which has long been one of the benefits that compensate for low-paid careers.

*** end quote ***

Why do you have a Gooferment pension plan? Isn’t that socialism as well? Aren’t you in effect saying that people aren’t capable of managing their own money?

Maybe that 4% is more important to pay for something the individual values more than a “pension” sometime in the future.

Let’s not overlook that there are some “interesting” unintended consequences.

(1) What happens if the new employee doesn’t do the five years to get vested? Guess that poor slob made a bad bet.

(2) What happens if the Gooferment decides to pull the rug out from under them and changes the “law” so there’s no pension?

(3) What happens if the pension plan is underfunded? (Here in NJ the gooferment hasn’t funded the state pension plan in a decade and no one really knows what that means.)

(4) What happens if like CALPERS that investments don’t keep up with obligations?

(5) What happens if the poor slob dies the day before he retires? Day after? Like Social Security, it’s probably a bad bet.

(6) What happens if we have inflation? And our poor slob is retired on fixed income. Bad bet? (If he or she had a their OWN diversified investment portfolio, then they’d be capable of making some adjustment. In theory, portfolio income would go up to in some way compensate. The defined benefit of a pension plan means they are screwed.)

(7) What if when the poor slob retires, he wants his money to make a big purchase? A vacation home for cash. Buy into an assisted living. Or anything. What’s he do, go to JGWENTWORTH to sell his pension at a discount?

SO I think what you have is socialism at the expense of the low wage person. (Poor slob is intended to engender sympathy for some one who just has to shut up and take it.)

Along time ago, I talk to an AT&T pension actuary who explained how benefits were a huge win for the employer and a big loser for the employee. It’s never changed.

And don’t get me started on the Social Security Ponzi-like Fraud.

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Upon reflection, the Employer could, as a condition of employment, negotiate that a suitable third party pension plan must be taken by all employees. So that no one retires on welfare. Wonder what the CEO and CFO would say? TO that I say, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

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QUOTE: The most sensitive “nerve” in the human body is the one attached to the wallet

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

“In my business arena, Tax Preparation, Audit Representation and Bookkeeping, the customer is SELDOM right. They are in fact not Customers but Clients (in the same sense that Doctors of Medicine have Patients and not Customers). Everybody is a tax or accounting expert (your bartender, your barber, neighbor, co-worker, etc.), and they firmly believe the half truths they hear about on the TV News or read in the Tabloids (such as the NY Times). Why? Because what their other sources tell them is less painful than what I tell them. It is human nature. The most sensitive “nerve” in the human body is the one attached to the wallet and that is where I often have to do surgery. So I have to take control of the relationship with my Clients and educate them so they ask me first before they make a move. If they could be ALWAYS right then Turbotax would put me out of business instead of bringing me so many more Clients.”

By Roger Garay, CEO at On Line Bookkeeping & Tax Service Inc

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Interesting, I’ll have to reflect upon the difference between Customer / Patient, Customer / Client, and Payer / Client.

Interesting about “The most sensitive “nerve” in the human body is the one attached to the wallet”. I disagree. It may be surpassed by the one attached to their perception of what is theirs (e.g., failing to let some one over in traffic; cutting in the queue ahead of others; (or the one that I do all the time) failure to merge early to get ahead. (Yeah, if I do pass the “final judgement”, vel non, then I’ll be doing a lot of time in Purgatory for my venial sins. I got a lot of them to atone for. Sigh!) And, another nerve is the one attached to their self-image.

Argh!

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