Talking about Wikileaks....

I have some conflicted feelings on the whole Wikileaks scandal. In general I am certain that the government is abusing its ability to classify its activities as "secret". But I am aware that Julian Assange is definitely an ass, and is accused of rape, so yeah not the most savory of individuals.

But this discussion on CNN, involving Glenn Greenwald, is as good a summation as you will get on the various points. Warning Greenwald drinks both of their milkshakes. Ms. Yelin and Ms. Townsend are out of their league on this subject.



-Cheers

Miller Time....

There have been many days that I have been an extremely vocal critic (and will still have those days in the future) of the President, but on a day like today I am impressed still. Taking concrete steps to make this a more equitable society need to be applauded when they happen.

So yeah you know the drill....

A heartfelt "cheers" to those who can no serve their country openly and with the dignity that they have for so long been denied.

-Cheers

Tom Toles....

Some times a comic just sums up everything.

Rise of the oligarchs.....ctd

Continuing the previous conversation this piece here pretty much covers all the bases:

Estate Tax Exemptions

More important to many upper-middle-class Americans than the estate tax rate are exemptions that mean the vast majority of Americans won't have to pay any estate taxes at all. The first $5 million in assets passed on to descendants in a lifetime would be shielded from any taxes. Also, married couples can more easily combine their exemptions, protecting a minimum of $10 million for most families.

"That's going to allow a lot more people to transfer a lot more wealth to future generations free of estate taxes or gift taxes," says Chris Roe, senior wealth adviser at Waldron Wealth Management.

The number of people who must worry about estate taxes, already tiny, would shrink to less than 0.2 percent of the population, estimates Richard Behrendt, senior estate planner at Robert W. Baird & Co. In 2009, when the exemption was $3.5 million, 14,713 people had fortunes large enough to file taxable estate returns, according to the IRS. Just 4,296 of those people had estates of $5 million or larger. Compare that with the 2.47 million Americans who died in 2008, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

If Congress does nothing, the exemption would be just $1 million and the tax rate 55 percent in 2011. From 1942 to 1976, the estate tax rate was 77 percent for estates over $10 million, and only estates under $60,000 were exempt from the tax entirely.

Favorable Rules

For those wealthy enough to still need to worry about estate taxes, the new tax legislation is written to make it much easier to manage their fortunes. For example, individuals can easily pass their remaining tax exemptions on to their spouses after death, without creating complex trusts. Also, new rules treat gifts to children during a donor's lifetime the same as those made after death, making it easier to pass on estates before assets appreciate and incur extra taxes.

Low interest rates make this the perfect time for many clients to set up trusts like Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts, known as GRATs. In a GRAT, parents loan assets like stocks or even an interest in a private business to the trust at the lowest interest rate possible under the law, which is set each month by the IRS. If the value of those assets increases over time, the GRATs' beneficiaries reap any benefit above that interest rate. Luckily for those who set up GRATs now, interest rates are at record lows—the IRS set the December rate at 1.8 percent.

I honestly blame a poor history education for the amount of argument over this issue. This Business Insider article aggregates a lot of charts showing the same things. The wealthy keep getting wealthier and the poor keep getting poorer:

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Cliché, sure, but it's also more true than at any time since the Gilded Age.

The poor are getting poorer, wages are falling behind inflation, and social mobility is at an all-time low.

If you're in that top 1%, life is grand.

This is a real problem, for a stable democracy.

-Cheers

Rise of the oligarchs.....

This is gonna be an omnibus post of sorts. There have been a lot of things going on the past couple of weeks.

A couple of articles and topics have absolutely consumed my attention recently.

This piece by Roger Simon has to be the prototype of elite reaction to the current economic situation the country finds itself in.

Don't like the way wealth is distributed? Then you can join congressional Democrats and grump about it, or you can get some wealth for yourself.

This has to be the most tone deaf thing I have read in some time. The utter lack self-consciousness and dripping condescension is awe-inspiring.

I think the folks at Huffington Post really hit the nail on the head:

There was second hypothesis: Maybe a good chunk of the political class is just so insulated from the realities in the report that they don't feel the same sense of urgency that most Americans do. Things are terrible on Main Street, but on Wall Street, Pennsylvania Avenue, and K Street, they don't look so gloomy. How else can we explain why everyone in Washington was talking about deficit reduction (at least until they decided to blow another hole in the budget), even while polls show that Americans ranked it way, way below fixing the economy?

It's not clear which is scarier -- that our leaders don't think they can lead, or that they don't want to.

Either way, the middle-class economy keeps falling, and no one is there to hear it.

Pretty much.


Also, Fox news makes you dumb.

• Most economists estimate the stimulus caused job losses (12 points more likely)


• Most economists have estimated the health care law will worsen the deficit (31 points)


• The economy is getting worse (26 points)


• Most scientists do not agree that climate change is occurring (30 points)


• The stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts (14 points)


• Their own income taxes have gone up (14 points)


• The auto bailout only occurred under Obama (13 points)


• When TARP came up for a vote most Republicans opposed it (12 points)


• And that it is not clear that Obama was born in the United States (31 points)

But the other news orgs didn't exactly cover themselves with glory:

Daily consumers of MSNBC and public broadcasting (NPR and PBS) were higher (34 points and 25 points respectively) in believing that it was proven that the US Chamber of Commerce was spending money raised from foreign sources to support Republican candidates. Daily watchers of network TV news broadcasts were 12 points higher in believing that TARP was signed into law by President Obama, and 11 points higher in believing that most Republicans oppose TARP.

We are so screwed.

-Cheers

Man I miss me some Dave....

Politics has seriously got me in the dumps recently....

But this clip for the Chappelle show just makes me laugh......




Aluminum Tubes!


-Cheers

And now for something different....

The season finale for the Venture Brothers was a couple weekends ago, and I finally got around to watching it.

As always it did not fail to amuse....but there was one segment of the episode, that will live on in my mind for the ages along side the infamous "Gimme my money" from the Family Guy.

Behold, "What's a Rusty Venture".



-Cheers