Investment

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You know, if I had the smarts to do anything I wanted...I would just produce it.
 

riser

Illustrious


How many people are lining up to buy you? Cause I drove by Krispy Cream donuts yesterday and they had a long line for some reason.
 

riser

Illustrious
Yes, I was making a joke. Investing.

As Marv stated, what do you want to invest in? You? Ok, you invest in yourself for various reasons, let's assume for monetary gain in yearly salary.

If you wanted to invest in your money, you could put it in the stock market. As they say, let your money work for you.

The market is artificially high right now due to QE. The Bernake replacement will continue QE as she favors low unemployment numbers over inflation numbers. Inflation will go high while unemployment goes down. Meaning, the market should, in theory, continue to go up. Watch China and Japan. China has been pushing, with Russia, to De-Americanize the markets, meaning remove the Dollar as the standard currency. If that happens, oh boy America, you think the gov't shutdown hurts...
 

Invest in myslef...like an education.

The reason China and Russia want to throw the US dollar off is strictly for power. They both are hungry for economic power on the world stage and the US is in the way. When the dollar is off, they will compete against each other, untill a winner comes about victorius...which would likely be the US, fortunately/unfortunately.

I have no fear for the US. We have a history of falling on our asses, getting up, and brushing ourselves off to then move forward with a new wave of prosperity.

Either that, or there is something in these here brownies that I am not aware of.
 

riser

Illustrious
Unfortunately for us, the methods we're currently employing have hurt other countries significantly.

Zimbabwe was crushed due to their use of QE, which really hasn't been used too much and is more like a theory.
Japan did extensive stimulus and government spending, which led them to suffer "The Lost Decade" in which as long as the government overspent, they declined.
 
What about the Highway Project by Eisnehower? A time when the Us could barely afford the Korean War debt, and had a huge issue with its deficit, Ike wanted to expand the highway system but needed the dough. They, (Congress) then spent huge amounts of money on resources and man power.

How can the US do the same in modern times?
 

riser

Illustrious
Significantly different. The Government was investing in Infrastructure which built up the free trade between states. It revolutionized the economy. Look at the investment and then look at the return received.

You know before that, we didn't have the interstates and all that to connect major cities. It's hard to believe, but then again 100 years ago cars weren't everywhere. In the 1940s and 50s, it wasn't common to drive to another city for a day trip or drive somewhere for vacation. Since then, jobs have started spreading out. Detroit, for example, became a powerhouse because the auto industry took off in Detroit. The manufacturers were there, the suppliers, etc. As the roads developed, business could build in another areas. Now we see trucks transporting parts city to city. We have car manufacturers all over the country, not just isolated to Detroit.

Farming has de-centralized as well. Now we can transport food from California to New York in a couple days, so New York doesn't have to worry about having local farms. The interstate has allowed cities to grow much larger because the world became smaller with the highway.

As far as QE goes, it isn't providing anything in return. It is simply there to try to increase others to put their money in. The theory is that eventually enough companies/people will put their money in and reduce the need for QE... the problem with these new modern era economic thoughts is they can not successfully predict the actions of companies/people.

In WWII, people were being told to buy Liberty Bonds.. which was basically people giving the gov't money for an eventual return on their money. That is back when people saved money and all that great stuff. Now, with most people's bank accounts either not existing or being minimal, they have to print money (which is QE) in order to have more. Let's face it, most people are nearly living paycheck to paycheck, or have less than 2-3 months in savings.

A reference point: With the government potentially shutting down, most of the workers either are going to apply for unemployment and receive a fraction or their pay? I think in TN you get a max of like $275 a week or something, regardless. But employers don't start hiring until the end of January, meaning if they wanted to find another job, they would have to figure out how to make it from October to January.. 3-4 months! The general rule of thumb is having 6 months savings to be able to make it through this.. The American people are tapped out. Our government is tapped out. This is why we need to use QE.. this is a last resort.. because once this is done, we don't have any other options left. The budget has to start running a surplus, otherwise we're going to see the bankruptcy of the US within our lifetime, and likely within the next 20 years.
 
I agree.

With that said, there is a need for rennovation here in the US. If i am not mistaken the American Society of Civil Engineers have stated that it would take 2.2 trillion USD to rennovate the US infrastructure.

Why I mentioned the Interstate Highway Project was the need for the govenment to invest in its people. Instead of giving out cash, why not give the opportunity to people who are laid off the option to hire themselves out for 100 bucks a day for 8 hours a day building America back up? This will go into the hands of private contractors, operated by the respected state that said contractor is licensed in, and allow the Feds to oversee that no mone is being allocated to one group and that all safety regs are met.

May seem like a pipe dream, but with a few days of planning, and a willingness to go forward, I think we could pull it off. All we need is the brain power- one that is currently lacking in Congress right now.

Keep all wages during the project tax free, all income to bsiness contracots tax free, and make the goods and services consumed by people taxed.

Balance the budget with cutting spending while rasing taxes, ensure that all essential services are funded properly, invest in the sciences, education, research and development, and create an economic model off of a tax squeeze. No matter what you do, you wil contribute based on your willingess to work. Expand the EITC for low income earners, while creating a flat tax based on percent of all income, no matte rif it is 15 grand or 15 million, you pay 15 percent.

My ideas are not universal, but a willingess to compromise is in order.

Your economic plan riser?
 

riser

Illustrious
Anything invested in the US may take a hit. If you're watching the market, money is flowing outside the country, so foreign investments are going to be better than what they were. USA Credit outlook was impacted as well.

I think this is a great article that explains the debt manipulation and the game the US plays along with how China can easily change the game:
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/2d7f44ec-3585-11e3-b539-00144feab7de.html#axzz2hqIdbA00


 


In response to your first part:

You are referring to variance, the change in value in one standard deviation squared.

(variance)^(1/2)=SD

This is typical in all investments.

Your second part:

Part of the problem with QE was that it was for a short term gola to ease the markets shock from massive monetary loss. It is not built for a sustaining economy. Once we remove QE, the markets will stablilize the levels they are meant to be, so, cash in now, and cash out before the Fed Chair yanks out QE.

I have no knwoledge of globalism. I cannot see how tying all our economies into one would be vialbe, considering the enormous amount of bereaucratic oversight. We would overconsume our time and resources,( think land and labour) to the point of inefficiency. That is why having independent states rule themselves is more robust. Fair trade agreements must be met as well. If one country sours, other should have the option to back off while the one recovers. This is bad in the short run for the one that stalled, but with basic market operations and government easing on monetary values, there will be a recovery back to equllibrium.

The US has stood the test of times, now we must prove it again. I believe we will pull it through. All we must need are political leaders who have sound minds and interest of the people, and business leaders who are willing to take risk for reward, instead of cowering to safe investments and making billion the easy way.
 


In response to your first part:

You are referring to variance, the change in value in one standard deviation squared.

(variance)^(1/2)=SD

This is typical in all investments.

Your second part:

Part of the problem with QE was that it was for a short term gola to ease the markets shock from massive monetary loss. It is not built for a sustaining economy. Once we remove QE, the markets will stablilize the levels they are meant to be, so, cash in now, and cash out before the Fed Chair yanks out QE.

I have no knwoledge of globalism. I cannot see how tying all our economies into one would be vialbe, considering the enormous amount of bereaucratic oversight. We would overconsume our time and resources,( think land and labour) to the point of inefficiency. That is why having independent states rule themselves is more robust. Fair trade agreements must be met as well. If one country sours, other should have the option to back off while the one recovers. This is bad in the short run for the one that stalled, but with basic market operations and government easing on monetary values, there will be a recovery back to equllibrium.

The US has stood the test of times, now we must prove it again. I believe we will pull it through. All we must need are political leaders who have sound minds and interest of the people, and business leaders who are willing to take risk for reward, instead of cowering to safe investments and making billion the easy way.
 

riser

Illustrious
The US hasn't stood the test of time.. we're 2 generations removed from the Great Depression and we had another major recession/depression hit. We're scraping by from changing the rules of the game... it can't last. You look at other countries that have been managing for hundreds of years.. that's the test of time.

We've had an income tax for 100 years now? 3 generations or so.. because its slowly been going downhill.
 


Ike did 2 things:

1) Raised taxes to pay for it; and
2) Called it the National Interstate and Defense Highways System.

If you want something done in the US Congress, put Defense in the title of the legislation.


edit: QE3 has one purpose: To capitalize the functionally insolvent banks of America.