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Warren Buffett hasn’t found a lot to like in the stock market recently.In each of the last six quarters, Buffett has sold more stocks for Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B) than he bought. Last quarter, he sold off a big chunk of his Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) position and the entirety of his Paramount Global (NASDAQ: PARA) investment. All told, he sold nearly $20 billion worth of stocks from Berkshire’s portfolio, and he bought less than $3 billion.Buffett lamented investment opportunities for Berkshire are few and far between as the company grows bigger. With a market cap of about $877 billion, there...

Russian President Vladimir Putin promised a planned tax overhaul would increase inflows to the state budget, benefit low-income families and provide long-term stability for Russian corporation -snip- Now the government is looking to raise taxes for almost the first time since Putin took over in 2000 -snip- But with a war to fund, the Ministry of Finance (MinFin) intends to slowly move towards a more progressive system of taxes to boost revenues. At the same time Putin made expensive spending pledges to the population in March as part of the 12 National Projects that were launched in 2019 and need...

For several years I have advocated a Shallow Exponent Flat Tax. Instead of 4 or 5 tiers, there would be only ONE tier that we all face. But the more money you make, your burden goes up slightly higher than as a flat percentage. The tax would look something like: Tax = 10% X {[Income]^1.05} The exponent could be set by congress every 10 years or during wartime. The flat exponent perhaps should be on a longer timeframe for revisiting, because 10% is very easy to do in your head. As you go up higher in income, your tax burden...

Politicians have exploited the pandemic to override the rights of the people, cast themselves as heroes, expand government, and justify vast amounts of spending. Long before the pandemic, mechanisms to justify the government expansion were already in place. Consider, for example, the practice of tax withholding. Before World War II, notes Robert Higgs (Crisis and Leviathan), those Americans who owed federal taxes paid the following year in quarterly installments. That changed as the government geared up for World War II. Milton Friedman, then an economist at the Treasury Department, came up with a system of withholding workers' money from their...

Before Congress completes consideration regarding either or both mega-infrastructure bills, it needs to determine how it will offset the reduction in federal tax revenues that will occur resulting from the many states’ legislation passed in 2021 to “work around” the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap of $10,000. It matters not whether each or any member of Congress believes the $10,000 SALT cap is justified and/or unjustified or whether the members of Congress believe the “workarounds” are appropriate. The loss to Treasury could be in the hundreds of billions of dollars. The loss of revenues either needs an offsetting...

Rep. Thomas Suozzi (D-NY) said Tuesday he would not support the $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill if Democrats would not increase the state and local tax (SALT) deduction, which primarily benefits wealthy Democrat states.

A virtual rally in support of a proposed constitutional amendment to change Illinois' income tax system to a graduated-rate tax was sidetracked by Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle delivering a lengthy pitch for State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s reelection. The rally of high-profile Democrats, hosted by the proposed amendment’s chief supporter, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, also featured Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton alleging amendment opponents were billionaires fighting against “communities of color and women and working-class families all across the state.” But pro-amendment discussion, dubbed the “fair tax” by supporters, gave way when Preckwinkle, the Cook County Democratic Party chair and a strong...

Karl Williams from Brooklyn, N.Y., believes that Black people have “nothing to win” in this year’s presidential race with either President Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden. “There’s no policy platform being presented that’s going to address any needs of Black men,” Williams, an investor who trades options, said in a video interview with Yahoo News. Despite this conviction, Williams plans to vote for Trump for a second time on Nov. 3. “I support Trump,” said Williams, 34, who describes his reasoning as based solely on the prospect of personal financial gain, since he invests in the stock market....

The answer should be obvious: you shouldn’t. Not in a million years. I know people who are still trying to decide whether or not to vote for Democrats in this election. As shocking as that might seem, it’s true. And as with any important decision that must be made, an important question to answer before deciding to do it is “Why?” While I know some people simply vote for personalities, let’s assume for sake of argument that some undecided voters are actually thinking people who want to wrestle with what is at stake in this election for them, their families,...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE)- Charlotte could be facing a big blow to the banking industry. Wells Fargo is expected to announce major layoffs across the board on Tuesday. Thousands across the entire company could get the pink slip and bank insiders tell WJZY that many of those cuts will happen in the Queen City. More than 27,000 people in the Charlotte area work for Wells Fargo. It’s the city’s second largest employer. In July, the bank’s chief executive said it may need to cut expenses by more than $10 billion as it restructures away from a retail bank.

Lil Pump has become the latest rapper to endorse President Trump, telling fans in a foul-mouthed video that he does not want to pay 'an extra 33 percent in taxes' and saying: 'f*** sleepy Joe'. The rapper took to Instagram live on Sunday night, telling his 17million followers : 'Trump 2020! F--- I look like paying an extra 33 in taxes for Biden?' He went on 'f*** sleepy Joe!' before singing off. Later, he shared a photo-shopped image of himself shaking hands with Trump in the Oval Office.

President Donald Trump said during a stop on the campaign trail Monday that he will double down on his pro-American domestic policy if he is reelected to a second term in office in November’s election, delivering a promise to “cut middle class taxes even further.” The President’s remarks came during a campaign rally in Martinsburg, Pennsylvania, the latest in a series of rallies across the Commonwealth, which is widely viewed as a key battleground state. “And in my second term I will cut middle class taxes even further,” President Trump stated, eliciting uproarious applause from the crowd.

Going back to (at least) the technocratic and ambitious FDR, American Democrats have believed that federal government eggheads are best suited to manage most things, including mundane things like ensuring healthcare or housing, for everyone. But as a rule, Democrats have always had a very nuanced way of presenting such policies to the American people. In other words, socialists in America have been most successful when they don’t tell Americans that what’s being offered to them is socialism. The old guard of the Democrat party, which Joe Biden represents, has long understood that. The radical Bernie Sanders wing of the...

Thousands of Americans see their tax returns audited every year — but it’s safe to say none have seen an audit go on as long as President Donald Trump’s. Since he first launched a run for the White House in 2016, Trump has declined to release his tax returns. One reason he commonly cites as to why he can’t — including during last week’s town hall event on NBC and Thursday night’s presidential debate — is that he is undergoing audit. During the debate, Trump again said that he will release his returns when the audit is finalized. “We made...

When I heard that Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden was proposing to raise taxes by $3.2 trillion over 10 years, I flashed back to Walter Mondale and thought: My, how things have changed. Mondale, like Biden, was a former vice-president and political moderate who was looking to gain the Oval Office. Mondale, in what was sadly—for him—the most memorable phrase of his 1984 campaign against Ronald Reagan—explicitly promised to raise taxes. In what has since been known as the Mondale moment, he said this: “Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did."...

President Trump, whose Middle East plan is winning support from Arab nations, is gaining strong support from Muslim leaders and their followers who believe that the Democrats haven't delivered on years of promises, according to a new survey of Islamic leaders. In a shocking turnaround, 61.48% of the 109 Muslim leaders who “represent two million voters” plan to vote for Trump. That is a slight edge over their 2012 vote for Barack Obama. The survey of the leaders was done by the Washington correspondent for Aksam Gazetesi, a Turkish news site. It suggested that the Muslim leaders' support for former...

Insufferable ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl actually took the time to fact-check a claim by Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden that “[n]obody making under $400,000 bucks would have their taxes raised” under his proposed tax plan. Talk about a twilight-zone moment. During the October 11, edition of ABC This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Karl grilled Biden campaign co-chair Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) on Biden’s promises to only raise taxes on the rich. Karl questioned: “[Biden] has said that he will not raise taxes on anybody making less than $400,000 a year. But the analysis put forward by the...

This is a compilation of good news stories. They are presented in the comment section and applicable links are included.

Round about a month ago, I took a closer look at Joe Biden’s retirement-related policy proposals, or, more specifically, those of the “Unity Task Force,” which had just released its final document. One of the items in that document and on the Biden campaign website is a promise to “equalize the network of retirement saving tax breaks” — a proposal that generally translates to eliminating the tax advantages currently enjoyed by retirement savings accounts and replacing them with a “credit” or “match.” The idea is that the tax advantages, or “tax expenditures,” as they’re called, disproportionately accrue to relatively higher...

Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo threatened Monday to close down religious institutions, specifically Jewish synagogues, if they do not follow his coronavirus restrictions. “We know religious institutions have been a problem,” Cuomo said at a Monday press conference. “We know mass gatherings are the super spreader events. We know there have been mass gatherings going on in concert with religious institutions in these communities for weeks. For weeks.” “I don’t mean little violations,” he continued. “I’m talking about, you’re only supposed to have 50 outdoors, they had 1,000.” The governor referred to pictures from “the past couple of weeks,”...