I’m optimistic on the fiscal cliff. Implications for now:
+ Taxes will rise next year — for everything from dividends to death taxes.
+ Certainty of sorts will dawn. CEOs will look at their investment plans positively.
+ Many erstwhile high-gaining stocks will fall until year-end as we all take gains in anticipation of paying more taxes next year..
I remain heavily in cash.
If yo have a stomach for writing your congressperson, senator or president a letter, please implore them that we need immigration reform. Here’s an email I sent my senator on the weekend:
Please make immigration reform happen.
I am an immigrant. I came to America to do an MBA at Harvard.
Two years studying in America convinced me I wanted to stay, as it convinces many.
I’m now an American, and a happy one.
In my years here, I’ve started many new businesses, employed many people and paid the IRS over $60 million in taxes.
Today I invest in technology companies, some startups, some along the way.
All our companies are short of trained, bright people, especially software engineers.
The technology community needs more H-1B Visas.
The technology community needs trained, bright, young people to start and manage companies, and to stay here and become tax-payingAmericans.
I suspect if I graduated today from Harvard, I would have a hard time getting a visa to stay.
I like this place and the opportunities it affords young people.
Please make immigration reform happen.
Thank you,
Harry
Amazing interest rates. Yes, they can still fall. From Vanguard over the weekend:
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note was down 13 basis points for the week to 1.62%, for a year-to-date decline of 27 basis points.
And you thought they couldn’t get any lower.
The biggest lesson remains: Obey our inviolate stop loss rule. 8% (or even less) continues to make sense. If you don’t believe me, look at the recent price moves of “hot” stocks, such as Apple, Netflix, Intel, AGNC. Annaly, and even Con Edison.
How Zara Grew Into the World’s Largest Fashion Retailer. The guy who co-founded it is now richer than Warren Buffett. Fascinating piece. Click here.
Nice warming entrepreneurial story. From Huffington Post:
When 12-year-old Nicky Bronner awoke the day after Halloween 2009 to find his parents had confiscated the previous night’s booty, he lost it. His father, Michael, explained the candy wasn’t good for him, and Nicky set out to prove him wrong. Instead, he was horrified to learn the ingredients in his favorite treats. Why not create an all-natural candy that also tastes good?
After calling about 15 chefs, Nicky found one who shared he and his father’s vision — Adam Melonas — and the three started Boston-based Unreal in July 2012. They immediately went big: Unreal Candy is already on the shelves of 20,000 stores, including Staples and CVS, will soon be sold in Target and 7-Eleven.
Read the full heart-warming story here.
After many false starts, QR codes are finally taking off. That’s the heading on a story in the latest Economist. I love these things:
If you don’t have a QR scanner on your iPhone, pick one up for free. It’s called QRReader.
Here’s the Economist on how they’re used.
You should be using these in your business. They’re easy to create. Read the full story here or scan the QRCode above.
Harry Newton who teaches himself “time management.” Two elements:
1. Every morning list the five most important tasks of the day, and start with the hardest.
2. Put 20 minutes aside to do the easy ones. Many tasks look daunting, but can often be done in five minutes. Saves them piling up. Makes the family happy.
While I like your blog, Harry. Your comments section is getting even more interesting and bigger than ever! By the time we are over the cliff you’ll be able to save us all by just chaining your comments together and letting us hold on tight. Keep up the chatter folks.
Harry, as usual I am in disagreement with most of your posters. “No new taxes”… who wants to pay more in taxes… unfortunately the issue is not quite that simple as that simplistic slogan would suggest. It’s not just about HOW MUCH we pay in taxes- it’s about what the money is spent for.
I suspect that to most of the NNT crowd the problem is Big Government, social program spending, and a “Socialist” President.
Nonsense. If I’m not mistaken the President wants to roll taxes back to where they were before President Bush cut them and then went crazy with spending, especially on a war we were lied into.
Anyone remember we had a surplus under President Clinton and that President Bush reversed that?
GOP my butt.
There is a case to be made for fundamental change in the US that would be reflected in our economy and taxes. Among them is giving up our bloated military stance and replacing it with something reasonable that would give us enough money for education, social programs, infrastructure, and overall economic balance.
Imagine a country where people don’t worry about taxes because they are happy about what they get back from things that the government does best. It’s not about cutting taxes once you have efficient government. We cannot be a sane, humane and workable society without government, and all of us need to pitch in to create those conditions- isn’t that what a democracy, an informed democracy is about?
Just a thought.
Efficient government is a bit of an oxymoron. Compare the US Post office to FedEx and UPS. Bush was certainly a big spender, though the current Washington crowd makes him look like a piker. Pres. Clinton reduced welfare timeframes and lucked into the phenomenal technology expansion of the century. Government is not the solution; it’s the problem – just look around.
I am stunned that I never knew Harry was Australian. I will have to read your words with an accent now!
Harry – while there is nothing I disagree with on the letter you sent to your senator, I think it is a quick solution without lasting benefits to America. It is much like taking a pill to get pain relief for a while without really fixing the ailment that can only be corrected through surgery. Keeping in mind that most politicians imagine an “immigrant” as a person from Mexico doing a landscaping job for minimum wage than a “self-made-in-America” Australian multimillionaire who happens to have a wicked sense of humor (that is a good thing) the H1-B visa is a very good plan for importing talent that is in short supply here. As someone who is also an immigrant, I have many friends who came here on that same visa, worked hard for less pay than their American peers, and went out on their own and made money beyond their own imaginations. However, most of them are now repatriating to their native countries and doing more business there than here in the US. Once they reach a certain level of success, almost all of them crave to “make a difference” in their native countries with their knowledge and wealth which ends up making a significant impact in those countries. While immigration reform is needed to address the existing problem of those who are in America without the proper documentation, the H1-B visa will not solve America’s problem of shortage of skilled workers. Investment in schools and educating our children properly is the ONLY way we will solve the “lack of skilled workers” problem. We need to take politics out of our schools and the politicians need to stop raiding education budgets every time they need money for something else. We can invest it today on education or we can spend it on “correctional facilities” in the future. It doesn’t sound that complicated, except to politicians.
Can someone explain to me why taxes should go up? As my wages go up, (well before last year), taxes automatically go up. Which means to me that my taxes are somehow being squandered.
Scooter – I am guessing your taxes increased because your increased income put you in a higher tax bracket. However, when you hear the argument that “taxes should go up” it is simply because most politicians are scared to make the necessary cuts in spending. The way things are today, America spends more money than it takes in. While that may render you and me bankrupt, the politicians just keep borrowing more money to keep this set up going because neither side wants to make cuts in spending that may affect their constituents i.e. donors, government contractors, special interest groups, etc. This is aggravated by the fact that we have programs that were put in place so long ago (medicare, social security, and the like) when the average life expectancy was much lower than today’s that it is very difficult for the numbers to make sense. Of course, which politician is going to have the guts to cut benefits to seniors? That, Scooter, is it in a nut shell!
Harry,
Immigration reform means different things to different people. To Obama, IR means advertising in Mexico on how to get food stamps in the USA, and hopefully a another vote for the party. Immigration reform to me means something else, and doesn’t include those who illegally enter just for free stuff.
Your Senator can use your letter to claim whatever he wants, since it does not disqualify who should allowed to be immigrated.
What’s your definition of Immigration Reform?
QR code link leads to “FILE NOT FOUND”. Did not try the QR code itself.
NO new taxes for ANYONE. WAshington, take your marching orders from Grover. Republicans, hold tight. What this country needs is a fall over the fiscal cliff. NO NEW TAXES for anyone. Stand your ground, GOP.
So many wealthy friends of mine, including many VC’s and old friend Harry, support and voted for Obama, that I would love to see a 98% tax on the wealthy and a new tax on their assets, as in other Socialistic countries. Why should we in the middle, without all the tax loopholes available to the Warren Buffett’s, bear the blunt of these Washington idiots? And make no mistake, it is us paying the freight.
Harry,
You are a joy to read.