I thought to myself: Who knew that August lows were the low point? I certainly didn’t.<\/p>\n I can’t time this. No one can.<\/p>\n I want to give Thanks for peace and quiet. I don’t want to craze over my computer screens, which show crazy movements I can’t predict, or worse understand.<\/p>\n That’s my Thanksgiving Day lecture. I’m taking Susan, Michael and Anne to the Boulders in Carefree, Arizona for Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n The next column you’ll read will be next Monday, November 28. This place better live up to its name as being “care free.”<\/p>\n Whoever expected a committee of politicians to make a decision was smoking something. <\/strong><\/span>Even if you call it “super.”Washington had an assumption (aka bug up its ass) about cutting the budget. Robert Reich wrote a piece on what Congress should be doing. It’s very hard to disagree with him.<\/p>\n Budget cuts aren’t the answer. <\/strong><\/p>\n The biggest question right now on Planet Washington is whether the congressional supercommittee will reach an agreement.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the wrong question. Agreement or not, Washington is on the road to making budget cuts that will slow the economy, increase unemployment and impose additional hardship on millions of Americans.<\/p>\n The real question is how to stop this austerity train wreck, and substitute the following:<\/p>\n FIRST: No cuts before jobs are back \u2013 until unemployment is down to 5 percent. Until then, the economy needs a boost, not a cut. Consumers \u2013 whose spending is 70 percent of the economy \u2013 don\u2019t have the money to boost the economy on their own. Their pay is dropping and they\u2019re losing jobs.<\/p>\n SECOND: Make the boost big enough. 14 million Americans are out of work, and 10 million are working part time who need full-time jobs. The President\u2019s proposed jobs program is a start but it\u2019s tiny relative to what needs to be done. It would create fewer than 2 million jobs. We need a big jobs program \u2013 rebuilding America\u2019s crumbling infrastructure, and including a WPA and Civilian Conservation Corps.<\/p>\n THIRD: To pay for this, raise taxes on the super-rich. It\u2019s only fair. Never before has so much income and wealth been concentrated at the very top, and taxes on the top so low. Go back to the 70 percent marginal tax we had before 1980. And include more tax brackets at the top. It doesn\u2019t make sense that any income over $375,000 is taxed at the same 35 percent, even if it\u2019s a billion dollars. And tax all sources of income at the same rate, including capital gains.<\/p>\n FOURTH: Cut the budget where the real bloat is. Military spending and corporate welfare. End weapons systems that don\u2019t work and stop wars we shouldn\u2019t be fighting to begin with, and we save over $300 billion a year. Cut corporate welfare \u2013 subsidies and special tax breaks going to big agribusiness, big oil, big pharma, and big insurance \u2013 and we save another $100 billion.<\/p>\n Do you hear me, Washington? Do these four things and restore jobs and prosperity. Fail to do these, and you\u2019ll make things much, much worse.<\/p>\n Generally, I don’t like Robert Reich. But he does make sense in this simple article.<\/p>\n Annaly gets slammed and Cramer issues a dire prediction. <\/strong>I’ve never heard Cramer be more pessimistic. The world almost ended last night. He and I both expect a major one-day hit to the stockmarket. Hence, he and I don’t like equities. We both like gold, but it’s taken a huge hit in recent weeks. It takes major faith to be still holding on. It dropped big-time yesterday.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Annaly and the mortgage REITs are coming in for continuing bad press (most of it undeserved in my opinion). Latest: today’s Wall Street report on one analyst’s report. “Scathing Report On Annaly Capital Shocks Some On Wall Street<\/em>.” Click <\/strong><\/a>here.<\/a> <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Currency Wars — an excellent interview on PBS.<\/strong> James Rickards<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span> untangles the web of failed paradigms, wishful thinking, and arrogance driving current public policy and points the way toward a more informed and effective course of action. <\/strong>It’s 21 minutes. You can listen to it on your laptop, or download it and listen to it on your iPod. Click here.<\/a> For God’s sake. <\/strong><\/span>Put a signature block at the bottom of your emails. Include\u00a0 your phone numbers, your address, your web site, your title, the correct spelling of your company, etc.\u00a0 Don’t make your customers and friends search the web for your address.<\/p>\n Latest best New Yorker cartoons:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/PortfolioPerformance.jpg\" "\\"PortfolioPerformance\\"")
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