Monday, December 31, 2012
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Why I Changed My 2008 Vote From Obama to Romney
A Northern California newspaper that owns the Oakland Tribune and the San Jose Mercury News, made a recommendation that Obama should be re-elected. The reasoning that they provided in support of its endorsement for the re-election of President Obama was flawed and follows the typical belief of the left leaning media. As someone who voted for Obama in 2008, I have seen the error of my ways.
1. The Economy - They said that Obama had inherited the worst recession since the Great Depression. The economy has experienced recessions as bad as the one inherited by Obama. In the Carter years there was double digit inflation and double digit interest rates, neither of which was faced by Obama.
They pointed to the Dow doubling since Obama took office, but they did not look to see why that happened. Although the TARP program was initiated by Bush, Obama administered much of it and provided billions of dollars to the financial sector with no strings attached. That was followed in February 2009 with the American Reinvestment Act which provided $800 billion to "stimulate the economy." Instead of working with the core of the problem which they had helped create, namely the collapse of the housing market, the banks invested in the stock market, which drove the prices higher. They then cashed in slowly, paid back the loans, and started paying outrageous bonuses to themselves again. I have talked to hundreds of individuals who have been destroyed by these policies, and know of four who committed suicide. They are not better off than four years ago.
They also claimed that Obama "saved" the auto industry, pointing to General Motors. In reality, I think it is important to note that General Motors did exactly what Romney had suggested, which was to go through bankruptcy. By doing so, they were able to void their contract with Toyota regarding Nummi, which cost the Bay Area tens of thousands of jobs. The money that the taxpayers provided to GM, which we will never get back, went to shore up the Auto Workers Union. California is a lock for Obama, so he needed to structure the GM bailout to take care of the Ohio and Michigan voters.
2. Foreign Affairs - Contrary to their opinion letter, Bin Laden was not an accomplishment for Obama. Rather, it was an accomplishment for the CIA and the interrogation techniques that Obama disapproved. When he called on the Navy Seals, they got Bin Laden. When the Seals called on Obama in Libya on September 11th this year, they got denied.
The doctor in Pakistan who provided us with the precise location of Bin Laden was arrested by the Pakistani government and is sitting in jail, without hardly a complaint from Obama. His entire Middle East policy is a failure because that region has no respect for the United States.
3. Domestic Issues - While I agree that our health care issues need to be addressed, Obamacare is not the answer. Of course those with pre-existing conditions will agree that Obamacare is great. Think about it, though. If I wrap my car around a tree and am uninsured, should I be able to call an insurance company, purchase a policy and ask them to fix my car? Health care issues must be addressed, but it must take into account tort reform, availability of health providers, business interests and how to handle the poor without penalizing someone who can afford an enhanced health insurance policy.
We cannot continue to spend more than we take in, nor can we depend on the federal government to provide the incentive to create jobs through bureaucratic control.
Finally, I agree that people who were brought into the country illegally should not be held responsible for what their parents did bringing them here. However, I cannot support Obama's rejection of the U.S. Constitution, which requires laws to be created in Congress and enforced by the President. He has unilaterally made his own law and decided what laws would be enforced.
Eventually, when the federal government gets big enough, the first amendment might be ignored, much like the 10th amendment is, and "Freedom of the Press" will give way to government ownership of business, not unlike GM and AIG.
Based upon the many failures of Obama over the past four years, and the lack of any substantive plan, I will be changing my vote to Mitt Romney.
1. The Economy - They said that Obama had inherited the worst recession since the Great Depression. The economy has experienced recessions as bad as the one inherited by Obama. In the Carter years there was double digit inflation and double digit interest rates, neither of which was faced by Obama.
They pointed to the Dow doubling since Obama took office, but they did not look to see why that happened. Although the TARP program was initiated by Bush, Obama administered much of it and provided billions of dollars to the financial sector with no strings attached. That was followed in February 2009 with the American Reinvestment Act which provided $800 billion to "stimulate the economy." Instead of working with the core of the problem which they had helped create, namely the collapse of the housing market, the banks invested in the stock market, which drove the prices higher. They then cashed in slowly, paid back the loans, and started paying outrageous bonuses to themselves again. I have talked to hundreds of individuals who have been destroyed by these policies, and know of four who committed suicide. They are not better off than four years ago.
They also claimed that Obama "saved" the auto industry, pointing to General Motors. In reality, I think it is important to note that General Motors did exactly what Romney had suggested, which was to go through bankruptcy. By doing so, they were able to void their contract with Toyota regarding Nummi, which cost the Bay Area tens of thousands of jobs. The money that the taxpayers provided to GM, which we will never get back, went to shore up the Auto Workers Union. California is a lock for Obama, so he needed to structure the GM bailout to take care of the Ohio and Michigan voters.
2. Foreign Affairs - Contrary to their opinion letter, Bin Laden was not an accomplishment for Obama. Rather, it was an accomplishment for the CIA and the interrogation techniques that Obama disapproved. When he called on the Navy Seals, they got Bin Laden. When the Seals called on Obama in Libya on September 11th this year, they got denied.
The doctor in Pakistan who provided us with the precise location of Bin Laden was arrested by the Pakistani government and is sitting in jail, without hardly a complaint from Obama. His entire Middle East policy is a failure because that region has no respect for the United States.
3. Domestic Issues - While I agree that our health care issues need to be addressed, Obamacare is not the answer. Of course those with pre-existing conditions will agree that Obamacare is great. Think about it, though. If I wrap my car around a tree and am uninsured, should I be able to call an insurance company, purchase a policy and ask them to fix my car? Health care issues must be addressed, but it must take into account tort reform, availability of health providers, business interests and how to handle the poor without penalizing someone who can afford an enhanced health insurance policy.
We cannot continue to spend more than we take in, nor can we depend on the federal government to provide the incentive to create jobs through bureaucratic control.
Finally, I agree that people who were brought into the country illegally should not be held responsible for what their parents did bringing them here. However, I cannot support Obama's rejection of the U.S. Constitution, which requires laws to be created in Congress and enforced by the President. He has unilaterally made his own law and decided what laws would be enforced.
Eventually, when the federal government gets big enough, the first amendment might be ignored, much like the 10th amendment is, and "Freedom of the Press" will give way to government ownership of business, not unlike GM and AIG.
Based upon the many failures of Obama over the past four years, and the lack of any substantive plan, I will be changing my vote to Mitt Romney.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
The Biggest Banking Scandal The World Has Ever Seen
Once again, the Banksters are making money illegally by manipulating the financial markets. They are engaging in insider trading, constiracy, collusion and they are using OUR money to do it! Furthermore, they are making that money at ouor expense!
Click on this link to learn more.
The Biggest Banking Scandal The World Has Ever Seen
Click on this link to learn more.
The Biggest Banking Scandal The World Has Ever Seen
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Monday, May 7, 2012
The Rear View Mirror
The case of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman was, and continues to be, a tragedy for all concerned, including the entire country. Those who have a pedestal that the media will follow, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, for example, used the incident to incite a racial divide. Why do they do this without having full knowledge of what actually transpired.
The simple truth is that it is for their own benefit, not for Martin’s family or to help improve the plight of blacks in America.
Today, Leonard Pitts, Jr., a “News” columnist for the Miami Herald, discussed the stereotype of blacks. He made a comment that black students, who guess that 75% of whites who are murdered are at the hands of black offenders, are surprised that the actual number is only 13%. Of course, it is easy to manipulate numbers to make your article look good, so let’s take a look at the real numbers.
• Blacks were disproportionately represented as both homicide victims and offenders. The victimization rate for blacks (27.8 per 100,000) was 6 times higher than the rate for whites (4.5 per 100,000). The offending rate for blacks (34.4 per 100,000) was almost 8 times higher than the rate for whites (4.5 per 100,000).
• What is the percentage of blacks killed at the hands of white offenders? The answer is only about 5%.
• 93% of black victims were killed by blacks.
I do not know what happened in the Martin-Zimmerman matter, any more than Jackson, Sharpton or Pitts knows. In a previous opinion, Pitts made the statement “No justice – no peace!” relating issues to the Los Angeles riots after the Rodney King verdict. While I certainly did not agree with that verdict (I lived there at the time), I could not condone the violence that took place, which hurt many black business owners.
The issue is not that man in the mirror that Pitts mentions, and instead should be a matter of the rear view mirror. They make rear view mirrors in a car smaller than the windshield because it is more important to look ahead than behind. It would appear that black leaders do not agree with that, because they continue to point to the past and what has been done, instead of working within the black communities to point to the future.
Human beings will rise to the level of expectations that are set for them, especially children. Instead of raising the bar and expecting more from black communities, these “leaders” make every effort to keep those communities impoverished and dependent on government, as if it is owed to them for the “400 years of injustice,” which I had no part of and most blacks did not experience. The biggest obstacles in the black communities today are other members of the black community.
I do not care if someone is white, black, brown, yellow, red or plaid! If they make an effort, they are worthy of everyone’s support. If they are not willing to make an effort, then they are destined to remain bogged down in the swamp of sadness.
Work on making progress, rather than excuses.
The simple truth is that it is for their own benefit, not for Martin’s family or to help improve the plight of blacks in America.
Today, Leonard Pitts, Jr., a “News” columnist for the Miami Herald, discussed the stereotype of blacks. He made a comment that black students, who guess that 75% of whites who are murdered are at the hands of black offenders, are surprised that the actual number is only 13%. Of course, it is easy to manipulate numbers to make your article look good, so let’s take a look at the real numbers.
• Blacks were disproportionately represented as both homicide victims and offenders. The victimization rate for blacks (27.8 per 100,000) was 6 times higher than the rate for whites (4.5 per 100,000). The offending rate for blacks (34.4 per 100,000) was almost 8 times higher than the rate for whites (4.5 per 100,000).
• What is the percentage of blacks killed at the hands of white offenders? The answer is only about 5%.
• 93% of black victims were killed by blacks.
I do not know what happened in the Martin-Zimmerman matter, any more than Jackson, Sharpton or Pitts knows. In a previous opinion, Pitts made the statement “No justice – no peace!” relating issues to the Los Angeles riots after the Rodney King verdict. While I certainly did not agree with that verdict (I lived there at the time), I could not condone the violence that took place, which hurt many black business owners.
The issue is not that man in the mirror that Pitts mentions, and instead should be a matter of the rear view mirror. They make rear view mirrors in a car smaller than the windshield because it is more important to look ahead than behind. It would appear that black leaders do not agree with that, because they continue to point to the past and what has been done, instead of working within the black communities to point to the future.
Human beings will rise to the level of expectations that are set for them, especially children. Instead of raising the bar and expecting more from black communities, these “leaders” make every effort to keep those communities impoverished and dependent on government, as if it is owed to them for the “400 years of injustice,” which I had no part of and most blacks did not experience. The biggest obstacles in the black communities today are other members of the black community.
I do not care if someone is white, black, brown, yellow, red or plaid! If they make an effort, they are worthy of everyone’s support. If they are not willing to make an effort, then they are destined to remain bogged down in the swamp of sadness.
Work on making progress, rather than excuses.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
This is a partial excerpt from my book, "The American Dream Becomes the Global Nightmare." http://tinyurl.com/4s3exmd
When the housing market began falling, I shared my plan with many people. Part of that plan was, instead of bailing out the Banksters and their accessories on Wall Street, we could have distributed that $800 billion to the investors, who actually owned the loans. In exchange, they would agree to reduce the interest rates to a manageable 5% per annum. In real estate terms, this is known as "buying down the loan."
This would have reduced the number of foreclosures because fewer people would have been hit by the increase in payments when the interest rates adjusted under the terms of the loan. The "bailout" required on each loan, which would have been minimal, would be added to the balance of the loan.
I have heard all arguments from people at the time I made that suggestion. That wouldn’t be fair to those who were more careful in their purchase or put more money down, or that they did not want to help pay for the idiots who accepted these loan ters, and who were not deserving of owning a house anyway. "Why should they be helped, since they did it the wrong way?" I was asked.
The reality is that those people, who did not want to help those who had been taken advantage of or got caught in the lenders’ predatory lending scheme, have suffered just as much, if not more, with their lost equity and, in many cases, lost jobs. Let’s take a look at an analysis of who really lost when the prices started dropping and no one wanted to “bail-out” the buyers who made bad decisions. The scenario is that two people bought identical homes in the same neighborhood at a price of $500,000.00. Buyer A, whose credit was marginal and could only get a sub-prime loan, put nothing down and had 2 mortgages; one for 80% of the price and one for the remaining 20% of the price. Buyer B, whose credit was excellent and was able to make a 20% down payment, had only one mortgage at 80% loan to value.
The chart below demonstrates that those who didn’t want to “bail out” the irresponsible homebuyers were the ones who were hurt the most. By resisting the help to those who were irresponsible, they took their own equity and threw it away without even realizing it.
Buyer A Buyer B
Purchase Price - 2006 $500,000.00 $500,000.00
Down Payment $0.00 $100,000.00
1st Loan $400,000.00 $400,000.00
Interest Rate 2.9% pmt, 6.5% actual 5.5% fixed
Monthly Payment $1,664.92 $2,271.16
2nd Loan $100,000.00 $0.00
Interest Rate 6.5%, Interest only
Payment $541.67 None
Present Value $375000.00 $375000.00
Out of Pocket Loss Nothing $100,000.00
The big loser is the guy who was responsible, and put down 20% and had a fixed loan. He, in most cases, was the one who was most vocal against those who had been irresponsible, and took on more than they could handle or didn’t pay attention to the terms of what he was signing. The lenders took Buyer B’s $100,000.00 down payment; while the irresponsible Buyer B only lost the place that he was living in on the lender’s investment.
No one, including the banks and the government, took the time to look at the BIG picture.
When the housing market began falling, I shared my plan with many people. Part of that plan was, instead of bailing out the Banksters and their accessories on Wall Street, we could have distributed that $800 billion to the investors, who actually owned the loans. In exchange, they would agree to reduce the interest rates to a manageable 5% per annum. In real estate terms, this is known as "buying down the loan."
This would have reduced the number of foreclosures because fewer people would have been hit by the increase in payments when the interest rates adjusted under the terms of the loan. The "bailout" required on each loan, which would have been minimal, would be added to the balance of the loan.
I have heard all arguments from people at the time I made that suggestion. That wouldn’t be fair to those who were more careful in their purchase or put more money down, or that they did not want to help pay for the idiots who accepted these loan ters, and who were not deserving of owning a house anyway. "Why should they be helped, since they did it the wrong way?" I was asked.
The reality is that those people, who did not want to help those who had been taken advantage of or got caught in the lenders’ predatory lending scheme, have suffered just as much, if not more, with their lost equity and, in many cases, lost jobs. Let’s take a look at an analysis of who really lost when the prices started dropping and no one wanted to “bail-out” the buyers who made bad decisions. The scenario is that two people bought identical homes in the same neighborhood at a price of $500,000.00. Buyer A, whose credit was marginal and could only get a sub-prime loan, put nothing down and had 2 mortgages; one for 80% of the price and one for the remaining 20% of the price. Buyer B, whose credit was excellent and was able to make a 20% down payment, had only one mortgage at 80% loan to value.
The chart below demonstrates that those who didn’t want to “bail out” the irresponsible homebuyers were the ones who were hurt the most. By resisting the help to those who were irresponsible, they took their own equity and threw it away without even realizing it.
Buyer A Buyer B
Purchase Price - 2006 $500,000.00 $500,000.00
Down Payment $0.00 $100,000.00
1st Loan $400,000.00 $400,000.00
Interest Rate 2.9% pmt, 6.5% actual 5.5% fixed
Monthly Payment $1,664.92 $2,271.16
2nd Loan $100,000.00 $0.00
Interest Rate 6.5%, Interest only
Payment $541.67 None
Present Value $375000.00 $375000.00
Out of Pocket Loss Nothing $100,000.00
The big loser is the guy who was responsible, and put down 20% and had a fixed loan. He, in most cases, was the one who was most vocal against those who had been irresponsible, and took on more than they could handle or didn’t pay attention to the terms of what he was signing. The lenders took Buyer B’s $100,000.00 down payment; while the irresponsible Buyer B only lost the place that he was living in on the lender’s investment.
No one, including the banks and the government, took the time to look at the BIG picture.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Take a Tax Deductible Weekend!
A great way to make your business travel more enjoyable is to combine it with a tax deductible weekend getaway! You can end your business meetings on noon Friday, and then enjoy that afternoon, Saturday and Sunday at the location where your business was.
Assuming, of course, that it is a location where you would enjoy spending the weekend.
All you will need to do is have another business related meeting on Monday morning and then go home. It can be a meeting with a business associate, a prospective new customer or even an educational event that ties into your business. The key is that whatever it is that you are doing on Monday must have a direct relationship to your business.
For example, if you are a real estate agent and are going to a convention that ends on Friday, you can arrange to meet with a real estate agent in that area for the purpose of being able to exchange referrals in the future. If you are a salesperson and are meeting with a client on Friday, make arrangements to meet another potential client on Monday (or even make a cold call).
You can also bring a spouse or significant other with you. You won't be able to deduct his or her meals or travel expenses (unless you are driving), but you meals and 100% of the hotel costs will be deductible. Of course, if your spouse or significant other works with you in business, all of the expenses can be deductible. Having your spouse work for you is whole other topic, but there are significant tax savings to be had by having your spouse work for you part or full time.
If you are self employed, you are paying all of your own Social Security and Medicare taxes, rather than having one half of them paid by your employer. That means that for every dollar you can deduct, you are saving up to 49 cents in taxes, depending on your State tax structure. You might as well have some fun while you are taking your deductions.
The main thing is to keep good records of the purpose of your business both before and after the weekend, and keep all receipts. There is nothing that will prevent an audit, but by maintaining good records, it will end up with a handshake and a good-bye with the auditor, and all of your money in your pocket.
So, enjoy your tax deductible business trip with a little vacation mixed in.
For more updates like this, Like my Facebook Page - http://tinyurl.com/KenFanPage
Assuming, of course, that it is a location where you would enjoy spending the weekend.
All you will need to do is have another business related meeting on Monday morning and then go home. It can be a meeting with a business associate, a prospective new customer or even an educational event that ties into your business. The key is that whatever it is that you are doing on Monday must have a direct relationship to your business.
For example, if you are a real estate agent and are going to a convention that ends on Friday, you can arrange to meet with a real estate agent in that area for the purpose of being able to exchange referrals in the future. If you are a salesperson and are meeting with a client on Friday, make arrangements to meet another potential client on Monday (or even make a cold call).
You can also bring a spouse or significant other with you. You won't be able to deduct his or her meals or travel expenses (unless you are driving), but you meals and 100% of the hotel costs will be deductible. Of course, if your spouse or significant other works with you in business, all of the expenses can be deductible. Having your spouse work for you is whole other topic, but there are significant tax savings to be had by having your spouse work for you part or full time.
If you are self employed, you are paying all of your own Social Security and Medicare taxes, rather than having one half of them paid by your employer. That means that for every dollar you can deduct, you are saving up to 49 cents in taxes, depending on your State tax structure. You might as well have some fun while you are taking your deductions.
The main thing is to keep good records of the purpose of your business both before and after the weekend, and keep all receipts. There is nothing that will prevent an audit, but by maintaining good records, it will end up with a handshake and a good-bye with the auditor, and all of your money in your pocket.
So, enjoy your tax deductible business trip with a little vacation mixed in.
For more updates like this, Like my Facebook Page - http://tinyurl.com/KenFanPage
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