All Financial Matters, International Banking & Finance Guide

What a Difference A Day Makes'

From All Financial Matters, 4 month ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles

Check out this table I made showing the month-to-date and year-to-date returns for the indexes I follow on AFM. Notice what an impact one day’s market performance has on the both the month-to-date and year-to-date numbers. Read more

Interresting ? 0

John Steele Gordon: A Short History of the Income Tax

From All Financial Matters, 4 month ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles

Great piece in today’s WSJ: A Short History of the Income Tax by John Steele Gordon. Distilled into bullet points: • After the Civil War, the government relied mostly on the tariff for revenues, which was basically a consumption tax that hit the poor much harder than the rich. • An income tax on the “rich” was attempted in 1894. The income tax was to be 2% on incomes above $4,000 (less than 1% of the households at the time). It was challenged and eventually struck... Read more

Interresting ? 0

Interesting Interview with Economist, Robert Lucas

From All Financial Matters, 4 month ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles

If you have time, check out this interview with University of Chicago Economist, Robert Lucas that was in this weekend’s WSJ. Some interesting tidbits from the piece: Mr. Lucas is visiting NYU for a few days in early September to teach a mini-course, so I dash over to pick his brain. He obligingly tilts his computer screen toward me. Two things are on his mind and they’re connected. One is the failure of the European and Japanese economies, after their brisk growth in the early... Read more

Interresting ? 0

Quote of the Day ? Annuities

From All Financial Matters, 4 month ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles

I would like to get into the habit of posting a quote of the day every day but for now I’ll post them when I come across them. Today’s (rather long) quote comes to us from the pages of The Ultimate Financial Plan: Balancing Your Money and Life* by Tim Maurer and Jim Stovall in the chapter on annuities: In the realm of personal finance, no word has been dragged through the mud more times than the A-word'Annuities. Yet annuities survive and even thrive. How they do is not a mystery.... Read more

Interresting ? 0

Will The Fed's ?Twist' Help the Economy'

From All Financial Matters, 4 month ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles

From today’s WSJ: The latest move by the chairman was a decision to dramatically recast the Fed’s $2.65 trillion securities portfolio in an effort to reduce long-term interest rates. The Fed plans to shift its holdings so it will have more long-term U.S. Treasury bonds and more mortgage debt than previously planned. It hopes the lower rates will boost investment and spending and provide a shot of adrenaline to the beleaguered housing sector. The shift toward longer-term Treasury... Read more

Interresting ? 0

Thomas Friedman's ?Optimism'

From All Financial Matters, 4 month ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles

I read a rather unflattering review of Thomas Friedman’s newest book “That Used to Be Us” in today’s WSJ. I have not read the book, nor do I plan to. I read the bulk of “The World Is Flat” several years ago and decided I had had enough of Mr. Friedman. That said, I want to share this paragraph from the review in today’s paper: If the authors’ frustration [with America as it is today] is unoriginal and ill-defined, their optimism is terrifying.... Read more

Interresting ? 0

Odds and Ends on Taxes and the Wealthy

From All Financial Matters, 4 month ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles

UPDATE: I want to add to this post as I get new information and statistics. If you come across something that’s worth adding, please email me (JLP – at – AllFinancialMatters.com) with a link to the source and I’ll post it along with a link to your blog (if you’re a blogger). I want to share with you a couple of things I read in the WSJ over the last two days. The first is a quote from yesterday’s article (September 19, 2011): The average tax rate for the... Read more

Interresting ? 0

Chart of the Day: Netflix Since Announcing Price Increase

From All Financial Matters, 4 month ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles

Wow… As far as I can tell, CEO, Reed Hastings owns 1,147,215 shares. Based on that number, his wealth has decreased $182,407,185 since the announcement. OUCH! Read more

Interresting ? 0

Question of the Day: Netflix

From All Financial Matters, 4 month ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles

Haven’t done a Question of the Day in a few weeks so I thought I’d ask this: Did Netflix’s latest price increase cause you to leave the company' I can’t say that the price increase caused me to leave but I did cancel our membership. Why' Mostly because it seemed like I would scroll through the instant offerings and RARELY find anything I wanted to watch. Maybe I’m just particular. I don’t know. We were on the plan that sent us one DVD at a time. Guess... Read more

Interresting ? 0

A Snippet from an Interview Between Chris Wallace and Paul Ryan on Taxes

From All Financial Matters, 4 month ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles

I thought this was an interesting exchange between Fox News’ Chris Wallace and Paul Ryan: Chris Wallace: “…This is being called the Buffett Rule because it comes after Warren Buffett, the multi-billionaire owner of Berkshire Hathaway…said, ‘I end up—because I get so much of my money from capital gains—I end up paying a lower effective tax rate than my secretary who gets her money in salary.’ What about the question of fairness'” Paul Ryan:... Read more

Interresting ? 0

All Financial Matters, everything about international banking, finance & money

Blog