Comments Unrelated to Football

It's not about tax evasion but all the lies that he has told about his foundation and charitable giving. He is always going to be attacked for not releasing his returns as all of the other candidates have done, including his VP choice, Governor Pence. We would also learn more about his bankrupt properties which he never wants to talk about (one hotel in New York and two casinos in Atlantic City). I also think that the tax returns would show that he is not as wealthy as he says he is.

You are totally wrong about "the vast majority of Americans!" Most file simple tax returns and do not claim any type of special deductions at all. Probably less than 5% of those filing taxes have special types of deductions and/or tax shelters and most of those are very high income individuals. Very few people cheat on their taxes as they are usually caught and have to pay high penalties and or serve prison time..

My own taxes are not terribly complex as we no longer own any real estate other than our home. We get the customary deductions for property tax payments and charitable giving as well as occasional capital gains when stocks are sold (which is infrequent as I tend to keep stocks for many years).

 

But these have implications for his tax returns for which we have no clue

The fluctuation is less than you think for commercial properties and is usually in the upwards direction. So there should not be anything that he should be afraid to disclose. I would not put Trump in the category of a "businessman" but as a real estate developer. Real estate developers get special treatment from the tax code that others in business do not receive. Is Trump wildly more successful than Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, and any one of a number of others who have developed businesses from the ground up? Trump piggy backed on his fathers real estate developments and was able to extort some sweetheart deals along the way. Other then some "great" real estate properties, how has Trump enriched this nation? Just because one is wildly successful in business is no qualification for being president. Herbert Hoover's misguided policies made the depression much worse than it should have been and he was very successful in business.

How do you know that this is common practice. Most of these businesses employ accountants to assist in filing their taxes. The accountants are liable for false tax returns along with the "mom and pop."

 

This is worth watching.

 

Minimum wage jobs as maid and maintenance people is not a guaranteed way to pull one up into the middle class. Read Barbara Ehrenreich's book, "Nickle and Dimed: On Getting by in America"

 

You have to balance this off with the bankruptcies that threw people out of work and have left buildings standing where there is no future. There are plenty of real estate developers who have created as many jobs as Trump has so I don't look at this as any big deal. The construction jobs are transient as we know very well from the real estate crash in 2007. In any event in the US, more money is made in home building than in the pricey types of things that Trump builds.

I think we are just going to go back and forth about all this making arguments that will lead us nowhere. I want you to know that Hilary Clinton was not my preferred choice as a candidate. I felt early on that she had too many negatives to be a viable candidate and that her campaign advisors are screwing this up so badly that it's likely she will lose in November. I will be voting for her because the alternative is too terrible to contemplate. We will all have to bow down and worship King Trump. It is worth reading Roger Angell's comments: http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/my-nineteenth-presidential-election-and-the-most-important Angell is one of the diminishing numbers of WW-II veterans and has voted in every election since 1944 (I only go back to 1968).

 

It cannot end in a tie since neither of the two minor parties will win any state. There are 535 electoral votes so a tie between two parties is impossible.

 

But remember that even this money is partially taxed through sales taxes that everyone has to pay when they buy things though the rates vary by state. I also find that these rough estimates are just that. The number of "true cash" jobs is really rather small and even if I hire someone to clean my house once a week, I am obligated to pay them "on the books" otherwise I risk not being in compliance with the law. In many cases independent contractors (those who work a variety of jobs) may get federal and state taxes withheld depending on the job. In many other cases they receive a 1099 form from the person who has paid them and that payment is reported to the IRS even though no taxes are taken out.

There is obviously an underground economy but it's breadth is unknown as well as illegal.

 

My bad, I forgot to add in the 3 votes from the district of Columbia which moves it to 538. Yes, there is a very remote chance it could end up in a tie.

 

Trump's economic plan relies mainly on bowing down to Trump and accepting his demands.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ls-donald-trumps-economic-strategy-in-detail/

 

I have stop loss sell orders on all my equities that appear to be fully valued. If the price drops to a certain level, the stocks are automatically sold. For some of the stocks, I knew that the 2007-08 bottom was not going to last a long time so I didn't sell those. I did take a small hit in terms of the overall portfolio losing some value but I became an aggressive buyer of stocks in early 2009 when it looked like the economic bottom had been reached. I noticed that some super strong companies that were damaged in the recession such as GE, were selling at bargain basement prices. In addition, there were durable goods companies that were also hammered but would rebound when housing did. To make a long story short - I've been a net buyer since 2009 and my portfolio has out performed the S&P 500 index over this period of time.

The only financial blogs that I read daily is Calculated Risk written by Bill McBride (who as I found out in correspondence with him, attended the same high school that I did though we were five years apart and did not know one another back then): http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/ He correctly predicted the housing bubble back in 2005 and the turn around in 2010. I do all my own fundamental stock analysis and use Graham & Dodd's "Security Analysis" as the basis of research and decision making.

 

Maybe they will implement in The Netherlands so you can get rich along with us!