Since Eduardo Severin was born in Brazil and spent half of his life there, maybe Sen. Schumer should send half of that tax money to Brasilia in gratitude for nurturing such a prodigious talent.  Fair is fair, right? A country like the US which imports a large portion of its hi-tech brainpower from o...

Well before leaving federal service, you could sell everything that is not G fund and then fully buy G fund with the proceeds. You could then just consider this as a "lifetime"/deep-cash bond and rebalance with cash that is outside of the G fund. I'm just thinking if I were to leave gover...

The TSP G Fund is really a fine PP cash option.  Super low expense ratio and a guaranteed positive return.  However, as others have already noted, the TSP F Fund (Bonds) does not provide the long duration volatility needed to offset declines in the stock portion of a PP.  And the TSP isn't able to c...

Then again, there's this.....

http://www.may1stseattle.org/wp-content ... olfnet.jpg

TripleB: Your post suggests a certain pessimism about SS that is not entirely out of line, but may be counter-productive.  We should acknowledge that every penny that has ever been paid in FICA tax has already been spent, mostly on unrelated programs. All future benefits, including the portion finan...

Paper money already competed against gold during the 1800s. Fiat Greenbacks — first issued by President Lincoln — were extremely popular in the mid-west while they were in circulation. Many farmers were vehemently opposed to a gold standard at the time. Creditors preferred deflationary gold and deb...

gnucash is a full-fledged double-entry accounting package, so it might be overkill for portfolio tracking. On the other hand, I have set up a separate "Tracking - positive" account that does exactly that - every disparate asset which is a "stock", "bond" or "gold&...

Thanks very much. I was hoping someone would come along and do precisely what you've done.  Good job!!

ZedThou:  Thanks for your valuable contribution.  I tried it out on a random 30-yr Treasury (CUSIP=912810QN1) and noticed that it returned a value of $134.72 following the close on Jan. 6, 2012.  The FidelityFixed website's BID price was $134.687.  The ASK price was $134.750 and the THIRD PARTY Pric...

Looks like Rick Perry has company. http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/fast.htm http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/fdr-prayer.htm http://celebrateyourfaithblog.com/2011/05/national-day-of-prayer-2011/ Even when the subject is the economy... http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/in...

brick-house: .......7,8,9,10  DING, DING, DING!!!

Growth in funds earmarked for "recovery" has been more than the fall-off in revenue.  Even that, however, is just part of the pie.  The administration is on record as being willing to run large deficits for the next ten years or more.  In the midst of all this, it also seeks out new ways t...

Stone: The kernel of truth in all this may be the migration issue.  Over the centuries, millions of Europeans have voted with their feet in pursuit of greater economic and political freedom....of the sort to be found in America, Canada, Australia, etc.  The desire to acquire and keep earned wealth i...

The chart is a predictably partisan piece seeking to obscure who spent the money and when.  I hope this doesn't become too political, but spin like this can't go unchallenged..... 1) As a general rule in government, projected savings are like projected cuts: imprecise when not completely illusory. 2...

Stone: Latvia today suffers from the highest unemployment in the EU, but just a few years ago, it had the highest inflation in the EU.  That is not a coincidence.  The wage and credit bubble which together with the international financial crisis caused the economy to implode raised asset prices to l...

Stone: I don't pretend to be an expert on this stuff, but I find the customer base explanation unpersuasive.  First of all, revenue diverted to regime cronies usually ends up overseas primarily to avoid political risks at home.  Second, in nations where the rule of law is compromised, merely attempt...

Stone: Don't be so sure about the fellow doing better had he been located in NYC.  New York has a high cost of entry for just about everything, whereas China in the 80's was very much the other way around.  Zoning regulations alone would have prevented him from replicating his specific success story...

TBV, I can see from what you describe that land distribution was often a murky affair in US history. We had a TV program in the UK that made the claim that the large number of small plots of land deeded out very early in American history created a lasting legacy that seeded subsequent prosperity. E...

Fnord123: I did two actual returns for a single wage earner, no dependents, standard deduction.  The real taxes in 2011 would actually be slightly less than 2000, presumably because of shifts in the brackets overt the last 10 years.  I concede your point.  Thanks for the time you took to shed light ...

Truly adjusting taxable income for inflation would entail lowering your reported income by expressing its value in constant dollars.  As I said, several things do presently get adjusted for (like exemptions, tax bracket threshholds, gift exclusions, etc.) even though they don't reflect the actual ra...

Indeed!!  And that other noise you hear is the sound of VTI mousetraps springing.

Stone: Let me add a bit more to the comments on wealth redistribution.   There have been instances of redistribution in America, though not always by Americans.  In Mexican California, envy over the land holdings of the non-profit missions led the government to expropriate the land in favor of priva...

Stone: In all fairness, the initial starting point was not one of widely distributed wealth.  The social arrangements of the early American period were highly unequal.  You might say the game was rigged.  That's why migration to the west was so popular.  To go where the long arm of the state and est...

Academic speculation is harmless enough.  Exploring alternatives is also usually a good thing.  Accepting greater levels of risk with one's own money is perhaps unwise, but ultimately a concern only for oneself.  That is what this forum is about, or should be. However, as recent events have shown, a...

fnord123:  Thanks for looking that up.  I see that several things get adjusted for inflation, but from what I read there income is not one of them.