Left Wing Echo Chamber POLITICS THREAD ftw!

by **FlightRisk** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 11:02:34

Katie "Kat" Couric wrote:... Sure, the audacity of the questions irritated all of us. But it's the fact that this, "Joe the Plumber" survived his encounter with Barrack Obama that really troubles me.

by **TenuredVulture** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 11:36:00

According to the Obama tax calculator thingy, I really hope Obama wins and gets to implement his tax cut policy.

But this reminds me that I'm poor. But then I remember I only work 9 months of the year, and I'm tenured. But then I remember I actually do work over the summer, so I'm really not working 9 months. More like 11. But I do get a long break at Christmas. Then I remember I often do work on weekends, but I can do much of it without getting out of my pajamas.

Anyway, I'm not rich, but I have a sweet gig.

by **VoxOrion** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 12:15:58

Averaged over 12 months - how many hours a day do you figure you work (say a five day work week)?

For curiosity's sake, does your pay scale fall in the median across the country for a tenured poli sci prof, or is your salary "downgraded" to a point where you aren't benefiting from the presumed lower cost of living in AK?

Obviously, tell me to go eff myself if these questions are too personal.

by **jeff2sf** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 12:16:25

FTN wrote:
pacino wrote:I don't see why it shouldn't...just because you have a lot of stock? I have stock too. The long-term gains is 15% no matter what you make.

Long term capital gains = more than 1 year.

My theories on investing often indicate that its not smart to "buy and hold" stocks. The S&P 500 has lost 10% of its value since October 1998. If you bought stocks and held them and didn't sell them before last month's collapse, or before the bear market in 2002-2003, you lost money.

Your theories? Market timing? Are you seriously espousing market timing in this day and age? How many day traders make money nowadays? Not enough.

More importantly, if you're putting enough time in to day trade or market time, you shouldn't get a significant tax break, you're making ordinary income and should be taxed appropriately for that.

by **FTN** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 12:18:50

Holding a stock for 8 months is day trading or market timing?

No.

by **jeff2sf** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 12:32:38

FTN wrote:Holding a stock for 8 months is day trading or market timing?

No.

Day trading, no. Market timing, quite clearly. I'm more than happy to see you taxed normally for that. On the bright side, you've got about a 50% chance of having a larger tax deduction from your losses. So there's that.

by **FTN** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 12:36:48

Well, we can definitely agree that good companies, and hence, good stocks, never turn into bad companies and bad stocks, so its better to just hold onto them no matter how low they go. Buy and hold.

by **jeff2sf** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 12:47:11

No, what we agree on is that 8 months is clearly enough time to assess that.

But that's of course a separate issue from how you should be taxed. Having a cap games tax lower than ordinary income was an effort to encourage savings which generally help society. Short term capital gains tend not to be savings and it's not clear that they will be used to promote anyone's interests but your own.

For the love of Jim Cramer, take the CFA. It doesn't even frown on market timing. But at least you'll be grounded in some fundamentals.

by **dajafi** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 13:35:31

At the risk of making BuddyGroom really happy... you couldn't have Barack Obama today without what Bill Clinton did in the '90s.

Clinton took off the table many if not all of the things that held Democrats down through the 1980s: the perceptions that they were absurdly weak on crime, irresponsible with the public's money, and invariably unwilling to use force abroad. In the particular case of Obama, who by virtue of his skin color is already perceived as much more "liberal" (in the pejorative sense) than he is, he never could have built any support if Clinton hadn't taken all those things off the table.

This isn't to say that I applaud everything Clinton did: flying home in mid-campaign to preside over the execution of Ricky Ray Rector crossed the line between "smart politics" and "immoral." And while the 1994 Crime Bill was great for public safety, it put us further down the road toward a "prison-industrial complex" that wrecks public budgets and essentially serves as a finishing school for criminals.

But it did open the door for Democrats to focus on domestic policy issues where they had a better story to tell. Once Bush failed so spectacularly, invalidated the Republicans as the party of fiscal responsibility and small-c conservative foreign policy, this all stood as even more important. McCain hasn't had any substance-based attacks to make on Obama; thus Bill Ayers, and the incredibly weak tea of "socialism" charges at a time when redistribution of wealth probably seems to most voters less like a revolutionary deviation than a needed corrective.

by **mpmcgraw** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 13:41:26

President George W. Bush late Friday asked Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate whether hundreds of thousands of newly registered voters in the battleground state of Ohio would have to verify the information on their voter registration forms or be given provisional ballots, an issue the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on last week.

The unprecedented intervention by the White House less than two weeks before the presidential election may result in at least 200,000 voters in Ohio not being able to vote on Election Day if they are forced to provide additional identification when they head to the polls.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, sent a letter to Bush Friday asking that he order the Department of Justice to probe the matter.

No election is unstealabe for hoya and his buddies!

by **TenuredVulture** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 14:26:30

FTN wrote:Well, we can definitely agree that good companies, and hence, good stocks, never turn into bad companies and bad stocks, so its better to just hold onto them no matter how low they go. Buy and hold.

I'm certainly no expert, but you're supposed to sell stocks after they've gone up, not down.

by **TenuredVulture** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 15:38:44

I've updated my blog. For the first time in awhile.

by **pacino** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 16:14:54

OK I admit it. I'm voting for Obama because he's white.

by **TenuredVulture** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 17:03:41

Republicans acting more and more like Democrats.

by **CalvinBall** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 17:13:54

More Palin Going Rouge

by **FTN** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 17:24:53

TenuredVulture wrote:
FTN wrote:Well, we can definitely agree that good companies, and hence, good stocks, never turn into bad companies and bad stocks, so its better to just hold onto them no matter how low they go. Buy and hold.

I'm certainly no expert, but you're supposed to sell stocks after they've gone up, not down.

I was being sarcastic.

by **mpmcgraw** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 15:45:53

fivethirtyeight has Obama winning at a 95.7% chance.

I think that's the highest it's been.

by **FlightRisk** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 23:12:37

This November, my vote goes to the one man who's been fighting to save Rock and Roll.

by **TomatoPie** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 07:45:58

FlightRisk wrote:This November, my vote goes to the one man who's been fighting to save Rock and Roll.

by **Woody** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 08:09:02

i can't believe axl rose uses botox. i mean, axl rose

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Left Wing Echo Chamber POLITICS THREAD ftw!