iBankCoin
18 years in Wall Street, left after finding out it was all horseshit. Founder/ Master and Commander: iBankCoin, finance news and commentary from the future.
Joined Nov 10, 2007
23,473 Blog Posts

REMINDER: Tax Cuts Demand Multiple Expansion

I once had a sales manager who hated John McCain with all of his guts. He used to tell me that John used to crash his airplanes on purpose in Vietnam, in order to one day become a Senator. At the time, being in my early 20s, I scoffed at these ideas and thought my manager was out of his fucking mind. After many years of watching John McCain do some truly crazy things, in my back of my mind, I always thought what my sales manager used to say: “that fucking John McCain is a traitor. He was the worst pilot in American history, Fly. I’ll tell ya, he crashed those planes on purpose, in order to become a Senator.”

Other than that, my manager was a very sweet man.

I wonder what my old manager thinks now, seeing that John ‘shot down 5 times’ McCain just bailed out the country by acquiescing to tax cuts?

“After careful thought and consideration, I have decided to support the Senate tax reform bill,” McCain said in a statement Thursday. “I believe this legislation, though far from perfect, would enhance American competitiveness, boost the economy, and provide long overdue tax relief for middle class families.”

Let’s not make this political, please. Tax cuts are good, even if it means letting rich people keep more of their money. Hell, I know and like a lot of rich people. As a matter of fact, most of the people I know and cavort with are rich. I can tell you this with a high degree of confidence, having lived on both sides of the fence, rich people are more decent than the poor. If anything, we should HIKE taxes on the poor, as an incentive of sorts to make them work harder — get out to their miserable rut. Truth be told, poverty is more or less a byproduct of inferior genes and intelligence. Sure, there are some wicked smart homeless men playing chess in NYC. But those are anomalies, likely the result of wanton alcoholism which ruined an otherwise decent genetic make up.

If you’re not blessed with good genes and a high IQ, the only way to get rich is by luck or really hard work — be obstinate about it. When everyone else runs home to a potted roast, stay at work and put in the extra mile; it will pay off.

Back to stocks. Tax cuts means multiple expansion. At 22x current earnings, the market is already frothy. Nevertheless, tax cuts can justify these levels and take a large decline off the table. In other words, we might not rip higher from here, but we’re also less likely to plummet.

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37 comments

  1. ferd

    Yup, more money in corp coffers, more buybacks, more self-granted options being puffed up in value …all good for stocks.

    But this is NOT a fucking tax cut. A tax shift ..or deferral …but not a cut. Spending remains out of control …especially the most non-productivity-enhancing kind of spending …war spending. What we spend will eventually be paid …these bills will be paid …just not through a mechanism so open as a visible tax hike.

    Fuck the fuck.

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    • Dr. Fly

      What do you have Tourettes?

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      • ferd

        Laugh it up …but have a back-up plan for when the starving masses storm your gated community. This level on continued wealth concentration has never ended well for any society.

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        • hedge500

          Thinking opening gun vending machines in poor areas. Lets make sure the poor are armed to the teeth.

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  2. kidstock

    Carried interest elimination will not be a factor in this thesis?

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  3. hedge500

    Cutting taxes which will further a $20tril deficit as rates rase? No shot in hell even 1 cent of that going to be paid down any time soon. Short term gains that come with long lasting consequences. (its almost as if…someone strategically doesn’t want that debt balance going down)
    The elite cocksuckers that make out will joyously will have more cash to sash away. The excess capital will be invested in real estate, equities, bonds – further pushing the bubble.

    Cant wait for the crash.

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  4. duuude

    I second Fuck the fuck.

    All the horseshit that has been distracting everyone was to enable thistype of shit to be almost invisible.

    I truly give less of a shit than before.

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  5. acehood

    Supply side ftw!!!!

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  6. Dr. Fly

    Quit bellyaching you faggots. Enjoy the tax cuts.

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  7. dmfracer

    We, the USA, can spend as much as we fucking want as long as we have the petrodollar. Read a fucking book.

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  8. kidstock

    Regarding McCain, I lost my father to the same kind of cancer (GBM) that McCain has been diagnosed with…best scenario for survival was 6-12 mos in his case. At the six month point he was unable to drive and had to rely on undergarments in the event he had an accident. Maybe times and treatments have changed but that kind of cancer is a death sentence yet McCain seems to have all his faculties. Odd, no?

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  9. tonka

    All the complainers need to take a basic accounting course.

    You can’t pay down the absolute level of debt in an economy.

    Assets = Liabilities + Equity

    You can’t shrink one side of the equation without shrinking the other.

    If government debt goes down it can only mean one of two things:
    1. The economy shrank
    2. Someone else’s debt went up.

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    • numbersgame

      “You can’t pay down the absolute level of debt in an economy…”
      “If government debt goes down…”

      If you want to attempt to a logical macroeconmic arguement, you first have to understand the differnce between “debt in an economy” and “governemetn debt.”

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      • tonka

        Every liability is someone else’s asset. You pay off that liability and the asset disappears.

        I’ve never understood what was so contentious about this idea, yet everyone hates it without explanation. Every time I’ve mentioned it I just get “fake new, fake news, fake news!” No one seems to be able to solve the equation without shrinking the asset side.

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  10. The Other Good Doctor
    The Other Good Doctor

    Governments aren’t like households. They don’t have to pay back their debts EVER. Look at Greece, they are still fucking the dog at 180% debt to GDP. It only matters when someone bigger than you says it matters. Nobody will tell the US their debt matters.

    And any civilization that failed before got stretched too thin because they lived in analog age. Couldn’t scale indefinitely. Not same now. Planetary environmental destruction before digital age fixes available is potential problem. But I digress.

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    • tonka

      Also can’t compare Greece to US. They don’t have a printing press. Debt is denominated in a currency they don’t have complete control over. They are closer to a state relying on transfer of payments from the federal government.

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      • The Other Good Doctor
        The Other Good Doctor

        Agree and it furthers my point. You STILL don’t see them swallowing the austerity the others want them too. If forced to eat shit they’ll go back to the drachma and inflate the debt away and the poor will suffer, as always, and in a couple of decades it’ll be forgotten. The US doesn’t even have to worry about that pain.

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        • pb

          You have no point. The digital vs. analog – as applied to civilizations – is about as ridiculous as it gets. A CPU does 4 things: add, subtract, multiply, and divide. But no prior civilization could manage that?

          As for Greece, they saw the opportunity for yet another Grecian swindle in the EUR currency. And by the gods, they are still extracting free money from the fools of Europe. When they have wrung out the absolute last handout, they’ll exit the EUR, without a second thought about it.

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    • Dr. Fly

      Then compare us to Japan. They have ~240% debt to GDP, twice as much as ours.

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      • numbersgame

        True, but then you’d also have to take into consideration the holders of that debt.

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    • ferd

      “They don’t have to pay back their debts EVER.”

      Right, but the POINT is that deficit spending causes asset prices to rise higher than they would if spending were contained. And it causes inflation generally to be higher than it would be otherwise.

      Those who own stuff benefit, while those who spend what they make in order to live suffer.

      I’m long stuff and short bonds. But convinced that this does not end well for my beloved country.

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      • The Other Good Doctor
        The Other Good Doctor

        When inequality gets stretched to a point I agree that can cause, and has caused, problems for the haves. I wish it weren’t so but I think the digital age allows that inequality to persist much easier. Before you just needed enough people. Now warm bodies not enough to bring it inline with some tolerable level of inequality.

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  11. burrito land

    Does this mean that you won’t be winning with UVXY after all?

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  12. The Other Good Doctor
    The Other Good Doctor

    Put it this way: If the Romans had invented the Internet they would still be in charge; Caesar and his dick would be on the $100 bill and Cicero would still be a dead liberal nobody cares about.
    Prove me wrong (extra Fly)

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    • tonka

      Only argument that I’ve ever heard that makes sense is that if enough real per capita growth measures decreased for long enough, it’d mean people’s standards of living were decreasing. It’d be an indication that government spending was essentially useless and it wouldn’t matter if you have a printing press if it’s being spent uselessly.

      While they’ve flatlined for the better part of 20 years, the past 100+ years has seen a remarkable increase in standards of living.

      Case in point: if you had a time machine and took an ipad back to the 1920’s, I don’t care how much inflation you factor into the equation, it’s still a priceless piece of alien technology.

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  13. gappingandyapping

    For some fucked up reason my taxes are going to go up. FUCK ME I gotta get out of the 1% category and get into the “rich” category.

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    • numbersgame

      The only way anyone in the 1% will lose money under any Tax plan Republicans would ever pass is if they have a high salary job (professional athelete?), a low-paid accountant, and poor spending/savings habits (ie, high income, low assets)

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  14. numbersgame

    Fly, I think you take things to far some times. You have to understand that not everyone can tell the difference between fake news and creative writing. There’s a lot of horseshit in Wallstreet and elsewhere, no need to add to the pile.

    To that point:
    1) Criticize McCain’s policies, but not his servcie record. John McCain was shot down **once** and was severely injured and captured. Compare that to stubby-toe draft-dodger Trump and it’s not even close. Criticizing a McCain’s service record is 100 times worse than kneeling (which in every other area including marriage proposals, Christian Masses, knighting ceremonies, etc., is a sign of **respect**), rather than standing for the National Anthem. It’s also funny how many “patiots” don’t even realize that the Pledge of Allegiance is where you have to face the flag with your hand over your heart, not the Star-Spangled Banner. That’s why it’s called the **Pledge** of **Allegiance**.

    2) If by “good genes,” you mean upper-middle class parents, then you’re right. Look at the Forbes list of wealthiest Americans and find one whose parents weren’t already in the top 20%. Next use that IQ you claim about and think about a kid who has a single mom with a high school education and tell me all it takes is ahrd work for hi mto make it. Also, check with all your rich friends and let me know how many did not use their parents help to get their first jobs, into good schools (alumni anyone), internships, etc. Now of course it’s possible for someone in the bottom 20% to make it to the top 20%, but it takes a lot more work than staying in the top 20% once your parents are there.

    If you really are the type of person you claim to be, then you don’t need to dredge for the bottom-dwellers with posts like these.

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    • ferd

      Couple weeks ago he said success was all about nepotism, not IQ and breeding.

      Readers get to pick the Fly persona that validates their views. He’s Fox, NPR, and Zerohedge/hunter, vegan, and conspiracy theorist – – as the mood strikes. A full service blog for all seeking affirmation.

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      • moosh

        Or the Blog Father Fly likes to wreck easy common simple think across all spectrums? That shit is dull and going nowhere anyways

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        • numbersgame

          By agreeing with all sides you just **reinforce** simple thinking. **Disagreeing** with all sides wrecks those simple world views. Frankly, if I wanted to read stuff like the post above, there are much better sources such as @realDonaldTrump

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