Local Gossip -Unverified. Trump And A Dollar Reboot?

https://www.facebook.com/AdorablePuppiesOfficial/videos/1724987224200024/
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Head's up on proposed tax reform bill. (See 1 below.)
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I recently ran across two postings in the local paper I found particularly clever:

a) "Obama blamed Bush for his eight years of failure; now he plans to take credit for Trump's successes."

b) "I am so happy we have President Trauma."
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Now that the market has begun to discount passage of the tax reform bill it would be uncharacteristic for the market to retreat at at time when historically it does well.  It is also uncharacteristic of the market to do what is expected.

I believe predicted corporate earnings in 2018 have not been fully discounted either but it would not surprise me if the market has a decent correction sometime in the first half of the year.

I  also read a report, by a noted market tactician, that he expects a re-connection by Trump,  between gold and America's currency as a way of protecting our currency from being downgraded/dismissed as the world's medium of exchange and to bring stability to the world's overall monetary system.

This flies in the face of gold going higher should The Fed keep raising rates and inflation remains relatively subdued as the economy rolls along.
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In response to my previous memo. This from a very dear friend, a tennis competitor and fellow memo reader: "Dick ... Really enjoyed reading about your squeaky brake!  Starting with the weeks I spent in Japan with Toyota, studying Japanese manufacturing techniques (around 1983), through today, I have always been interested in a Company's approach toward, and impact on their quality.  Two comments ... 1) My impression has always been that GM resisted the admission that anyone could do it better than they could, and as a result lagged behind other manufacturers both foreign and domestic ... i.e. Ford did much better changing their culture during the quality revolution, and I think, continues to do better.  GE completely reversed the 80% market share GM held in locomotives to their 20%.  2) You might say one of my hobbies is writing grievances to corporate CEO's, and I don't remember any that did not bring positive action ... but then, I've never written to GM!!   J=="
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I only attended  the final evening of The Savannah Film Festival and thought the president of SCAD, Paula Wallace, would be present , as she always is, to give out awards.  That evening, Actor Richard Gere was being honored for his long and diverse career.

Apparently Ms. Wallace had sustained an injury and was unable to be present.

I now have learned, but have not and cannot verify,  her recovery was difficult and SCAD is actually up for sale.

SCAD is an amazing story, has four world wide campuses (Savannah, Atlanta, Hong Kong and Le Coste France,) is the largest art school in the country, with some 14,000 students.. SCAD's contribution to Savannah's rebirth is inestimable.
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Dick
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1) The conference committee for the tax bill released its draft this week, and it appears both houses will likely bring the measure up for passage early next week. 

As we’ve said all along, the bill is not perfect, but there are some important victories that Club for Growth had been pushing for that were adopted in the revised version out of conference.  Among the highlights include:

The back-door capital gains tax on individuals was removed. 

Club for Growth President David McIntosh made the case against this provision in an op-ed in The Hill earlier this week.  As David explained in his op-ed, the Senate bill included a provision that would have changed the way capital gains are taxed when investors sell off stocks.  Under current law, the choice is up to the investor. Under the Senate tax bill, the government will force individual investors, but not mutual funds, to sell stocks under the FIFO (“first in first out”) principle under the assumption that stocks increase over time, and this will generate more revenue for the federal government.  Fortunately, thanks to Club for Growth’s work to bring light to this issue, the conference report rejected its inclusion.

The repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate. 

This provision will allow over $300 billion in additional tax cuts, making the overall bill even more pro-growth.  As Club for Growth stated before, this provision should not have been a point of contention.  Thankfully, it did not become one.  Additionally, repeal of the individual mandate in this legislation positions Congress well to tackle full repeal of Obamacare next year.

The top individual tax bracket will be reduced from 39.6 percent to 37 percent. 

This reduction is something that Club for Growth urged Congress to make, we’re pleased to report the message was received.

The corporate tax rate will be 21 percent. 

While Club for Growth and other organizations rallied earlier in the week to keep the corporate rate at 20 percent, the fact of the matter is 21 percent is an extraordinary improvement on the status quo rate of 35 percent.  

While improvements were made from the House version of the bill, one problem that remains is the inequitable treatment of pass-through businesses or s corps.  The new legislation places them at a competitive disadvantage when compared to the treatment of traditional corporations.  Club for Growth is committed to rectifying this inequity, including by working with Congress next year to support legislation to address this shortcoming.   


Beyond tax policy, this week brought great news on the fight to rein in out-of-control regulations.  President Trump is delivering on his promise to cut back regulations.  For example, in 2017 alone, federal agencies have issued 22 deregulatory actions for every one new regulatory action. 

Additional regulatory rollback victories include:

• In total, agencies issued 67 deregulatory actions while imposing only three new regulatory actions.
• Federal agencies achieved $8.1 billion in lifetime net regulatory cost savings, the equivalent of $570 million per year.
• These savings go beyond the Administration’s goal of imposing no lifetime net regulatory costs in FY 2017.
• In contrast, the previous administration imposed between $5.7 billion and $15.2 billion in annualized regulatory costs in its final eight months in office. (Source: The White House)
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