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Seven Things You Should Know 10/9/2009

Seven Things You Should Know October 9th 2009 1. The last time the IRS raised its top marginal tax bracket paid by individual taxpayers was in 1993. The top marginal tax bracket of 31% from 1992 was raised to 39.6% in 1993. The top bracket has been 35% since 2003 (source: IRS). 2. The S&P…

The Gallagher Stimulus Plan: NASA Slams $79 Million Into the Moon

Can someone please explain what the purpose of this morning’s NASA mission is to me? Did we really need to slam two rockets, supposedly worth 79 million dollars, into the side of the moon? Are you guys f@$%in’ kidding me? What’s next?  Should we drop a million bucks worth of flat screen TV’s off a…

An American Fail: The Eastman Kodak Tragedy

Remember that girl from high school who was so hot and so out of your league back then that you would’ve jumped out of a plane without a parachute just to get her attention?  Yeah, me neither. But now imagine that this girl walks by you on the street and you barely recognize her.  That…

The Retirement Account Death Threat

This one’s interesting.  Normally, you hear about clients threatening their brokers for giving them the wrong advice.  In this case, a man’s advisor tried to talk him out of tapping his IRA early in order to be spared from the early withdrawal penalty.  Was the client pleased with this advice?  Actually, no, he became homicidal….

Sparring With the Cult of Ayn Rand

I recently posted an interview I did with the ghost of Ayn Rand and, as expected, a few Randian ideologues came out of the woodwork to challenge the points I sought to get across in my post. I do these faux-interviews because I believe that my strong suit as a writer and financial commentator is…

Uh Oh…The Analysts Are Bullish

Many will call this the ultimate contrarian tell, in fact, most will.  But then doesn’t that mean that the real contrarian would take this as a positive?  I’m talking myself in circles here. From Bespoke Investment Group: Analysts are more bullish heading into the current earnings season than they have been at the start of…

Vitaliy Katsenelson on the Propaganda of Michael Moore

When you get a chance, run on over to Zero Hedge to read about a true capitalism love story, from an ex-resident of the Soviet Union who now runs money professionally here in the US and is a hell of a writer. From Zero Hedge: (This) past weekend Americans voluntarily spent a few million dollars to…

Finance Blogger Feud Week

So apparently, this is Finance Blogger Feud Week!  Get your programs! Last week’s Felix Salmon versus Zero Hedge dustup was merely a prelude for what was to come to this week. Two biggies to report so far:

G'Day Rates! Australia Tightens Up

Australia’s central bank raised interest rates yesterday, beginning the unwind of their credit crunch stimulus program. They are the first nation in the G-20 to do so. Like Norway and Brazil, Australia derives a great portion of its GDP from minerals and mining exports, and so is more concerned about inflation in the near-term than many other…