#this reminded me of the bank of dan from a decade ago!

[philsbrownquiff]

the dangers of premarital divorce

guess what I wrote something!!!

words: 1702

summary: A reflection on all the years that Dan's commitment issues have motivated him in various ways, and how realizing he accidentally is planning on spending 20 more years with Phil is maybe a bit scary.

It had started years ago really, back in Manchester. They had always talked about the future, but never too far into it. But, like it is with all young loves, he had the idea of forever in the back of his head. He would sit with Phil watching anime, eating dinner quietly, laughing while playing video games, and he would think, "This could be my life. This could be how it is every day."

And of course he didn't really share these thoughts at first. They were almost too intimate to verbalize. They were intimidating. They were meant for late at night when he was by himself thinking about life at 3 AM. That was the only time he could really entertain them for any amount of time. They were filled with laughter and loving embraces and all of the things he had come to associate with spending the day with Phil. And it was good. He had never met anyone like Phil, and he intended to hold on as long as Phil would let him. And that was how it would inevitably end: Phil wouldn't let him. That's how it always was in his head. He was just holding onto the coattails of life, undeserving, and would therefore eventually be left in the dust as soon as he let up his grip.

The first time he realized that he might not actually need to be clinging on so tightly was when Phil had asked him to move in with him. It was so casual. They were laying together in bed one night with Dan's head perched on Phil's shoulder, his body tucked safely into the crook of his arm.

"Would you want to move in with me next year?" He had said, suddenly in the quiet.

Dan froze. Fucking of course he would want to move in. That was his ideal life, actually. But he was suddenly overcome with emotion that he wasn't able to process, and so he just froze for a few seconds, willing his brain to catch up. After what he is sure was an entire lifetime, he sputtered out a "y-yes, I would actually." He could feel Phil relax, even though he hadn't really been able to tell he was tense in the first place. Dan glanced up and saw the somewhat relieved and very much in love grin on Phil's face. It was a reminder that maybe Phil was clinging on tightly as well.

This was the first real time that Dan had realized maybe Phil wanted forever just as much as him. Which, in turn, would cause another problem for his undeserving and overthinking brain: who gave them the authority to decide. Up until now, it had been Phil that was deciding if they would stay together. It was Phil that would decide if Dan could continue to exist with him, because he so obviously wanted it. So if Phil was deciding that yes, he wanted to be with Dan for at least another year, that meant something else was going to stop them. He just had to figure out what it was.

The thing he decided would stop them was the world at large. Homophobia. Tabloids. Their fans. All of it would eventually combine and become too much. They would fall apart at the seams that Dan had tried so hard to re-enforce. It wouldn't be enough. One day, Phil would get tired of hiding or Dan would get so fed up with all of it that he would lash out in a way they wouldn't be able to recover from. And eventually, he thought it was happening. He had so fully convinced himself that this was inevitable, that he basically welcomed it in. One too many testy comments, one too many shut doors, a walk alone without his phone. Maybe it would be better this way. He could just grit his teeth and it would be over. He'd be on his own, just how the universe had destined him.

But that wasn't what he wanted. He wanted Phil. He wanted the security and comfort of being loved, of holding Phil in the night when he was anxious. He loved it, he loved Phil. He loved the home they had built and the career they shared. So he snapped out of it. He forced himself to fight for it, to fight the world and its odds in order to get to be with him and to keep the things he loved. And he did. He built an empire, tours, books, merch, and, while they were at it, started building a house.

And during all of that, he was aware of the pressures and he was aware of what he wanted. He was accomplishing a lot. Honestly, he didn't think about if he would get to keep it that much. He was otherwise occupied with defending this life he had made. So, when he realized that maybe he could stop fighting about it, he was a bit relieved. He could finally relax.

Idle minds do the work of the devil. Suddenly, he had time to think. They were out, they were building a house. He was writing a book. He wasn't impacted as much by his fans these days. All of his worries about what would break them up had turned out to be untrue (if this was because they were baseless or because he worked so hard to keep them from doing so, he could never be sure). But, that old seedling of thought that had haunted him for the last decade was still lying dormant in his mind: he didn't deserve this.

And that now had time to fester. It grew in his mind, this time without any reason. The future, something he could never be certain about, was suddenly his enemy. Dan had changed so much and in so many ways in his life, why couldn't it happen again? Phil could wake up one day and decide that he actually wanted to leave and there would be nothing he could do about it. Dan could wake up one day and realize he was straight, or that he hated Phil, or one of them could do something unforgiveable and nasty and harmful and they would have a bitter end where he would have a bad aftertaste any time he thought of the entirety of his twenties. He couldn't control the future. Any day, there could be another global pandemic (even though this still had not ended them) that throws them completely off kilter. It hadn't happened yet. But any day, it could.

Which is why when his friends started asking him when they were getting married, he told them to calm down. It's only been ten years of steady companionship and love. It's just a mortgage. Oh god, they had a mortgage. He started to get the same feeling he got when Phil had asked him to move in all those years ago. Phil wanted to spend thirty years with him now? Ten plus a 20 year contract. He started to recall the joint bank account conversations, the first time Phil had asked him if he wanted to be the emergency contact, the fact that they went to the same accountant and financial advisor, all of these things that meant forever. Oh god, why weren't they married at this point. They were already almost there except that one piece of paper. He had already signed himself up for something they didn't deserve and he would eventually change his mind about…right?

"I'm confused, Dan," Phil had chuckled out. "Are you saying you want to get married? Is this your way of proposing?"

"No, I mean, no, I just," he stuttered. What did he want? He wanted to keep things the way they were. He wants this life. He just knows he can't have it. His therapist would yell at him about this and he knew it. Deep breath. "I am just scared that I can't control the future. What if you decide to do something wild or what if I decide to do something wild. Then what? There would already be so much paperwork if we broke up, and then adding in a divorce? It seems ridiculous."

"Ah, so you want a premarital divorce instead…?" Phil trailed off, looking at him with those shining, mischievous eyes that Dan loved so dearly.

"God, fuck off, Phil. No! I'm just saying." He didn't need to elaborate. Phil was just taking the piss, he knew what he meant. He always does when it comes to things like this. That's what happens when you're together for this many years.

They were quiet for a moment while Phil got over his own joke. "Dan, we don't have to get married if you don't want to. If the label is freaking you out, then just forget it." They were quiet again. Phil stared at him. "You know, as far as I have been concerned, we could've eloped years ago. I would've done it. There's no guaranteeing the future, but that gives me more reason to make myself happy today. It could be gone. We could both die in a fiery explosion. And if that's the case, I certainly wouldn't mind being married to you until the very end."

Phil was right. Dan knew that. He was basically spitting his own advice back out at him. If life was meaningless and unpredictable, he may as well do whatever he wanted in the present. And he wanted to be with Phil. But he also knew that it was just a piece of paper. And that if he was going to get married, it would be the best damn party anyone's ever been to, so eloping is off the table. He supposed, maybe, he could just trust himself to make the right decision about forever. He had already made a 10+20 year decision on accident, and that was damn close to the marriage certificate.

But he wasn't about to admit defeat to logic. Not in front of Phil and god and everyone. So he didn't. He just sighed a long sigh with about 50 emotions embedded in it. "That's gay, Lester."

[ladycumhangabhainn]

Dans un autre monde - Chapter 10

Previously

  I was coming to the end of my story, how Jamie had gotten me and Faith to Craigh na Dun when the entrance door came bursting open and the sound of Faith, Brianna and Roger’s crying filled the Rectory.

 “Mama!” shouted my youngest.

 “Bree, darling, what’s the matter?”

 “Roger, lad, why are ye all crying?”

 At the grand old age of 9, Roger wasn’t known to cry for nothing, so something must have happened. Before the sweet lad could answer, the younger Mrs Graham came in, carrying her own daughter Fiona.

 “Reverend, Miss Beauchamp, I think yer lad and lassies might have some ear infection... We were having a picnic, then they started complaining about their ears...”

 “Mama, they scweamed!” sobbed Faith. “They were so loud, mama!”

 I frowned. “What was so loud? Roger, what is she talking about?”

 “The sound, auntie Claire, the sound was awful!”

 Sound? Screams?

 “Where did you say you went on your picnic?”

 “Just outside the city, Miss Beauchamp. Near this hill, Craigh na Dun.”

It took time, some cajoling and a full platter of Mrs Graham’s biscuits, but I finally succeeded in calming Roger, Faith and Brianna. They exhausted themselves and were now all napping in the girls’ room. I made my way back to Reggie’s study, the manse quiet except for the soft music coming from the kitchen.

 “Reggie...”

 The reverend’s desk was scattered with papers, the letters and proclamation I had found, but also what looked like a family tree and a piece of paper filled with Reggie’s familiar scribbling.

 “The bairns...”

 “They exhausted themselves. They’re napping in the girls’ room.”

“Good... I’ve been looking through all the papers ye found and tried to make a timeline... We are now in August 1950 which means that during yer Jamie’s time it is now August 1748... 202 years difference, right?”

I nodded and noted his frowned expression.

“What seems to be the problem, Reggie?”

He sighed.

“It’s all those dates... Nothing is right! The letter from the French King is dated May of 1748... And this letter from the Duke of Cumberland is dated September of 1748... In September 1748, Cumberland was in the Holy Roman Empire for the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle! It is impossible that ye and the lassies... Unless...”

 He started opening drawers full of paperwork, fished out a photograph before going to the mantle of the fireplace and taking a framed document.

 “McMaster!” he exclaimed, handing me the framed and the picture.

 The framed contained what looked like a very old document in Latin with several seals at the bottom.

 “I don’t understand... What is this document and who or what is McMaster?”

A smile appeared on the Reverend’s face.

 “This, me dear, is a photograph of the Declaration of Arbroath, the letters the Scottish barons sent to Pope John XXII in 1320 in response to the excommunication of Robert the Bruce. It is currently held at the Scottish Record Office in Edinburgh. And this” he pointed to the frame, “is an almost perfect copy of the Declaration that was made by a dear friend of mine, Ray McMaster.”

 “A copy, you say?”

 I couldn’t quite believe that this document was not the real deal. It looks exactly like the one in the picture, albeit without the signs of time.

 “So your friend, McMaster... He’s a counterfeiter?”

 Reggie let out a jolly laugh.

 “In another life he might have been... No, he is an artist. He works with several museums throughout Britain. As ye must know from yer experiences with yer Uncle Lambert, artifacts are priceless and mostly fragile. It is the same for documents and that’s when Ray comes in. He made several copies of documents that are on display at the Culloden Museum, like letters from Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Scottish Lairds Declaration to the Old Pretender.”

 “You want to ask your friend to make copies of King Louis and the Duke of Cumberland’s letters...”

 “Yes! It might take him awhile; Ray is quite the perfectionist... But the proclamation is dated July of 1749, so it will give you and the girl time to get ready to make the trip back through the stones...”

 He smiled, sheepishly.

 “And it will give us time to get use to the idea of ye and yer lasses leaving...”

 I sighed before hugging him. The girls and I would be reunited with Jamie and our family back in the 18th century, but it will mean saying goodbye to our 20th century family. The idea of leaving Reggie, Roger and Mrs Graham suddenly made me feel faint... 

“Promise me something, lass... Promise me ye’ll try to find a way to get word to us, to let us ken ye are all safe...”

 “I promise, Reggie... I think I might even have an idea how. You do business with a publishing house from Edinburgh, Fraser Press. It was founded back in the 18th century as F.A.M.M. Fraser, Printer and Book Seller...”

 He frowned. “F.A.M.M. Fraser? Yer lad, Fergus?”

 I nodded. “According to Mrs Graham, Fraser Press still belongs to my Fergus’ descendants... I’ll forever be thankful for what you did for me and my girls...”

 “I feel as if ye and yer lasses are me own... Like ye are part of me family and... maybe ye are, in a way.”

 He took the family tree from the table, it was a MacKenzie family tree.

 “Tis wee Roger’s family tree, from his father’s side. See if ye can find any name ye recognize...”

 I looked at the very top and let out a gasp.

 “William John and Sarah MacKenzie... They’re... They adopted Dougal and Geillis’ son... Oh my God! That means that Roger is...”

 “Dougal, ye mean the War Chieftain of clan MacKenzie?”

 “Yes, he was Jamie’s uncle, his mother’s brother... He had an affair with Geillis Duncan, the fiscal’s wife, but... She was a traveler, from 1968... And Roger can hear the stones as well... But then he is...”

 I tried to calculate in my head, but Reggie was quicker.

 “It means that wee Roger is yer lasses’ 2nd cousin, 6 times removed. So ye are, indeed, family.”

 “So I truly am Auntie Claire!”

 We laughed and cried at the same time, Reggie holding me in his arms and whispering softly. I felt so safe in his embrace. It reminded me of how safe I felt in Uncle Lamb’s embrace.

 “Now, me dear, we have to make preparations...”

                                                           ****

 And so we did. First we had to contact Mr McMaster who took quite his time responding to the message Reggie left with his assistant. Then with the help of Mrs Graham and her coven of druids, we salvaged pieces of the clothing Faith and I had wore on our arrival to 1948 and made three new dresses with lots of hidden pockets.

Slowly I started to get the girls to the idea that we would be leaving our current lives to be reunited with Jamie and Fergus. Faith had an easier time accepting it than Brianna. The 20th Century was all she had known and, although she had been quite young, my eldest daughter still had vivid memories of our lives in the past. She was able to get her sister excited at the prospect of finally meeting their father and their brother. My sweet little girl made sure to tell Brianna that both Jamie and Fergus would love her and that Fergus would teach her all the French comptines she couldn’t remember.

 We celebrated first Faith’s 4th birthday, then my own 32nd and finally Brianna’s 2nd. After Hogmanay, the girls started counting down the day until we would leave. We had decided that the best moment to pass through the Stones would be on the Summer Solstice. And so we counted the days and waited for Mr McMaster to send the copy of the letters. And we waited, and waited, and waited. By late May I was beginning to think the letters would never get on time and that we would miss our window of opportunity. That is until June 15th, 5 days before our set departure date.

 Reggie had taken Mrs Graham, Roger and the girls on an outing by the Loch and I was doing some last minute check, making sure all the medicine I had “borrowed” from the Infirmary would fit in all the hidden pockets of my traveling clothes, counting all the vintage coins we had found in several antique boutiques, when someone rang the doorbell.

 “Yes?” I said to the well dressed man standing on the doorstep.

 “I have a parcel for Mrs Claire Fraser...”

 Claire Fraser... I hadn’t been called that in what seemed like a lifetime ago...

 “Yes... I mean... I am Claire Fraser.”

 He handed me a large envelop before wishing me a nice day. The envelope was indeed addressed to me, but there was no return address. I slowly made my way to Reggie’s study and opened it. Inside were two sealed documents as well as what looked like antique bank statement from the Royal Bank of Scotland and three delicate necklaces with gemstones. In between those documents was a simple white envelope with one word, Madonna.

 Ma chère Madonna,

 You must have now deduced that Ray McMaster and the Paris apothecary you met a long time ago are one and the same.

You see, I have been watching you for years, Madonna. I first met you when you were a small child, pushed in a pram by your mother in an Oxford park. Your light, even at such a young age, shined a bright blue. Our second meeting happened shortly after your parents’ untimely death, when you were travelling to Egypt with your Uncle Lambert.

You see, Madonna, the Beauchamp are quite dear to me and I was tasked – or more likely I tasked myself – into looking after them through Time.  Just like you, Madonna, I am a traveler. I have traveled for so long that I somehow forgot where and when I am from. But I have never forgotten my line. You are of my line, Madonna. You come from a long line of what now people call time traveler.

Your destiny was always to travel through the Stones of Craigh na Dun and to meet your Highlander. And it is my destiny to reunite you with him.

I was able to visit Versailles recently. Do not worry, Madonna, King Louis didn’t recognized me. Although for him 4 years had passed since our last encounter, for me it had been a couple of decades. After leaving Versailles I made a quick detour by Aix-la-Chapelle and met with the Duke of Cumberland. I was able to convince him of the innocence and the loyalty of both you and your Highlander. Quite the man, that Butcher of Culloden.

I know Reginald believe me to be an artist – a counterfeiter maybe – but as you can see I am simply a traveler. Don’t tell him that the Declaration of Arbroath I gave him a couple of years ago is actually one of the original copy. I don’t think he would survive the shock.

Aurevoir for now, Madonna, for I am sure we will meet again.

 Raymond

 PS. I almost forgot, you will also find bank papers allowing you to access an account at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh back in the 18th Century. I opened it in 1727 in your name, hopefully the fund will allow you and your Highlander to live comfortably. – R

PPS. The gemstones necklaces should allow you to pass through the Stones and through time more easily. Opal for yourself and your Faith and topaz for your Brianna. – R

 I didn’t realize I was crying until a tear fell on the letter, staining the paper. I didn’t know what to think about all that, but knowing Master Raymond had spent years furtively watching over me...

 “Thank you...” I said before putting the precious documents away.

                                                         ****

 Before I even realized it, it was June 20th. We all went to bed quite early the previous night and got up a couple of hours before dawn. I took my time getting the girls ready before joining Reggie and Roger down in the kitchen for a light breakfast – I knew from experience that it was better to travel through the Stones on an empty stomach.

 “Do ye really have to go, Auntie Claire?” asked Roger, eyes still red from having cried himself to sleep.

 “I’m afraid we do, sweet boy... But I promise I will find a way to get word to you as soon as we can...”

 The car ride was spent in silence and as we arrived at Craigh na Dun we were meet by Mrs Graham and some of her fellow Druids. Unlike for Beltane and Samhain, the Midsommer Druids Dance was done only by 3 dancers led by Mrs Graham.

 “They are ready for ye, me dear...”

 That’s when it hit me... I turned toward Reggie and Roger, hugging them as if my life depended on it, pressing kisses to the cheeks and tasting their salty tears. The girls too hugged them and kissed them goodbye, Brianna having to be pried from her grip on Roger’s neck.

 We finally made the trek up the hill and the buzzing sent more tears to my daughters’ eyes. Arriving in front of the central stone, I took Brianna in my arms, balancing her on my hip, and held Faith’s little hand.

 “Alright, girls... Now I want you to think about your father and brother... Think about them and about finally seeing them... I want you to count to three with me, and at three we will all touch the stone, alright?”

 They both nodded.

 “One... Two... Three!”

 TBC

[themoneybuff-blog]

Questions About Tax Brackets, Compound Interest, Warehouse Clubs, Stamps, and More!

Whats inside? Here are the questions answered in todays reader mailbag, boiled down to summaries of five or fewer words. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question. 1. Losing faith 2. Thoughts on simple investment strategy 3. Tax bracket question 4. Compound interest question 5. Costco versus Sams Club 6. Question about forever stamps 7. Investing for near term 8. VA disability and property taxes 9. KitchenAid 10. Where should I retire? 11. Credit cards for specific purposes 12. Saving old journals On the wall in my office are three framed pictures that my children drew for me when they were younger using finger paints. In the corner of each, my wife typed out a brief description of what the painting was supposed to be, transcribing what the children told her about them. They are among my favorite possessions. I look at them at least a few times a day and they provide a constant reminder to me about what Im doing, what Ive done right, and what I might do better. Theyre older now. My daughter is a fantastic artist at this point, drawing still life far better than I ever dreamed of being able to do. My oldest son is developing into a skilled problem solver and is likely headed for some sort of engineering career. My youngest has a superb wit and the most insatiably curious mind Ive ever come across. Those pictures captured them at a moment in their lives thats already past, yet when I look at the pictures, I dont think of my children as they were, but as they are. Its pretty impressive what three pieces of paper and a few cents worth of finger paint can do. Q1: Losing faith I have worked for the DoE for 18 years and been through a few shutdowns, but this is the first time Ive simply not received my paycheck. Part of the reason I have chosen to work for the government rather than an energy company is due to the stability of the job and now that feels like it is eroding. I dont know when Im getting paid next which is the very type of thing I wanted to avoid in private industry and took a somewhat lower paying job. I am losing faith in the government as reliable. Not sure what to do. Dan After last weeks mailbag focused so heavily on the shutdown, I wanted to dial it back a little this week, so this is the only shutdown-related question. Again, Im not interested in the politics of the situation, just how it affects the daily life of those affected by it. In your shoes, Dan, I would probably start polishing up the resume. I get the impression that your finances are generally pretty stable and you can handle a short period without pay. I would also use this as inspiration to remind yourself that the best kind of financial reliability is when youre relying solely on your own savings, not the reliability of an employer. When things do return to normal, kick up your retirement savings a bit and get yourself into a place of financial independence just a little faster. Q2: Thoughts on simple investment strategy I wanted to get your thoughts on the investment strategy my great uncle told me about. Hes in his mid 60s and has been basically retired for about a decade. He ran a bakery but sold it to the manager about a decade ago and sometimes consults with them but thats about it. He said that what he did was starting in the early 1980s when he was just starting out, he put a minimum of $100 a month into a savings account and then put in any windfalls he got. The minimum grew as his income did. Whenever the stock market dropped 10% from its peak, he would take half of his savings and put it in the stock market and then not watch again for another six months. He said he blew away the market doing this and its why he retired so early. I am skeptical because he sometimes tells tall tales and I think he is mostly retired on bakery money. Your thoughts? Alex So, lets break this down. He puts $100 a month into savings and then puts half of his savings into stocks every time the stock market is 10% or more lower than its peak, but he only does this every six months at most. I tried my best to match this strategy in a spreadsheet to figure out whether this would actually beat the market. As best as I can figure, over the period of January 1, 1982 to January 1, 2019, this strategy would beat the market but not overwhelmingly, and it didnt beat the market for long stretches in there. I assumed a 3% return over that entire period on money in the savings account, and I only checked the stock market on the 1st of every month. I used the S&P 500 as the number for the stock market and assumed he was investing in the Vanguard 500, which basically matches the S&P 500. Now, having said that, its worth noting that sitting on stocks over that period is simply a great investment. On January 1, 1982, the S&P 500 was at 117.30. On January 1, 2019, its at 2,584.62. That money he invested back in the early eighties utterly exploded in value. Heck, even as late as January 1, 2009, it was at 865.58 it has basically tripled since then. If your great uncle sold his bakery ten years ago and put a lot of that money into stocks, and hed been doing this investment strategy as you described all along, he probably is sitting on a pretty penny right now. As for whether you should do it, I dont think its strictly better or worse than just investing that $100 directly every month. It really depends on how the market fluctuates, as all of these strategies do. Your great uncle got rich because he made a 40 year investment in stocks, not because he had a great timing strategy. Anyone with just about any strategy starting in the early 1980s would be doing very good today if they just left the money in the market. In other words, I think youd be in great shape if you used your uncles strategy. I also think youd be in great shape if you just put $100 or $200 a month into a broad based index fund and sat on it for the next 40 years. The thing those two strategies have in common is that theyre both riding the long term stock market growth, and thats where the real money is over the long term. Q3: Tax bracket question You wrote: Lets say youre a single taxpayer who earns $35,000 per year. The first $9,275 of your income is taxed at 10%, and the remaining $25,725 is taxed at 15%. What? While $35,000 falls into the 15% tax bracket, your effective tax rate is actually 13.7%. The higher your income, the more tax brackets you pass through to arrive at your effective tax rate. There is no listed 15% tax bracket for single taxpayers.. That sentence is thoroughly confusing! Please explain where you came up with that! Tammy The article in question was written by Simple Dollar contributor Frank Addessi, not by me. Ill do my best to explain this specific point more clearly. First of all, Frank seems to have been using the 2017 tax brackets rather than the 2018 ones to explain the principle. His numbers perfectly line up with the 2017 tax brackets, which did include a 15% rate. The current 2018 tax brackets for single filers look like this: 10% Up to $9,525 12% $9,526 to $38,700 22% $38,701 to $82,500 24% $82,501 to $157,500 32% $157,501 to $200,000 35% $200,001 to $500,000 37% over $500,000 The easiest way to think of tax brackets is to imagine a big water fountain, one that has a bunch of progressively larger pools. When the little pool at the top overflows, the overflow runs down into the next pool which is a little bigger, and when that one overflows, that overflow runs down into the next pool, and so on. Heres a picture if you want a visual aid. So, in Franks example, hes looking at someone who made $35,000 in taxable income this year. You start dumping that income into the 10% bracket until it fills up at $9,525. At that point, you still have $25,475 to put into the fountain, so we move down to the next bracket. It can hold all remaining income up to $38,700, and so it holds the remainder. So, that first $9,525 is taxed at 10%, which means $952.50 in taxes, and the remaining $25,475 is taxed at 12%, which means $3,057 in taxes. Your total tax bill is $4,009.50, which is 11.5% of your income. This person is in the 12% tax bracket and their effective tax rate is 11.5%. Remember, because some of your income always ends up in those smaller bowls with a lower rate, your overall effective tax rate is always lower than your tax bracket. Hopefully this clears things up! Q4: Compound interest question I recently read a blog post about compound interest, which Ive primarily associated with bank accounts. But the article also seems to associate compound interest with retirement accounts and I was wondering if you could provide some clarity. One example early on says Lets say you have $5,000 in a retirement account, earning 7% interest each year. The first year you earn $350 in interest, which brings your total to $5,350. The following year, interest is calculated based on that $5,350 total Even if you never deposit anything but the original $5,000, youll have $38,061.28 in 30 years. I know the average stock market return is 7%, but is it accurate to call that interest? If not, is there some other type of retirement account that genuinely offers 7% interest on your principle every year (as this article seems to suggest)? Another example: toward the end it says If youre saving for retirement, invest in low-fee index funds. Fees of 1% or more will drag down your profit and cut into your compound interest. Index funds will follow the markets course and provide a solid rate of return. Avoid picking individual stocks, as their volatility can be problematic. Im on board with the ideas of low-fee index funds, but not for fear of high fees cut[ting] into your compound interest. Index funds are liable to lose value some years too, arent they? I wouldnt be giving this as much thought if it came from a smaller blog but this is Mint. It makes me wonder if I fully understand how my retirement accounts are working, or if Im missing an opportunity elsewhere. Is the article conflating two topics that dont really connect to one another? Or is there a way to leverage compound interest to this big of a degree for retirement? Max Mint is using the terms investment returns and interest interchangeably here in order to reduce the number of different terms being thrown at the reader. I do this myself its a way of making similar concepts seem familiar and not overwhelm people with new terms, especially when theyre asking an introductory question. They are distinct ideas, but they both have the same effect if you let them sit for a long time, the growth they provide is powerful. Your retirement account, assuming its invested mostly in stocks, doesnt return interest. Rather, what happens is that you usually own shares in a mutual fund. Each time you put money into your retirement account, its used to buy more shares. Over time, those shares grow in value maybe not each and every year, but most years. They also regularly produce dividends, which are small cash payments for each of those shares, issued to you. Almost always, dividends are just used to buy more shares of that same investment. So, shares grow in value over time and youre also rolling dividends in to buy even more shares. The end effect of that is much like compound interest in a savings account it builds and builds. Although theyre not the same thing, the exponential growth curve of interest in a savings account and investments in a retirement account are similar. The growth curve of the savings account isnt as steep, but its very steady and always upwards. The growth curve of the stock market investment is really bumpy, but overall trends upward much more strongly than the growth curve of the savings account. Q5: Costco versus Sams Club I dont know anything about sams club because we joined it when it first came to town years ago and hated it. When Costco came to town, we heard such positive things we decided to give it a chance and have liked it much better. Reasons are several, including those you wrote about esp. the gas prices as we pass the store every day. Further, they treat their employees really well. most importantly, they guarantee that if the credit card rewards (on their visa card) do not equal the membership fee, they will refund the membership fee. We have only one visa card and its theirs as we get a great deal of rewards based on gas alone. Jaden My experience has been that different chain stores have different degrees of quality in different areas of the country. Where I live, the two closest warehouse clubs to my door are both Sams Club and theyre both clean and well stocked and well staffed, and both feature gas prices that are consistently about $0.07 per gallon cheaper than any of the stations near them. There is a Costco in Des Moines (the closest Costco to me) and I found the experience there to be very similar when Ive visited with friends with Costco memberships. However, having said that, I didnt see anything that made it worth the substantial additional drive for me. My experience is that theyre both fine, at least at the locations Ive visited, and you should check out both in your area if theyre both available (along with BJs, another warehouse club chain popular in some regions of the United States). Q6: Question about forever stamps As you likely know, the largest increase in the cost of a stamp will occur on Sunday, January 27, 2019, as the price of a first class Forever Stamp goes from $0.50 to $0.55 (a 10% increase). While the best way to save money on stamps is to call/TXT/email rather than mail a letter, sometimes mailing a letter presents a very good value (sending someone a note of appreciation, etc.). Due to how significant this increase is, I would recommended that anyone with no high interest debt who already has an emergency fund try to purchase 2-4 years worth of stamps, while anyone else try to acquire at least a 1-year supply of stamps (as long as they can do so without paying interest on the purchase). Im curious how much of a supply of stamps you would recommend people acquire prior to this price increase? Stephen Personally, we estimated how many stamps well likely use over the course of 2019 (mostly personal letters and holiday cards) and bought them all already. This added up to 200 stamps, so the cost was $100, as compared to the $110 we would have spent had we bought those stamps at the end of January or later. With a longer timeframe than that, the cost benefit of buying those stamps really starts to shrink. Your annual return starts to sag and you have the stamps for longer, which means theres a greater risk of some sort of damage to the stamps (the longer you have them, the more likely they are to be lost, burnt, misused, and so on). This is basically what weve done each time theres been a bump in the cost of forever stamps. Weve bought an entire years worth just before the bump in price. Its not a big savings, but it saves us $5-$10 over the course of a year. Q7: Investing for near term You recommend fully investing in the Roth/529 even though they are less than 10 years out from likely needing the capital? I was thinking of them putting 10 or 20% aside for long term, although they are a bit depressed by the .1% interest our local bank returns to them. Any back of the envelope math as to what $2,000, invested at age 16, is worth at age 70? Annie Yes, I recommend putting money into tax-advantaged education and retirement accounts, even if youre less than ten years from your expected use. The difference is that when youre looking at that short of a timeframe, you choose investments that are intended for short and medium term investments, like safe bonds or money markets. They have a smaller average annual return than stocks, but they certainly beat savings accounts and have very little risk of losing money and youre still able to pull out the gains tax free. As for your other question, if you put in $2,000 into, say, a Roth IRA at age 16, put it aggressively into stocks, and let it ride until age 70, you should see an average annual return of 7% on that money. So, 54 years of a 7% average annual return on $2,000 gives you are you ready for this $77,224.30. Now, its worth noting that $77K wont go as far in 54 years as it goes now, but itll still be a very healthy chunk of money. If you withdraw 3% of it annually (which is a safe bet), thats $2,317 a year. Yep, if he puts that $2,000 away now and starts withdrawing it every year at age 70, hell be able to pull out more than $2,000 a year basically forever and still hand down a big chunk of it to his kids/grandkids. Q8: VA disability and property taxes Can a veteran who is on total VA disability with no other income receive a tax refund on his home owners taxes? Jim Property taxes are a deduction from ones income tax bill. Since, as a person on total disability from the VA, youre already paying no income taxes, you have nothing from which to deduct. I dont know the specifics of your financial state, but if you were to earn a small income, its likely that the deduction from the property taxes would take care of the income taxes on that small income. However, if your income is solely from the VA due to total disability, property tax payments wont help your income tax bill since you dont have an income tax bill. Q9: KitchenAid it is my understanding that [KitchenAid] was bought out by a foreign company some time ago surely since 50 years ago and that the new company has been making them with some parts being plastic that were metal originally. I have seen reviewers saying that the old ones really do last forever if one takes good care of them, whereas some of the newer models plastic parts tend to wear out. I dont remember seeing any mention of whether those plastic parts can be replaced. I think I found this information on consumer information web sites. Annie Whirlpool purchased KitchenAid in 1986. At some point in the late 1990s, it seems that KitchenAid replaced the gearbox in some of their stand mixers with one made of nylon rather than the original one made of metal. The issue isnt that the nylon ones wear out under normal use, but that people tend to stress them. For example, the instructions for the manual state to only use the dough hook attachment on speed setting 1 or 2, but people often turn it to 3 or higher. This causes the gearbox to get overworked and cause breakdown issues. Today, KitchenAid makes two lines of stand mixers the Artisan and the Pro line. The Artisan has a nylon gear box where the Pro line seems to have the old-style metal gear box but the Pro line is substantially more expensive. One note: the reason many people believe that old things are more reliable is due to selective bias. People remember the things that worked well in the past and forget the things that do not, and then they compare those things that worked well to everything now, where some things work well and some things do not. Thats always been true. Q10: Where should I retire? My husband I are targeting early retirement within 10 years but well be figuring out a location in 3-5 years. We want to spend the next few years visiting a variety of possible locations, narrow it down to a shorter list and then try out a few, staying 6 months to a year. Where would you start? What criteria would you consider? What resources are available, particularly those geared towards retirees (we dont really care about the quality of local schools these days). Thanks for any suggestions. Margaret If I were you, Id start by figuring out what you want to do in retirement. What do you want your typical day to look like? Does it involve regular time with family? With friends? Does it involve a lot of time outside in warm weather? Do you guys like cold weather? How do you want to spend your time? Questions like that should narrow down your target locations pretty quickly. Once youve addressed those kinds of quality of life issues, I would focus on cost of living and aim for areas that have a low cost of living while still meeting your other quality of life goals. I like using this cost of living calculator. Since youre retiring early, I wouldnt prioritize access to services too much at this point. Instead, focus on what will give you the aspects of life you want with a low cost of living. Q11: Credit cards for specific purposes I have not used credit cards until a few years ago and wondering if the following expenses qualify as recurring payment for which the card gives a cash-back: 1. Monthly rent paid to the apartment landlord (not sure if the landlord would accept credit card though but rent is the single largest toll on my modest purse); 2. Life insurance premiums. These do accept credit card payments and I am about to apply for two. Sasha I think that using credit cards for very tight specific purposes like this is a good choice, as it raises your credit score and likely provides some sort of reward bonus or cash back bonus for the card. The key, of course, is paying off the balance in full each month. Youll have to check with the credit card in terms of whether or not such payments qualify for the cash back reward. It depends on the specific offer and probably on how you go about the payment. If I were you, the next step Id take is talking to my landlord about credit card payments. My guess is that a small business might not accept credit cards, but a large one will. You may want to consider other strict uses for it as well, such as gas purchases or other regular bills. Q12: Saving old journals I loved to learn that you also use the three morning pages idea! I have been doing this for years and years, since 2000 at least. Question: what do you do with the old journals? I have a box of them in the garage. I realize I dont really look at them but it feels wrong to just burn them or throw them away but I also dont really want my kids to read them because theyre really personal and I sometimes work through hard feelings about motherhood. Jenny Personally, I digitize all of my old journal entries and then destroy the originals. (The exception is journals that Im hand-writing for each of my kids to give to them when theyre adults that contains a summary of the life advice I have for them along with things like family histories and recollections.) My process is that when I finish a journal, I put it aside for a while until I realize Im no longer looking back on it (usually six months or so), then I cut all of the pages out of the binding and scan them all (I use Scanner Pro). Then, I burn the original pages. That way, I can easily browse through them when I want, search through them using text searching, and theyll basically go away when I die (I suppose one of my kids might find them if they trawl through lots of my digital detritus, but most likely theyll just toss out old computer equipment without a second thought). Most of the stuff Ive written is simply me working through personal problems, and I really have no interest in rereading that stuff. The valuable stuff, for me, is when Im working through an intellectual idea, because I often want to revisit the earlier thoughts. Got any questions? The best way to ask is to follow me on Facebook and ask questions directly there. Ill attempt to answer them in a future mailbag (which, by way of full disclosure, may also get re-posted on other websites that pick up my blog). However, I do receive many, many questions per week, so I may not necessarily be able to answer yours. https://www.thesimpledollar.com/questions-about-tax-brackets-compound-interest-warehouse-clubs-stamps-and-more/

[islamcketta]

Not many people have the fortune to read a biography of their grandfather. I feel especially privileged to have just finished reading Energy: The Life of John J. McKetta Jr. while my beloved grandfather, a man I call Djiedo, is still alive at 102. Written by my cousin, Elisabeth Sharp McKetta, this loving portrait not only brought me closer to my roots, but in doing so helped me find comfort in a time gone awry. It is impossible to impartially review this book, but I do want to share some of the lessons I learned while reading it, because, while some are very personal, I think they can help more than just me.

Humans Are the Best of What We Have

One of the lessons drilled into me as a child by my father who learned it from Djiedo was how a person’s worth was not tied to what they did for a living. This is something that’s been top of mind lately as the Republican Party seeks to reward donors and reinforce the growing divide between rich and poor in the US. And it wasn’t until I read “wealth can never be a measure of worth” in Dan Rather’s poignant Facebook note that I could pinpoint exactly what my discomfort with recent events was. I assumed we all thought that wealth wasn’t a measure of worth. Naive, perhaps, but also a worldview that forms who I am.

The value of humans rather than wealth seems natural for a man who rose from coal miner to university chancellor and presidential advisor, but it’s one that’s all too easily forgotten. It’s one we mask by talking about “a man being the sum of his actions and not his inheritance,” but judging by how much of Djiedo’s admittedly fantastic rise was influenced not just by his drive but by the support of others, human connections are the only real wealth in the world.

Material Wealth is Impermanent

Something I’ve feared desperately since I got laid off last year and Trump was elected is how I would take care of my family in an economic downturn, or worse, a war. Reading Energy, I realized that worry itself was a luxury. When the Great Depression hit the McKetta family, they were poor enough to not have much to lose. It was the Smith family, my grandmother and her parents, whose fortunes fell because they did. I have a home, bank accounts and a cushy corporate job, but this book reminded me that it’s my loved ones who matter. Tragedies can happen there, too, and did to my Djiedo, but I can’t live in fear of those, either, because life goes on and we carry our people with us.

Connections Can Last a Lifetime—Or More

Speaking of people I love, this book reminded me that family is what you make it. I did know that, but in the past three years of pregnancy, birth and raising an infant without any close family nearby, I’ve let myself get pretty isolated. What a wonderful feeling this week to pair the addressing of my Christmas cards with reading in Energy about how Djiedo kept in touch with so many people who touched his life for so long.

That actually brings up a funny story. Dr. Eugene P. Schoch started the Chemical Engineering department at the University of Texas that’s now named for Djiedo, and when Dr. Schoch recruited Djiedo, he, Baba and my infant father lived in a building behind Dr. Schoch’s house. On my Christmas card list is a Stephanie Schoch—the great-granddaughter of Eugene. I met Stephanie two years ago when I used AirBNB to book the building behind her house so that my husband, my infant son, and I could attend Djiedo’s 100th birthday party. Point being that the world is small and we can let it feel large and unmanageable or lonely but it doesn’t have to be. Those connections are there if we preserve them—as Djiedo has and as I’m relearning to.

Honestly Learning from Anyone You Can

Some of the people Djiedo kept in touch with were his mentors. One of the most beautiful things Elisabeth did in Energy, and I’m sure this was blessed by Djiedo’s stellar recall and generous willingness to share attribution, was to trace some of the most important and memorable parts of Djiedo’s character to his mentors.

This is an excellent reminder that not only are our lives touched every day by people we can learn from, but we touch lives too. In a time when so many “mentors” and men in power are being called out for sexual harassment, abuse, and assault, perhaps one of the most important things we can all do is to look at our own behavior and see where we have failed those who looked up to us and how we can not fail next time. There’s an anecdote in Energy about Djiedo being confronted with his own sexism. While I think he came by his beliefs honestly (from his culture, his family, his time), what is very much to his credit is how open he was to learning a new way to be. I hope I have the courage to learn as well from my own mistakes.

The Advantages of Staying Busy

Busyness is what makes Djiedo the man he is. On days when you’re not prepared for this energy, you might call it frenetic, but it’s also a key to his success and to who he is. Instead of going off to college to find himself like so many of us do, Djiedo launched a personal campaign to get himself admitted to a university and then worked three jobs to ensure he had food and shelter while he obtained that degree. As a professor he was an editor (something I did not know), a lecturer, a board member, and also a presidential advisor. This is a pace I believe he sustains even now. Though at 102 he sleeps many more hours than he used to, I know from personal experience that there is not a minute wasted in his day as he keeps up with old acquaintances and feeds his busy brain.

As an inheritor of this type of energy, it certainly feels frenetic in my chest, especially as I woke at 4am all week to read about Djiedo during hours I usually describe as “McKetta early” because so many of Djiedo’s descendants greet the dawn way before the sun is ready to get up. But I know this energy is also what allows me to find time in the week to have a corporate career while spending time with my son and also writing books.

What’s painful to admit is that I’ve let my own busy life become an excuse for avoiding visiting Djiedo. I wondered often while reading Energy how the type of career that allows one to become a presidential advisor affects the family back home. Although Djiedo lived the ideal male role of his time, I’m not sure the time away from family is something I want for myself and I see that my choices aren’t reflecting my values. I’m afraid of losing him the way we lost my grandmother, Baba, but we will lose him eventually and staying away only squanders an opportunity.

Baba, the Heart of it All

The hardest part of this book for me to read was the section about Baba’s decline and death. Not because she wasn’t ready to die, she had been for a long time, but because she was the heart of us all. I witnessed Baba’s moderating effect on Djiedo that Elisabeth describes in Energy and I know that from my love of reading to the deep patience and quiet I am capable of, a good share of who I am comes from her as well. Being in Baba’s very presence was a grounding, healing experience for us all, and while she was more than ready to go, I think we all will miss her always. I’m grateful to Elisabeth for the ways she wove Baba’s story in with Djiedo’s because I think I, and my son, have lessons to learn from incorporating both types of energy into our lives.

We Are the Legends We Leave Behind

As I was reading this book, my son slept down the hall, and I kept thinking what a privilege it is that he’ll have a book about his great-grandfather to pore over when he’s ready. He’s even in one of the pictures. Though the audience for Energy might be limited to the people whose lives John J. McKetta has touched, that touch is profound and the audience engaged.

If you are a parent or a grandparent, please write your stories down. Not in ones and zeroes but on paper where a curious child or grandchild can find them later and begin to understand where they come from and how that has made them. This is not the first book I’ve read about Djiedo—two decades ago he gave our family individual copies of an autobiography entitled My First 80 Years—but Energy gave me a rounder portrait of my family in a time I most needed it and I will read it again.

Although I remember some of the legends differently, so goes family lore. I am grateful to have a canonical reference for my son that’s more trustworthy than my faulty memory. And I’ve annotated my copy with extra details where I appear so that he can come to know me better someday.

One of my favorite movies has always been Big Fish, especially the ending when all of the characters from the father’s mythic past converge to bid him farewell. It’s a gorgeous celebration of a full life well lived and also a reminder that the way we choose to remember our history makes us who we are now. I hope we have a long time before Djiedo’s final celebration (and not just because I need to book a plane ticket), but if his 95th birthday party (attended by 650 people) and his 100th (rich with family in an event kept intentionally small) are any indication, it will be sprawling people whose lives Djiedo has touched. I am lucky to be among them.

To read this portrait of a man I love very much, pick up a copy of Energy: The Life of John J. McKetta, Jr. from Powell’s Books. Your purchase keeps indie booksellers in business and I receive a commission.

The post Revisiting My Roots with Energy by Elisabeth Sharp McKetta: On Finding My Center appeared first on A Geography of Reading.

[oldguardaudio]

PowerLine -> Today in Sexual Harassment + Al Franken: The movie

Powerline image at HoaxAndChange

Help Hillary lost and can’t shut up at HoaxAndChange.com

Daily Digest

Today in Sexual Harassment

Loose Ends (31)

Tweet of the Day

Springtime for Marx and Germany

Al Franken: The movie

Today in Sexual Harassment

Posted: 21 Nov 2017 03:23 PM PST

(Steven Hayward)I didn’t think the morning news that Melissa Gilbert has accused Oliver Stone of sexual harassment way back in 1991 (I’d kinda forgotten who Melissa Gilbert is, and Oliver Stone is best forgotten on general principle), but then I saw the news that came out later that Pixar’s major creative force, John Lasseter, is “taking a leave” from the animation powerhouse because of the usual problem:

John Lasseter, the head of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios and one of the most powerful figures in the entertainment industry, acknowledged Tuesday that he had crossed the line with employees. He is taking a six-month leave of absence.

Lasseter sent a memo to staff apologizing for making employees feel disrespected or uncomfortable, Variety has confirmed. . . His name has continued to be mentioned privately, with a number of former Pixar employees telling Variety that he has behaved inappropriately and describing a culture at the company as “toxic” and “sexist” for women.  . . Since the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke in October, however, some female employees have begun to discuss how Lasseter’s behavior has crossed boundaries, describing it as creepy.

Lasseter isn’t quite the Hollywood presence that Weinstein was, but I have long held to the axiom that only Pixar should be allowed to make children’s movies, as their offerings were so far superior to the formulaic Shrek fare of Dreamworks, IMHO. The Dreamworks stable of kids movies always try too hard to make subtle nods to the parents and almost invariably have an annoying baby boomer music soundtrack. Pixar movies are consistently more original. This just isn’t debatable.

A reminder of how the next Oscar night is shaping up:

And here, a special schadenfreudetastic moment—Kevin Spacey defending Bill Clinton on . . . Charlie Rose. It really doesn’t get better than this:

   Loose Ends (31)

Posted: 21 Nov 2017 09:45 AM PST

(Steven Hayward)• The Financial Times has an interesting article on Chinese universities, and especially how the authoritarian regime would like to exert better control over foreign-funded universities and branch campuses. The government is going to place trusted Communist Party members on the board of trustees on all these joint-venture universities, and make them vice-chancellors as well.

This passage, in particular, stands out:

“This changes the nature of the game and has ominous potential [consequences] for academic freedom,” one of the people said. “The first line of control is self censorship. The next line is [more] overt.”

In other words, the Chinese are modeling themselves after American universities!

• Germany sub-alles? Angela Merkel is unable to form a government, and may call for new elections. The sticking points between her and her potential coalition partners sound familiar: immigration, and energy policy. Her potential right of center partners wants to restrict immigration and back away from green energy nonsense, while her potential left of center partners demand open immigration and a pledge to abandon coal-fired power as well as Germany’s remaining nuclear power. Good luck with that. Apparently, a coalition with the new Alternative for Germany Party, which went from zero to 95 seats in the Bundestag in the last election, is not even being remotely considered. Merkel’s survival as chancellor is in doubt, like Theresa May in Britain. (Though ironically Merkel’s sudden weakness may help bail out May, as May’s government can now demand a better Brexit deal. Merkel was clearly intent on punishing Britain for its temerity in rejecting the EU.)

Great. Just what we need. Parliamentary instability in Germany in a time of populism. Maybe the supposedly “gridlocked” American system isn’t so bad after all. At least we get an administration that can function.

• Finally, about the brewing Capitol Hill sexual harassment scandal, in which millions of dollars have been quietly paid out to settle harassment claims. Anyone care to make book on whether Joe Biden was one of the figures involved? Rumors are starting to circulate. . .

I’ve been thinking about coming up with a 1 to 10 Weinstein Grossness Scale to calibrate the problem of male predation. Here’s a first draft:

Flirtatious emails/texts.

Lame pick up lines at a bar.

Wolf whistle on the street. (Hard-hat optional.)

The Joe Biden (uninvited hugs and general grabbiness).

The George H.W. Bush (pinching/patting derriere).

The Full Franken (uninvited kiss).

The Roy Moore (stalking teenagers).

The Ted Kennedy-Charlie Rose maneuver (turning up without pants).

The Louis C.K. (ick).

The Clinton-Weinstein maneuver (aka rape).

   Tweet of the Day

Posted: 21 Nov 2017 08:47 AM PST

(John Hinderaker)The tweet of the day (it was yesterday, actually) comes from Dan McLaughlin. So many have been swept up in the tide of sexual assault and harassment accusations that it is hard to keep track of them all, but arguably the second most consequential figure implicated so far (second only to Bill Clinton) is John Conyers:

John Conyers settled charges of sexually harassing staffers during the time his wife was in prison for taking bribes on the Detroit City Council.

The perfect Democrat power couple.

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) November 21, 2017

Via InstaPundit.

   Springtime for Marx and Germany

Posted: 21 Nov 2017 07:24 AM PST

(Paul Mirengoff)I suppose it was inevitable, given the left’s re-enchantment with Communism, but I still found news of the 2017 film “The Young Karl Marx” jarring. The American Film Institute will be showing the movie as part of its “European Union Film Showcase” next month in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Here is how the AFI describes this German/French/Belgian co-production:

Following his documentary I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, Raoul Peck takes on the story of the formative friendship of Karl Marx (August Diehl) and Friedrich Engels (Stefan Konarske). From Germany to France to England, the young thinkers pursue justice for the working class, who toiled under obscenely exploitative conditions to enrich their employers (including Engels’ father, a mill owner) during the peak of the Industrial Revolution.

Peck crafts an accessible biopic about these two larger-than-life thinkers, taking them down from their historicized pedestals and allowing viewers to relate to them as young strivers disrupting an inequitable status quo through the power of persuasion and organization.

Official selection, 2017 Berlin International Film Festival. DIR/SCR/PROD Raoul Peck; SCR Pascal Bonitzer; PROD Nicolas Blanc, Rémi Grellety, Robert Guédiguian. Germany/France/Belgium, 2017, color, 118 min. In German, English and French with English subtitles. NOT RATED

I had thought Marx was “taken down from his historicized pedestal” 25 years ago. The left is striving to restore him to that platform. This film strikes me as part of that effort via “an accessible biopic.”

It’s a fine strategy. Students can now claim close familiarity with the founder of Communism without undertaking the laborious — and if we’re talking about Das Kapital, nigh impossible — task of reading him.

Young Marx will be portrayed by August Diehl, a 42-year-old German actor best known in America for playing SS-Sturmbannführer Dieter Hellstrom in Inglourious Basterds. Diehl may not be as good looking Gael García Bernal, who portrayed Che Guevera in “The Motorcycle Diaries,” but he’s a damn sight better looking than Karl Marx.

Che is chic. Maybe now Karl Marx will be too. T-shirts of him are already being sold.

   Al Franken: The movie

Posted: 21 Nov 2017 05:40 AM PST

(Scott Johnson)I have written a lot about Al Franken on Power Line over the years. I posted this review of the Doob/Hegedus documentary on Al Franken in September 2006. The movie was a complete and utter commercial bomb (domestic gross: $102,990). Just about no one saw it. As Franken rides out the scandal deriving from recent disclosures of his past behavior, I thought back to the film. A.O. Scott reviewed it for the New York Times. Stanley Kaufmann reviewed it for the New Republic, writing: “This film by Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus forces us to make some decisions about him. For myself, I find him generally gross, in person and in manner.” I thought some readers might find this of interest, however slight, in the context of the recent disclosures. Before the Scott and Kaufmann reviews appeared, this is what I wrote (slightly edited):

Last week I received a DVD screener of Al Franken: God Spoke on the condition that I post a review on our site between September 6 and September 13. The film is scheduled to open in theaters on September 13.

I watched the film over the weekend and again last night. It’s hard for me to believe how bad it is. Directed by Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus, the makers of The War Room, their new film might more aptly have been titled The Bore Room. Although Franken made his name as a comedy writer for Saturday Night Live, the film provides additional evidence to support my view that Franken hasn’t been funny since the expiration of the Al Franken Decade in 1990.

I have been a fan of Franken for a long time. In June 2005 I was given a press pass to attend the Democratic fundraiser in Minneapolis where Franken was the featured speaker. The fundraiser was held on the west bank campus of the University of Minnesota within shouting distance of where I had first seen Franken perform with his former comedy partner, Tom Davis. The film shows Franken in 1977 performing the same skit on Saturday Night Live with his parents that I saw Franken try out in Minneapolis in the summer of 1976 at the Dudley Riggs Workshop.

What kind of a documentary is God Spoke? It feels like a 90-minute vanity production cum campaign video, geared to promote Franken’s apparent candidacy for the Senate seat currently held by Norm Coleman. In that respect, however, the film closes on an extremely sour note. Franken is at the wheel of his car driving from the airport in Minneapolis and musing on some advice given to him by Minneapolis attorney Tom Borman. In an early scene in the film, Franken is seen telling his favorite joke (from Buddy Hackett) before a Minneapolis audience. The final scene shows Franken reflecting on Borman’s statement that his parents (wisely) thought Franken should stop telling that joke at political appearances. Franken is incredulous and unhappy about the advice.

Whereas The War Room portrayed the inside of a successful presidential campaign, God Spoke appears to be a study in failure, though no one knows it. The film opens with Franken promoting Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them before an appreciative audience. Thereafter it’s mostly downhill with Air America. God Spoke portrays Franken’s involvement with the debut of the liberal radio network, Franken’s coverage of the 2004 Democratic and Republican conventions in 2004, Franken’s campaigning for John Kerry, Franken’s disappointment on election day, Franken’s announcement that he’s thinking about running against Norm Coleman and Franken’s related move from New York back to Minneapolis.

At what appears to be an Air America planning session for a meeting with investors, Franken is asked what Air America is to be. “It’s about answering the fuckheads,” Franken says. On his first Air America show in March 2004, Michael Moore is Franken’s in-studio guest; together Franken and Moore interview Al Gore by telephone. The film shows Franken exulting that his ratings for the first month of the show beat those of Rush Limbaugh in New York.

The network’s financial difficulties are intimated by reference to a missed payroll, but the abject failure of the network’s lineup to generate an audience remains a deep secret of the film. The film portrays Franken hinting darkly of network difficulties deriving from the “active intimidation” of advertisers and leaves it at that. “Less is more” seems to be the spirit with which Doob and Hegedus approach the story of Air America’s difficulties and disappointments.

The film includes a kind of “Man from Hope” element, showing Franken returning to the house he grew up in for a look around and reminiscing about his father. It also shows him on one of his USO tours impersonating Saddam Hussein to entertain the troops in Iraq. It is an unfunny sequence that appears to have been edited to show the troops laughing uproariously over Franken’s routine.

Doob and Hegedus work hard to portray Franken in a flattering light, but ninety minutes with Franken is about eighty minutes too many. Franken does not wear well; he comes across as a boor and a profoundly ugly man. Doob and Hegedus have blundered into the truth, though I can’t for the life of me imagine why they think an audience would want to pay to see it.

   PowerLine -> Today in Sexual Harassment + Al Franken: The movie PowerLine -> Today in Sexual Harassment + Al Franken: The movie Daily Digest Today in Sexual Harassment…

[melindarowens]

AKiss of Death, Or Just A Good Call?

Good Day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! Another beautiful day here in St. Louis yesterday. As I’ve always said, “if this keeps up, we won’t be able to afford to live here!” But you won’t ever hear me complain about Chamber of Commerce weather! I’ve whined enough over the years about cold weather, and how I had to go where it’s warm, so you won’t catch me changing horses in the middle of the stream! Steely Dan greets me this morning with their song: Reeling In The Years… (I do love me some Steely Dan!)

Well, Monday’s non-movement in most investment assets, was replaced by some currency volatility, and dollar strength. This dollar strength has stretched its tentacle across the globe, and there doesn’t seem to be one currency that was able to escape the dollar’s moves. The worst performing asset yesterday was Oil, which lost the $ 44 handle, and is sinking quickly toward $ 42, as it trades this morning at $ 43.34.

This awful performance in Oil had really set the Petrol Currencies back on their heels, and this time even the head scratching loonie has seen some value taken from it. While the price of Oil was rebounding earlier this year, the lead dog of the Petrol Currencies, the Russian ruble, would be out front ratcheting up gains VS the dollar, hand over fist… But now that the bloom is off the rose of the Oil price, the ruble is getting hammered daily…

And don’t think for a minute that the ruble’s current hammering isn’t also tied to the aggressive stance against the U.S’s shooting down of a Syrian plane earlier this week. I know, it’s just words between Russia and the U.S. but as I explained yesterday, this is no time to be ticking off Russia…  We’re so stretched and bogged down in the Middle East, and all that is worrying the bejeebers out of me!

The euro hasn’t really lost much ground to the dollar as I look at the currency screen this morning. The euro is still sniffing around the 1.1150 figure this morning, which to me, is pretty impressive, given the dollar strength being displayed around the globe!  And that brings me to the soapbox, where I’m going to step up and make a call… Are you ready for this? OK, here goes!

First off, I sure hope this doesn’t turn out to be the Old Chuck’s Kiss of Death… But I’m so confident about this thought that it might be able to overcome that Kiss of Death, that usually comes along once I talk glowingly about something! OK, enough beating around the bush, for that’s just not my bag, baby!

tap, tap, tap, is the microphone on? Testing, one, two, three… Can you hear me in the back? Good! OK, Ahem, here goes.. I believe that the strong dollar trend is coming to an end, and the main beneficiary of that will be the euro.. More and more I read and see that traders are growing more and more concerned about the weakening economy here in the U.S. and the fact that the Fed keeps hiking rates into that weakening.

While in the Eurozone, we’re seeing the European Central Bank beginning to warm up to removing their accommodating monetary policy, as the Eurozone economy spools up and inflation returns to the region’s economies. I read this and it is so good, that I have to use it now… Right now the euro is like the Jack-in-the-Box right before it starts to pop out…

Back in 2002, I wrote a white paper titled: 2003, The Year of the Euro… I’m thinking I need to pull that out and dust it off, and say that 2017-18 is going to be the New Year of the Euro! I know, I know, the Eurozone has its own set of problems, but you see sentiment really drives currencies these days, and the sentiment toward the dollar is eroding quickly, while the sentiment toward a recovery in the Eurozone seems to be “in vogue”… So, I’ve told you this before, but here goes… I learned early in my career that spans back to 1973 (I know I don’t look that old do I? HAHAHA!) and that is that “the markets are never wrong”…

What that means is of course they could be wrong, and I’ve pointed how wrong it was several times through the years, but weather its wrong or not, if the markets have an axe to grind on some asset, then don’t stand in their way. They may be wrong about it, but that doesn’t matter one iota, so don’t forget that!

Gold sure can’t get off the canvas, where it has been knocked down from a flurry of shots from the dollar, and the short Gold paper traders, of course! Yesterday, Gold tried to mount a rally, but was stopped short of the border, and ended the day with a $ 1 loss… No biggie, but a loss nonetheless, in a time period that just won’t let Gold loose…  I say that, but in the early morning trading today, Gold has mustered up a $ 4 gain, so we’ll have to wait-n-see if “da boyz” as Ed Steer calls them want to take their pound of flesh again today from Gold’s value…

In 2006, my friends, Addison Wiggin of Agora Financial, and Bill Bonner, the creator of the Agora Publishing Company, co-wrote a book titled: Empire of Debt… The Rise of an Epic Financial Crisis… In the book the two tell the history of many republics through history that turned into Empires and then crumbled because of a couple of things. Extending their armies too thin, and running up huge debts that had them find ways to deal with the debt, like debasing the money, and raising taxes, until the money could be debased any longer, nor could taxes be raised any higher, and the Empire crumbled… The two did this history lesson to compare the greatest empire in the world at the time, The Roman Empire, to the U.S. Empire… And yesterday, in Bill Bonner’s Diary, he compared the two again, but only this time he used a comparison of Trump and Julius Caesar… Boy, did this bring back memories of history classes, then reading the Empire of Debt, and then the follow-up The New Empire of Debt that came out in 2009…

I thought it would be fun to go through some of the things we worried about in 2006 with regards to debt… In 1987 Consumer Credit (read debt) was $ 672.2 Billion.. in 2006 it was $ 2.1 Trillion, and in 2017 it is $ 2.8 Trillion In 1987 Total Household Debt was $ 2.7 Trillion. In 2006 it was $ $ 10.764 Trillion, and in 2017 it is $ 12.73 Trillion In 1987 Domestic Business Debt was $ 1.9 Trillion. In 2006 It was $ 5.2 Trillion, and in 2017 it is $ 5.9 Trillion And the kicker of things that I think foretell us a recession is near… the last time I was invited to speak at the Agora Financial Symposium in Vancouver, B.C. was 2015… And I brought this little ditty to the audience then… The total U.S. current Debt, which included: Gov’t, State, Business, and individual debt had crossed $ 60 Trillion for the first time! Well that was 2015, guess what that number is today? Well, if you said more than $ 67 Trillion, you would be the winner, winner, Chicken dinner!

All this debt is unsustainable, and while that’s quite evident, it’s not imminent, but… What if it was? What would you do? Well, I think that most likely you would scramble to find a reputable Gold dealer… But by then it will be too late, because of all the people that listened to people like me and told them that time to buy insurance is before the floods… I often use this saying.. That’s too late to remind yourself to drain the swamp when you’re up to your rear with alligators! Don’t wait for the alligators, folks… That’s all I’m saying…

Whew! my fat fingers were flying all over the keyboard, as the thoughts just kept coming into my head about the Empire of Debt.. And like I said above, the damage to the dollar from all this debt, might be evident, but it’s not imminent just yet… And that brings me to another thought… I’ve long said that “we’re turning Japanese”, following the Japanese down this deep, dark, dangerous (look at me being the poet! HA) road of debt accumulation. And it’s been pointed out to me that the yen hasn’t really suffered from all their debt..  Well, I guess that’s their opinion, because it’s in my mind that not that too long ago, the yen was trading about 80, and today it’s 111..  (it’s a European priced currency so the higher the number the less in value it returns in dollars, because it takes more of the currency to equal a dollar)

A couple of years ago, yen was 120-ish, and looking like it was going to 150, and I still think that’s where it belongs, given the fundamentals of the country, along with the demographics, and their inability to reform, but Japan still enjoys this “safe haven” status, which just boggles my mind to no end. Safe from what? over 3 decades of an economic funk and deflation? Oh, please sir, may I have another?  NOT!

So, I was really on my horse this morning about debt, Gold, the dollar, yen, and the euro, but those were the things on my mind today… So, guess who gets to share in my thoughts today? You dear reader! HA!

The HA! and HAHAHAHA! that I use in the Pfennig, I borrowed from my good friend, the Great Mogambo Guru (MGM)… He calls me a Junior Mogambo Ranger (JMR)… And quotes me from time to time… Many years ago, and I mean many years ago, when he first quoted me, he said that he didn’t know why he was quoting me, because I had never sent him any candy or flowers…  So, reading that, I found out his address and sent me a bouquet of flowers with a box of candy, as if we were long lost lovers! HA! And we’ve been friends since… I even carry around with me every day for luck, a Mogambo Guru minted Silver Coin, with his mug and his saying on the coin… “This Investing Stuff Is Easy… Wheeee!”

To recap, it was a good day for the dollar yesterday, as the no-movement Monday, turned into a terrible Tuesday for the currencies and the price of Oil, which continues to drive lower… Chuck gets up on the soapbox for the euro, and has a flashback to 2006 and reading the Empire of Debt… You’ll want to check out the debt numbers that Chuck throws out there today…

For What It’s Worth… Well, I spent some time on the price of Oil today, and so when I came across this article on Bloomberg, I thought it played nicely in the sandbox with what I had said, so here’s the article’s link where you can read it all:  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-19/oil-s-slide-stalls-as-investors-weigh-stockpiles-against-Libya

Or, here’s your snippet… “Shale producers risk drowning in their own surplus — again.

On Tuesday, oil slid into its first bear market in 10 months, falling 21 percent from its high for the year. The swoon dragged down driller shares amid concern that unceasing production from U.S. shale fields is overwhelming OPEC efforts to ease a global supply glut.

Explorers who came of age at a time when ever-increasing production was rewarded with ever-higher prices are now having a bit of a déjà vu from their fall from grace in 2014.

The S&P 500 Energy Index has lost 14 percent this year, while West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, has fallen 19 percent. Buoyed by prices that hit $ 54.45 a barrel in February, U.S. explorers have boosted the number of rigs drilling for oil to the highest since mid-2015, and expanded their production to 9.33 million barrels a day. “A lot of faith and hope and belief was put into” the deal by OPEC, Russia and other exporters to cut their production as a way to balance the market, said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC, a New York-based hedge fund. But “it’s proven ineffectual.”

Chuck again…  ramp up production, have a glut in supplies and watch the price tumble, then shut down production, and watch the price recover, then rinse and repeat the whole shebang over again… When will these guys ever learn?

Currencies today 6/21/17… American Style: A$ .7570, kiwi .7241, C$ .7520, euro 1.1148, sterling 1.2626, Swiss $ .9743, … European Style: rand 13.0269, krone 8.5434, SEK 8.7737, HUF 277.35, zloty 3.8042, koruna 23.5715, RUB 59.69, yen 111.15, sing 1.3898, HKD 7.80, INR 64.58, China 6.8272, peso 3.3274, peso 18.27, Dollar Index 97.66, Oil $ 43.34, 10-year 2.16%, Silver $ 16.45, Platinum $ 922.65, Palladium $ 873.91, and Gold $ 1,247.60

That’s it for today… Had a great night last night, as a few of my buddies stopped by to watch the baseball game with me outside, since it was such a beautiful night… And it ended up with a Cardinals extra inning win, so all-in-all a good night… I got the word yesterday, that the subscriber list is ready, which means it won’t be too much longer before I can get back to sending out the daily letter by email! YAHOO! But, I do like the set up with the website so far… But the emailed letter can reach so many more, that don’t want to have to bookmark a website and them remember to visit it each day! Boy, we sure have become spoiled haven’t we?  HA!  Elvis Presley takes us to the finish line today, and yes, I said Elvis! with his song: Can’t Help Falling In Love… Come on admit it, you slow danced with an old flame to this song at sometime!  And with that, it’s time to tell you that I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday!  And don’t forget to be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

  Daily Pfennig

source http://capitalisthq.com/akiss-of-death-or-just-a-good-call/ from CapitalistHQ http://capitalisthq.blogspot.com/2017/06/akiss-of-death-or-just-good-call.html

[everettwilkinson]

AKiss of Death, Or Just A Good Call?

Good Day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! Another beautiful day here in St. Louis yesterday. As I’ve always said, “if this keeps up, we won’t be able to afford to live here!” But you won’t ever hear me complain about Chamber of Commerce weather! I’ve whined enough over the years about cold weather, and how I had to go where it’s warm, so you won’t catch me changing horses in the middle of the stream! Steely Dan greets me this morning with their song: Reeling In The Years… (I do love me some Steely Dan!)

Well, Monday’s non-movement in most investment assets, was replaced by some currency volatility, and dollar strength. This dollar strength has stretched its tentacle across the globe, and there doesn’t seem to be one currency that was able to escape the dollar’s moves. The worst performing asset yesterday was Oil, which lost the $ 44 handle, and is sinking quickly toward $ 42, as it trades this morning at $ 43.34.

This awful performance in Oil had really set the Petrol Currencies back on their heels, and this time even the head scratching loonie has seen some value taken from it. While the price of Oil was rebounding earlier this year, the lead dog of the Petrol Currencies, the Russian ruble, would be out front ratcheting up gains VS the dollar, hand over fist… But now that the bloom is off the rose of the Oil price, the ruble is getting hammered daily…

And don’t think for a minute that the ruble’s current hammering isn’t also tied to the aggressive stance against the U.S’s shooting down of a Syrian plane earlier this week. I know, it’s just words between Russia and the U.S. but as I explained yesterday, this is no time to be ticking off Russia…  We’re so stretched and bogged down in the Middle East, and all that is worrying the bejeebers out of me!

The euro hasn’t really lost much ground to the dollar as I look at the currency screen this morning. The euro is still sniffing around the 1.1150 figure this morning, which to me, is pretty impressive, given the dollar strength being displayed around the globe!  And that brings me to the soapbox, where I’m going to step up and make a call… Are you ready for this? OK, here goes!

First off, I sure hope this doesn’t turn out to be the Old Chuck’s Kiss of Death… But I’m so confident about this thought that it might be able to overcome that Kiss of Death, that usually comes along once I talk glowingly about something! OK, enough beating around the bush, for that’s just not my bag, baby!

tap, tap, tap, is the microphone on? Testing, one, two, three… Can you hear me in the back? Good! OK, Ahem, here goes.. I believe that the strong dollar trend is coming to an end, and the main beneficiary of that will be the euro.. More and more I read and see that traders are growing more and more concerned about the weakening economy here in the U.S. and the fact that the Fed keeps hiking rates into that weakening.

While in the Eurozone, we’re seeing the European Central Bank beginning to warm up to removing their accommodating monetary policy, as the Eurozone economy spools up and inflation returns to the region’s economies. I read this and it is so good, that I have to use it now… Right now the euro is like the Jack-in-the-Box right before it starts to pop out…

Back in 2002, I wrote a white paper titled: 2003, The Year of the Euro… I’m thinking I need to pull that out and dust it off, and say that 2017-18 is going to be the New Year of the Euro! I know, I know, the Eurozone has its own set of problems, but you see sentiment really drives currencies these days, and the sentiment toward the dollar is eroding quickly, while the sentiment toward a recovery in the Eurozone seems to be “in vogue”… So, I’ve told you this before, but here goes… I learned early in my career that spans back to 1973 (I know I don’t look that old do I? HAHAHA!) and that is that “the markets are never wrong”…

What that means is of course they could be wrong, and I’ve pointed how wrong it was several times through the years, but weather its wrong or not, if the markets have an axe to grind on some asset, then don’t stand in their way. They may be wrong about it, but that doesn’t matter one iota, so don’t forget that!

Gold sure can’t get off the canvas, where it has been knocked down from a flurry of shots from the dollar, and the short Gold paper traders, of course! Yesterday, Gold tried to mount a rally, but was stopped short of the border, and ended the day with a $ 1 loss… No biggie, but a loss nonetheless, in a time period that just won’t let Gold loose…  I say that, but in the early morning trading today, Gold has mustered up a $ 4 gain, so we’ll have to wait-n-see if “da boyz” as Ed Steer calls them want to take their pound of flesh again today from Gold’s value…

In 2006, my friends, Addison Wiggin of Agora Financial, and Bill Bonner, the creator of the Agora Publishing Company, co-wrote a book titled: Empire of Debt… The Rise of an Epic Financial Crisis… In the book the two tell the history of many republics through history that turned into Empires and then crumbled because of a couple of things. Extending their armies too thin, and running up huge debts that had them find ways to deal with the debt, like debasing the money, and raising taxes, until the money could be debased any longer, nor could taxes be raised any higher, and the Empire crumbled… The two did this history lesson to compare the greatest empire in the world at the time, The Roman Empire, to the U.S. Empire… And yesterday, in Bill Bonner’s Diary, he compared the two again, but only this time he used a comparison of Trump and Julius Caesar… Boy, did this bring back memories of history classes, then reading the Empire of Debt, and then the follow-up The New Empire of Debt that came out in 2009…

I thought it would be fun to go through some of the things we worried about in 2006 with regards to debt… In 1987 Consumer Credit (read debt) was $ 672.2 Billion.. in 2006 it was $ 2.1 Trillion, and in 2017 it is $ 2.8 Trillion In 1987 Total Household Debt was $ 2.7 Trillion. In 2006 it was $ $ 10.764 Trillion, and in 2017 it is $ 12.73 Trillion In 1987 Domestic Business Debt was $ 1.9 Trillion. In 2006 It was $ 5.2 Trillion, and in 2017 it is $ 5.9 Trillion And the kicker of things that I think foretell us a recession is near… the last time I was invited to speak at the Agora Financial Symposium in Vancouver, B.C. was 2015… And I brought this little ditty to the audience then… The total U.S. current Debt, which included: Gov’t, State, Business, and individual debt had crossed $ 60 Trillion for the first time! Well that was 2015, guess what that number is today? Well, if you said more than $ 67 Trillion, you would be the winner, winner, Chicken dinner!

All this debt is unsustainable, and while that’s quite evident, it’s not imminent, but… What if it was? What would you do? Well, I think that most likely you would scramble to find a reputable Gold dealer… But by then it will be too late, because of all the people that listened to people like me and told them that time to buy insurance is before the floods… I often use this saying.. That’s too late to remind yourself to drain the swamp when you’re up to your rear with alligators! Don’t wait for the alligators, folks… That’s all I’m saying…

Whew! my fat fingers were flying all over the keyboard, as the thoughts just kept coming into my head about the Empire of Debt.. And like I said above, the damage to the dollar from all this debt, might be evident, but it’s not imminent just yet… And that brings me to another thought… I’ve long said that “we’re turning Japanese”, following the Japanese down this deep, dark, dangerous (look at me being the poet! HA) road of debt accumulation. And it’s been pointed out to me that the yen hasn’t really suffered from all their debt..  Well, I guess that’s their opinion, because it’s in my mind that not that too long ago, the yen was trading about 80, and today it’s 111..  (it’s a European priced currency so the higher the number the less in value it returns in dollars, because it takes more of the currency to equal a dollar)

A couple of years ago, yen was 120-ish, and looking like it was going to 150, and I still think that’s where it belongs, given the fundamentals of the country, along with the demographics, and their inability to reform, but Japan still enjoys this “safe haven” status, which just boggles my mind to no end. Safe from what? over 3 decades of an economic funk and deflation? Oh, please sir, may I have another?  NOT!

So, I was really on my horse this morning about debt, Gold, the dollar, yen, and the euro, but those were the things on my mind today… So, guess who gets to share in my thoughts today? You dear reader! HA!

The HA! and HAHAHAHA! that I use in the Pfennig, I borrowed from my good friend, the Great Mogambo Guru (MGM)… He calls me a Junior Mogambo Ranger (JMR)… And quotes me from time to time… Many years ago, and I mean many years ago, when he first quoted me, he said that he didn’t know why he was quoting me, because I had never sent him any candy or flowers…  So, reading that, I found out his address and sent me a bouquet of flowers with a box of candy, as if we were long lost lovers! HA! And we’ve been friends since… I even carry around with me every day for luck, a Mogambo Guru minted Silver Coin, with his mug and his saying on the coin… “This Investing Stuff Is Easy… Wheeee!”

To recap, it was a good day for the dollar yesterday, as the no-movement Monday, turned into a terrible Tuesday for the currencies and the price of Oil, which continues to drive lower… Chuck gets up on the soapbox for the euro, and has a flashback to 2006 and reading the Empire of Debt… You’ll want to check out the debt numbers that Chuck throws out there today…

For What It’s Worth… Well, I spent some time on the price of Oil today, and so when I came across this article on Bloomberg, I thought it played nicely in the sandbox with what I had said, so here’s the article’s link where you can read it all:  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-19/oil-s-slide-stalls-as-investors-weigh-stockpiles-against-Libya

Or, here’s your snippet… “Shale producers risk drowning in their own surplus — again.

On Tuesday, oil slid into its first bear market in 10 months, falling 21 percent from its high for the year. The swoon dragged down driller shares amid concern that unceasing production from U.S. shale fields is overwhelming OPEC efforts to ease a global supply glut.

Explorers who came of age at a time when ever-increasing production was rewarded with ever-higher prices are now having a bit of a déjà vu from their fall from grace in 2014.

The S&P 500 Energy Index has lost 14 percent this year, while West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, has fallen 19 percent. Buoyed by prices that hit $ 54.45 a barrel in February, U.S. explorers have boosted the number of rigs drilling for oil to the highest since mid-2015, and expanded their production to 9.33 million barrels a day. “A lot of faith and hope and belief was put into” the deal by OPEC, Russia and other exporters to cut their production as a way to balance the market, said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC, a New York-based hedge fund. But “it’s proven ineffectual.”

Chuck again…  ramp up production, have a glut in supplies and watch the price tumble, then shut down production, and watch the price recover, then rinse and repeat the whole shebang over again… When will these guys ever learn?

Currencies today 6/21/17… American Style: A$ .7570, kiwi .7241, C$ .7520, euro 1.1148, sterling 1.2626, Swiss $ .9743, … European Style: rand 13.0269, krone 8.5434, SEK 8.7737, HUF 277.35, zloty 3.8042, koruna 23.5715, RUB 59.69, yen 111.15, sing 1.3898, HKD 7.80, INR 64.58, China 6.8272, peso 3.3274, peso 18.27, Dollar Index 97.66, Oil $ 43.34, 10-year 2.16%, Silver $ 16.45, Platinum $ 922.65, Palladium $ 873.91, and Gold $ 1,247.60

That’s it for today… Had a great night last night, as a few of my buddies stopped by to watch the baseball game with me outside, since it was such a beautiful night… And it ended up with a Cardinals extra inning win, so all-in-all a good night… I got the word yesterday, that the subscriber list is ready, which means it won’t be too much longer before I can get back to sending out the daily letter by email! YAHOO! But, I do like the set up with the website so far… But the emailed letter can reach so many more, that don’t want to have to bookmark a website and them remember to visit it each day! Boy, we sure have become spoiled haven’t we?  HA!  Elvis Presley takes us to the finish line today, and yes, I said Elvis! with his song: Can’t Help Falling In Love… Come on admit it, you slow danced with an old flame to this song at sometime!  And with that, it’s time to tell you that I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday!  And don’t forget to be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

    Daily Pfennig

from CapitalistHQ.com http://capitalisthq.com/akiss-of-death-or-just-a-good-call/