“You’re looking at one loss that can give you a hit of $400 million, and annual market premium is $750 million. One loss that burns more than 50% of the annual income for the entire market.”
http://qz.com/775481/how-to-insure-something-that-blows-up-once-every-twenty-times-you-use-it/
When you get rich you’re going to need these tips. Than you can donate to the site!
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-04-17/how-to-pay-no-taxes-10-strategies-used-by-the-rich
Edit: Related to taxes, an impressive example of the power of compounding and deferred taxes:
Imagine that Berkshire had only $1, which we put in a security that doubled by year-end and was then sold. Imagine further that we used the after-tax proceeds to repeat this process in each of the next 19 years, scoring a double each time. At the end of the 20 years, the 34% capital gains tax that we would have paid on the profits from each sale would have delivered about $13,000 to the government and we would be left with about $25,250. Not bad. If, however, we made a single fantastic investment that itself doubled 20 times during the 20 years, our dollar would grow to $1,048,576. Were we then to cash out, we would pay a 34% tax of roughly $356,500 and be left with about $692,000.
Source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/3438006-berkshire-hathaway-importance-deferred-taxes
Politicians & Administrators as brokers between interest groups. Very important topic:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootleggers_and_Baptists
Very interesting article on French scam artist and Chinese Money Laundering efforts:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/gilbert-chikli-china-2-billion-con-game/
“The brain is the world’s most dangerous weapon,” Chikli said. “I learned not to control but to try to make someone believe that I was right. And from that moment, all the doors opened.”
Chikli calls this “the gift.” With it, extracting millions from some of the world’s best educated and most privileged can be a matter of a single phone call.
h/t @timferris for posting this article. Pretty fascinating look into a political & military strategist.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/09/edward-luttwak-machiavelli-of-maryland
“strategy is about looking for turning points. Politics is too predictable. Look at Hillary. She is an empty carapace with ambition rattling inside. You can predict everything she does. Strategy is about being unpredictable.”
“But doesn’t that unpredictability become predictable?” I asked. “What happens when every army in the world abides by strategic logic?”
“But they never will,” said Luttwak, “because most people cannot master their emotions. Above all, strategy is about mastering your emotions.” And the emotions of others, he might have added.
Very interesting article from FT on middle class rage at elitism , 1%, yada yada yada. Ever see the movie Elysium? That’s what they are afraid of.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/135385ca-c399-11e5-808f-8231cd71622e.html#axzz3ySxhQYI5
h/t @modestproposal on Twitter for posting
Here’s a summary from Karl Marx on failure of Capitalism:
1. Inevitability of monopolies, which eliminate competition and gouge consumers and works.
2. Lack of centralized planning, which results in overproduction of some good and underproduction of others, encouraging economic crises such as inflation, slumps, depressions.
3. Demands for labor-saving machinery, which force unemployment and a more hostile proletariat.
4. Employers will tend to maximize profits by reducing labor expenses, thus creating a situation where workers will not have enough income to buy the goods produced, creating the contradiction of causing profits to fall.
5. Control of the state by the wealthy, the effect of which is passage of laws favoring themselves.
Redistribution or war or Elysium. Welcome your thoughts!
“While opposition to democracy used to be confined to people who felt marginalized and had little influence, it is now spreading even among the economic elite.”
http://www.vox.com/polyarchy/2015/12/18/9360663/is-democracy-in-trouble
Troubling headline but perhaps I can’t necessarily disagree with the sentiment. Remember the Romans:
By 53 B.C., factions in the Senate had paralyzed the Roman government. The annual consul election degenerated into a contest of who could bribe the most voters. Street riots erupted. In a desperate move to restore order, the assembly elected General Gnaeus Pompey to serve as sole consul for a year.
source: http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-8-4-b-democracy-and-dictatorship-in-ancient-rome
“History doesn’t repeat but it often rhymes.”
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