Black Middle-Class: The Black People You Don’t See

The Black People You Don’t See

Black Middle-Class

There is a huge section of the Black population that is never heard from, never consulted, nor never acknowledged. But, first, let us take a look at who we do see and hear from. On one end we hear from the poor, uneducated and criminal minded Blacks by the dozens on a daily basis. They are everywhere. They give their unsolicited and uneducated opinions on TV, radio and any other medium they can get their hands on. On the other end of the spectrum we have the entertainers, who happen to be rich and mostly uneducated. They too give their unsolicited opinions on subject they have no business discussing now have any intimate knowledge about.

It would not be bad if this group, which I will group into one subgroup, were seen in the light that they are – not the typical Black person. But, they are not. They are put forth and in front of everyone as the typical Black person.

So the image of a Black American is that they are uneducated, criminal or low moral standards. This is true of the poor we see on TV and the rich entertainers we see on TV.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

There is a huge silent majority of Blacks in America that never get on TV or in movies. These are the Black middle-class. These are the well spoken Blacks. These are the educated Blacks. These are the high moral standards Blacks. These are the conservative Blacks.

In growing numbers they are realizing that their way of life is being attacked by the main stream media: news, TV, movies and magazines. It is everywhere. The Black middle-class have absolutely no voice.

GDP Down 0.1%? Really? Something Smells Fishy

GDP Down 0.1%?

GDP Down

From my very unskilled analysis, I think a few things are going on here.

1. I think this number is completely manipulated. I don’t think GDP went down 0.1% I would venture GDP is down3% – 7%.

2. we are still not getting anywhere near the real unemployment / labor rates. millions have fallen out of the labor pool and are not being counted. not only are they not counted, they will not be returning because their jobs are not returning. The millions of jobs we lost almost none will return.

3. the 3% tax hike on payroll / income is not new, but you then have to remember back to 2008 when Obama promised to “lower” taxes, only to lower the front end and raise the back end, so that paychecks did not go down, but up. in the aggregate, main street is on the chopping block.

4. there is no 0% tax rate bracket any longer. this is unprecedented. i don’t even know what they hope to gain from people that make $10,000 / yr. it will push them to get onto public assistance, which will be more than they could ever hope to contribute in income taxes. its a shot to the groin area, in my opinion.

This tiny bit of news is just one piece in a very large puzzle. we cannot concentrate on this one piece and make judgments just based on this one pice, but must fit it into the entire tapestry and then make judgments.

The Unemployment Scam and GDP

Obama Oops

The nation’s economy unexpectedly shrank by 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, casting fresh doubt on the strength of the economic recovery. The new estimate of gross domestic product (GDP) from the Commerce Department marks the first time the economy shrank since it was in the depths of the recession in mid-2009.

This is not news for anyone paying attention. Unemployment fell an entire 1% twice in the 4th quarter? yet ony 200,000 jobs were allegedly gained? NO! 400,000 people fell off the unemployment rrecords and out of the labor pool. There was no turn around in the economy. There are now over 25 million people out of the labor pool by my calculations. This doesn’t even include the under-employed. This notion of rebounding economy is bogus.

You cannot have actual growth with upwards of 15%-20% [real numbers] of the US being unemployed. They cannot buy goods and services. They cannot pay state, local and federal taxes. They cannot pay indirect taxes via tariffs and excise taxes. You cannot grow the economy with unemployed people.

For the past 4 years, the beltway has put out bogus labor numbers and fixing their books to show GDP expanding. They had the GDP expanding when we were still losing 500,000 jobs each month. People are just not paying attention. It’s as iff Berny Madoff is in the white house.

Is the Income Tax Necessary?

Federal Tax Revenue

There is an ongoing debate among people who know, that the personal income tax is not needed. It is hard to believe, for the average american to conceive of this. After all, there is the old saying that, there is only 2 sure things in life, death and taxes. But, at the foundation of this country taxes were completely abolished.

For the entire first half of this nation’s existance, there was no federal income tax. In fact, it was unconstitutional. Even after the constitution was amended to include an income tax, only the very very wealthy were taxed. It took 50 more years for that personal income tax to trickle down to be being collected of the middle class.

Now in 2013, under the Obama administration, that tax is now collected from the very very poor as well. We have come full circle, to where the American Revolution started. Everything that the early Americans fought and died for, are now being imposed by our very own government.

But let’s not add emotion into this debate. Let’s look at the facts.

Word of the Day: Margin Expansion and Amazon (AMZN)

Margin Expansion

Margin Expansion

The technical, narrow definition of this term is: an increase in the rate of profit a company makes on a product.

However in broader terms it can defined as: In long-term reference, a measure of a company’s net profit margin in the latest reported quarter divided by profit margin in the fiscal year previous. In short-term reference, a measure of a company’s net profit margin in the latest reported quarter divided by profit margin in the quarter immediately preceding.

So we can be talking about a specific product, or the net profit margins overall. We simply apply the term as narrowly or broadly as we like.

The news today applies to Amazon’s quarterly report.

The Amazon (AMZN) bull case has pivoted to a story of margin expansion from revenue growth after the company surprised analysts with better-than-expected profit margins during Q4. A number of firms are out with price target increases, citing margin expansion as a major factor. PT hikes: Barclays to $260 from $245; JPMorgan to $333 from $245; Baird to $325 from $300; BofA to $315 from $300; Credit Suisse to $334 from $301. AMZN +8.3% premarket to $281.62. – Seeking Alpha

In my opinion, I think overall Amazon is not doing as well as it appears, regardless of the news. I have a bearish outlook on the company, from observing their day to day operations. It is one of the few companies that I actually pay attention to. I do not consider their fundamentals good. On a technical standpoint if this trends up, you can still make money, since this news came out. But as a swing trader or long term investor, I think the fundamentals are just not there.

The Danger of Taxing the Rich: The Fair Share Lie

The Fair Share Lie

Tax the Rich

The mantra Obama keeps chanting of rich people needing to pay their “fair share” falls upon very knowing ear among the rich. Although for 4 years he did not make good on his promise, the very first thing he did while taking his 2nd term was to up taxes on everyone, including the rich.

What the middle class and lower class do not understand, is that for the rich, globalism doesn’t just mean where you can do business, but where you can live. While the middle class move from state to state in search of better financial chances for taxes and jobs, so too do the rich, but on a global level.

The United Kingdom at first took a hard stance against the rich being able to pay lower taxes. But, after being advised that the rich not only would flee the UK, but also take with them all of their investment money, business creation and innovations, they changed their policy. In fact, with that consideration, the UK made is more advantageous, tax-wise, for the rich to stay in the UK.

Congress 90% Tax on Bonuses: Wait Isn’t That Unconstitutional

Congress and the 90% Corporate Bonus Tax

The 2012 U.S. Congress

A bill of attainder (also known as an act or writ of attainder) is an act of the legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them without benefit of a trial. Bills of attainder are forbidden by Article I, section 9, clause 3 of the United States Constitution.

What does that mean?  I means that congress is not to target any one group, nor can they punish any one group, without due process of law, i.e. taking them to court and having them go through a trial to reach a verdict for or against them.  Therefore the 90% tax on bonuses is completely unconstitutional. They would have to tax every business in the country, including non-corporations. Yet, in the frenzy of the “get wallstreet” atmosphere, they have gone on the talk circuit to get countrywide support for their bill to tax wallstreet bonuses 90%.

It is a punishment, in its fullest, for the compensation of an agent / employee of the business. They literally are asserting themselves in the middle of the relationship of the employee and the company. Notice that the payroll tax is general and is carried out by both employee and employer, both sides pay the payroll tax, which most people don’t know.  This would insert itself directly to wallstreet corporate agents to make them liable if they receive a bonus of some certain amount.

If they can do it here, that means the entire country is open to be taxed to death.

And, it seems they are headed that way. This year 2013, there is no 0% tax bracket for those making less than $10,000. That is dangerous territory. Who are the people making under $10,000 supporting? They can’t support themselves.

For all the activists for the “poor”, no one has spoken up about this. These activists normally support Obama. Now he has done something squarely against their agenda.

Will they react? Will they come out against him? Doubtful!

Certainly they are not going to go against taxing corporate wallstreet bonuses, which they should. And, they will not come out against taxing the poor.

I’m Back: Shakaama Has Returned to Shakaama.WordPress.com

Shakaama Returns

Shakaama’s Blog

After a 3 year vacation on another network, which shall not be named, I have returned to WordPress. I have nothing bad to say about the other network, but their heavy-handed actions were intolerable. I am not saying that this network is better, nor offers a relief from the other network, but the difficulty I had on the other network was never experience here.

New Direction

The direction I want to take this blog is in the financial. I have discovered, on my brief journey away, that Americans are terribly uneducated about finance, economics and politics. Notice we have a saying of, “never discuss politics nor religion.” Now, the understanding is that it is “impolite” to discuss politics and religion. I would put it to you that, if people WERE to discuss politics and religion, as a normal, average, every day occurrence, we would discover that more and more people would UNDERSTAND what is behind politics and what is behind religion.