WELCOME TO THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE REVOLUTION!
I’m fascinated by the 100-year bond. A hundred years, that’s confidence.
You lend a corporation money in 2026 and they promise:
“Don’t worry, we’ll settle up in 2126.”
Oh, excellent, I’ll put it in my calendar.
Right between: “Colonize Neptune” and “Annual prostate exam.”
Who buys a 100-year bond?
You can’t even get a contractor to guarantee a WATER HEATER for twelve years. But apparently investors look at a technology company and say:
“Surely nothing important will change over the next century.”
Really?
One hundred years ago, people were listening to radio programs beside a stove that could kill them. Now we’re asking a computer to write erotic fan fiction about the toaster. Things change. Imagine buying a 100-year technology bond in 1926.
“Gentlemen, I’ve invested the family fortune in the future!”
“What company?”
“Telegraph poles.”
“How long is the bond?”
“A century.”
“Wonderful. Your great-grandchildren will receive eleven dollars and a museum exhibit.”
And now we have AI companies valued at astronomical numbers. Wonderful businesses. Some make money. Some expect to make money. Some are investing gigantic sums so that someday they can make money. And some apparently have achieved the most advanced financial technology ever invented:
MAKING THE WORD “SOMEDAY” WORTH $200 BILLION.
That’s incredible. I tried that with my mortgage. The bank wasn’t impressed.
“Sir, when will you make the payment?”
“Someday.” Apparently, I needed a pitch deck.
Computers will replace humans!
EVERYBODY PANIC! The machine works twenty-four hours a day!
Never sleeps! Never complains! Never asks for health insurance! Never takes vacation! Fantastic!
How much does it cost?
DON’T ASK THAT.
How much electricity?
NEXT QUESTION.
How many data centers?
LOOK OVER THERE! PRODUCTIVITY!
Suddenly Iowa has a building consuming enough electricity to open a portal to another dimension.
Farmer walks outside:
“Margaret, why is the corn glowing?”
“Claude is making a PowerPoint.”
And apparently some AI tasks consume enormous quantities of computational resources. Beautiful. We spent decades complaining:
“Damn employees! Coffee breaks! Lunch breaks! Health insurance!”
So we replaced Steve from Accounting with a machine. Steve cost $72,000 a year. The machine requires:
TWO ACRES OF NVIDIA CHIPS, A SMALL NUCLEAR REACTOR AND THE COLORADO RIVER.
Management: “LOOK AT THE SAVINGS!”
Then somebody discovers humans might occasionally be cheaper.
THE HUMAN RETURNS!
Corporate America:
“Wait…the biological version runs on sandwiches?” YES!
“And coffee?” YES!
“Can it attend meetings? Unfortunately.
“Can it produce reports?” Yes.
“Can it explain why we’re having the meeting?”
NO TECHNOLOGY HAS ACHIEVED THAT.
And suddenly the human employee becomes revolutionary technology.
Introducing: HUMAN 2.0, Runs on approximately 2,000 calories per day! Portable! Self-cooling! Wireless! Can recognize sarcasm! Requires no data center! Occasionally smells strange!
Best comment ever. Took me ten minutes to finish due to inability to breathe from laughing so loud I'm going to be sore tomorrow. First, Mr. Bonner and Myrmikan Research whup me up one side of the head, then Egypt Solomon smacks me on the other. I need a nap.
If the NPCs would acquire their knowledge the old fashioned way by reading physical books instead of issuing their drive-by queries to "AI", collective IQ would increase and the AI industrial complex would go the way of the internet - a novelty at first but now just a moderately useful tool for information sharing; and for the masses it's a useless distraction and huge waste of time.
James, I am like you - "just sit on the sidelines" - but I'm 88+, so probably a short line. But many of our fellow readers probably have a 20–25-year sideline ahead of them. When this sucker gets ugly, and it will, what's the plan?
Crucial question. The initial, foundational documents of BPR probably provide the answers you are looking for. Where are you going to live...where are your earnings and savings going to be...etc.
When the AI bubble bursts what will happen to all the data centers they are now building? Will they just become vacant eyesores like the dead shopping and strip malls littering the country?
Corporate profits in the United States are at all-time highs.
With total corporate profits reaching $4.42 trillion on an annualized basis in the first quarter of 2026, marking a significant increase from previous quarters.
-
When you add up all the profits across American corporations, the total is larger than it has ever been. Companies across various sectors—from technology and finance to manufacturing and retail—are collectively generating unprecedented levels of earnings.
But as Bill pointed out last week, much of these profits are “incestuous”. The tech industry has built its own massive ecosystem that is feeding itself. There is no real market for AI(yet) in the same sense that there is a market for automobiles or food or housing. Right now this is a giant wholesale industry with very few retail customers. The retail market better materialize soon, and it better be even more massive than the wholesale disneyland currently being built. Otherwise the collapse is guaranteed. What are all these massive data centers being built for? The value proposition is a huge risk and purely speculative. And besides I don’t believe we are being told the real reason for the data centers, which is the surveillance state buildout and the NWO digital economy. What’s the business case for all of that? What is occurring is much closer to insanity than prudence.
The AI bulls and AI employment doomsayers may both be wrong for the same reason.
If AI delivers the promised productivity gains, much of the value should ultimately flow to consumers through lower prices rather than remain as extraordinary corporate profits, assuming markets are allowed to function.
If it fails to deliver those gains at an economic cost, then current valuations have an even bigger problem. Either way, there’s a decent chance the initial froth comes off before we work out what AI is genuinely good for, what it’s worth, and what people are actually prepared to pay for it.
I agree back at you! Aren't these comment sections so much more useful with certain loud voices diminished...
Theres no black and white binary outcome as I see it, only the constant quest of Mr Market to find the current price level.
In your example the price is impacted first by reduced unit cost from automation, then by worker demands for increased wage, then supply / demand (3 x more product).
The AI investment thesis relies on Anthropic or similar capturing a big proportion of YOUR potential gain. Which leads to an interesting counterpoint that if youre using a $250/year subscription to save thousands or even millions, are they selling their product too cheaply?
Subscriptions drive me crazy... but they are a fact of life now...
-
There is not one singular Ai source, these are built into the systems we purchase.
For example; laser welders work without Ai.
However a laser welder with Ai:
AI-powered vision systems can analyze the weld bead in real-time.
AI learns from thousands of previous welds to predict the optimal settings for different materials, thicknesses, and joint configurations.
Machine learning models can identify early warning signs of potential failures
AI can refine weave patterns and pulsing sequences dynamically based on real-time feedback resulting in more consistent bead appearance and metallurgical properties.—
AI analyzes equipment performance data to predict when components (optics, nozzles, electrical systems) will fail, enabling proactive maintenance rather than unexpected downtime.
AI can dynamically adjust the welding path and parameters in real-time, adapting to slight variations that would otherwise require manual operator intervention.
-
Ai does more than "one thing"... these aids to simple laser welding allows for multiple benefits.
And very likely this is all baked into stock prices. So, upside vs downside? Logic (ha ha when it comes to THIS stock market) would say, very little upside remaining with big risk of downside.
I came onboard BPR in 2021. My whole time here at BPR has been Max Safety Mode and hunker down, with a bubble-popping-any-day-now mantra; and avoid index funds at all costs! admonition from Tom (lots of upside missed following that advice.)
And my very first Tom “buy” was CMRE-and stopped out for a loss…LOL…joke was on me, had to laugh to keep from crying.
Oh well. Market up. Down. Sideways. Who knows? And the sun’s gonna burn out in 4 or 5 billion years…about as precise a call as the BPR bubble-pop, clearly.
Speaking for myself, I don't see an economic collapse as imminent, or even inevitable. But historically, 10-year forward returns from the stock market have been meager to non-existent when starting from valuations as high as today's. Perhaps the next decade will resemble the "stagflation" of the 70's. The economic indicators were also strong leading into that period, right up until they weren't.
I have no idea what's going to happen as a result of our unsustainable federal debt, but a massive bout of inflation seems likely, and probably not too far in the future. With or without an accompanying economic collapse, I want to be holding hard assets until the smoke clears.
About 5 years between Dot Com and the mainstream commercialization of the Internet. That is if you don't count CompuServe (1979) and its successor - AOL (1989). I installed my first modem to attach to the Internet in 1995 for a client. I worked for the federal government at the time, and we were just getting online ourselves.
Yes there was Arpanet before then - War Games popularized its existence earlier. And every government had its own version of a private computer network. But true Internet, with Lycos, Mosaic and Netscape browsers - summer of 1995. At least for folks around here.
At that point there were supposedly over 100,000 websites already, leading one to believe that the Internet started a bit before the summer of 1995. And if the Dot Com you speak of was the 2000 Dot Com era, then yes, about 5 years.
Anthropic just published a paper on how Claude helped with protein design and analysis. Compressing what once would take an individual weeks or months, into minutes or days.
They are already being used in electrical engineering.
And don't even get me started in medicine. Diagnosis by any of the AI's is faster and more "spot on" than any single individual. Think about it. AI can review millions of case studies, whereas a single physician, may have seen only 5,000 or so in a single lifetime.
Not even close.
There are so many fields of study that this will be transformative.
When the bubble pops the Fed will have to bail out all this debt, supposedly. So if there is 300 trillion in debt then 300 trillion will have to be printed. Then there will be instantly 600 Trillion dollars in credit flowing around. That's a lot of promises. I take my chances with my gold and silver.
Couldn't agree more. I can see perfectly the reason for 100 year bonds. In the last 100 years the dollar has lost 97 % of its value from 100years ago. In other words the dollar is 3/100ths of its value so after 100 years the money required to pay back the bonds is 3% of what it was when they were issued or it is essentially nothing compared to the cost of the bonds now. Issuing those bonds is essentially genius since there are suckers willing to give you their money for something that will be absolutely worthless when the time comes to pay.
“The total of US debt in 2008 was only $10 trillion. Now it is approaching $40 trillion — four times as much. And the cost of servicing the debt this year is $1.3 trillion. In 2008, the interest cost was still less than $200 billion...only a fraction of today’s bill.”
1.3 / 40 = 3.25%….I would have LOVED a 3.25% mortgage instead of the 7 to 7.5% I paid! Plus a decent amount of that 3.25% is collected back by Uncle Sam as income tax (on US gov’t bills and bonds). Don’t get me started on annual property taxes. Doom and Gloom sells, I guess.
Yep I am waiting to sell off a lot of gold when we get back to $5546 like Jan 29th this year. It will be a very nice payback. Of course there will be much more waiting for the next big surge coming next.
Only as I take some out of the IRA, or invest the cash into some good dividend paying stocks. I won't pay taxes until I pull the cash out. Plus when I die my daughter takes over and continues the routine. Congress made the rules, (for themselves) not me.
Or until they change the rules. Nine years ago I gave my granddaughter my wife’s IRA.. She was 21.. then they changed the rules that she had to liquidate it in 10 years, starting this year. Taxes due and paid 40+ years before the original plan.
I agree with you. There is always a possibility of rule changes and there is a work around. IRA's were created by lawyers....there always a backdoor that they (and we little people) can use. When the rules change, I will look for the back door. Until then, I'll stick to plan "A". At 79 I will enjoy watching how the game continues.
WELCOME TO THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE REVOLUTION!
I’m fascinated by the 100-year bond. A hundred years, that’s confidence.
You lend a corporation money in 2026 and they promise:
“Don’t worry, we’ll settle up in 2126.”
Oh, excellent, I’ll put it in my calendar.
Right between: “Colonize Neptune” and “Annual prostate exam.”
Who buys a 100-year bond?
You can’t even get a contractor to guarantee a WATER HEATER for twelve years. But apparently investors look at a technology company and say:
“Surely nothing important will change over the next century.”
Really?
One hundred years ago, people were listening to radio programs beside a stove that could kill them. Now we’re asking a computer to write erotic fan fiction about the toaster. Things change. Imagine buying a 100-year technology bond in 1926.
“Gentlemen, I’ve invested the family fortune in the future!”
“What company?”
“Telegraph poles.”
“How long is the bond?”
“A century.”
“Wonderful. Your great-grandchildren will receive eleven dollars and a museum exhibit.”
And now we have AI companies valued at astronomical numbers. Wonderful businesses. Some make money. Some expect to make money. Some are investing gigantic sums so that someday they can make money. And some apparently have achieved the most advanced financial technology ever invented:
MAKING THE WORD “SOMEDAY” WORTH $200 BILLION.
That’s incredible. I tried that with my mortgage. The bank wasn’t impressed.
“Sir, when will you make the payment?”
“Someday.” Apparently, I needed a pitch deck.
Computers will replace humans!
EVERYBODY PANIC! The machine works twenty-four hours a day!
Never sleeps! Never complains! Never asks for health insurance! Never takes vacation! Fantastic!
How much does it cost?
DON’T ASK THAT.
How much electricity?
NEXT QUESTION.
How many data centers?
LOOK OVER THERE! PRODUCTIVITY!
Suddenly Iowa has a building consuming enough electricity to open a portal to another dimension.
Farmer walks outside:
“Margaret, why is the corn glowing?”
“Claude is making a PowerPoint.”
And apparently some AI tasks consume enormous quantities of computational resources. Beautiful. We spent decades complaining:
“Damn employees! Coffee breaks! Lunch breaks! Health insurance!”
So we replaced Steve from Accounting with a machine. Steve cost $72,000 a year. The machine requires:
TWO ACRES OF NVIDIA CHIPS, A SMALL NUCLEAR REACTOR AND THE COLORADO RIVER.
Management: “LOOK AT THE SAVINGS!”
Then somebody discovers humans might occasionally be cheaper.
THE HUMAN RETURNS!
Corporate America:
“Wait…the biological version runs on sandwiches?” YES!
“And coffee?” YES!
“Can it attend meetings? Unfortunately.
“Can it produce reports?” Yes.
“Can it explain why we’re having the meeting?”
NO TECHNOLOGY HAS ACHIEVED THAT.
And suddenly the human employee becomes revolutionary technology.
Introducing: HUMAN 2.0, Runs on approximately 2,000 calories per day! Portable! Self-cooling! Wireless! Can recognize sarcasm! Requires no data center! Occasionally smells strange!
And after work…
IT TURNS OFF.
Silicon Valley:
“My God.”
Best comment ever. Took me ten minutes to finish due to inability to breathe from laughing so loud I'm going to be sore tomorrow. First, Mr. Bonner and Myrmikan Research whup me up one side of the head, then Egypt Solomon smacks me on the other. I need a nap.
If the NPCs would acquire their knowledge the old fashioned way by reading physical books instead of issuing their drive-by queries to "AI", collective IQ would increase and the AI industrial complex would go the way of the internet - a novelty at first but now just a moderately useful tool for information sharing; and for the masses it's a useless distraction and huge waste of time.
Sorry, what’s an NPC?
As I read the daily reports and the BPR comments I am glad I can sit on the sidelines and watch. This is going to be a huge mess when the bubble pops!
Jim Marshall
James, I am like you - "just sit on the sidelines" - but I'm 88+, so probably a short line. But many of our fellow readers probably have a 20–25-year sideline ahead of them. When this sucker gets ugly, and it will, what's the plan?
Crucial question. The initial, foundational documents of BPR probably provide the answers you are looking for. Where are you going to live...where are your earnings and savings going to be...etc.
Ask Dan.
When the AI bubble bursts what will happen to all the data centers they are now building? Will they just become vacant eyesores like the dead shopping and strip malls littering the country?
My best guess is this. When the collapse comes, our government will take over the data centers and finish them. We will see.
Any chance they remodel some of them into internment camps for dissidents?
If my Aunt had nuts she would be my Uncle...
From Ai:
Corporate profits in the United States are at all-time highs.
With total corporate profits reaching $4.42 trillion on an annualized basis in the first quarter of 2026, marking a significant increase from previous quarters.
-
When you add up all the profits across American corporations, the total is larger than it has ever been. Companies across various sectors—from technology and finance to manufacturing and retail—are collectively generating unprecedented levels of earnings.
But as Bill pointed out last week, much of these profits are “incestuous”. The tech industry has built its own massive ecosystem that is feeding itself. There is no real market for AI(yet) in the same sense that there is a market for automobiles or food or housing. Right now this is a giant wholesale industry with very few retail customers. The retail market better materialize soon, and it better be even more massive than the wholesale disneyland currently being built. Otherwise the collapse is guaranteed. What are all these massive data centers being built for? The value proposition is a huge risk and purely speculative. And besides I don’t believe we are being told the real reason for the data centers, which is the surveillance state buildout and the NWO digital economy. What’s the business case for all of that? What is occurring is much closer to insanity than prudence.
Did you read the Ai report?
It clearly states profits are up in technology, finance, manufacturing and retail.
"Unprecedented"
How is this "incestuous"?
How is this circular?
This (Ai) has never happened before...
These corporate profits have never been seen!
The profits are not confined to one singular industry.
How does everyone absolutely conclude this is bad?
The AI bulls and AI employment doomsayers may both be wrong for the same reason.
If AI delivers the promised productivity gains, much of the value should ultimately flow to consumers through lower prices rather than remain as extraordinary corporate profits, assuming markets are allowed to function.
If it fails to deliver those gains at an economic cost, then current valuations have an even bigger problem. Either way, there’s a decent chance the initial froth comes off before we work out what AI is genuinely good for, what it’s worth, and what people are actually prepared to pay for it.
Agreed , Ai won't be worth if it cannot deliver.
However, the "gains" will first be had at the business-floor level.
-
As an example, our metal fabrication business has yet to fully incorporate Ai however it is already changing the programing protocols.
We went from 3 differing engineering programs to one turnkey that also provides quoting data, saving a lot of engineering time.
The programming engineers. are not worried about losing their jobs.
They know it will significantly increase their output.
They'll be looking for a raise!
-
The company is looking into a new ERP system.
Ai has already antiquated older ERP's.
-
We have purchased two laser welders.
They're incredibly faster than MIG TIG
-
The company is also researching 3D printers in the near future to assist with proto-typing.
-
There will be more Ai related changes sure to come.
It's not one singular change.
It's a multitude of many smaller changes.
Each one engaged to increase efficiency.
I agree back at you! Aren't these comment sections so much more useful with certain loud voices diminished...
Theres no black and white binary outcome as I see it, only the constant quest of Mr Market to find the current price level.
In your example the price is impacted first by reduced unit cost from automation, then by worker demands for increased wage, then supply / demand (3 x more product).
The AI investment thesis relies on Anthropic or similar capturing a big proportion of YOUR potential gain. Which leads to an interesting counterpoint that if youre using a $250/year subscription to save thousands or even millions, are they selling their product too cheaply?
Subscriptions drive me crazy... but they are a fact of life now...
-
There is not one singular Ai source, these are built into the systems we purchase.
For example; laser welders work without Ai.
However a laser welder with Ai:
AI-powered vision systems can analyze the weld bead in real-time.
AI learns from thousands of previous welds to predict the optimal settings for different materials, thicknesses, and joint configurations.
Machine learning models can identify early warning signs of potential failures
AI can refine weave patterns and pulsing sequences dynamically based on real-time feedback resulting in more consistent bead appearance and metallurgical properties.—
AI analyzes equipment performance data to predict when components (optics, nozzles, electrical systems) will fail, enabling proactive maintenance rather than unexpected downtime.
AI can dynamically adjust the welding path and parameters in real-time, adapting to slight variations that would otherwise require manual operator intervention.
-
Ai does more than "one thing"... these aids to simple laser welding allows for multiple benefits.
And this is only one machine!
Data centers are the operating system for the "all seeing eye"
And very likely this is all baked into stock prices. So, upside vs downside? Logic (ha ha when it comes to THIS stock market) would say, very little upside remaining with big risk of downside.
I understand everyone is concerned about the economy.
I get it, massive debt and war.
But there are record profits across the board.
The general economy is in good shape (except that pesky Iran debacle).
Consumer and business spending continue to support economic growth.
Unemployment remains low.
Reshoring industries continues and gov't contracts are on the rise.
Warsh is trying to recalculate the inflation data.
It's possible we may see a rate reduction this year yet...
-
These events are indicative of a continued strong economy (for now)...
What specifically makes many here believe an economic collapse is imminent?
All valid points.
I came onboard BPR in 2021. My whole time here at BPR has been Max Safety Mode and hunker down, with a bubble-popping-any-day-now mantra; and avoid index funds at all costs! admonition from Tom (lots of upside missed following that advice.)
And my very first Tom “buy” was CMRE-and stopped out for a loss…LOL…joke was on me, had to laugh to keep from crying.
Oh well. Market up. Down. Sideways. Who knows? And the sun’s gonna burn out in 4 or 5 billion years…about as precise a call as the BPR bubble-pop, clearly.
$40tn govt debt and $19tn household debt. All that "money" has got to go somewhere.
...Newsom tells us not to worry about debt in California.
Because it's the 5th largest economy in the world!
-
If the future POTUS is not worried about debt, why shouldl I?
After all... it's your end of the ship that is sinking.
Speaking for myself, I don't see an economic collapse as imminent, or even inevitable. But historically, 10-year forward returns from the stock market have been meager to non-existent when starting from valuations as high as today's. Perhaps the next decade will resemble the "stagflation" of the 70's. The economic indicators were also strong leading into that period, right up until they weren't.
I have no idea what's going to happen as a result of our unsustainable federal debt, but a massive bout of inflation seems likely, and probably not too far in the future. With or without an accompanying economic collapse, I want to be holding hard assets until the smoke clears.
Record profits from the fake money?
...that's what Claude said!
-
I reckon a profit is a profit whether it be dollars or monopoly...
I was looking through the comments ,looking for Claude, later I realised ,lol
...I am not suggesting the chikkens won't roost.
But imminently?
(I own BTC and it's doing what it does cyclically, wait for the next halving in 2028).
-
The dot com allowed for instant access, far reach and convenience.
It transformed the way we approach purchasing.
But the businesses themselves were just... businesses.
-
Ai is different...
When applied it removes many hurtles, increases efficiency and physically enhances the business' performance.
It not only is transforming the way we do business,
but it's also transforming businesses and creating new markets for business.
It's not merely an internet address...
-
Ai was released to the general public late in 2022.
I suspect the most of us haven't used it until relatively recent.
Some still not at all...
We have only been kicking it around for a few years.
The internet was around for almost a decade before the dot com era.
About 5 years between Dot Com and the mainstream commercialization of the Internet. That is if you don't count CompuServe (1979) and its successor - AOL (1989). I installed my first modem to attach to the Internet in 1995 for a client. I worked for the federal government at the time, and we were just getting online ourselves.
Yes there was Arpanet before then - War Games popularized its existence earlier. And every government had its own version of a private computer network. But true Internet, with Lycos, Mosaic and Netscape browsers - summer of 1995. At least for folks around here.
At that point there were supposedly over 100,000 websites already, leading one to believe that the Internet started a bit before the summer of 1995. And if the Dot Com you speak of was the 2000 Dot Com era, then yes, about 5 years.
I stand corrected; about 5 years.
My pointlessness is Ai is NOT the dotcom.
AI is definitely not the dotcom.
Anthropic just published a paper on how Claude helped with protein design and analysis. Compressing what once would take an individual weeks or months, into minutes or days.
https://www.anthropic.com/research/Claude-accelerates-protein-design
This ain't your dogs.com offering folks.
They are already being used in electrical engineering.
And don't even get me started in medicine. Diagnosis by any of the AI's is faster and more "spot on" than any single individual. Think about it. AI can review millions of case studies, whereas a single physician, may have seen only 5,000 or so in a single lifetime.
Not even close.
There are so many fields of study that this will be transformative.
The state will come for your gold, as it did in the thirties !
Very correct Patrick!
Jim Marshall
Like that statement "requiring 3 more meetings". This seems to be the rule!
When the bubble pops the Fed will have to bail out all this debt, supposedly. So if there is 300 trillion in debt then 300 trillion will have to be printed. Then there will be instantly 600 Trillion dollars in credit flowing around. That's a lot of promises. I take my chances with my gold and silver.
Couldn't agree more. I can see perfectly the reason for 100 year bonds. In the last 100 years the dollar has lost 97 % of its value from 100years ago. In other words the dollar is 3/100ths of its value so after 100 years the money required to pay back the bonds is 3% of what it was when they were issued or it is essentially nothing compared to the cost of the bonds now. Issuing those bonds is essentially genius since there are suckers willing to give you their money for something that will be absolutely worthless when the time comes to pay.
Great missive.
Ref your last tally of the US debt…think it crossed $40 Trillion Earlier today….🙈
The reason for all this is that 90 percent of people don't understand ratios.
“The total of US debt in 2008 was only $10 trillion. Now it is approaching $40 trillion — four times as much. And the cost of servicing the debt this year is $1.3 trillion. In 2008, the interest cost was still less than $200 billion...only a fraction of today’s bill.”
1.3 / 40 = 3.25%….I would have LOVED a 3.25% mortgage instead of the 7 to 7.5% I paid! Plus a decent amount of that 3.25% is collected back by Uncle Sam as income tax (on US gov’t bills and bonds). Don’t get me started on annual property taxes. Doom and Gloom sells, I guess.
I used quad coworker the productivity increase is phenomenal it replaces the work of several humans.
Great!
Yep I am waiting to sell off a lot of gold when we get back to $5546 like Jan 29th this year. It will be a very nice payback. Of course there will be much more waiting for the next big surge coming next.
Jim Marshall
Less 28% federal income tax, and maybe some state tax also.
Only as I take some out of the IRA, or invest the cash into some good dividend paying stocks. I won't pay taxes until I pull the cash out. Plus when I die my daughter takes over and continues the routine. Congress made the rules, (for themselves) not me.
Jim
Or until they change the rules. Nine years ago I gave my granddaughter my wife’s IRA.. She was 21.. then they changed the rules that she had to liquidate it in 10 years, starting this year. Taxes due and paid 40+ years before the original plan.
I agree with you. There is always a possibility of rule changes and there is a work around. IRA's were created by lawyers....there always a backdoor that they (and we little people) can use. When the rules change, I will look for the back door. Until then, I'll stick to plan "A". At 79 I will enjoy watching how the game continues.
Jim