GET WHAT YOU GOT COMING!

     "Any one may so arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury.  There is not even a Patriotic duty to increase one's taxes." - Judge Learned Hand.
     Sounds quite relative to the current complaints that Donald Trump, Amazon and Google pay little to no taxes, does it not?  Warren Buffet only pays a 17% tax rate, and Donald Trump likely pays zero due to his enormous real estate depreciation, so why pay more than these cool guys?
     JAM VIEWS members spend their intellectual energy learning how to create wealth for themselves and others, recently began learning how to protect those assets from the bad people, and this week turn to taking the simple tax deductions which the U.S. Government has clearly laid out in the 5,800 pages of the tax code. It is your patriotic duty to follow their inducements to generate the type of investments which they want you to make.  Watch what I mean.
     It is simply irresponsible not to treat tax tracking and tax reduction as your second job, and hopefully soon your only job.  The great majority of Americans pay substantially more taxes than the code intends, and the Trasury Department gladly accepts all of this extra revenue.  Yet, a very small percentage of Americans do take full advantage of the code, and these are the people we end up working for, or wondering why they take so many fabulous trips, pre-tax.
     You do not have to make a lot of income and apply exotic tax structures.  You, today, must simply choose to educate yourself on what is available to you, as well as choose to spend your limited funds in the same manner as Warren and Donald. Today, order yourself a copy of Tom Wheelwright's book "Tax-Free Wealth," to review some of these simple strategies while the kids play in the pool this summer.  Then order the Tax Guide for Small Business, IRS Publication 334, on irs.gov, and you will have this clear, well-written guide within the week.  Next, start planning your exotic trip with your savings. Better yet, let me talk you into reinvesting at least half of these savings in order to increase your wealth building leverage and velocity.
     Once you get into the right mindset, you will understand how nearly everything you purchase and experience will be part of the tax-advantaged strategy, just like Warren. Warren doesn't eat a Whopper without his accountant deducting this expense.  Remember this the next time he claims that we all should raise the tax rates to "pay our fair share."  He doesn't care because he's not paying those same rates you will have to if you don't say to yourself, "WWWD?  What would Warren do?"
     I have been very fortunate to accumulate multiple businesses, properties and high-end assets, and contrary to public opinion, almost zero of these assets were purchased with my J-O-B salary.  These were fortunate results of starting corporate entities (see Post "Protect Your Future", 6/8/19), investing in tax-advantaged growth assets, and accessing cash and lending at tax-free or low tax rates.  This work is not rocket science. It is simply a choice to educate yourself and spend your time and energy on this instead of watching "American Idol" and "The Voice."  It is simply a choice.
     Let me give you a short list to get your brain juices (technical economic term) flowing:

1.  QuickBooks for the Self-Employed is $10 a month online.  Get it, learn it, devour it, love it.  Become the Quicken nerd. You will be shocked at how simple it really is, and your daughter will be impressed with your color graphs!

2.  If you don't have a side hobby which you can turn into a side hustle, get one.  Crafts, one rental property, sell old CD's on eBay, consult, sell R&F amazing cosmetics to your girlfriends, or best of all make your J-O-B your own company.  How many times do I have to harass you about this?

3.  Do your taxes yourself this year.  You again will be shocked at how simple it is, and you will likely discover what a lousy, vanilla job Joe-the-CPA was doing.  Once you get some momentum, wealth and cashflow going, you can interview tax advisors to select the right partner for your long-term mission.  First, though, you must understand.

4.  Your car, phone, computer, subscriptions and education should now be pre-tax expenses.

5.  All of your travel and most of your restaurant tabs should now be pre-tax expenses.  You will travel to industry conferences, to evaluate property acquisitions, to meet with potential partners or vendors, all pre-tax.  You will employ or give your spouse and children ownership in your LLC, and they will travel with you pre-tax.

6.  You will deduct your insurance, health care expenses, and even property taxes and certain sales taxes.

7.  You may choose to locate your office in the third bedroom currently housing the treadmill stacked with terrible Christmas sweaters, which you also haven't touched in years. Here you will pay rent to yourself or deduct a pro-rata share of the mortgage interest, property taxes, utilities and more.  You will periodically hold business meals in there, at which you will discuss business with your partner-spouse and deduct the meals.

8.  Make sure you add one piece of real estate into your plans, if not already.  The tremendous tax advantages and ability to use leverage (the bank's money) allow 4% a year growth (real state's historical rate) to be equal in comparison to a 30% a year growth in another investment asset.  Check my math.

9.  Have your LLC taxed as an S-Corp, pay yourself a reasonable salary (on which you pay the employment taxes), and then flow all the rest of the net income to you personally without paying payroll taxes on all the rest.  Google to get the details.

10. Bonus Class.  Give 20% of your startup LLC to your elderly mother.  You as Managing Member control the cash and tax allocations to Mom, or not (Let her take the cruise!).  Then 10 years from now when she moves onto her next adventure, the business is worth $10 million, you inherit the 20% now stepped up to a $2 million cost basis on which you will never have to pay capital gains when you sell.  Check it out.

     Now turn off "Wicked Tuna" and "Naked and Afraid," and spend this time implementing these simple tips.  Soon you will be bumping into Warren and Donald in some exotic locale, pre-tax of course.  Have a great week!

"It would be a hard government that should tax its people one-tenth part of their income."  -  Benjamin Franklin

** Great thanks to Tom Wheelwright, CPA, and the IRS :)  for their insight on many of the above details and strategy.

* For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

** To access JAM Views directly please visit jeffreyamartinovich.blogspot.com 

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SUPPORT YOUR COMRADES IN HONG KONG

     There is no freedom without economic freedom.  As JAM VIEWS continuously preaches, everything is about the money.  While mainland China's attempts to control and suppress Hong Kong are framed as infringements on freedom and democracy, educated JAM VIEWS members see this struggle for what it has always been; governments grabbing the economic jewels to tax them, control their destinies, and to then turn around and redistribute them back to the people as a gift, as aid.
     Remember that Mayer Amschel Rothschild famously repeated that he didn't care who ran the countries, as he just wanted to control the money.  The reason China President Xi needs to control Hong Kong's prosperity, and will eventually screw it up by killing the golden goose, is that economic freedom empowers the masses.  If Hong Kong's capitalism continues to bleed over into the mainland, the China state-run economy which owns stakes in all successful industries and "companies," will soon find itself with too many actual competitors.
     Once the masses have economic options, such as with the current historically-low unemployment in the U.S., and most notably for minorities, the maternal role of the government is no longer required, or desired.  For Hong Kong citizens they now realize that it is much worse to have had economic success and freedom and lost it, than to have never had it at all.  President Xi, along with all other socialists and communists, doesn't want more people to understand this.
     In America, if more people have individual economic success, they will scoff at Bernie's and AOC's attempts to make them believe that they need the government to give them health care or an education. With economic prosperity and rugged individualism, the people decide to buy their own services and products, to include the specific model, size and color they desire.  If people can control their own lives, then what power and what jobs are Bernie, AOC, and Xi left with?  Back to waitressing, I assume.
     Jess Leung, a Hong Kong student, proclaimed, "Without freedom, there is no difference from being in jail."  One of my favorite op-ed writers, Peggy Noonan, summed it up best.  "The second country that needs a slap this week is China.  It needs to be told no - colorfully, vividly, and in a great chorus.  It needs to know the upset it is causing in trying to muscle the people of Hong Kong with extradition moves is not worth the gain - that it will ruffle things in a way that is not good for China.  The world admires Hong Kong's freedom, bustle and success...world be roused.  Push back through word, opinion and argument."
     Surprising the world, 2 million out of 7 million Hong Kong citizens marched last weekend in protest to China's attempt, through their puppet Chief Executive Ms. Lam, to pass an extradition law which allows them to swoop into Hong Kong and grab any citizen who doesn't follow the party line politically, economically or socially.
     It can be very dangerous to have great success or an agenda contrary to the party in power.  Did you pay attention to the fact that the great majority of indictments and charges from the Mueller investigation were for "lying to federal agents?"  The charges were not for actual underlying crimes, but for mistating details during the multitude of threatening discussions on the record or off, under oath or not, with immunity or without.  That is the game. Why do you think everyone refuses to  be interviewed if they can avoid it?
     In 1984, Britain and China signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration setting forth Hong Kong's future legal and economic autonomy.  The 1992 U.S.-Hong Kong Policy Act laid out the framework for Hong Kong as a customs territory and economic entity separate from China.  Therefore, Hong Kong now enjoys special advantages with the U.S., to include tariffs, visas and law enforcement.  But, China's massive state bureaucracy cannot let this ideology spread further inland, or President Xi might have to get a waiter job himself.  He prefers the recently-awarded King For Life.
     All politics are local, and all freedom is economical. Support your capitalist comrades in Hong Kong, and support individual economic empowerment at every turn in the United States.  How quickly things can degrade for those of us who are not diligent in protecting what is right and true.  Does the NSA record your every call and text and store them in massive data storage facilities?  Do we want the government to give us our food, our work, our healthcare, and our education?  Why would we want any of that?
     Tom Fund, a history major in Hong Kong, recalled that he only learned about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre by accessing an unpublised manuscript written by his history teacher which included photos of tanks rolling over citizens. Staring at the pictures he asked, "Are they really real?"
     As the Founding Fathers understood that the power of the Second Amendment lied not in being able to protect us from one another, but in protecting us from a tyrannical government, the citizens of Hong Kong now understand that economic empowerment is even a much stronger weapon for protecting their families' safety and prosperity.
     This week JAM VIEWS salutes the courageous citizens of Hong Kong. World be roused!

"There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in the world; those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed."  -  Ray Goforth

 ** Thank you very much to the WSJ, Forbes, and Fortune for the above quotations and statistics.

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

** To access JAM Views directly please visit jeffreyamartinovich.blogspot.com 

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SWEET HOME CHICAGO, NOT!

     Now don't get me wrong.  I've enjoyed a great number of business trips to Chicago, I am a huge Michael Jordan fan, Julia Roberts looked amazing dancing to Frank on the river cruise in "My Best Friend's Wedding," and the Blues Brothers wrote the book on "cool."  But, Chicago and the entire state of Illinois are seriously vying to unseed California as the most-terribly run government with fiasco economics.
     Last month, continuing their labor-corrupt politics the Illinois Supreme Court upheld Chicago's new law that forbids food trucks from being within 200-feet of any bricks-and-mortar food business, therefore mostly eliminating this service from Downtown Chicago.  The Court also stated that it is not in violation of the state's constitution to require each truck to carry a GPS tracker in order that the city knows where the trucks are at all times.  What?  What about the United States Constitution? (see China)(also see JAM VIEWS Post "Licensing is a Scam" to refresh your memory of how entrenched corporate interests and unions, and the politicians accepting their campaign contributions, use ridiculous licensing laws to defeat competition).
     JAM VIEWS applauds the gutsy Ms. Laura Pekarik, owner of Courageous Bakery and Cafe, named in honor of her sister's battle with cancer, for pursuing this case for free markets and democracy.  She states that the trucks are the "heart and soul" of her business.  Sam Barrot, owner of the sandwich company Fat Shallot, claims the majority of restaurants downtown are chains "so the 200-foot rule does little other than support restaurants that can be found anywhere."
     Let's hope Ms. Pekarik continues her righteous fight to the U.S. Supreme Court, even against the tremendous procedural and expense hurdles in place to stop her.  And, let's also identify this "dumb economics" law as a further, and almost last, nail in the coffin for the budget and economy of Chicago and the state of Illinois.
     Both the city and the state are beyond bankrupt and are being kept "solvent" by corrupt politicians and ratings agencies.  Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Agency rate Illinois the lowest of all 50 states in credit worthiness, but still have them ranked investment grade.  If you believe that, you deserve to have them default on your municipal bonds.  Let's remember that these two agencies put AAA ratings on thousands of Collateral Mortgage Obligations (CMO's) which held truckloads of mortgages in which the homeowner never could even make the first house payment!  To quote Michael Lewis' great book and movie, "The Big Short," "Who sells a mortgage to someone who can't even make the first payment?!"
     Now Illinois, with their last desperate gasp, has legalized gambling and marijuana so they can tax the hell out of them.  How quickly your morals change when you see the tax revenue.  This would all be a sad mistake if it hadn't been going on for decades.  Illinois pension systems, which pay big labor and government retiree benefits, have a reported $162 billion funding hole, and this calculation relies on very ambitious projected rates of investment return, returns which you and I would be indicted for investment fraud for even suggesting.  The Wall Street Journal has reported that "independent analysts using more realistic rates of return reckon that the state's pensions may only be about one-fifth funded."  That means 80% unfunded.
     Remember that the U.S. Government tells you that the National Debt is $22 trillion, but if you honestly report the debt to include the unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare, it is over $90 trillion.  [Side Statistic: Wall Street derivatives which nearly destroyed the world in 2008 totaled $700 trillion, and as of 2019 now total more than $1.2 quadrillion.  Yes, quadrillion.  That is a real word!].
     So, how can we get Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker to read JAM VIEWS instead of focusing now on changing the state's flat tax to a graduated income-tax system in order to get the last remaining dollars from "the rich," as well as placing a tax on your golden retriever?  Shouldn't he be more concerned that the Vice Channel's show, "Viceland," renames his great city as "Chiraq," the unfortunate reference to a war zone?  Will the last taxpayer in Illinois please turn off the lights when you leave?
     Why must it be so difficult?  Why won't the government provide basic economic education to its citizens in public schools, so that history does not continue to repeat itself, over and over and over?  Please learn from these examples, and don't go with the crowd, for they know not what they do.  Your place is not among them.

"If you can't get them to salute when they should salute and wear the clothes you tell them to wear, how are you going to get them to die for their country?"  -  General George S. Patton, Jr.

** Thank you very much to the WSJ, Forbes, and Fortune for the above quotations and statistics.

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

** To access JAM Views directly please visit jeffreyamartinovich.blogspot.com 

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PROTECT YOUR FUTURE

     Out of the thousands of business and investment mistakes I have made, some of the worst have involved not properly protecting my businesses, company assets, intellectual property, and personal homes and investment accounts.  Over the years, we helped thousands of families and corporations protect their assets, retirements, and legacies, yet I was embarrassingly naive about all of the bad things which could happen in my own world.
     As my net worth expanded rapidly, I never took the time to sit down our fleet of attorneys and accountants and ask, "But what if this happens, or this happens?"  After decades of fantastic growth, I never got around to implementing many of the strategies which we had formulated for others.  I still personally guaranteed everything, all of the business and personal assets were intertwined, and so many entities and properties were held under the same holding companies.
     So, when the black swan arrived, the perfect storm, everything went down with the ship.  So many terrible events all happened simultaneously, in parallel.  We could have never predicted such a confluence, but that is exactly the definition and the experience detailed in Nassim Taleb's 2007 telling business case study, "The Black Swan."
     This week, let's help everyone with some simple steps to avoid the mistakes I have made.  Also, we need to understand that these strategies apply to your costume jewelry side business just as much as to the million-dollar enterprises.  Let's not later lose what you work so hard to build by the bad actions of others who feel, for one reason or another, that you did not service them well, or they don't like you as a competitor, or even if they are simply jealous of your success (schadenfreude!).
     Again, your high school or college never taught you these important items, so you must read, read, read to be responsible for your own destiny.  You cannot blindly rely on lawyers and CPA's, as we have shown time and again through these posts, because these professionals many times do not know the right answers, and many times their self-interests are not aligned with yours.  Here's a short list to get us started this week, and we will cover more details in future posts:

1. Incorporate your business activities for the best liability and asset protection, as well as tax advantages.  You can choose from C-corps, S-corps, and limited partnerships, along with many others, but for most of us small business entrepreneurs and property owners, the Limited Liability Company (LLC) will be the most appropriate entity.

2.  Although for decades we used Delaware LLC's (incorporated in the state of Delaware), because if there were business problems Delaware's laws were favorable for the corporation, we now feel that Nevada and Wyoming LLC's are the best choices, while California is the worst (imagine that!).

3.  Nevada and Wyoming have no state income or corporate taxes, but remember that taxes must generally be paid in the state where the business is being generated.  Our investment firm MICG, headquartered in Virginia, had to file and pay income taxes in 42 states - that was a project!

4.  Nevada gives the LLC members (owners) the best asset protection from the bad people, requiring charging orders for anyone who wins a lawsuit against the LLC member.  This basically means that the successful plaintiff doesn't get to break up the business or take the assets, but gets to be "in that one member's shoes" when distributions are eventually made, if they are.

5.  For privacy protection, Wyoming LLC's are ranked #1, but Nevada also does not request or release the owners' information for any civil inquiries or investigations, only for serious criminal actions.  This issue is important, not for dodging responsibilities, but for dodging the scumbags of the world, and their scumbag attorneys, who are always attacking business owners whom build any level of wealth.  Conversely, these scumbags won't pursue you if they believe your assets are not worth their efforts, either in value or in the trouble to get to.  Many people own both Nevada and Wyoming LLC's for their different businesses, or even for different pieces of the same business, simply to deter these "ambulance chasers."

6.  Your outside state LLC, such as Nevada, can be "qualified" to own property or run a business in your state by simply registering this LLC with your secretary of state in the same manner you would initiate a new LLC.  Or, you can already have a Virginia LLC running a business and have the Nevada LLC own that LLC, for example.

7.  Go to the trouble of initiating separate LLC's for different properties or businesses, and do not hold these assets under one umbrella corporation.  If a renter at your beach house falls to their demise through a third-floor faulty railing, and your liability insurance is not substantial enough to cover the suit, then the plaintiffs may be able to take that house.  But, they won't be able to also go after your Vail ski lodge, unless you had that held in the same entity, or connected to, the beach house.  Logistics companies place each truck in a separate entity, with its own insurance, for these same reasons.

8.  Make sure you follow the simple formalities for maintaining your LLC shield, so the bad people cannot "pierce the veil" of your corporation.  These issues, termed alter ego cases, address people who claim that the LLC is really not a separate entity from you personally.  If you are lazy and don't follow these simple steps, people will try to sue you personally for all of your assets.  But if you do follow these steps, the courts will most likely protect your personal assets even if the suit against your corporation is successful:

   a) Maintain a separate bank account for the LLC, and don't commingle with personal funds and think you will get organized later.  Keep everything separate to show the business or property is not you.

   b) Prepare separate tax returns, and get an Employer Identification Number (EIN).  Again, I urge you to do this yourself so you learn and understand what is truly going on and why, even if you then take them to a CPA to review and approve.  Always remember that it is you signing the return, not them.

   c) Pay the annual LLC fee ($50-$300), and file the 1-pager annual filing.  At inception you also file Articles of Incorporation to initiate your LLC.

   d) Prepare minutes of your Annual Meeting, and keep them in your LLC folder in case you ever need to show that you held the required meeting of your members, or maybe of just you and a little Grey Goose.

   e) Make sure your LLC is "properly capitalized."  In general, this means that you have added the money necessary to pay your creditors and run your business, if applicable.

   f) Put everyone notice that you are functioning as a corporation by always signing everything as "Susan Jones, President, Awesome, LLC"  Always use the logo letterhead, have Awesome LLC on business cards, etc.

9.  We will cover tax advantages in a future post, but here is a short list of things you likely will now get to pay for with pre-tax dollars (Download the current Publication 334, "Tax Guide for Small Businesses"):

   a) Startup expenses such as attorneys, CPA's, printing, office expenses, licenses.

   b) Salaries, rents and utilities (% of home for home offices), % of automobile, cell phone, laptop, supplies.

   c) Travel, meals, health & life insurance, retirement plans.

   d) Dependant care, education, dues, subscriptions.

     Well that's enough for one week.  I wanted to give you the "30,000-foot-view" of taking the initial steps for protecting your creations, and to give you a glimpse of the incredible wealth-building attributes of owning your own corporations.  In future Posts we will also cover Irrevocable Trusts to add to the mix once your Awesome, LLC is printing tons of money.  This is how you build long-term wealth:  Ownership, legal tax advantages, and building equity value instead of focusing on high current income.  And, here is the part where I have to remind you that the above is not tax or legal advice and for you to consult your own advisors, as I am not a CPA or an attorney (thank God!).  Have a great week!

"For whom the gods wish to destroy, they first call promising."  -  Cyril Connolly

* Many thanks to the WSJ, Forbes, Fortune, and to Garrett Sutton, an asset protection expert, and his firm, Corporate Direct.  I highly recommend his services and their many books published on the above topics.

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

** To access JAM Views directly please visit jeffreyamartinovich.blogspot.com 

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NEGATIVE INTEREST RATES?

     We keep hearing about "negative interest rates," but isn't that an oxymoron, a paradox, something that makes no sense?  What does that even mean?
     Let's simplify negative interest rates this week, so that we all understand what the media is talking about, but also so that we can highlight more failed attempts of administering unsustainable economic theories, square pegs in round holes.
     For over five years, European countries and their central banks (their Federal Reserves) have instituted negative interest rates to "jump start" their economies.  Instead of paying commercial banks to hold their cash reserves in the central bank, and the citizens to hold their savings with the commercial banks, the banks are charging everyone to deposit their cash.  So, if you opened up a savings account with Swiss National Bank, YOU would have to pay THEM 1% a year for the pleasure of them holding and using your money!
     Theoretically, they believe, wrongly, that this will discourage savings in order that banks will have to make more loans, and citizens will have to spend more of their hard-earned money, all to grow a failed economy founded on socialism.
    These European Union types claim this policy will have positive effects because is also lowers their currency which helps exports with lower prices.  This is similar to the New York Knicks claiming that their terrible season records every year help them get higher NBA Draft Lottery picks.  Also, the Trump Administration is now planning to impose tariffs and trade penalties for countries who artificially manipulate their exchange rates.
     Eurocrats also claim that these rates keep bond yields depressed which enable fragile euro members, such as Italy and Greece, to keep borrowing even with existing huge debt loads.  This is akin to allowing the New York Knicks to continue to operate its failed franchise and steal ticket prices from fans held hostage by the league's oligopoly.
     Finally, ECB President Mario Diaghi stated in March that negative rates are "a powerful instrument in enhancing, fostering the recovery and converging to price stability and achieving our objectives."  Where did this guy to to school?  How many times are we going to have save these guys? (A special remembrance and incredible gratitude to our fallen service members this Memorial Day).
     What has actually occurred is that 1) European corporations and wealthy individuals have struck deals with banks like UBS Group AG to hold their cash in the bank's vault, instead of circulating through the economy, 2) individuals are not spending more, but swapping their savings among banks in Munich and Bulgaria to save a few tenths of a percentage point, 3) real estate inflation and over building is promoted as Swiss Bankers Association Chief Economist Martin Hess stated, "Holding cash is simply more expensive than building an empty house."
     Five years later, the European Commission has lowered the euro zone's GDP growth rate expectation to 1.2%, nearly one-third the United States.  Unemployment rates are 9% in France, while Italy, Spain, and Greece are double digits.  The United States, after lowering taxes and regulations, is 3.9%.  If the U.S. had 12% unemployment, there would be rioting in the streets, but why is it accepted in Europe?
     It is accepted because socialism took over a long time ago, and we should not be complacent about the never-ending threat here to our American Dream.  The reasons Europe is lying to its citizens, and grasping at this nonsensical manipulation of rates are numerous:

1) Taxes are too high.  Individuals are not motivated and inspired to work hard, produce more, and keep the rewards for themselves and their families.

2) Regulations are a disaster.  No one will start a new business because they can never get through the red tape, and they can never fire an employee.

3) Redistribution is accepted as the norm.  Why work harder if the government takes your money, and it disappears into a black hole of entitlements and failed government bureaucracies?

4)  The under-25 jobless rate is 16% in the euro zone.  Since companies won't create new jobs, just take the government check and live with Mom and Dad, and drink their vino!

     Politicians and technocrats mess around with monetary policy (interest rates) because it can give short-term boosts, and they use confusing terms and theories because 99% of us taxpayers have no idea what they are talking about.  But, as JAM VIEWS continually preaches, the fundamentals are behavioral and mastered with simple math.  The Federal Reserve and other central banks are only necessary because technocrats refuse to operate under fundamentally-sound economics, as a corporate CEO has to do.  Without a central bank, the government would have to execute a balanced budget, could not have a $22 trillion mortgage, could not easily manipulate the currency to affect free trade, and could not print money for all of their misadventures they want to fund after already taxing the citizens to their maximum pain threshold.
     Negative interest rates is the latest scam to cover socialism economics (oxymoron), and keep the masses quiet.  Don't believe the fake news.  Maybe we should send Indiana Hoosiers Coach Bobby Knight over to Brussels to teach them that if the fundamentals are not sound, eventually the fraud will be exposed under pressure, normally during March Madness!  Maybe we should ask him to swing through Washington on his return trip.  Stay diligent.  Knowledge is power.  Have a great week!

"All I know is what I read in the papers."  -  Will Rogers

** Thank you very much to the WSJ, Forbes, and Fortune for the above quotations and statistics.

** For more information on Jeff's Books, Blog, and Legal Challenge, please visit www.jeffmartinovich.com.

** To access JAM Views directly please visit jeffreyamartinovich.blogspot.com 

* SUBSCRIBE TO JAM VIEWS

* PLEASE USE THE BELOW SHARE BUTTONS TO SPREAD THE WORD!