John T. Reed’s news blog

Biden is again talking about a wealth tax. If your net worth exceeds $100M, a percentage of it belongs to him. . They were talking about that before with BBB. . I think it is unconstitutional. The Constitution mentions federal tax at three places: . A. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States B. Article I,...

I had lunch with a long-time fellow HBS real estate guy yesterday. He told me about a new way to make money in real estate that I had not thought of. . I was talking about reducing the load factor—converting existing space on a property that is not being rented into rented space. Load factor is generally an office or hotel term. It refers to space that you must have but that you cannot rent like lobbies, hallways, store rooms, stairs, elevators, and so on. You generally cannot eliminate it, but you can often reduce it. . Like I once...

60 Minutes Lesley Stahl just did a common story of our time. Corporations are buying houses and renting them out for high rents. Tenants are powerless to stop them and the American Dream of owning a home is gone. . She let the corporate guy point out that only 2% of US homes are owned by corporations . She moved on. Bull! If it’s only 2% they hardly have a monopoly that lets them overcharge rents. . I just wrote a book on this American dream. https://johntreed.com/.../an-american-principal-residence... . Regarding current prices, it says to go where you can afford to...

One of the featured scenes in tv coverage of the Ukraine invasion is of babies being born amongst the war and refugee chaos. . My West Point classmates and I knew one of those—albeit from another war. . WW II began on September 1, 1939 when Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union simultaneously invaded Poland from the West and East—the same Poland that has now welcomed the largest number of Ukrainian refugees—over 1.7 million and counting now. . My mother told me that I was born nine months to the day after my draftee father returned from the war...

Here are a couple of emails I exchanged with an Australian reader who had just bought and read my 2021 new book An American Principal Residence is the Most Advantaged Investment on Earth: Maximize Yours! . Re: Your new book. Investing in Principal residences only. nick chan <nickchan64@hotmail.com> Jul 31, 2021, 1:28 AM to me Thank you John. I have many of your books. I live in Australia and went down the path of owning many rental properties due to a peculiar tax allowance called negative gearing here but the negative Cashflow nearly killed me. I should have stuck to...