John T. Reed’s news blog

Net worth and a declining loan-to-value ratio on your portfolio. There is a huge difference between having a net worth of $3 million in free-and-clear real estate and the same net worth in a portfolio of $20 million of real estate where you owe $17 million in mortgages.Also, don’t just pick an impressive round number like I did. More is not the goal. Enough is.How much is enough? Show me your shopping list of stuff you need but cannot now afford. Most people laugh that they would have no trouble sending $ million or so. “Show me your shopping list,”...

Trump today stood next to a huge pile of regulations. My Unelected President “Mike Medlock” eliminated all regulations and gave an 88-day comment period as required by law. During that 88 days, the “lectern” used by his spokesperson was the stack of all 170,000 pages of the Code of Federal Regulations. On the final day, most went poof with some being rewritten in a far more libertarian, Plain English manner.   Did Trump get that idea from me? It’s not that original of an idea. Stossel liked to do stunts with stacks of regulations. But I did send a copy...

When you compare Trump to perfection, he looks bad. But that’s a waste of time.Try asking yourself who would you rather have, Trump or each of his predecessors since, say, 1960:JFK—Stood up to USSR in Berlin and Cuba, tax cut, moon, affirmative action, Bay of PigsLBJ—Vietnam, War on Poverty, entitlements, Civil Rights ActNixon—Vietnam, China, Watergate, price controls, abandoned gold, likely impeachment, resignationFord—Whip Inflation Now buttonsCarter—Israel-Egypt peace treaty, “malaise”Reagan—Iran Contra, tax cuts, Tax Reform Act of 1986, deregulation of S&Ls and resulting S&L debacle, won Cold War, Amnesty, Arms treaties, ended inflationBush I—Desert Storm, “read my lips” tax increases, Mr. Ruling...

http://reason.com/blog/2017/11/10/how-going-a-little-too-far-with-a-girl-a   The Reason magazine article link above says the allegations about Moore regarding the 14-year-old girl do constitute two serious crimes. The age of consent in AL is and was 16.   But the statements repeated again and again that he “molested” or “preyed on” nine teenagers or “children” are arguably libel vis a vis Moore and brazen violations of journalistic ethics and give lie to the claims of the news organizations to the extent they claim to present only factual and logical accounts and analysis.   I have a low opinion of college men who date high school...

One of the gold companies has also been touting silver lately. I bought some this past year. I wanted my wife to sell some gold she inherited but she would not, so I asked if we could at least convert half of it to silver. She agreed.So I watch the gold eagle and silver coins wholesale prices in each weekday Wall Street Journal (listed in a daily section called “Cash Prices”)Silver has been going down lately. Since I bought it as a hedge against USD inflation. The daily price of silver is irrelevant to my use of it. In the...