John T. Reed’s news blog

I was asked to talk about regrets in my real estate investing career at FreedomFest last month.One big one is thinking I ever needed tenants and employees. I could have and should have just aggressively bought principal residences.My first property bought 4/15/1969 was a duplex I did not live in because I was a new Army officer and moved seven times in four years including to Vietnam. I did well on that property, but I probably would have done better and spent less time on a non-fixer.After I got out of the Army, I probably just should have bought a...

Jude Ray‎ to John T. Reed 3 hrs ·  John, you mentioned the geographical concentration of soldiers in your draft article. This slate writer seems to think they discovered something America Is Relying on a “Warrior Caste” of Military Families to Fight Its Wars. That’s a Problem. When the new White House chief of staff, then a Marine general, John Kelly received a knock on the door in November 2010, he became the highest-ranking ... John T. Reed I have strenuously complained about this in both my draft and West Point articles. https://www.johntreed.com/.../66448067-should-there-be-a...http://www.johntreed.net/gotousma.htmlI object to the word “caste.” Others writing about this use the word...

Got my new car today. As I was about to leave, an employee of the dealer saw it and gave me a big thumbs up. Seemed like more than a standard nice gesture to a customer.When my oldest son saw it, he said, “That is a heck of a lot cooler than your old car.” ‘It’s gorgeous!” Later, I was sitting in it on the street in front of my house reading the manuals and trying the various buttons, switches, and dials—871 pages of manuals! Our neighbors came home and stopped in the street instead of going into their garage....

My recent post about cream of crab soup and South Jersey cinnamon buns got me to thinking. The East Coast, Gulf Coast, and midwest have lots of local delicacies, most of which can be ordered by FedEx.   Is that ridiculously expensive? Not really. I can get great New England clam chowder at Red Lobster. The closest one is 25.5 miles from me one way, 51 miles roundtrip. AAA says it now costs an average of 60.8¢ a mile to operate a car. That means the cost of commuting to that Red Lobster is 51 x 60.8¢ = $31. Plus,...

What will the U.S. federal government do in its inevitable financial death throes due to out-of-control entitlements. Probably similar to states and other countries who are farther down that road.   IL, in the worst financial shape of any state, is now raising its maximum income tax rate. Is that the proper solution? Probably not. They need to cut spending especially on pensions and health care for state government employees.   Raising tax rates runs the risk of pushing IL rates past the peak of the Laffer Curve. That is a graph that shows increasing rates increases revenue as the...