Barry Ritholtz: The Odds Of Fixing U.S. Infrastructure Just Got Better Good Luck with this. If I recall, Trump suggests $1.5 trillion for infrastructure, with $200 billion from Federal "sources" and remainder from state, local sources, as well as "private".
State and local..........okay, and where is this money arriving from.....?
A few years ago, Michigan had a proposal regarding gas tax to help rebuild Michigan roads. I know several hard core Republican, tax paying citizens who posted to their Facebook pages during this period, something to the effect of "Just say NO to higher taxes to repair the roads." I had, by chance; an opportunity to ask 2 of these folks "where did they expect these monies to arrive from to maintain/improve the roads?" Generally, they expected the monies to be appropriated from some other spending unit in the state budget. OK.
As to the ability of local governments to help fund infrastructure costs, another good luck.
Thousands of communities are already part of the FEMA, Safer Grant programs to help fund local police and fire units. Not enough local revenue, yes? I read an online report yesterday about one large community in Michigan closing a fire station and reducing staff by 1/3, as their 3rd Safer grant had been denied.
Reminds me of the "shovel ready" crap from Obama/Biden, too.
And the beat goes on.....
The 'Dumb Money' Is About To Become Very Influential @jerry,
Most of us on the board realise that the markets are extended. And, with this, I am glad to see you have a plan when the pullback comes. Currently, I don't score the little dip we've had this week of much concern. Earnings in the end will drive stock prices. And, form my perspective they are looking pretty good for 2018. I've seen some numbers where some full year top line projections are in the high 1
50's for the S&P
500 Index while bottom line (TTM) numbers are in the mid 130's. Know these numbers can get revised just before companies begin to report. So, we will see if they hold as we move through the year.
PRHSX: Is it time to trim holdings? FRA= full retirement age. Eagerly waiting. Could have done at 62, but did not want to get into ACA.
Medicare is available at age 6
5. No need to wait for FRA to avoid individual health insurance. COBRA would let you back up to 63.
5, and some states (e.g.
Cal-COBRA) provide COBRA-type coverage for three years. That could back you up all the way to 62.
PRHSX: Is it time to trim holdings? Just a guess, but in the context of retirement, FRA could easily stand for Full Retirement Age (
currently 66 - see SSA).
Trump just appointed Alex Azar, former head of Eli Lilly's US division as HHS Secretary. One of his first tasks was to accept the
resignation of CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald due to investment conflicts of interest, who was appointed by former HHS Secretary
Tom Price, who resigned after spending over $1/2 M on private charter flights (or was it his investments in health care companies).
Trump seems too busy repopulating the swamp to do anything about drug prices. The stock market seems to agree:
When then-President-elect Donald Trump said pharma was "getting away with murder" one year ago and pledged to lower prices, share prices quickly plummeted. ... But this time, despite the familiar words, the president's comments didn't touch off nearly the same reaction on Wall Street, signaling that industry and investors may be more skeptical about the threat of pricing reform.
https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/as-azar-sworn-trump-pledges-hhs-secretary-will-get-prices-way-down
PRHSX: Is it time to trim holdings? ---Any of these transactions in taxable accounts?
---The transfer you noted to VTSAX has about 14% of its holdings in healthcare.
---The Amazon, JP Morgan, Buffet statement about building a viable self insured healthcare plan may have legs at some point in the future; as well as a Trump statement yesterday about he, too; will be going after the pharma market to reduce the costs. Ascension Health and 2 other large hospital groups announced two weeks ago that they plan to form their own "company" to product generic drugs.
If these announcements cause concern for your current holdings and you expect ongoing negative impact into healthcare, you may be best to sell all of PRHSX and move the money to VTSAX. Perhaps a most critical question, too; is how long have you held PRHSX to help measure your satisfaction with this fund to this point. A 4% shave in 2 days is not kind, without a doubt; but much of this sector was up almost 11% YTD.
We maintain about 35% of our equity in healthcare, and will remain for now.
Your retiring statement.......are you moving to France? I found 256 acronyms for "FRA".
My non-credentialed 2 cents worth.
Catch
The 'Dumb Money' Is About To Become Very Influential Most things I have read suggest that these days the dumb money is not so dumb..Speaking for "dumb" me if the market starts going down I will not buy the dip but re allocate from my current 75-25 to 60-40,If the market continues down I will still not buy till S +P is
minus 20% worse case I will not make a fortune on a quick bounceback but will not blow the entire bull market.
Trump Stock Rally Second Only To FDR @Maurice
And by the way FDR oversaw the two worst Depressions in the last 100 years.
What sort of nonsense are you spewing?
The Great Depression began in 1929 under Herbert Hoover, a pro-business, low-tax, anti-New Deal/anti-"socialist" Republican. Here is GDP Growth under Hoover from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis:
1930
-8.
5%
1931
-6.4%
1932
-12.9%
Roosevelt was president from March 1933 through April 194
5. The first part of the New Deal was passed midway through 1933. Here is GDP growth during Roosevelt's presidency:
1933
-1.3%
1934
+10.8%
193
5+8.9%
1936
+12.9%
1937
+
5.1%
1938
-3.3%
1939
+8.0
1940
+8.8%
1941
+17.7
1942
+18.9%
1943
+17.0%
1944
+8.0%
194
5-1.0%
Note that the U.S. didn't enter the war till the end of 1941, and the war itself was another form of government spending, i.e., "socialist" fiscal stimulus to build weapons and hire massive amounts of soldiers.
Also, note that the one significant GDP downturn during Roosevelt's presidency occurred in 1938 after Roosevelt was pressured by a newly-elected Republican Congress to balance the budget and curb government spending, which he did.
