“Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime” Try a quarter of a cent, these days. Let’s do the numbers on CEO salaries and how they compare to those of employees.

As workers in many industries fight for higher wages, CEO pay has climbed to record highs.
Compensation for chief executive officers rose a staggering 1,460% between 1978 and 2021, according to a 2022 report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Among the 350 publicly owned U.S. firms with the largest revenue, CEOs in 2021 made an average of $27.8 million, which includes stock grants and options. The ratio of CEO pay to that of the typical worker stands at 399 to 1. In 1965, the ratio was 20 to 1.
CEO pay has risen exponentially as more of their compensation comes in stock, not cash. Meanwhile, workers’ wages have lagged over the past few decades, failing to keep pace with productivity. The Pew Research Center noted there are a variety of potential reasons for slow wage growth, including the decline of unions, noncompete clauses that prevent workers from getting higher salaries; and jobs shifting from manufacturing and production to low-wage industries.
This gap may be one factor driving the current upsurge in labor activism. Workers in numerous industries are considering going on strike, already on strike or forming unions to fight for better working conditions, higher wages and in some cases the very future of their profession as artificial intelligence threatens to undercut their roles.
We examined Securities and Exchange Commission filings for publicly traded companies in the middle of this unrest — Disney, UPS, United Airlines and others — and tabulated the pay for their chief executives and median-compensated employees. Check out all the numbers here.
Janet Nguyen reported this story from Los Angeles.

☞ MARKETPLACE, 7/2/23

dt: I bought a 12 month 5% CD yesterday. I know that I could have gotten a higher rate with a brokered CD, but wanted to stay with my credit union. As you know, I have always tried to keep it simple for my wife's sake. Now, I have come to the point that I need to keep it real simple for myself. I realize my thinking is slowing. There may be a whole new strategy sometime in the near future.

@dt. Does Swvxx have more than one share class? My position seems to be yielding 5.09%.

SWVXX is one of the share classes for their Prime Money Market Fund--I checked again a few minutes ago and SWVXX is now paying 5.12%. I corrected an earlier post which should have stated 5.09%, but is now up to 5.12%. The other share class of the Prime Money Market fund is SNAXX--now paying 5.27%

@wxman123
With a little hunting you can find the % of any fund that comes from Treasuries , or from some funds just assume 100%. It would be worthwhile checking to see how much of treasury MM are repos, as repos are not state tax free.
Turbo tax will prompt you to indicate what % of the income is government and then automatically excludes that from your state tax
It takes a little work, but it depends on what you think your time is worth.
When I was working for a living, I usually ignore the $50 in state bond income but now I am retired, I have time to check it carefully and keep every dollar of income I am entitled to

This is a very good discussion of the risks of each.
https://active.williamblair.com/emerging-markets-debt/marcelo-assalin/defaults-duration-dollar-the-big-3-in-emd/?id_mc=99133980&et_rid=00Q0z00001b7V5AEAU&et_sid=1802616

The best way to get the % of US obligations for most funds is to go directly to the fund sponsor site for it .usually in late Feb for the last tax year. For example. For USFR google "Wisdom tree 2022 tax" and their funds with US obligations will be in the supp info for the tax year. From my experience brokerages do not do a good job with this if at all and the data can be wrong. But USFR being 100% treasuries should be 100% state tax free.

@MikeM- You mentioned "I moved the $ to the Schwab MM"... Could you advise which particular MM? I know this sounds stupid, but I've never been sure about their moneymarket accounts. When interest on a CD is paid, or a CD matures, they automatically transfer that money to what my statement just shows as "Brokerage", which I suspect pays very little interest.
Do you manually transfer such money to another specific MM account?
Thanks- OJ

I wasquoting the Schwab "Prime" Money Market Funds--SWVXX and SNAXX. They are the same funds, but different classes and minimums. SWVXX is currently paying 5.12% and SNAXX pays 5.27%. SNAXX does require $1Mil to open an account, which I did in March of 2022 in my IRA, but I lowered that amount significantly later, when I started investing in CDs MM withdrawals, but still can deposit and withdraw money from SNAXX even though the balance is now just 5 figures.

Dan, yes, you are right. When the CD or treasury matures, the money 1st goes to whatever that sweep account is that pays virtually nothing. I move it myself to the SWVXX MM account. I don't have nearly enough to be in the $1,000,000 MM club :)
Honestly, paying little to no interest on the sweep account is THE biggest drawback to Schwab versus Fidelity in my opinion.

Question: how do most brokerages report treasury income such as to allow a client to know the portion excluded from state taxes? Is this something that requires and accountant?

Which brokerage specifically are you interested in and is your interest limited to MM funds?
In any case, you get only 2022 data (thru the supplementary info). I am not aware if brokerages release contemporaneous info on this.

I'm see RED as of 10 CST.

Don’t look. It won’t hurt as much. But if you must … check out the metals and energy sectors. Probably down twice as much as equities. Did somebody say ”recession”?

I'm see RED as of 10 CST.

Wilson on 7-31-2023(link) "Morgan Stanley’s Wilson Says Stock Rally Reminds Him of 2019"
FD: Wilson is trying to save face. The rally already happened while Wilson was a bear.
Wait, if Wilson is saying now that the rally will keep going, that's a good time to lighten up on stocks.
BTW, Wilson's predictions for 2019 were hugely off.
Dec 31 2018: Wilson 2019 predictions(link): S&P 500 (^GSPC) Michael Wilson, Morgan Stanley’s chief equity strategist, thinks stocks will continue struggling next year. Essentially going sideways. Reality: SP500 was up 31.5%.

Taking income and doing Roth conversions are just two of many ways that you could wind up in a high tax bracket. Another way is simply getting paid a lot of money. Taking IRA distributions (whether for RMD or for other reasons) is likewise just another way to wind up in a high bracket.
What matters is your effective tax bracket, not how you get there.
Then there are quirks in the tax rules that distort tax brackets. For example, if some but not all of your capital gains are taxed at 0% because your taxable income is low enough, then every dollar of ordinary income you add will likely cost you an extra 37¢ in taxes. That's 15¢ tax on a dollar of cap gains that used to be taxed at 0% plus 22¢ on the extra dollar ofordinary income. So your effective tax rate is 37%, even though you are nominally in the 22% bracket.
Again, why that extra dollar of income is taxed the way it is doesn't matter. All that matters is whether that last dollar of income gets taxed a lot (high effective tax rate) or a little (lower effective tax rate). If the effective rate is not high enough, munis are useless.

I'm in a similar boat @dtconroe. I had a couple CDs mature and I moved the $ to the Schwab MM, for now. ~5.1%, with flexibility, is a pretty darn good return. But if CD's are flat or dropping the MM account can't be far behind. This morning I see 1 to 2 year rates ~ 5.6 to 5.5%. 5 year is also 5.5%. I think it wouldn't be a bad choice to start extending the maturity date if the intent is to keep that money in cash anyway - I'm thinking out loud here.

Timing for debt downgrade is never ideal. While odd, Fitch had the US on negative outlook and may have deliberately avoided the period around the debt-ceiling fiasco, a mistake that the S&P/McGraw Hill made on 2011.
Only 2 US nonfinancial companies, JNJ & MSFT, are rated AAA. These aren't related to the US debt rating.
But in 2011, all US financials were downgraded to AA+ or lower on the theory that no US financial could have debt rating higher than the US. This when only the S&P did the downgrade. IMO, some US financial could easily be AAA, if not for this artificial ceiling.
There was a temporary hit to stocks in 2011 after the S&P downgrade, but McGraw-Hill suffered more. Basically, it disappeared as a public company, and today, there are public S&P Global/SPGI (in the meantime, it also gobbled up all of the Dow Jones indices) and only private McGraw-Hill Education.
For years, people said that 2 out of 3 major ratings counted, so the US remained AAA/Aaa even after the S&P downgrade.
But now, with Fitch (owned by Hearst; also publishes Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, etc) joining S&P, 2 out of 3 becomes AA+.
Moody's/MCO (with 13.45% owned by Warren Buffett/BRK) remains at Aaa.
The SEC recognizes 10 NRSROs - Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations, but so far, the big 3 count. Note that DBRS is now owned by M*; Kroll is the old Duff & Phelps. www.sec.gov/about/divisions-offices/office-credit-ratings/current-nrsros
Edit/Add. There was a Fido alert last night of an event in my brokerage account. It was on the downgrade of my Treasury holdings. Schwab & Vanguard haven't sent similar alerts yet.

@wxman123, it is well-hidden in the supplementary info.
One has to dig deep into brokers' website to find %income from US Treasury Obligations for funds.
So, one can easily miss these if not specifically looking.

SPY and IEF (7-10 yr Treasuries) 1 year prior and 1 year after, July, 2011. Keep in mind, many financial markets and economies had still not settled from 2008, especially Europe. One would have made money in many bond areas.
Global markets Aug 1, 11:30pm EST (active data, click anytime)
I don't think the big money, at this time, cares about the Fitch move.
Edit: PERHAPS a nice excuse to take some profits from the hyper performance this YTD in some categories, at least by some of the big players.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4622176-nhmax-way-to-add-duration-and-yield-high-tax-payers?mailingid=32261069&messageid=2850&serial=32261069.1494&utm_campaign=rta-author-article&utm_medium=email&utm_source=seeking_alpha&utm_term=32261069.1494

"Unlock this article with PREMIUM service." Nope.
https://www.morningstar.com/funds/xnas/nhmax/quote

I can’t usually read SeekingAlpha. But, Apple was able to get me in the door here without my having to hand over any personal info. Of course “In Apple I trust.” Really is a good article touching on both munis and corporates. Speaks positively about munis from a current investment standpoint.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4622176-nhmax-way-to-add-duration-and-yield-high-tax-payers?mailingid=32261069&messageid=2850&serial=32261069.1494&utm_campaign=rta-author-article&utm_medium=email&utm_source=seeking_alpha&utm_term=32261069.1494

"Unlock this article with PREMIUM service." Nope.
https://www.morningstar.com/funds/xnas/nhmax/quote