john maddente | midwestern clarity

C onceptually, it's not more regressive than what we have but it's being labeled as such by Obama supporters who conflate marginal tax rates with effective tax rates. Lower marginal rates on a broader base of income is a step toward real tax reform.  Reduce the mountain of deductions, credits and incentives -- apply lower marginal rates to a greater aggregate of taxable income and in the process remain revenue neutral while simplifying the tax code.  What's wrong with that? Perhaps the problem for Mr. Obama's supporters is that remaining revenue neutral might help curb run  away government spending . (This is a CEO, not a Community Organizer)

I n his piece from the current issue of Fortune magazine , Geoff Colvin says the current environment is a "...nasty, insidious force that's undermining the native optimism that buoys up business people everywhere" and then he admonishes readers with one word --  "Resist!" I appreciated another article in this issue by Ms. Mina Kimes who wrote about a manager for the MFS International Value Fund -- Mr. Barnaby Wiener.  Like a lot of people; I largely stick to index funds , but Mr. Wiener's actively-managed  fund according to Fortune, is one of the best in its class having outperformed 99% of its peers since 2002.  Mr. Wiener says "It's much more important to avoid losing money than it is to make money"  and he adds, "If you avoid the big losses, you make money almost by default."   Those statements seem consistent with Warren Buffet's well-known view, "The first rule of investing is don't lose money; the second ru...