Harry Buckles

@MebFaber So, I should probably read the book…but does the disparity in current dividend yield from $VEU (2.7%) and $VWO (2.5%) vs $SPY (1.1%) not indicate relative value? Is it just a consideration of varying tax jurisdictions and their treatment of buybacks and dividends?

The S&P 500 dividend yield just hit an all-time low of 1.08%, going back to the 1800s. The prior low was 1.1% in 2000. There are now "dividend" mutual funds with negative yields (their expense ratios are higher than their dividend yields). Stock buybacks have exceeded dividends since the late 1990s. And yet, nearly all stock funds still focus solely on dividends, which is crazy. (And it's not just about the buybacks, but also the share issuance!) Buffett's been talking about this more than anyone for decades... We wrote a book on the topic 13 years ago, and the 2nd edition is free online. As you tune into the Berkshire meeting, and gasp at the $400 billion in cash on their balance sheet, understand why they consistently choose buybacks over dividends... mebfaber.com/books/ Chart: Multpl

Just remember: Your coworkers will NOT be there for you in the last chapter of your life.

@Off_Grid99 @EMPaulG 😂 Yea, I’m sure aircraft production in the US going from approximately 3,000 in 1939 to approximately 95,000 in 1944 had nothing to do with the government financing it. 100% private enterprise. And Americans think China doesn’t have the leverage today…🤣😂

@HarryBuckles @EMPaulG 🤣🤣

In the book, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand talks about a world in which the producers are taken for granted and criticized for making money. The world slowly, over time, shifts from producers being rewarded for risk to getting the fruits of their labor criticized even though they are the creators of jobs and the ones who have helped keep the economy going. So what happens? The producers shut down their shop and go to a hidden world where they enjoy their lives and the outside world crumbles. Obviously that is fiction but.......does it make sense? I don't know where we stand right now on the spectrum of Capitalism to Socialism...clearly we are still very capitalistic as a society but it is hard to deny that what we see happening in New York City and California and other major cities is creeping itself towards a world where we keep taking "just a bit more" from those who can. I get it. A billionaire has more money than they ever need. Why is it a big deal if they pay just a BIT more taxes? It makes sense to ask that. But what it doesn't do is ask, when does it end? For anyone who thinks that the billionaire tax is just for billionaires, you are mistaken. It will eventually creep down to every tax bracket. It may not be in your lifetime, but it will happen. When was the last time a tax was limited to a certain income level or small group of people? Our history has proven that we start taxing the ultra wealthy and it just slowly creeps down and down. Here is the evidence. The first ever FEDERAL income tax was in 1913. It was 1% on income over $3000 for individuals and $4000 for a married couple. That was the top 3% of income earners back then. Yes, that was 113 years ago. And yes, our country is far better today than it was 113 years ago. But is that because of Taxes? I'm not saying we should not have taxes. I like having organization and government to protect me against someone else and to protect our country. But when does it stop? What's enough? Why is it greedy to want to keep your money? We always hear about billionaires and think "Of course they can pay!" But that's selection bias. We don't hear about the hundreds of thousands of people who risked a lot of money to become wealthy who lost it all or didn't do well. Were their employees taking money out of their pockets to help them? No. You can believe that billionaires have too much. There's no one stopping you. And I think those are good questions to ask. How much is enough? But what major advancement has the government given to society in the last 100 years versus private enterprise? I would be hard pressed to find someone who changed society dramatically and made everyone's life better who did not make a lot of money because of it. If we take that incentive away, or gradually decrease it, why would they do it? Remember, that 90%+ of this country lives better than John Rockefeller did 100 years ago. That's not because of the government. That's because of private enterprise and incentives. Show me the incentive, I will show you the behavior. @GavinNewsom @NYCMayor #socialism #taxes @BillAckman

@Off_Grid99 @EMPaulG Yup, high taxes that funded a war time economy that consequently lead to a manufacturing boom.

@HarryBuckles @EMPaulG That expansion was because we bombed the rest of the manufacturing world into the Stone age.

@EMPaulG Like many, I’m a disciple of Buffett and Munger. Maybe irrationally so. But there’s a balance and a “truth” to their shared and negotiated philosophies.

@HarryBuckles ha well the republicans who say they are conservative...that's a joke.

@EMPaulG Stereotypically, yes. But stereotypically, those on the right still consider themselves conservative…and I find that to commonly be untrue by my understanding of the word.

oh i agree! the hatred is crazy to me. someone can choose to become a teacher. a laborer. a businessperson. a doctor. enjoy your decision. but would you agree for many on the left, it's become "I am choosing a career that makes less and that's not fair because that person over there has a ton more than me."

@EMPaulG But why? Why the apathy? Why the hatred? It's a tough question. I don't know what it was to work in manufacturing during war time, but your sweat and time went to a perceived greater good. How to do you achieve that broad sentiment today? I, frankly, have no idea.

@HarryBuckles I think Buffett is right and somethign I will acknowledge...higher tax rates have a lot of bigger deductions that reduce taxes. but look at the overall hatred of producers/capitalists. It's creeping higher and higher.

@EMPaulG Of course, the gov't.

@HarryBuckles Well, if enough companies leave and people lose jobs, someone will be blamed. Who?

@EMPaulG apnews.com/article/china-… Probably not a fair comparison, but is this Meta's fault, Manus' fault or the CCP's fault? By my view, it's a negotiation. Governments have to make their decisions, good or bad, beyond the interests of private enterprise occasionally.

@HarryBuckles Is this KB Homes fault or California govt? It’s only 800 jobs in LA according to Google but that’s a nationwide builder that generates $6.25B in revenue last year.

@EMPaulG I would agree with the spending problem for sure. I guess my take is similar to what Buffett has alluded. Capitalists will continue to capitalize at higher legislated tax rates. The tax from M2 growth is much more perverse by my view. The past 3 admins have been a train wreck.

@HarryBuckles the govt doesn't have an income problem. it has a spending problem. but they have the ability to paly the victim card with its people by blaming the billionaires for the problems.

@EMPaulG Debt. Overspending - running deficits. Misallocation of capital, ie wars. I think capitalism is hugely beneficial, but much like the story of Cleveland, it has been sacrificed for some form of cronyism/corporatism to benefit the few and sacrifice productivity.

@HarryBuckles and what are the bad parts of government?

@EMPaulG Gov't funded research has long benefited society in the Western world, especially in medicine and tech. Insulin? The constructive collaboration of publicly-funded and private enterprise is what yields the greatest societal benefit, in my opinion. Shades of grey.

@HarryBuckles sooo let me understand. Penicillin broad application is gov't credit. But computers broad application by private enterprise doesn't matter since the gov't created it? So which one is it?

@EMPaulG Lol, an accident? Maybe the derivative. Not the broad application for the benefit of society. And China, yes, a more "free" market was a good decision, but without CCP oversight do you think they'd be dictating the decisions of the US military industrial complex?

Penicilin was widely known that it was an accident by Fleming. It was not a collaboration. I don't know a single thing the gov't does that anyone can say "yes that's done well with our money." And look at China. Once they started being more free market and more private enterprise, how did their quality of life go?

@EMPaulG Penicillin was def not the government? Okay, it was a private-public collaboration. Your argument that gov't bad, private enterprise good is simplistic. Look at the modern innovation and the collaboration that occurs to achieve. Again, China.

penicillin was def not the government. And fair on the electronic computers. did the govt make them available for public use at a priec that made sense? no. that was private enterprise. As for nuclear power...the very nuclear power that the citizens of the US don't want because they're scared of it so it isn't used in mass like it should be? Not very good track record of gov't inventions and broad market use

@EMPaulG You legislate tax to fight wars or you sacrifice the very people uniformed to fight those wars. What WW2 innovation did the US gov't yield? Radar, jet engines, electronic computers (like ENIAC), nuclear power, and penicillin just to name a few.

@HarryBuckles Thanks Harry. Yes, do you know what we were coming off of in the 1930s and 1940s? That's why we had expansion. Not becuase of high taxes. And look at those high taxes...on $3.3MM in today's dollars. Not $500K.

@EMPaulG The image below does not depict capitalism. It's taxation without legislation and it's robbery. If you don't right this wrong, the US will go the way of the UK and become a full-fledged rentier joke of an economy. Not my base case, but we need to take notes from China.

@Ross__Hendricks He simply wants a more attractive entry point to go long. Why else go on CNBC and spew this BS?

Eisman is the goat but let’s get real… Any company with pricing power strong enough to piss off literally the entire world is a long thesis, not a short Long $fico

@TheLongInvest and $JD...

$BABA $BIDU are BUYS