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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: russwinter who wrote (5455)	1/18/2004 9:35:11 PM
From: mishedlo	Respond to of 110194

Foreign Addiction to US Assets Still Healthy for Deficit by Ashraf Laidi forexnews.com Foreign purchases of US assets soared 217% to $87.6 billion in November, after having jumped 560% to 27.6 billion in October. With the November current account deficit at $38 billion, the November inflow data mean that foreign purchases made up 231% of the deficit, greater than the 133% monthly average in the first 10 months. This affirms that foreign inflows remain plentiful in financing the trade gap. The bulk of the rise in foreign purchases of US assets was concentrated in Treasuries and stocks, which saw a 178% increase to $33.4 billion, and an 800% jump to $87.8 billion respectively. Purchases in US agencies saw a relatively modest 12% increase to $10.6 billion, while purchases of corporate bonds rose 41% to $29.7 billion . . .

To: russwinter who wrote (5455)	1/19/2004 8:41:55 AM
From: Pogeu Mahone	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 110194

russ what about this? can this keep the top spinning longer then you thought? '03 refunds to increase for many By Mary Dalrymple, Associated Press, 1/19/2004 WASHINGTON -- Tax rates dropped last January, but most taxpayers have received only half of the cuts coming to them. That means that many can expect a bigger refund or a smaller tax bill when they figure their 2003 returns this year. The Internal Revenue Service, banks, and brokers have started mailing packages of tax instructions and year-end financial statements. IRS officials say that electronic filing, when combined with the direct deposit of a refund into a taxpayer's bank account, gets refunds to taxpayers in as few as 10 days. The average time is about 14 days. Taxpayers filing traditionally can wait up to six weeks for a refund. The tax law enacted last May dropped tax rates across the board and removed some of the so-called marriage penalty built into the structure of marginal tax rates, which can cause married couples to pay more tax than they would as singles filing individually. Nearly everyone benefited from an expansion of the lowest, 10 percent bracket to $7,000 for single people and $14,000 for married couples. The law also expanded the 15 percent bracket for married couples to twice that of singles. Married couples now pay the same amount of tax on income within the bottom two rates as two singles. The law also lowered the higher marginal rates ahead of schedule and made the change effective Jan. 1, 2003. The higher rates are now 25 percent, 28 percent, 33 percent, and 35 percent. All of these changes were reflected in taxpayers' paychecks beginning in July, when employers were instructed to change their withholding tables to reflect the new rates. Because the change started midyear, most taxpayers paid too much tax during the first half of 2003 and can expect to recoup that money through a bigger refund or a smaller tax bill. Tax advisers at Petz Enterprises Inc., which runs the online tax preparation service TaxBrain, said they expect 10 million households run by married couples whose incomes range from $47,000 to $65,000 to be among the biggest winners. The combination of new tax rates and tax cuts targeted at married couples will move many of those households from the 27 percent bracket to the 15 percent bracket. "Because the tax law changes took effect midyear, many of these households will find they have been overwithheld, and tax refunds will be much higher than expected," said Eric Hayes, a senior tax analyst at TaxBrain. IRS officials say tax refunds have been steadily rising, on average, for about 20 years. This year's jump may be higher because of lower tax rates, an increased child tax credit, and other tax cuts. Families that received an advance child tax credit payment will need to reduce the credit they claim on their return by an equal amount. A family with one child who qualified for the entire $1,000 child tax credit probably received $400 last summer and can claim the remaining $600 when filing a 2003 tax return. Married couples this year can claim a $9,500 standard deduction. Couples whose itemized deductions total less than that might be better off not itemizing them. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company. © Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company