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Non-Tech : Kirk's Market Thoughts -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: robert b furman who wrote (3259)	7/22/2015 12:45:25 PM
From: Kirk ©	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 26678

I'm still trying to get my brain around the concept that Apple has just over $200B in cash sitting outside the US that they won't bring back until we fix the crazy tax rules we have here. If they were given a tax holiday and they brought it back to give Tim Cook a $200B bonus, then CA would take 13.3% of it or $26.6B! That would be 1/5 to 1/4 of our budget for this year! CA would get far less if they distributed it to all shareholders, especially those in "only" the 9% bands... This misallocation of capital from insane tax laws (I still think companies should pay zero tax to bring money to the US to spend) and artificially low interest rates has everything so screwed up, it is hard to grasp. on the flip side... we have the Bay Area choking from too many people with not enough roads. We are filling in an area designed as suburbs connected with highways so now all the roads are gridlocked much of the time.... yet we have huge taxes. Companies want to come here for the great minds PLUS the very rich live here and have the money to invest so they want their "tinker toy sets" close by. The super rich buy Teslas with green stickers so they can drive in the commute lanes without passengers... then we are building toll roads for when those are full... I doubt Zuckerberg, Google Boyz, Larry Ellison, John Chambers, Musk, Tim Cook, etc. care if they have to spend $10 a day each way to drive around in toll lanes here, but the guys who take care of my yard that commute from where they can afford a home sure suffer in longer traffic. I read home prices have soared in many parts of the country where there are good jobs... so there is a bifurcation of inflation. If you live somewhere nice with decent jobs, inflation is running double digits. but overall it is low because we average CPI-U with places like Detroit... that some analyst said today on TV might have to compete with Apple for building cars soon. (probably in China where they have tons of cash to build auto plants.) ugh...