Two Tax Cut Views From The Wall Street Journal

by Michael Keane


As we continue to analyze the results of the tax cut, a curious thing happened. The Wall Street Journal put out conflicting articles on the subject. In one recent article this week written by Richard Rubin and Theo Francis (link here), the amount of money that has been repatriated by US corporations due to the changing tax law is currently at about 20% of the Trump Administration's expectations. This is presenting (or compounding) a higher risk for the US deficit in the next few years. But in an Opinion piece (link here) by Stephen Moore, the analysis is that the corporate tax cut is quickly and assuredly going to pay for itself and then some through GDP growth.

One of the areas that the US government expected to help nullify the hike in the deficit was corporate profit repatriation. If you follow the evidence presented in the first article, and current levels of repatriation continue, the government will not be able to deal with the deficit.If you follow the second article, the rise in GDP will do more than enough to cover the deficit initially created by the cut and overtake the issue of repatriation.  

Because the opinion piece came after the repatriation article, and filled with scattered non-evidence based data points, it might lead one to believe it was written as a rebut. But as always, time will tell where the Trump administration's economic decisions lead. In a thankful way, the decisions and moves have been big, so the results continue to be clearer.

KeaneVCC continues to follow this topic. Previous posts can be found here. 



  ** This blog is used for opinions and ideas and should not be used as a direction to act without doing your due diligence.**

Wall Street Journal's Article on Boomers' Retirement Troubles

There is an article written by the Wall Street Journal that investigates the reasons why Baby Boomers are less wealthy and comfortable than previous generations entering retirement.

WSJ Retirement Article

Some (but certainly not all) reasons are below:

- Healthcare

 - Supporting parents up to and including now.

- Accessing retirement during their working years

- Paying for their children's college education.
  

Trov and Waymo Continue Mainstreaming Driverless Cars

by Michael Keane

In a move that continues the trend towards mainstreaming driverless cars, Waymo and Trov have partnered up on the insurance side of the business. Waymo has already partnered with Fiat Chrysler on using its vehicles for the test

In an article (link here) written by Darrell Etherington ( @etherington ) and published by TechCrunch, the companies will be partnering to cover passengers lost and managed property. This was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

On another note, a congratulations goes out to Phoenix AZ leadership for getting these vehicles on the road. A link to the story on that is here.

KeaneVCC continues to see the trend towards driverless cars moving forward. Some previous posts on the subject are below.

Electric/Driverless Cars Part 1

Electric/Driverless Cars Part 2

Electric/Driverless Cars Part 3


 ** This blog is used for opinions and ideas and should not be used as a direction to act without doing your due diligence.**

Capitalism Wins Iran Deal, Not Politics

by Michael Keane

In the end, the lure of capitalism and wealth won over both sides when it came to striking a deal in Iran. There are many Fortune 500 companies like GE, Apple and other global companies that will benefit from Iran’s government opening up their markets. Iran now can also have the ability to sell more oil. Because so many people depend on the profits that these companies and commodities provide (including you and I), the benefit could not be ignored by either side or stopped by the extreme elements of each side. That is not to say that things can’t change. But it will take extreme measures in order to do so.  A link to the Wall Street Journal article is here.

The opponents of this bill will both yell and demand changes, especially the political figures. But one thing they will not do is sell shares of the companies involved in the trade aspect of the deal as they (and everyone else) know that the new market will provide profit and wealth growth. They will not even mention the economics of the deal. That is a clear indication that there will not be enough teeth in the bite to change the deal. There will be lots of positioning on the political side, but hardly any action.   

Trade and Commerce have been given an opportunity to thwart hard line patterns and create a higher level of peace. Let’s work towards pushing this forward in a responsible way as shareholders and continue promoting the benefits while guarding against the greed that Trade and Commerce can create. 

Opinions are that of the author and are not to be taken as to take action for or against any organization or person mentioned in the article. The Twitter handle is @keanevcc and the facebook page is KeaneVCC.

Culture Difference Chipotle vs. McDonalds

A very interesting thing happened today. KeaneVCC follows both CNBC and The Wall Street Journal on Twitter. The differences in cultures of Chipotle and McDonalds were put on full display with separate press releases thrown up on Twitter within an hour of eachother. 

Chipotle has announced (CNBC link here) that in order to continue to get the best employees, they are raising benefits to include tuition reimbursement, paid vacation, and paid leave.

McDonalds also had a major announcement today. They hired Robert Gibbs their new Chief Communications Officer (Wall Street Journal link here).

It is interesting to think that up to a certain point, both companies are committing millions of dollars on their corporate message in very different ways in order to achieve the same goal. Lately there is more and more evidence of this cultural divide between companies run by Boomers and Gen Xer's and newer companies run by Gen Xer's and Millenials. Newer companies seem to be going back to the WWII generation model when it comes to compensation and employee value.