Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky is the rare example of a statesman in the US who saw the pandemic and response with scientific clarity from the very beginning. He was never shy about sharing his views both in speeches and on social media, even when it contradicted the priorities of his own political party.
Continue reading “Congress and the Pandemic Response: An Interview with Thomas Massie”
From Birch Gold Group
Lawmakers packaged, sold, and passed the CARES Act as a way to help retirement savers mitigate the COVID-19 crisis.
Buried in 880 pages worth of legislation, one section is intended to provide benefits for those retirement savers with a 401(k) plan. According to a piece on CNBC, one of those benefits allows you to withdraw cash without the normal penalties:
The first option lets you take up to $100,000 or 100% of your balance (whichever is less) without the typical early withdrawal penalty for participants under age 59½. You get three years to either pay the taxes due on the distribution or to replace the money and not owe taxes on it.
But if you need to withdraw some emergency cash from your 401(k) to help manage your finances during this crisis, you may run into challenges.
Continue reading “Does the CARES Act Actually Care for Your 401(k)?”
From Birch Gold Group
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was passed by Congress to help businesses and individuals who are facing financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Part of the bill is intended to help Americans with their retirement planning.
The first notable way it may help on this front is by suspending required minimum distributions (RMDs) for the remainder of 2020:
The provision is very broad and is not a push off to 2021 – you will not have to take two RMDs next year. In essence, you do not owe any RMDs for 2020, inherited or otherwise.
Continue reading “How the CARES Act “Helps” Retirement Savers”
“Suckers think that you cure greed with money, addiction with substances, expert problems with experts, banking with bankers, economics with economists, and debt crises with debt spending” ― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms
“Globalization has created this interlocking fragility. At no time in the history of the universe has the cancellation of a Christmas order in New York meant layoffs in China.” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb
As we continue our national lockdown suicide cult to hell, I find myself getting angrier and angrier at the pathetic leadership displayed by politicians, government bureaucrats, so called medical “experts”, and intellectual yet idiot academics displaying their ignorance of facts, reality, history, and humanity. My nature is to be skeptical of everything I read or am told.
I most certainly disregard everything communicated to me by politicians, world leaders, central bankers, corporate CEOs, CNBC talking heads, the mainstream corporate fake news media, and lately – self-proclaimed medical experts who have distinguished themselves by not seeing the danger coming, downplaying the danger, not being prepared for the danger, incompetently handling the danger and righteously proclaiming the nation had to be brought to a full stop because their terribly flawed models said so.
Continue reading “THE ROAD TO PERDITION IS PAVED WITH EVIL INTENTIONS”