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Make Berkshire Great Again
This is Porter’s Daily Journal, a free e-letter from Porter & Co. that provides unfiltered insights on markets, the economy, and life to help readers become better investors. It includes weekday editions and two weekend editions… and is free to all subscribers.
Editor’s note: We will not be publishing the Saturday Stock Screen and Sunday Investment Chronicles for the remainder of August. Both will resume on September 6 and 7.
Social Security is merely a tax… Tariffs are an illegal tax and will be rescinded… Warren Buffett lost his touch in the early 2000s… Better Than Berkshire is the way to go… Walmart eats tariffs and wins market share… Powell speaks, and markets rally… |
Table of Contents
“Porter, you pooped in their Cheerios…”
It’s a gift. I consistently find new and better ways of upsetting powerful people. And plenty of subscribers, too.
There have been dozens of times in my career when I’ve very calmly, very gently (not really) pointed out that the emperor has no clothes. Especially regarding our political leaders and the various business models of the most powerful financial firms in America.
Simple truth: the “wealth management” industry doesn’t exist to help you build wealth. It exists to extract your wealth.
And regarding the government, nothing tends to make people angrier than explaining that Social Security is just a tax, nothing more. No, it isn’t a contribution. No, you don’t own it. And no, it was never invested. If you’re receiving Social Security benefits, you’re on the dole.
You can disagree with me all you want, but that won’t change the facts. Social Security is, and always was, merely a tax that funded the government. It was passed by telling everyone that it was a social welfare fund and that you’d have the right to its benefits. But those were all lies. Read Flemming v. Nestor (1960) – volume #363 of the United States Reports, page 603. Or you can read a plain-English explanation here.
I’ve pissed the Trumpers off too. Tariffs are clearly taxes – duh. Taxes increase the cost of production. The costs of production are inevitably borne by consumers. These tariffs are the largest tax increases of my lifetime, and they will cause both higher prices and lower economic growth, just as sure as the sun will rise in the east tomorrow.
TANSTAAFL. (If you don’t know what that means, I’d encourage you to look it up and read the novel it comes from.)