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Trump, our next president, promised to block AT&T/Time Warner merger

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Re: Trump, our next president, promised to block AT&T/Time Warner merger

#101
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, one is removing a thing, and the other is adding the same thing. QED _inconsistent_.

You'll first have to prove your premise that he is all about removing regulations (no matter what regulations), because that assertion is hardly an axiom.

He said that if any new regulations are passed, 2 must be removed.

Re: Trump, our next president, promised to block AT&T/Time Warner merger

#103
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Republicans control the House and Senate. And Trump isn't going to veto conservative signature pieces like repealing ObamaCare.

Democrats controlled the house and senate Obama's first term.

The first half of the first term. Republicans have controlled the House for the past 6 years.

Interesting, isn't it? Presidents aren't autocrats. The Republicans play obstructionist politics, the people get pissed off at a government that's not doing anything, and then blame the wrong party. The do-nothing government that the people have just voted against? It's the government they've just voted for...

Re: Trump, our next president, promised to block AT&T/Time Warner merger

#104
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it comes to Trump, that could be a good thing.

Republicans control the House and Senate. And Trump isn't going to veto conservative signature pieces like repealing ObamaCare.

Can someone explain why Americans hate ObamaCare? Here in the UK we have universal healthcare (the NHS) which all employed people pay for via a special tax (called National Insurance ,or NI) - isn't ObamaCare the same thing?

Re: Trump, our next president, promised to block AT&T/Time Warner merger

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Republicans control the House and Senate. And Trump isn't going to veto conservative signature pieces like repealing ObamaCare.

Can someone explain why Americans hate ObamaCare? Here in the UK we have universal healthcare (the NHS) which all employed people pay for via a special tax (called National Insurance ,or NI) - isn't ObamaCare the same thing?

isn't ObamaCare the same thing?

They are completely different. Obamacare has nothing do with universal healthcare in the UK sense, but is a complex system of mandates that dictates how private health insurance is bought and sold.

Very simply there are three key parts:

1) everybody (who doesn't for qualify other government programs) now has to have private health insurance that covers certain things. If they don't get this from their employer, they're responsible for buying it themselves.

2) The government sets minimum standards as to what insurance companies have to cover and regulate what premiums they can charge for this coverage. They also forbid insurance companies from denying people coverage due to pre-existing condition.

3) To make sure that people can afford these mandatory insurance policies, they offer heavy subsidies to people who earn less than a certain limit.

Re: Trump, our next president, promised to block AT&T/Time Warner merger

#106
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly what else is new? I voted for Obama on pledges he'd end the war in Iraq and close down the constitutional abomination that is Guantanamo. 8 years later and here we are.

The president can't do anything if Congress opposes him.

Democrats fully controlled Congress during President Obama's first two years in office. During this time he could have easily closed Gitmo, or addressed any of his other campaign promises. Instead we got the ACA, which is currently in its death throes irrespective of Trump.

Re: Trump, our next president, promised to block AT&T/Time Warner merger

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't ignore the indirect influence. The same way people care about resale value of their car or house, the investors that purchase at an IPO know that index funds will buy their shares and can therefore make more and bolder investments.

Of course I can ignore the indirect influence; if the company had no actual value at IPO its share price would plummet. Also, by definition the S&P 500 only includes companies which have had 4 consecutive quarters of positive GAAP earnings, so the shares would have value on the public markets. Specifically, they'd have to have enough value to be among the 500-or-so largest positive-earnings companies by market capita…

You're looking at it too statically, and ignoring the full ecosystem.

If I'm an investor that buys at IPO time, how many companies am I willing and able to invest in if I have to wait for the profits to come in through yearly dividends? And so, if I'm a VC, how many companies am I willing and able to invest in if the IPO market is much smaller? And so, if I'm an entrepreneur, how many companies can I found and create value from if I have very little chance of selling them off?

The index funds are the terrain that sustain the "wealth creators".

Re: Trump, our next president, promised to block AT&T/Time Warner merger

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Republicans control the House and Senate. And Trump isn't going to veto conservative signature pieces like repealing ObamaCare.

Can someone explain why Americans hate ObamaCare? Here in the UK we have universal healthcare (the NHS) which all employed people pay for via a special tax (called National Insurance ,or NI) - isn't ObamaCare the same thing?

One big reason is that the popular term for the ACA contains the word "Obama".

Re: Trump, our next president, promised to block AT&T/Time Warner merger

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I continue to be mystified by this take. The S&P 500 index is usually the benchmark cited here. But the S&P 500 is tremendously diversified over sectors, factors, you name it. Trump managed to create actual wealth in our economic system at a rate slightly less than the S&P 500. If anything the people who invest in index funds are freeloaders on the economic engine that Trump is part of (full disclosure: I use index f…

If anything the people who invest in index funds are freeloaders No. How much wealth could those individuals create if they couldn't sell the companies on the market and invest that money, and had instead to accumulate dividends? The relationship is symbiotic. Yes, Trump created wealth, but the point is that his peers would have created even more if he hadn't used that money himself. To make an analogy, I can swim a…

Trump has created wealth, but he also destroyed wealth in his multiple bankruptcies and the contractors he stiffed. One could argue that casinos (even if they are profitable) are a net destructor of wealth. It is very hard to get a clear picture of exactly how much net wealth he created since there is no reliable information. Tax returns would have been a good start...

His father, Fred Trump, built a real estate empire of 27.000 apartments in Brooklyn and Queens. Just sitting on those and maintaining and expanding it would have resulted in a fortune many times bigger than he has today.

Re: Trump, our next president, promised to block AT&T/Time Warner merger

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I continue to be mystified by this take. The S&P 500 index is usually the benchmark cited here. But the S&P 500 is tremendously diversified over sectors, factors, you name it. Trump managed to create actual wealth in our economic system at a rate slightly less than the S&P 500. If anything the people who invest in index funds are freeloaders on the economic engine that Trump is part of (full disclosure: I use index f…

Investing in the S&P 500 delegates the "actual wealth creation" to others by providing them with the means. And they, on average, would have done a little better than Trump did.

In running his businesses, he also delegated "actual wealth creation" to others. E.g. the waiter serving drinks is the one creating wealth as much or more so than the owner of the business...
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