Sumo Tangerines March 26, 2012March 27, 2017 Notice anything different? (Thanks, Marc! Jason! Luann!) Still figuring it out. Suggestions welcome. BEING RICH The trick to being rich is not to need much. There. Wasn’t that simple? REAGAN AND OBAMA AGREE ON TAXES Take 55 seconds to watch. There – wasn’t that simple? TAXES ARE LOWER UNDER OBAMA THAN UNDER REAGAN This clip is from last summer, but the facts haven’t changed. Under Reagan, the income tax people paid averaged 18.2% of GDP – under Obama, 14.8%. And the top rates on wealth are lower too: under Reagan at the end of his second term: 28% on dividends and capital gains, versus 18.8% under Obama (including the 3.8% health care surtax that doesn’t kick in until next year). Under Reagan, 55% on billion-dollar estates, versus 45% under Obama. (Romney has pledged to lower it to zero, to help the wealthiest of the wealthy.) THE REPUBLICAN PARTY Kevin Baker’s overview of how it has become “the outsourced party” – outsourced to Rush Limbaugh, Foster Freiss, et al. (Two players in the genesis of all this, instrumental in striking down “the fairness rule,” were appellate court judges Antonin Scalia and Robert Bork, both of whom Ronald Reagan rewarded with nominations to the Supreme Court. Bork was rejected but now co-chairs Mitt Romney’s 2012 Justice Advisory Committee.) SUMO TANGERINES Not cheap, but the perfect fruit: seedless, unbelievably easy to peel, enormous, sweet, juicy, American grown. (Are you in New York? Fresh Direct has them here.) Someone’s birthday coming up? Blow $20 on half a dozen of these. CRME – “SELL” Guru: “Merck stopped development of the oral drug. This is one of those strange cases of the better mousetrap – the drug works – that didn’t pan out.” If you can use the tax loss, sell. It’s barely 80 cents, so a near total loss from the $4.60 we paid. But just as buying at $4.60 turned out to be a mistake, I’m not sure it’s a sale here if you don’t need the loss. It probably is (Guru says “sell”), but I tend to be a bit contrary (ornery? foolhardy? suicidal?) in these situations.