“Families with limited means may be more likely to want to put what money is available toward other expenses early in a young adult’s life.
At 18 or 19, for example, someone might want to use the money for education, training or other expenses involved with transitioning into adulthood. At 30, someone might want to use the money for a down payment on a house.
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children from higher-income households could be more likely to receive ongoing contributions as children into Trump Accounts and remain invested well into their 50s. As a result, the shot of building wealth is greater for those with more wealth to start.”
Trump is damaging America’s future wealth, health, and security by deeply damaging American science. Science research needs broad investments in things that may not be productive for decades to come. That often requires an investor not worried about quarterly returns. The US used to drain scientists from the world. Now, our scientists are being picked by other countries, weakening the United States.
Many people will always make financial mistakes. Financial institutions make money by taking advantage of other people’s dumb mistakes. We’ve got to get real and understand that human beings have limits and that many will be financially stupid their whole lives. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t educate educate educate, but we should also recognize the limits to education.
Japan has lots of assets like a massive sovereign wealth fund. When you subtract these assets from their debts, their debt to GDP ratio is 77%, which isn’t that high.
Japan takes money from its people in the form of taxes and then invests in assets like US treasury bonds. Because their currency depreciated over time, their debt has become worth less, while their foreign assets have become worth more.
This has benefited Japan a lot, but may backfire if the Yen goes up, foreign interest rates lower, or Japanese interest rates rise. If Japan has inflation, this could force them to raise interest rates or live with inflation.
Young men don’t believe they have a future, they don’t trust institutions, and they don’t trust each other, so they feel that they need to get rich quick with a variety of ways to gamble. Most of them lose money, which could make their trust in society even worse.
Considering all that’s going on in the world, the stock market is doing quite well. Investors expect world troubles to pass. Corporations are reporting higher earnings.
Trump says a lot of things, and a lot of it is nonsense. Some of it turns into serious policies with huge consequences. But even the things he says that don’t come true have large consequences because he is president. Investors, businesses, and consumers have to make decisions, and Trump’s actions can impact that, so they have to deal with his words and the potential consequences. Even dealing with just his words, costs companies tons of money.
The wisdom of the crowds and the efficient market hypothesis require an amount of independence of the people in the crowd. With the internet and social media, people are much more connected and therefore much less independent. The same fads, cults, and appeals that warp people’s political views may also warp their market views. So, markets may have gotten dumber.
Korean companies invest billions in the U.S., can’t get appropriate visas due to the U.S.’s crappy system, and the skilled people brought over to help make these investments are rounded up like criminals.
You can’t demand Korea invest in the U.S., not have the human capital to support those investments, not have the visa system to get that capital imported legally, and then get mad when in order to fulfill the investment demands the Korean companies don’t get their skilled workers properly documented.
Trump seems to recognize that it’s a problem, yet he did nothing to fix it while leading the charge on an incredibly expensive mass deportation operation while also demanding foreign countries invest in the U.S..