Business & Economics: April 2013 Archives
Is anyone surprised that internet behemoth Amazon now supports an internet sales tax? Why would they do such a thing? The explanation is simple: the new law will be complex and difficult to comply with, which will shut down a lot of Amazon's online competitors.
The bill pits brick-and-mortar stores like Wal-Mart against online services such as eBay. Amazon.com, which initially fought efforts in some states to make it collect sales taxes, supports it too. Amazon and Best Buy have joined a group of retailers called the Marketplace Fairness Coalition to lobby on behalf of the bill."Amazon.com has long supported a simplified nationwide approach that is evenhandedly applied and applicable to all but the smallest-volume sellers," Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president of global public policy, said in a recent letter to senators.
Many people mistakenly believe that large companies generally resist regulation. In reality, large companies often lobby in favor of complex and expensive regulations because the compliance cost prevents smaller companies from competing.
Today's plunge in gold prices reinforces my broad, long-term investment strategy.
Gold plunged for the second straight day Monday, dropping more than 8% at midday in what was shaping up as the metal's biggest one-day percentage decline in 30 years. ..."Everybody that's bought for the past two years, since April 2011, is losing money," said Ira Epstein, director of the Ira Epstein division at the Linn Group futures brokerage. "It's a sea of red," he said.
There's nothing magical about gold, but the fact that so many people treat it like a magic totem is enough to scare me away. Gold's movement is almost entirely irrational, so why would you want to play that game?
At least if you buy actual gold and maintain physical possession you can theoretically use it to buy things after the total collapse of global civilization, but what's the point in buying pieces of paper that say you own gold in someone else's vault? It's voodoo.
