News Story of the Day: Everyone’s favorite billionaire has always supported hiking taxes, famously saying that he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary. This line was always about the income tax, not on things like capital gains or securities transactions.
So, what does he think of the latest corporate buyback restriction scheme by the Democrats?
Speaking about Apple at the 2018 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, CNBC reported that Buffett said,
“I’m delighted to see them repurchasing shares. … You can say we own 5 percent of it. But I figure with, you know, with the passage of a little time we may own 6 or 7 percent simply because they repurchase shares. … I find that if you’ve got an extraordinary product, and ecosystem, and there’s lots to be done, I love the idea of having our 5 percent, or whatever it may be, grow to 6 or 7 percent without us laying out a dime. I mean, it’s worked for us in many other situations.”
Chart of the Day: Are bitcoiners giving up on the peer-to-peer decentralized virtual currency? Bitcoin has not been this oversold in four years, courtesy of MarketWatch:
Illustration of the Day: Are leftist women really as independent as they claim? Not quite.
Quote of the Day: Ludwig von Mises wrote an excellent piece in 1940 that examines “progressive” attacks on capitalism. It is relevant today as it was back then.
Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini constantly proclaim that they are chosen by destiny to bring salvation to this world. They claim they are the leaders of the creative youth who fight against their outlived elders. They bring from the East the new culture which is to replace the dying Western civilization. They want to give the coup de grace to liberalism and capitalism; they want to overcome immoral egoism by altruism; they plan to replace the anarchic democracy by order and organization, the society of “classes” by the total state, the market economy by socialism. Their war is not a war for territorial expansion, for loot and hegemony like the imperialistic wars of the past, but a holy crusade for a better world to live in. And they feel certain of their victory because they are convinced that they are borne by “the wave of the future.”
It is a law of nature, they say, that great historic changes cannot take place peacefully or without conflict. It would be petty and stupid, they contend, to overlook the creative quality of their work because of some unpleasantness which the great world revolution must necessarily bring with it. They maintain one should not overlook the glory of the new gospel because of ill-placed pity for Jews and Masons, Poles and Czechs, Finns and Greeks, the decadent English aristocracy and the corrupt French bourgeoisie. Such softness and such blindness for the new standards of morality prove only the decadence of the dying capitalistic pseudo-culture. The whining and crying of impotent old men, they say, is futile; it will not stop the victorious advance of youth. No one can stop the wheel of history, or turn back the clock of time.
The success of this propaganda is overwhelming. People do not consider the content of alleged new gospel; they merely understand that it is new and believe to see in this fact its justification. As women welcome a new style in clothes just to have a change, so the supposedly new style in politics and economics is welcomed. People hasten to exchange their “old” ideas for “new” ones, because they fear to appear old-fashioned and reactionary. They join the chorus decrying the shortcomings of the capitalistic civilization and speak in elated enthusiasm of the achievements of the autocrats. Nothing is today more fashionable than slandering Western civilization.
Tweet of the Day: Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t understand how satire works. She thinks those poking fun at her New Green Deal, which, interestingly enough, is a 10-year plan, despite the world ending in 12 years. But Paul Joseph Watson concurs:
AOC doesn’t understand what memes are. https://t.co/dAlvc9wL2Q
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) February 8, 2019
Video of the Day: Should politics be more like a Starbucks menu? Reason’s Nick Gillespie explains:
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