At least interesting...Facebook's Eduardo Saverin has renounced his U.S. citizenship just about the time to save $70 million on his U.S. tax bill. This is technically illegal, but it hasn't really been enforced, although this case is so blatant that they may actually be able to enforce it and bar him from ever entering the U.S. legally again.

Zuckerberg's also going to be able to avoid a whole boatload of taxes along with Facebook itself.

What will happen next year if all the Bush tax cuts expire and all spending cuts kick in:

 

 

For more on Congress’ end-of-the-year choices, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has a note on the “economics of the fiscal cliff.” They note, among other things, that the spending cuts from the sequester would actually have the biggest impact on growth in 2013, even though they’re smaller in dollar terms than the Bush tax cuts.

You can post a similar graph with a near-vanishing federal deficit though, for the people who actually care about that.

The link goes into some more detail and does show that the % debt is substantially lower in 10 years.

But either way, it shows again that the net effect of government spending across all levels has been a drag on the economy for several years now. Obama is proudly highlighting this, but it's not something anyone should really be happy about when we still have high unemployment and widespread economic suffering. If the federal government had covered state and local budget cuts and give us a net-zero effect, we'd be much better off right now, let alone real and sustained positive demand effects.

Facebook IPO tomorrow, shooting for around 10 am central first print. Symbol FB.

Does anyone know how they get the "1 in 8 people in the world have facebook" claim? Is it just (estimated population)/(total registered users)?

TED is censoring one speech on economic inequality by refusing to release the video but they have another up.

 

The above TED talk, by Richard Wilkinson, is from October 2011, and it's all about economic inequality. There's quite a lot of buzz today about another talk on economic inequality which was recorded, then quashed by TED officials. You can check out the full transcript here, from National Journal.

 

At first glance, this is quite a strange discrepancy. Both talks are on economic inequality, and they do differ a bit, but if anything the Wilkinson talk is more radical. The gist of his is that once a country has reached "developed" status, wealth doesn't much matter for the health of that society, broadly speaking (including things like longevity, mental illness, crime, prison population, poverty, etc). Instead equality is what matters. More equal societies are better.

 

The censored talk, given by venture capitalist Nick Hanauer, makes a fairly banal point that starting a successful business depends entirely on having a population of people with the ability to buy your product

 

TED is tone-trolling.

The Senate confirmed two Fed Board nominees:

 

The Harvard economist Jeremy Stein and the investment banker and lawyer Jerome Powell were confirmed easily after a morning of debate. The vote for Mr. Stein was 70-24, and for Mr. Powell, 74-21.

 

board's at full strength for the first time since 2006.

So what will the top tick be in the FB IPO? I'm at $117.

 

$75

FB indicated at $45, almost 42million shares paired there.

$43 with 55 million paired.

Apparently Bono is an investor and will make more off of the IPO than he did off his entire career with U2.

$42 with 66 m paired. Pushed back the open to at least 10:05

Still indicated $42, 73 m paired. No word on when first print is going to happen. Apparently someone even placed a $4000 limit order to make sure they get filled out of the open.

This is going to be unpredictable, it feels like an apple ipod release where people are in line just because they want to say they have it first and who cares what cost.

 

 

This is going to be unpredictable, it feels like an apple ipod release where people are in line just because they want to say they have it first and who cares what cost.

 

It is amazing how many people are on Times Sq outside of the NASD HQ.

Yeah I saw the picture on yahoo and was kind of shocked. I mean people love certain brands (Nike, whatever), but they dont go crazy over getting some stock.

Yeah I saw the picture on yahoo and was kind of shocked. I mean people love certain brands (Nike, whatever), but they dont go crazy over getting some stock.

 

I would have done it, if I was up there. But then again I am a market geek.

Being there would be fun, but I doubt you would place an order to buy FB at any price just to say you got some. I mean if you can get it right at the bell, you probably can make a quick profit, but I think some people are going to buy pretty high today.

Apparently the hold up now is people having trouble cancel/replacing orders before the open according to the WSJ.

Being there would be fun, but I doubt you would place an order to buy FB at any price just to say you got some. I mean if you can get it right at the bell, you probably can make a quick profit, but I think some people are going to buy pretty high today.

 

Nope. If you aren't on the initial offering, wait until days later. Let the glow fade.

NASD now saying 10:30

Opens at $42 and moves up to $43 right away.