throwawaygh (u/throwawaygh)

throwawaygh commented on How to have a billion dollar exit with zero capital gains tax axiomalpha.com/how-to-use... · Posted by u/the88doctor

refurb · 4 years ago

Generationally wealthy seems like a statement that needs some data there.

These investments can be as simple as opening a store. Youre putting up a straw-bogeyman that doesn’t actually exist.

throwawaygh · 4 years ago

Citation sorely needed. What’s the name of that opportunity fund?

throwawaygh commented on How to have a billion dollar exit with zero capital gains tax axiomalpha.com/how-to-use... · Posted by u/the88doctor

bombcar · 4 years ago

Anyone interested in the actual map, it can be found here:

https://cimsprodprep.cdfifund.gov/CIMS4/apps/pn-nmtc/index.a...

The purpose of the QOZ is to encourage investment in those areas, and it does this by favorable tax conditions.

Some of these areas are surprising, at least around me I see areas designated that aren't much different from the surrounding areas. And there are rural ones, too.

Looking at some of the ones above in street view, I can see why they're classified as they are, and I could certainly see a start-up choosing to place an office in one of those locations. Some are transit-close, even.

throwawaygh · 4 years ago

It’s about who owned the land in 2017 and who was governor. Some states were less corrupt than others, but as a general rule OZs were and are mostly political grift with a few legit trades thrown in for cover.

The reason that HUGE tracts of OZs make no sense is that the “for development of blighted areas” thing is very thinly veiled bullshit.

throwawaygh commented on How to have a billion dollar exit with zero capital gains tax axiomalpha.com/how-to-use... · Posted by u/the88doctor

modeless · 4 years ago

There's an opportunity zone adjacent to Palo Alto that extends into Menlo Park. It has a Four Seasons hotel in it. There are other areas nearby that could use the investment incentive a lot more IMO. Who decided on these zones? Seems totally arbitrary.

throwawaygh · 4 years ago

Governors. Many tracts were selected as political favors to donors to developers who already owned significant acreage in the OZ.

throwawaygh commented on How to have a billion dollar exit with zero capital gains tax axiomalpha.com/how-to-use... · Posted by u/the88doctor

gumby · 4 years ago

The intent is that people will show up and use them.

The main intent is that they be things like machine shops and the like that supply jobs and a bit of spin of economic activity (workers go get lunch etc).

Having people work in a coworking space may not be what they had in mind, but if those people go out to lunch in the zone, mission accomplished.

You can argue if that works well or not but the tax advantage does not exist in a vacuum.

throwawaygh · 4 years ago

In many states OZs were selected as political handouts and were placed in areas where development was already planned. The characterization that they lifted up poor regions is pure horseshit.

throwawaygh commented on How to have a billion dollar exit with zero capital gains tax axiomalpha.com/how-to-use... · Posted by u/the88doctor

refurb · 4 years ago

got rid of special deductions for normal folks

I assume you're talking about the SALT deduction? The one that mostly benefits the highest income earners?

Interesting how when people personally benefit from a tax break it's "entirely justified", but when someone else does it's a "massive special interest handout".

throwawaygh · 4 years ago

A two earner household with a cop and a nurse benefited from SALT.

The average beneficiary of opportunity zones is generationally wealthy. A pair of tech workers pulling down 7 figures a year are stupidly wealthy and still would probably not have enough capital to be the primary beneficiary of an opportunity fund.

I’m not going to defend the salt deduction because I’m not a fan of it for the reasons you mention, but comparing SALT to opportunity zones is genuinely delusional.

Pitting the lower middle class against the upper middle class over a modestly regressive tax break while folks who haven’t worked in three generations pay a 0% tax rate on the fruits of others’ labor.

throwawaygh commented on How to have a billion dollar exit with zero capital gains tax axiomalpha.com/how-to-use... · Posted by u/the88doctor

lukas099 · 4 years ago

If we keep putting special-interest clauses in our tax codes like these 'business opportunity zones' without expecting everyone who is capable to come in and exploit them to the maximum extent possible, that is really on us.

throwawaygh · 4 years ago

It adds insult to injury that a billionaire real estate mogul made EXACTLY this argument when selling his tax policy and business conduct (I’m just being a good businessman, and I’ll fix the rigged system by getting rid of loopholes!), then turned around and got rid of special deductions for normal folks and created a massive special interest handout for real estate moguls.

throwawaygh commented on UST Stablecoin Loses Dollar Peg coindesk.com/business/202... · Posted by u/lxm

xur17 · 4 years ago

I'd argue that UST / Anchor is more transparent tbh. Anyone can read the source code, or (more accessibly) the docs and get a pretty good understanding of how it works.

For example: UST [0] - anyone can mint UST by burning $1 worth of LUNA, or mint LUNA by burning $1 worth of UST. With a bit of deductive reasoning, it's pretty clear that in a "race for the exits" scenario, infinite LUNA will be minted, driving the price of UST to zero.

[0] https://docs.terra.money/docs/learn/protocol.html

throwawaygh · 4 years ago

> Anyone can read the source code, or (more accessibly) the docs and get a pretty good understanding of how it works.

I really hope this argument is made in court.

throwawaygh commented on The White House’s weirdly hip record collection washingtonian.com/2022/05... · Posted by u/pausing

Adraghast · 4 years ago

My first thought was that it's hard to imagine most US presidents deriving joy from music (anyone who thinks Obama actually listens to the music on those annual lists his interns compile is naive). So it made perfect sense that once these records got to the White House they barely made it out of the crates before being shipped off to some warehouse.

throwawaygh · 4 years ago

> it's hard to imagine most US presidents deriving joy from music

They're people, not gods. People like music.

throwawaygh commented on UST Stablecoin Loses Dollar Peg coindesk.com/business/202... · Posted by u/lxm

daenz · 4 years ago

>There's a lot of vulnerable people losing a lot of money on crypto

I feel absolutely no sympathy for people who lose their money in crypto. If they're truly "vulnerable people" and they're dumping their savings into crypto, they deserve the expected outcome. Same for people who spend their rent and food money on scratch-off lottery tickets. Take some damn responsibility for your actions.

throwawaygh · 4 years ago

This was a fairer take when there weren't elected officials and sports stars hyping crypto.

throwawaygh commented on UST Stablecoin Loses Dollar Peg coindesk.com/business/202... · Posted by u/lxm

scyclow · 4 years ago

I really don't understand why anyone wants algorithmic stable coins. It really just seems like the worst of both worlds. If you want a crypto asset that correlates with USD, why not buy something like USDC that's actually... you know, backed by USD?

throwawaygh · 4 years ago

It's not 2008 or even 2013. You can get crypto at a coin counting kiosk in any grocery store in middle America.

The psychology driving crypto for the last half decade or so is the same sort of psychology that drives penny stocks and scratch-offs. The only people who don't understand this yet are sitting in SV/NYC/Miami and are totally out of touch.

Stablecoins were sold as "the stability of a savings account with the returns of dogecoin".