The Long Term Investor

Well at least I had the fun of seeing my account in the green for a short time this morning. BUT.....alas.....I ended the day in the red. BUT......glory be.....I happened to beat the SP500 today by 0.06%. WOW......BIG WOW.

 

Zukodany.........you are a rank amateur. You have to use periods.......NOT coma's.......in between the words for the speaking pauses.

 

A TOTALLY dismal week this week. I think this week is the largest one week losses this year.

DOW year to date (-5.70%)
DOW for the week (-4.58%)

SP500 year to date (-7.73%)
SP500 for the week (-5.68%)

NASDAQ 100 year to date (-11.53%)
NASDAQ 100 for the week (-7.51%)

NASDAQ year to date (-11.99%)
NASDAQ for the week (-7.55%)

RUSSELL year to date (-11.46%)
RUSSELL for the week (-8.07%)

I hate to say it again....but.....another week that I am glad to be done with as we move evr closer to a good market some time in the future. TGIF.....TGIF.

 

With the markets going down...we are in the old time machine....going back in time. As Zukodany pointed out the NASDAQ is back at the levels of about a year ago. The SP500 is back to the levels of about October 13, 2021.

So at least with the SP500.....after all the recent drama.....we are back to where we were about THREE months ago. Is that all? Come on give me a break....that is NOTHING.

 

This is not going to end well.......a LOOMING DISASTER in the making. As if the IRS is not screwed up enough already.....this will make what we experience now the good old days.

IRS to start requiring facial recognition scans to access tax returns
Privacy advocates warn the practice is invasive

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/irs-facial-recognition-scans-tax-returns

(BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content)

"The Internal Revenue Service is going to start requiring users of its online tax payment system to provide a selfie to a third-party company in order to access their accounts.

Beginning in summer 2022, users who need to log on to the IRS' website to access the Child Tax Credit Update Portal, check online accounts, get their tax transcript, receive an Identity Protection PIN or view an online payment agreement will need to create an account with identity verification company ID.me.

Existing online accounts, which currently only require a simple email and password to access, will no longer work beginning this summer, the IRS said. At that point, users will be required to create an account with ID.me.

"Identity verification is critical to protect taxpayers and their information," IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in a statement. "The IRS has been working hard to make improvements in this area, and this new verification process is designed to make IRS online applications as secure as possible for people."

The IRS has stressed that individuals will not actually be required to go through ID.me or use facial-recognition software to submit their tax returns. But taxpayers will still be forced to use this software in order to take advantage of some of the IRS' most basic tools. The agency is already urging taxpayers to create accounts "as soon as possible."

"The IRS emphasizes taxpayers can pay or file their taxes without submitting a selfie or other information to a third-party identity verification company," the agency said in a statement. "Tax payments can be made from a bank account, by credit card or by other means without the use of facial recognition technology or registering for an account."

ID.me describes itself as a technology provider that offers secure identity verification by comparing a photo ID provided by users with a video selfie. It was launched in 2010 by military veteran Blake Hall and has quickly solidified its place in the identity-verification business, often on behalf of the U.S. government. Additional IRS tools will begin using ID.me verification "over the next year," the IRS said.

Users must provide ID.me with an email address, Social Security number, photo ID and take a selfie with a camera that will scan the user's face to verify their identity.

The news has prompted an outcry from privacy advocates, who have warned the practice is invasive and that the IRS is opening the doors to potential data breaches.

The decision "will only lead to further ruin for Americans when their data is inevitably breached," Jackie Singh, director of technology and operations at the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, wrote on Twitter. She called the practice "very bad," and called on every "tech-aware American to fight it.""

MY COMMENT

ABSOLUTELY GENIUS.......someone at the IRS has come up with a sure-fire way to avoid having to deal with American taxpayers. By putting this INVASIVE system in place they guarantee that very few people will be able to talk or deal with the IRS. Under the guise of customer service.....they are eliminating many of their "customers" from being able to deal with them.

NO....I will not ever.....submit to this sort of government facial recognition site.

The IRS is totally screwed up now with their 1960's era computer system. I am sure there is nothing that could possible go wrong with trying to implement this new system.

It is very generous of them to.......ALLOW....me to still file my taxes and send them money without being part of this massive surveillance system.

 

YES....to roadtonowhere08 and Trahn. Good to see you guys doing some bargain shopping. The markets might have more room to go down....but over the longer term anything you are buying today will eventually turn out to be a bargain.

 

This is my little weekend real estate report for my local area. As I always mention we have 4200 homes in my little area of the world.

As we approach the end of January listings are in VERY SHORT SUPPLY. The market is STILL hot. We are a mild weather area.....so....January and February are often months that see a good number of listings. In fact, the old pattern of the markets slowing in November through about mid February is no longer true. We are now in a year round market for real estate....if there was anything to sell. People and companies are POURING into this area which has been the norm for many years.

At this moment out of 4200 homes there are FIVE listings available. That continues to be CRAZY. We have one listing at $2.8MILLION and four between $670,000 and $898,000.

It must be a continuation of a NIGHTMARE for all the realtors. There is nothing to sell. They are siting in a historic hot market and could make a fortune....but there is nothing to sell. If this continues.......and I am sure it probably will for many years.....there are going to be a lot of realtors looking for new jobs.