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Jan 29, 2025
The current conflict in the Mideast that began on Oct. 7, 2023, involving Israel, Hamas, the Palestinians, Hezbollah and Lebanon continues to show up daily on the news front. The war in Ukraine equally puts a prominent news focus on what next month will be a three-year long invasion by Russia. Both stories fight for our attention every day. Now we have a third dominant news story, the inauguration of a new president who is testing the boundaries of the presidency.
Digesting the steady stream of all this news has become a complex process, requiring that we summon and revisit a knowledge of history, that we strive for a fair footing with regard to political viewpoints and try not to rush to judgment, while not forgetting our humanity and what that means. These are not simple times. It’s not easy to settle for an ‘it is what it is’ stance.
In terms of total vote for president across the country, the tally differed by a little more than a percentage point (1.47%). In other words, while half of Americans who voted for change might be applauding the flood of executive orders coming from the White House, the other half expresses dismay.
Just as political polarization remains consistently high in the United States, civility in American society is on the decline. We must remember that we are a community. We should protect that community by acknowledging differences of opinion, recognizing that our worth as a community comes from the respect we grant each other.
This newspaper isn’t covering the war in Ukraine or the Mideast conflict or the White House. It is covering our Northwest Corner communities, and our goal is to report the news of our communities accurately and fairly, and to foster the free flow of information and opinion. And we put a premium on civility for the sake of our own community.
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Letters to the Editor - 1/30/25
Jan 29, 2025
Compliments to Salisbury P&Z for work on Wake Robin application
I am writing to compliment Dr. Michael Klemens and his fellow Commissioners Catherine Shyer, Allen Cockerline, Martin Whalen and Robert Riva — and by extension the Town Salisbury — on the outstanding job they did in considering the Wake Robin Inn Special Permit Application. At $20+ million, this is the largest single construction project in Salisbury in memory. The application engendered enormous interest among multiple elements of the community. The Commissioners led the discussions with fairness and firmness. Through seven zoom sessions, they never “lost their cool,” and Dr. Klemens kept some of the most vociferous fellow citizens in order. I was also impressed that the Chairman gave every member of the community wishing to address the P&Z an opportunity to do so, some even on multiple occasions.
Our home is one of the abutters to the Wake Robin Inn property. As a result, we are one of the properties most impacted by this application. I felt great confidence as I watched Dr. Klemens, his fellow Commissioners and staff Abby Conroy and Miles Todaro guide the discussions and deliberations. We in Salisbury are fortunate to have this P&Z Commission team and staff guiding this complex application process.
Mark S. Hochberg, M.D.
Lakeville
Thoughts on impact from minimum wage hike
I found it interesting that the local business owners interviewed for the story about Connecticut’s new minimum wage lamented that with the small increase in hourly wages some of their staff would lose their state benefits (health insurance, food and energy assistance, affordable housing.)
What no one pointed out was that the previous minimum wage ($15.69 per hour) was not a “living wage” because those who earned it could not support themselves. (That may not have changed even with the increased minimum wage.)
What struck me was that Americans in business expect the American taxpayer to supplement the wages they pay their employees and to subsidize their labor costs.
Laurie Nussdorfer
Amenia Union, New York
A proposal for boosting tax revenue
After a long career in business, I offer this modest proposal for increasing federal tax revenue in the hope that our political leaders will take note.
Under the current tax code, taxes are due only when they are earned or realized — for example, salary or capital gains from sales of assets that have appreciated.
However, if you gift an appreciated asset to a charity or a foundation, you will be entitled to a tax deduction on the value of the gift (with some limitations) without ever paying tax on any increase in value of the gift.
This is also true upon death: if under your will or revocable trust you give a gift to a charitable organization, or a foundation (including your personal foundation), the gift will be exempt from estate taxes and no taxes on the increase in value will be paid.
My proposal would only affect the super-rich, who often use these rules to avoid paying any taxes on these gifts to charity.
1. Lifetime gifts under $25 million would be exempt from any taxes, to keep gifting incentivized.
2. Lifetime gifts from $25 million to $50 million would be subject to one half of the current federal long-term capital gains tax (which is 20% for the folks who would be affected by my proposal).
3. Lifetime gifts from $50 million to $100 million would be subject to the current federal long-term capital gains tax.
4. Lifetime gifts from 100 million to 500 million dollars would be subject to a federal long-term capital gains tax of 30%.
5. Lifetime gifts of over $500 million would be subject to a federal long-term capital gains tax of 40%.
Mort Klaus
Sharon and Boca Raton, Florida
North Canaan Fire Co. gets kudos for response
I want everyone to know what a great group of men we have in the North Canaan Volunteer Fire Company. Sunday morning I discovered smoke filling my house. It wasn’t from a fire, but a blocked chimney pipe. They arrived in full force and took care of the problem. They were very concerned about my welfare and my cat who ran away. He came back in the afternoon.
Again a big thank you to a great group of men. We are lucky to have them in North Canaan.
Carolyn McDonough
Canaan
Antisemitism is not amusing
Six of us served on the Planning Committee for the Salisbury Stand With Israel Vigil held shortly after the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7, 2023. We write in response to the noxious letter from Lloyd Baroody in the Jan. 16 paper.
Mr. Baroody undoubtedly intended his letter to be a humorous response to the loose talk about making Canada our 51st state. But there is no room for humor regarding the barbaric events of Oct. 7, the worldwide outbreak of antisemitism unleashed by that event, or the constant call for the eradication of the State of Israel — “From the river to the sea,” as U.S. anti-Semites constantly chant on our college campuses and in our cities.
Mr. Baroody notes that Israel receives substantial U.S. foreign aid. But that “foreign aid” is largely money that never leaves American hands; it is invested in American military and defense capabilities and shared with Israel, the front-line defender of Western Civilization in the Middle East.
Pat Johnson, a Canadian writer and commentator, has suggested that “Palestine,” not Israel, is the better economic choice for confederation with the U.S. Palestinians are the world’s largest per capita recipients of humanitarian aid, having swallowed up billions of aid dollars with effectively no improvement in the lives of everyday Palestinians. If the US had control of those vast sums and brought to bear it’s know-how in infrastructure and nation building, Palestinians might begin to see some improvement in their lives. Palestinians live next door to one of mankind’s greatest models of post-colonial nation building, yet have steadfastly scorned any lessons from that experience.
The most obnoxious part of Mr. Baroody’s letter is his use of the terms “genocidal slaughter” and “holocaust” to describe Israel’s response to the Hamas massacre. Those terms describe the 20th Century Jewish experience in Germany and Europe. Their use to score political points against Israel is abhorrent and totally distorts what is happening today in the Middle East. While Baroody and other critics of Israel concoct a so-called “genocide” in Gaza, actual genocides are taking place throughout the world; they include the incessant calls for the genocide of Jews — which is, of course, the foundational ideology of those who instigated the current conflict. This ideology must not be allowed to take root in our country.
Mike Abram Nadav Goshen
Michael Auerbach Lawrence Hutzler
Alan Friedman Marylene Friedman
Paulette Hutzler
Tom Morrison
Salisbury
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Trump’s rhetoric: Mostly a wish list
Jan 29, 2025
As we step into the new year, stocks have soared in celebration as Donald Trump took the reins of office. This transition of power has brought a wave of optimism, which can continue, although a mild bout of profit-taking in the near term should be expected.
A flurry of Day One executive orders kept the markets busy parsing the meaning of this one or that one. However, the enthusiasm had more to do with what President Trump did not do than what he did. The greatest fear of investors was that the president would levy 10% tariffs across the board on all nations. Some nations, such as China, Mexico, and Canada, were expected to get hit by even higher duties on Day One. It didn’t happen.
Most economists are convinced that tariffs would not only hurt economic growth both here and abroad but also fuel further growth of inflation. That does not mean that tariffs are off the board. The president indicated that tariffs on our North American trading partners could be announced by early February. China, however, not so much.
The currency markets immediately began to sell the dollar, which has been a winning trade (up 10%) over the last several months. Foreign nations have been willing to see (or orchestrate) their currencies decline to reduce the impact of the expected 10% tariffs Trump promised during his campaign. See how that works?
As a result, the yield on U.S. bonds fell in tandem with the dollar. Those developments partially explain the rally in equities. Of course, this trade can reverse in the blink of an eye. The president has not said tariffs are off the table. I believe it is just a question of when some countries will be targeted for tariffs. Trump has made it clear that tariffs are a negotiating tactic. There is no reason to think he would drop this tool in the days and weeks ahead. However, do not tariff trade. That is a losing proposition for those who tried that during Trump’s first term.
This week, the Federal Reserve meets on Jan. 29. Expectations are that the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) will stand pat, keep interest rates where they are, and take a wait-and-see attitude toward the future. Bond investors are not expecting any more than one or maybe two interest rate cuts (if any) during 2025. Many of the president’s policies could boost economic growth and possibly inflation and the Fed will want to see how the government’s economic policies unfold.
Investors are focusing almost solely on Donald Trump. In a Davos speech on Thursday, Jan. 23, for example, the president said that interest rates around the world should be “dropped immediately” and that the price of oil should also be lowered. Taking those statements as gospel, I think is a mistake.
A U.S. president may be able to jawbone an easier interest rate policy from a Fed chairman. It has been done before, for example, under Richard Nixon’s administration, but he has zero influence on other central bankers worldwide. As for the oil price, OPEC + is not about to reverse policy quickly, nor would Saudi Arabia agree without some kind of multi-billion-dollar trade deal since that nation needs Brent Crude at $90/bbl. or higher to balance its budget.
After living and investing through Trump’s first term, I learned that much of what the president says should be taken with more than a grain of salt. I consider his many pronouncements as more of a wish list, some outrageous, others as catalysts for change. He announced his new initiative called Stargate this week. It is an artificial intelligence infrastructure project, which is a joint venture formed by OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank. It is a great idea that promises big dividends for our country.
The three companies, he said, would invest $500 billion in AI infrastructure. Yet Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a close Trump adviser, who was also an early investor in AI, responded to the announcement by expressing some doubt.
He posted on his social platform X that these venture partners “…don’t actually have the money,” to accomplish the president’s goal. His critique enraged many of the president’s yes-men, but the beauty of Musk is that he can speak his mind with impunity. That may get him in trouble down the road with his new-found, best bud but not right now.
The point is that investors should not take everything the president says as gospel. Instead, consider his statements more of a directional outline of where he wants the nation and the world to go. It doesn’t mean that what he wants he gets, as his first term demonstrated.
As for the markets, I am looking for a small pullback in the markets over the next few days leading up to the FOMC. I would consider that a gift. It would be a dip worth buying before the market resumes its climb to new highs.
Bill Schmick is a founding partner of Onota Partners, Inc., in the Berkshires.
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