"Property values do not increase with inflation, the nominal monetary value increases as the money is devalued."

You and I know that, but most people do not. They equate a higher dollar amount with higher value, which is why the system is so out-of-whack.

"Fixing property taxes at the last purchase price discriminates against anyone who moves and forces people to stay in homes they would rather leave. That is a penalty, not an incentive."

I don't see how. You are choosing to move. You are choosing the new price at which you are going to purchase accommodations. And you are required by law to have disclosed to you the property taxes which will be assessed prior to your purchase (your escrow account). There is every opportunity to be an informed buyer.

I would also point out that there is a very real penalty on those who do stay in their houses for a long time. My wife's aunt has been in the same home in California for 40 years. She bought the house for around $40,000 and now it's assessed value is about $800,000. I can tell you similar stories of others - retirees forced to move from the homes they have lived in for decades simply because of tax assessments outstripping their fixed incomes. Are those people really seeing an increase in what they get from government which justifies the tax increases? Not hardly.

"Tax assessors don't ordinarily arbitrarily re-assess property, they base the assessments on market values statistically."

The taxable value on my home went up over 10% the past year. Yet market conditions really haven't changed much. I'm not in a booming economy. They just wanted more revenue in the State's coffers and since they have complete control, they can play with it all they want. I would also point out that from a strict FASB accounting principles standpoint, property values aren't re-calculated every year. It is based on the purchase price of the land. That value only changes when the property changes hands. I want taxable values tied to accounting values.

I also look at it from the standpoint of value and gain. Property owners don't actually deriving any value from the arbitrary re-valuation of property for taxation. None whatsoever. Until they choose to sell the property for a higher price than what they paid. I object to taxation merely for existence, and even more so when the taxman has the ability to arbitrarily change the rates and charges without providing equal return to me.

"Local officials have no incentive to "keep prices stable" and cannot, they have nothing to do with prices or Federal inflation."

"All politics is local." Federal policies won't change until local policies do. Individual states (through their elected representatives) must fight for changes to policies that adversely affect their districts.

"Local spending funded by property taxes does not remain tied to home prices..."

It may not in your area, but it does in mine. There is a constant battle in my State Legislature and city over funding for various projects and the inevitable procession is that they decide they need to do something, then raise taxes to pay for it. This goes double when they overestimate growth and property values in certain growth areas and leave themselves a revenue shortfall.

wiggys: "if you or anyone else on this forum believes that there are positive jobs numbers i'll sell you the brooklyn bridge."

Then with all those jobs you can build more bridges to sell. And so the "economy" grows.

Property values do not increase with inflation, the nominal monetary value increases as the money is devalued.

Borrowers versus lenders are affected differently by monetary inflation. Government intervention always causes distortions, with further distortions and injections of "loopholes", subsidies, manipulated interest rates, and more distorting regulations claimed to fix the distortions.

Fixing property taxes at the last purchase price discriminates against anyone who moves and forces people to stay in homes they would rather leave. That is a penalty, not an incentive.

Tax assessors don't ordinarily arbitrarily re-assess property, they base the assessments on market values statistically. They are granted exemptions on the size of statistical deviations that shaft some individuals, but that doesn't change the average.

Local officials have no incentive to "keep prices stable" and cannot, they have nothing to do with prices or Federal inflation.

Local spending funded by property taxes does not remain tied to home prices, the tax rate increases to whatever is the ratio of spending to total assessed value, with state subsidies to the town governments when public resistance to increasing property taxes becomes too much of a problem. Push in on the balloon in one place and it pushes out somewhere else. That will remain true of taxes, borrowing, and spending as long as the statist premises of higher spending continue. Meanwhile all of us -- except the rulers -- lose from the constant and pervasive pressure group warfare battling for favors and defenses against them.

The job numbers still suck, they manipulate those numbers. Sure there are some din dong jobs out there but not the good jobs available like they used to be.
I say, the FEDs and the central banks should be accountable for this mess, however, there are reasonable suspicions to think that they did it on purpose. Purpose or stupidity...no excuse.

Glad I could help, Herb;^)

I often avoid saying what you just said. Not for any reason except that it makes me so mad I can't see straight.

they are printing bucks like it's the only way to buy votes.
but they hedge their bets with all kinds of other corruption. -- j
.

Yes, and since bombs, tanks, and jet fighters are the obvious cause of wars, we will end all wars by unilaterally disarming. Nothing to worry about just because the nation is defenseless.
Its as rational as curing illegal immigration by inviting everyone in the world to move into our guest rooms and providing free room, board, medical care, and a generous allowance.

Agreed. If the unemployment figures were up to me, here's what I would include:

Number of eligible workers in the United States (workers 18 years of age or older not attending higher education and not declared as ineligible due to physical or mental disability) is the base. Then the only ones you actually count as working are those with a full-time job (30 hrs per week or better) who are not receiving any kind of government assistance or being employed by a governmental entity. Then you start adding in the extra chunks of the pie chart as following:

- workers working 30+ hours per week receiving government assistance
- government workers
- workers working <30 hours per week not receiving government assistance
- workers working <30 hours per week receiving government assistance

As addendums to the chart I would list the following:
- the number of people declared ineligible due to disability
- the number of minors (<18 years old) working 30+ hours per week
- the number of minors (<18 years old) working <30 hours per week

IMO, that's where we should start. We should be maximizing the main base and minimizing the other sectors of the chart - especially those receiving government assistance and those working directly for government.

+1 just for the improved analogy. ;)

If guns cause mass shootings, then, there is no doubt that printing presses cause inflation. The government view of the job market is as much of an illusion as a Penn and Teller performance. And just to improve upon blarman's analogy, -- It stinks worse than a latrine on a week long camp in the dessert.

We should abolish the FED- plain and simple.

I'm right there with ya.

MV=PT. Period.

https://www.nolanchart.com/article558...

abaco they don't know. do you think 0 knows what he said in the morning the same afternoon of the same day?

just for the record edweaver i just don't believe anything that is attributed to someone working for us as a government employee telling us something.

new manufacturing jobs created in 2015...0...

new waitress and bartender jobs............300,000

unemployed working age adults....record 94 mil

current odds on recession in 2016...65%

Janet Yellen and the Fed is trapped and they know it...

You mean you don't believe in magic Wiggs. We do have make believe positive jobs numbers.

There likely was an uptick in jobs due to holiday employment but even what they tell us will be adjusted down in the coming months. If my memory is correct, we need at least 275,000 new jobs each month just to keep up with new entrants into the workforce. That does not include jobs for all those that left the workforce. We have a long ways to go.

Bankers do understand, but expect that we won't. He who has the gold makes the rules.

Ask my daughter's economics professor. He practically worships at the altar of the Federal Reserve. I gagged when I heard some of the crap he has been teaching her.

blarman,
if you or anyone else on this forum believes that there are positive jobs numbers i'll sell you the brooklyn bridge. --if more people were working more gasoline would be sold and then oil prices wouldn't be heading to $20.00 a barrel. the economy stinks and is getting worse.

I agree, and not just with the bankers facet. I think many of the politicians understand what they're doing. My question is, "Why are they doing it?"

In a recent rant, without thinking I described raising interest rates in this environment as "diabolical". I think I might have nailed it. The FED is now driven to raise rates just to "normalize" them. The ONLY thing that kept us (I hate to admit it) from entering a depression was Ben Bernanke pumping steroids into the dying body.

I'll shut up. I've written, and spoken about this over the past couple years...

In modern times in America inflation is a tax.

I think there is a very valid argument to be made that these bankers understand it, they just ignore it in favor of ideology and power.