Super-Wealthy and Inequitable NYC Taxes

Thanks to the structure of city and state tax codes, the billionaires buyingpieds-à-terre in the sky over Central Park are hardly paying property taxes at all. The values of these new condos are being assessed at just a fraction of what they're worth. And buyers are paying only a fraction of that fraction in property taxes.

This is a pressing issue for at least three reasons. For one thing, the property-tax levy is New York City's single largest source of revenue. The city is leaving money behind by failing to tax the most valuable homes at a rate closer to their market value. Meanwhile, well apart from the ultra-luxury condos, the city is overtaxing apartment buildings, whose renters are struggling the most with affordability. These outcomes go hand in hand.

Read more here:

http://www.citylab.com/housing/2015/05/why-billionaires-dont-pay-property-taxes-in-new-york/389886/

Intermediate-Term Stock Market Indicators FINALLY Long

It has been quite a while that our stock market indicators have gone long, and our results suffered accordingly.

The stock market closed today at 1920.  Our last update was 11 months ago.

• Happily, our long-term indicators kept us generally long (to flat or slightly long) in the stock market since they remained strongly bullish during the run-up.  
• Currently, the long-term indicators are moderately bullish.  The long-term indicator has its "foot off of the gas" due to the recent sell-off. 
• Our medium term oversold indicators are now fully long.  These indicators had been predicting a sell-off incorrectly for several months, keeping us from being fully long in the stock market.  

Over the long-term, we have a good record managing the ebbs and flows of the stock market.  This recent under-weighting of equities brings us back closer to the pack in terms of market-timing, but we have outperformed most.