Stories I’m reading this Friday:

• Chevron earnings bring down stocks
• Health care and cap & trade bills appear to be stalling as Dems raise fiscal concern
• Another cyberattack on U.S. government
• Why a CEO says he wants to leave Los Angeles
• The illegal immigrant discussion again heating up in California
• The end of retirement?
• New York Times considers charging for access to website
• Google CEO caught using a Blackberry instead of a Google phone
• Even former middle classers in Detroit need help
• “Superman” and “Batman” arrested in New York
• Lenny Dykstra goes bust
• What a $2.1 million dollar car looks like
• Lance Armstrong finally winning over the French

Stories I’m reading this Thursday

• Warren Buffett compares stimulus to Viagra and candy
• Here comes the next fiscal crisis
• Too much stimulus money going to roads in rural areas
• Financials doing well today
• Why a second stimulus would be a mistake
• GM may change logo color to green
• Its just more of the greenwashing of corporate America
• Meantime car sales soar in China
• AIG divesting push continues
• Marc Dreier admits he just “”lost his mind” in ponzi scheme
• Citi says AIG will have “no value” after its all over
• Amgen may have a winner on its hands
• Everyone should read this

Google wants to take on Microsoft Windows by releasing its own operation system.

Much of the commentary in the story has revolved around the two companies themselves.   The real tale though may lie around companies such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Western Digital and others who build PCs and memory for them that largely rely on the current mode of computing.

The reason is the cloud.

Cloud computing is where software - and perhaps even operating systems - do not “live” on your computer hard drive but rather on a server that you access through the internet.   In other words, instead of installing a program and using valuable memory space, you simply access programs and save your work on the network.   Many of us likely already do this with web-based email programs.

As sales of ultra-small and low memory netbooks continue to soar, memory becomes less available because these small laptops do not have traditional hard drives but rather use flash-memory based drives to save space.   As cloud computing grows, memory - both hard drive memory and internal memory such as RAM -  becomes less needed as well because fewer programs are running directly off your machine.  It’s not just netbooks.  Apple also offers a flash-memory based option on its thin Macbook Air.

This continued push to small, flash-based computers may be a benefit to companies such as SanDisk (SNDK) who specialize in flash.   Time will tell if it bodes ill for companies who are late to the netbook game and continue to deal in older style solid-state type drives and memory.

Stories I’m reading this Wednesday:

• Google goes after Microsoft Windows
• China’s Hu leaves G8 because of ethnic tensions in his country
• Mortgage applications rise
• More bad news for California’ big deficit
• And Cali’s IOUs are still owed
• Moody’s cuts more mortgage-backed securities
• A manufacturing CEO on why we’re better off without unions
• Hedge fund “genius” shuts fund 11 years after LTCM collapsed
• Is the future of energy the Microgrid?
• Where the deals are … which stores are discounting heavily
• How Facebook can guess your social security number
• WOW .. amazing pics of Michael Jackson’s stuff

Reminder to follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/briansull

Reading material for Tuesday:

What I’m reading today … much related to lists and numbers.

• Morgan Stanley’s Berner on America’s “fiscal train wreck“
• Whopping 324 company SEC filings heading into the weekend
• 7 more banks failed going into the weekend
• 6 lessons we learned in the downturn
• The Atlantic’s take on the sad decline of California
• Social unrest flares up in China
• How to make money off your old gadgets
• Why Ikea is fed up with Russia
• 1794 Jacko-related videos on Hulu.com

Many of you ask for quick feeds on top stories / guests / etc so good use for Twitter.

Follow me on the message service: www.twitter.com/briansull

Click on the above .. send me a request and Ill approve you can get my updates.   Good way to spend 30 secs and get news you need.

Will try to post short, relevant notes about news of the day along with any oddball stuff I come across … not what I’m having on my cheeseburger.

My newly adopted home state needs money.    Bad.    So, like many other states, it is raising taxes on a variety of behaviors that it views as bad and seeks to discourage.    Those include drinking, smoking and, apparently, working.

Here’ the story from a few days ago:

TRENTON — The state Assembly passed legislation today that raise taxes on cigarettes, hard alcohol and wine, along with boosting the tax rate for personal incomes over $400,000. The package of bills, designed to support the $29 billion state budget up for a vote later today, also eliminates the property tax deduction on income tax forms for households earning more than $250,000.

Let me get this straight.   New Jersey actually has the chutzpah to raises taxes on high-earners in the same bill that boosts taxes on so-called ’sin’ behaviors that they seek to deter?    The message by association is clear:  working hard and being successful is a behavior New Jersey considers bad and wants to punish.

The increases are going to be painful, even for the wealthy.     Taxes on income over $500,000 are going from an already-high 8.37% to a the whopping double-digit of 10.25%.   If you make more than a million a year you will be paying 10.76% on any income with seven digits.

They’re also hitting the ‘rich’ in the property tax area.   From the new bill:

For the 2009 tax year, A4102 limits the property tax deduction for high-income taxpayers. Although normally allowed for property taxes paid up to $10,000, the deduction is limited to a maximum of $5,000 for a taxpayer who has gross income over $150,000, but not over $250,000, provided the taxpayer is not a qualifying senior, or blind or disabled. For such a taxpayer with gross income exceeding $250,000, no deduction is allowed.

And don’t be fooled, this isn’t just a tax hike on the rich.    It also attacks the middle class through the elimination of a property tax rebate check for many homeowners.   From the article:

The budget would reduce the size of the property tax rebate program, limiting it to households earning less than $75,000. Exceptions are in place for senior citizens and disabled residents.  Households earning up to $150,000 qualified for rebate checks last year and the ceiling was $250,000 the year before.

Like many high-cost states, $75,000 per household ($47,500 per worker) is already hard enough to live on with the prices one must pay for everything in the Garden State.

Of course, these hikes come at a time when the federal government seeks to raise taxes on the wealthy and is touting how most Americans won’t get hit.   In a speech on Februrary 24th the President said:

Now, let me be clear–let me be absolutely clear, because I know you’ll end up hearing some of the same claims that rolling back these tax breaks means a massive tax increase on the American people: If your family earns less than $250,000 a year–a quarter million dollars a year–you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: Not one single dime.  Not a dime. In fact, the recovery plan provides a tax cut–that’s right, a tax cut–for 95 percent of working families. And by the way, these checks are on the way.

I guess the President didn’t consult New Jersey before giving the speech.    I venture to guess that most taxpayers don’t care whether the hit is coming from their town, state or big brother.   A tax hike is a tax hike, regardless of whose hand is in your pocket.   And with the reduction of the property tax deduction allowance and rebate, New Jersey is clearly raising taxes on people making less than $250,000 per year.    So much for the big ‘middle class tax cut.’

The message New Jersey (and many other states) is sending is clear - working hard and making money is considered a bad behavior and must be discouraged.   Just like smoking, drinking and gambling.   If taxes are going up on all of those at the same time, what else are we to believe?

I can hear the moving trucks headed to Pennsylvania already…

Someone sent me this … hilarious.

Enjoy and have a great 4th of July.   Im off until Monday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekKk4SkiC-w&feature=related

Tuesday reading…

• Home prices “only” falling 18% from last year
• AIG may need more taxpayer money
• Why GM will never repay our $50 billion
• Why Madoff couldn’t have acted alone
• Iraqi oil auction ends with a big yawn
• The chicken plant battle over jobs and the economy
• Huge new hotel planned for next to Sears Tower
• An already cold and rainy season may stay that way
• Okay this is just for fun
• I am one of these people and will be off the rest of the week