What's going on???, page-86

- US tax cut is actually a rate cut from 26% effective tax rate to about 19% for listed cos.  its material but not nearly as big as you think

the reason is because the old 35% was offset with a lot of deductions. The avg s&p500 company this year paid 26% tax

the new 21% rate is lower - but has far fewer deductions allowed

the bigger winners are small companies who tended to pay a much higher rate of tax under the existing reguime because they have fewer deductions, less ability to use offshore accounting havens etc

thats why the Russell 2000 has started to outperform the other indices - as the russell is the US 'small cap' index

the biggest beneficiaries will be non listed private companies - like the ones Donald Trump's family runs - now theyve added incentives for real estate 'pass thru' companies



regarding gold price - if you think gold price is set on supply/demand you dont understand the market and you should get out before you get hurt

supply/demand differences havent been the key driver of gold price since the 1990s

its all about USD, real interest rates (nominal rate - inflation rate = lower or negative the better for gold)

thats why the 2011 gold price peak coincided with the 40 year low in the  USD trade Weighted Index.

gold seasonal buying has some moderate influence - but its basically irrelevant to the price trend of gold