I just finished reading a lengthy Kipplinger Report/Letter from their senior tax editor. At the very least it was scary. The way things are going, there will be massive tax increases in the U.S. beginning January 2011, many of which will heavily impact businesses of all sizes.

Import tariffs are already sky high, and slated to increase by a significant margin. You have to wonder what impact this will have on manufacturers of arranger keyboards. Obviously there will be substantial price increases, and the feds are already talking about a VAT (Value Added Tax) here that will jack some prices out of sight.

Looking at the recent history of arranger keyboard manufacturers, it makes me wonder who will be around five years from now. I suspect that at most, one or two current manufacturers will still be making TOTL and mid-price arrangers and all others will either get out of the arranger business altogether, or switch to manufacturing a few synths and other components that are more lucrative.

I could be way off base with this one, but I don't think so.

Gary

Well since I already have my top models shipped from Italy..I don't have to concern myself with vat for now..

Mediastation and G70 are in house..


Where are all the people that voted for our president....No one takes credit (blame) for putting him in office..
I must have asked a hundred people if they voted for him...and so far one person has accepted blame..

I know two guys that voted for him. Coincidentally, I'm sure, both are out of work.
Get out and vote next week or you don't get to criticize!
Is it just me, or does it seem as if each President has gotten progressively worse for some time now? I did feel much more secure under Bush (post 911). If we catch a terrorist now, we have to scold him and warn him not to do it again. I know I was making more money under the previous administration. And I thought HE was spending too much. Turns out it was a drop in the bucket.
I'm lucky to have three of the best arrangers ever made so I won't have to buy any more unless I want to. Of course the PSR2000 is way past its prime, but the E50 and Audya are still unsurpassed in their price ranges, at least for MY purposes.
DonM

So let me get this straight. Your president who has only been in office for under 2 years is solely responsible for the finacial difficulties your country is in ? I live in the UK and our economy is screwed up too. Can we blame him as well ??? I mean a scape goat is a scape goat right ??

We are all to blame. Not the politicians. We want everything, and we want it NOW...! And we will stupidly follow anyone that promises it to us. So they ALL promise it to us.

We shipped all our manufacturing jobs overseas to cheap labor countries, just so we could continue an unsustainable growth rate and get by on the credit cards, and even that prop has now gone. And, of course, so are the jobs. So you can't BUILD your way out of a recession. We have screwed ourselves.

Globalization means global labor markets. And that means the labor market in the first world has to drop to the labor market levels of the third world. While we still LIVE in the first world and pay first world prices. But we had a good run on our credit cards, didn't we?

Now the check is due. And there's no job to pay it. Unless we move to China or Malaysia, etc., and go make arrangers over THERE at THEIR wages...

Best of luck...

Hi Gary
The US is a minor market for Arrangers, so while manufactures might stop importing them to the US, you will still be able to get TOTL Arrangers from overseas. (Although you will probably have to pay a lot more for them)
Regards

Bill

Make that three, Mr. Mason.

I voted for Barack Obama...

Am I happy with everything he's done? Not by a long shot. Will I vote for him again, it depends on what choices I have available to me. I was undecided until McCain added Palin to the ticket and rather quickly it seemed clear to me which way to go.

I've usually voted Republican through my adult life including both GW Bush terms...I feel less and less comfortable with GOP policies as they trip over themselves jumping into bed with the Tea Party people. They're going to simply have to get a bigger bed if the Religious Right, Wall Street, etc. are all going to fit. Do what the Dems did, they knew Unions, minorities, etc. needed to room to spread out, lol...

As far as increased tariffs go, since Clinton's NAFTA went through, our import/export balance has suffered greatly as we made it easy for other countries to sell their products in the US, but with no reciprocal accommodations on their part. This is the subject of great debate in Congress and maybe someday somebody will try and level the playing field again. China is kicking our butt, playing games with their currency and of course holds much of our debt.

As far as business goes under Obama...I keep getting busier and busier, with almost no advertising expenses. I have business cards and my website, which total might cost me $160 or so a year to maintain. I have a waiting list, I turn down a lot of work...Its been like this for several years, so maybe there's not much connection between my business and whoever's President.

Spending-Bush took a huge surplus, transformed it within 8 years into the largest deficit EVER in the history of the US, but we gave him a pass on it mostly because of 9/11, I guess. Obama inherited quite the debt when he walked in, plus the economic crisis as well. Keep in mind, Bush ran the Iraq War, the Medicare part D handout to the insurance companies, plus the tax cuts...all off budget. Meaning basically debt numbers were actually much worse than most average people understood. Obama has certainly added to the deficit but when your boat is leaking, you don't quibble much on repairs, do you? While it seems evident we "chose" to go to war in Iraq, Obama didn't create any of the troubles facing us-we can disagree on how he's trying to fix them, but he didn't create them at all.

Security wise? Yes, there's been a few incidents, but none have succeeded. Some of that's luck, some of its not. Luck will always play a part in fighting terrorism. To my knowledge, none of the people involved in any of those attempts has been released. (Don-If you know of one who has been, please let me know who...)Obama has been more aggressive than Bush ever was in Afghanistan, especially using the drones to target enemies, increased troops, etc.

I think arranger prices in the US will increase slightly, Japan has enough of their own financial issues right now, they've shown a consistent pattern of honoring the GATT agreements and holding tariffs lower on electronics in exchange for the handsome sales they enjoy in the US.

I do agree completely with Gary that the arranger market will see fewer serious players going forward. Mr. Diamond's dead on...

Spalding-Obama is to blame for everything, lol...

------------------
Bill in Dayton


[This message has been edited by Bill in Dayton (edited 10-29-2010).]

Well, it was just a matter of time. I always wondered how long it would be before Obama would be blamed for the eminent demise of arranger keyboards. As Bill pointed out (T-I-C), Obama is to blame for everything bad in America.

Of course, what is rarely talked about and is probably America's worst kept secret, is the fact that a sizable portion of Americans just cannot accept the reality of a Black president. We make up all kinds of excuses and put all kinds of spins on why we hate the current administration, but in the end, for a sizable group, it's just good ol' fashioned American-brand racism. All those thinly disguised slogans, "WE WANT OUR COUNTRY BACK", etc., fool no one. We've all seen the signs at the so-called 'Tea Party' rallies, showing Obama in all kinds of demeaning caricatures, usually with racial overtones. You would have to be blind not to see the real tone of these rallies and the people behind them. Then there is the constant and unrelenting hate-mongering of right-wing talk radio. But look at who buys into this garbage. Look at their average age, occupation, race, geographical area, religion, and (most importantly) educational level. Sadly, this country is infected with a disease that will probably ultimately lead to it's demise. We are willing to send a bunch of obviously unqualified clowns to Congress, to govern us, to legislate for us, to determine our role in this world, as long as they can demonstrate that they hate Obama more than the other guy. No plan, no agenda, just that they pledge to do everything in their power to undermine the current administration, whether or not it is in the best interest off the people.

They conveniently ignore the fact that taxes have actually gone down by 3.7% since Obama took office, or that the rate of job loss was twice as high at the end of the Bush administration than it currently is. They fail to ever mention the financial and regulatory reforms that were passed to stop the institutional practices that got us into this economic mess in the first place. No, we're too busy obsessing over the fact that our president is Black. Never in history has there been such disrespect for the office of the president, or the person occupying that office. Shame, shame, I say.

A friend of mine from my (Unitarian) church sent me some of his thoughts on the matter: I'll share some of them with you.

"The notion that we can have a major political movement represented by anti~government candidates is at the rotten root of the moment! How gullible can so many of us be? We have a government for a reason. It creates the rules and regulations we will function within. The idea the free enterprise system, commerce and accumulated wealth will act in the best interest of the nation is a myth that many have swallowed hook, line and sinker.
The foundation of the nation was based on a flight from an aristocracy that ruled over
the common man. I acknowledge that a majority of the founders were from a privileged strata of European society, but it was not the implications of the Declaration and the Constitution we work with.
There are certain domains of public life that must not be trusted to the ethics and morality of private individuals or corporate entities. The gains being made in the accumulation of wealth and power into fewer and fewer hands, coupled with a greater and greater tendency for corporations to grow internationally does not bode well for the United States.
Private enterprise that has no obligation to the sovereignty of the country of its origins is free to exit this country and any other country that does not meet its goals for profit. Profit that has no responsibility to the people and resources it exploits anywhere on the globe.
Privatizing the military, schools, prisons, communications systems, roads, airlines
health care, and the like can only mean that we, the people, must tolerate the tension and threat of the withdrawal of goods and services at any moment the board of directors finds it expedient to do so. Then leave the government and its people holding the bag.
At least one third of this nation has confused the common needs of us all with some bizarre counterfeit of freedom. This is a dangerous moment. The consequences for having "THE BEST GOVERNMENT ONLY MONEY CAN BUY" are on the horizon.
I hope the American experiment is not at its zenith.
There are going to be great battles ahead, inside and outside of government, over these issues I have tried to articulate above. Active citizenship is the first and most important step. This is my definition of patriotism.
I hope the battlefield remains civil and within the framework of The Constitution.
Contemplating the alternative is a contemplation of chaos on a grand scale."
I felt compelled to get out of my sick bed to respond to this thread. I really hate seeing these attitudes among people that I am sure I would otherwise like on a personal level.


chas

First, this belongs in "The Bar" ...
Second, Chas, you KNOW I like you and think highly of you, but I am VERY sorry to see the race card played here ...
I have black friends who think Obama is doing a terrible job ... are THEY racist??? ...
Not every criticism of any black person is because they are black ...
And for as far back as I can remember, caricatures of EVERY President have overly - and negatively - stressed their 'unique' physical characteristics ... and has ANY President been MORE disrespected than Bush was - especially the last couple of years he was in office ... I think we forget too quickly ...

t.

Tony, I like you as well, because I know you're a sincere and honest guy. First of all, I have no stake in 'playing the race card' which is usually done to gain some kind of advantage. Secondly, any disrespect towards Bush came after 8 straight years of leading this country down a very dark path; Obama's started on the day he took the oath of office.

A very large number of good Americans have a difficult time seeing or acknowledging America's 'dark side'. But until we do, it's going to be difficult to make the kind of social progress that will be necessary to make this country great again.

chas

[This message has been edited by cgiles (edited 10-29-2010).]