Doing taxes gets worse and worse, year by year. Our friendly IRS keeps adding tax forms, Turbo Tax cranked out 32 pages of Federal income tax forms this year. You can't just list stock sales on Schedule D anymore, they want half a dozen different forms, with different rules and gobble-de-gook for each form.
I don't understand why some presidential candidate doesn't promise to clean this up. I know there are rabid special interests ready to leap to the defense of every loophole and deduction, but there gotta be a lot of regular taxpayers who dread doing all this scutwork every year.
I used to do my taxes with an Excel spreadsheet of my own construction. But craziness connected with sale of foreign stocks is just to much for me, I can't write the spreadsheet when I don't under stand the rules.
There has gotta be a better way.
The better way is Turbo Tax. It's straight forward to use but you gotta watch it. Accidentally hit a comma, when you meant to hit period for decimal point can drive the program, and you crazy. You want to double check this year vs last year, assuming you used Turbotax last year. Deductions you took last year you ought to be able to take this year.
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Monday, April 11, 2016
"Hillary Clinton was a fine Secretary of State" said Obama
Weekend interview with Chris Wallace on Fox. Yeah Right. Fine judge of people that Obama. Picks the right person every time.
Hillary was Secretary when the Benghazi consulate was attacked, killing four Americans including the Ambassador to Libya. She had allowed State Dept cookie pushers to short stop appeals for more security from the ambassador. She was there when a US general and a US Admiral were fired that night for daring to send rescue missions. She sent one of her operatives on all the TV Sunday pundit shows to blame the disaster on an obscure bit of internet video.
She was Secretary when the Arab Spring began to undermine Hosni Mubarak in Eygpt. Mubarak had kept the peace that Anwar Sadat had negotiated with Israel. Mubarak had been a useful and loyal ally of the United States. When SHTF, and Mubarak's regime began to totter, she did not do the right and proper thing, namely allow the Egyptians to work out their internal problems. No, she (and Obama) jumped right in and called to Mubarak's overthrow.
She was Secretary when the US pulled the troops out of Iraq, turning the place over to ISIS.
She was Secretary of State when Putin invaded Ukraineand annexed the Crimea. She didn't say squat about that.
She was Secretary will Libya came unglued during the Arab Spring. We gave the Europeans a little logistical support while they overthrew Qaddafi and then we all up and left. Libya is now a failed state, controlled by ISIS.
She was Secretary of State when Obama announced a "red line" in Syria over the use of poison gas. She was still Secretary while Assad gassed more of his own citizens and we did nothing.
If elected President, Hillary will doubtless find more catastrophes to mismanage.
Hillary was Secretary when the Benghazi consulate was attacked, killing four Americans including the Ambassador to Libya. She had allowed State Dept cookie pushers to short stop appeals for more security from the ambassador. She was there when a US general and a US Admiral were fired that night for daring to send rescue missions. She sent one of her operatives on all the TV Sunday pundit shows to blame the disaster on an obscure bit of internet video.
She was Secretary when the Arab Spring began to undermine Hosni Mubarak in Eygpt. Mubarak had kept the peace that Anwar Sadat had negotiated with Israel. Mubarak had been a useful and loyal ally of the United States. When SHTF, and Mubarak's regime began to totter, she did not do the right and proper thing, namely allow the Egyptians to work out their internal problems. No, she (and Obama) jumped right in and called to Mubarak's overthrow.
She was Secretary when the US pulled the troops out of Iraq, turning the place over to ISIS.
She was Secretary of State when Putin invaded Ukraineand annexed the Crimea. She didn't say squat about that.
She was Secretary will Libya came unglued during the Arab Spring. We gave the Europeans a little logistical support while they overthrew Qaddafi and then we all up and left. Libya is now a failed state, controlled by ISIS.
She was Secretary of State when Obama announced a "red line" in Syria over the use of poison gas. She was still Secretary while Assad gassed more of his own citizens and we did nothing.
If elected President, Hillary will doubtless find more catastrophes to mismanage.
Saturday, April 9, 2016
Why do we have Wall Street?
In a word, economic development. Economic development means starting up new companies, building new factories, opening mines, building dams, launching ships and 747's, expanding production facilities. All these things need money, often a lot of money, and it takes a long time from startup spending to making money from sales. Might be years between first spending on production facilities, advertisements, research and development, and first accounts receivable from sales.
You gotta raise money to get a startup company up and running. The nicest money raiser for start up companies is to issue stock. They can pay their initial employees largely in stock. They can pay their initial investors in stock. Stock makes the stockholders into part owners of the company. They get to vote on the board of directors, and they are entitled to a share of company earnings, (dividends). A company can use stock, which it can issue for merely the cost of printing stock certificates, to cover a lot of expenses.
The stock market (the heart of Wall Street) exists to give value to stock. Stockholder's know that they can convert their stock into cash, right now, on the stock market. That gives the stock real value, far more value than the promise of future dividends will give it. Lotta startups never pay dividends, they tell the stockholders to just sell the stock for cash. Which works when you have a stock market in New York and other places. buying and selling every company's stock, every day.
In short, Wall Street provides the money that makes economic development happen. The stock market guys are pretty good about picking winners and losers, a helova lot better than any gov'mint snivel servants will ever be. The stock market steers investment money into winners, and shuts off money to losers.
In short, we need Wall Street to keep the US economy growing, and hiring workers, and producing the accustomed flood of low cost, high performance products into the consumer market.
You gotta raise money to get a startup company up and running. The nicest money raiser for start up companies is to issue stock. They can pay their initial employees largely in stock. They can pay their initial investors in stock. Stock makes the stockholders into part owners of the company. They get to vote on the board of directors, and they are entitled to a share of company earnings, (dividends). A company can use stock, which it can issue for merely the cost of printing stock certificates, to cover a lot of expenses.
The stock market (the heart of Wall Street) exists to give value to stock. Stockholder's know that they can convert their stock into cash, right now, on the stock market. That gives the stock real value, far more value than the promise of future dividends will give it. Lotta startups never pay dividends, they tell the stockholders to just sell the stock for cash. Which works when you have a stock market in New York and other places. buying and selling every company's stock, every day.
In short, Wall Street provides the money that makes economic development happen. The stock market guys are pretty good about picking winners and losers, a helova lot better than any gov'mint snivel servants will ever be. The stock market steers investment money into winners, and shuts off money to losers.
In short, we need Wall Street to keep the US economy growing, and hiring workers, and producing the accustomed flood of low cost, high performance products into the consumer market.
Thursday, April 7, 2016
Divisions in the Republican Party
The TV newsies have been giving this one a lotta talk. The newsies are saying that the "Establishment" and the rank and file party members are at odds with each other. And that the breach is unfixable.
Well maybe so, maybe not. There is an establishment, it's office holders at all levels, local state and federal, then party officials and workers, and activists. The establishment really cares about winning, they are in it as a day job, they want to keep their jobs, and they don't care about making flashy but risky gestures or embracing ideologies. They want to win.
They know that The Donald will loose, loose big, and take the rest of the Republican party down to defeat. So they are against The Donald. Which puts them at odds with The Donald and his supporters. Just to put the establishment further onto the hot seat, Ted Cruz, the alternative to The Donald, ain't their cup of tea either. Ted is a man of strong ideological principles, he is a forth right Christian, and he is into flashy but risky gestures, such as doing a Federal government shutdown. They fear they cannot cut a deal with Ted, that Ted will stand on principle and refuse to compromise. So far, it looks like the establishment will back Ted, as their only alternative to The Donald and the lesser of two evils. Better a hard to deal with ideologue than a flaming disaster.
And, the party rank and file isn't entirely agin this viewpoint.
The sticky part comes when the nominee gets picked. Trump voters will be upset if The Donald doesn't win, a lotta of other Republicans will be just as upset if The Donald does win the nomination. The challenge to the Republican party, is to soothe all these ruffled feathers and get the offended voters to at least vote for the party, if not get out and electioneer for the party. There are gonna be a lot of ruffled feathers and unhappy voters no matter which way the nomination goes. At a guess, the disappointed Trump people will be easier to soothe than the vast number of Republicans who detest Trump.
One healing gambit that the winner might use, is to offer the vice presidency to the looser.
Well maybe so, maybe not. There is an establishment, it's office holders at all levels, local state and federal, then party officials and workers, and activists. The establishment really cares about winning, they are in it as a day job, they want to keep their jobs, and they don't care about making flashy but risky gestures or embracing ideologies. They want to win.
They know that The Donald will loose, loose big, and take the rest of the Republican party down to defeat. So they are against The Donald. Which puts them at odds with The Donald and his supporters. Just to put the establishment further onto the hot seat, Ted Cruz, the alternative to The Donald, ain't their cup of tea either. Ted is a man of strong ideological principles, he is a forth right Christian, and he is into flashy but risky gestures, such as doing a Federal government shutdown. They fear they cannot cut a deal with Ted, that Ted will stand on principle and refuse to compromise. So far, it looks like the establishment will back Ted, as their only alternative to The Donald and the lesser of two evils. Better a hard to deal with ideologue than a flaming disaster.
And, the party rank and file isn't entirely agin this viewpoint.
The sticky part comes when the nominee gets picked. Trump voters will be upset if The Donald doesn't win, a lotta of other Republicans will be just as upset if The Donald does win the nomination. The challenge to the Republican party, is to soothe all these ruffled feathers and get the offended voters to at least vote for the party, if not get out and electioneer for the party. There are gonna be a lot of ruffled feathers and unhappy voters no matter which way the nomination goes. At a guess, the disappointed Trump people will be easier to soothe than the vast number of Republicans who detest Trump.
One healing gambit that the winner might use, is to offer the vice presidency to the looser.
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Going after salt
The FDA is planning/talking about issuing new regulations limiting the amount of salt in food. You gotta wonder about this. Making rules for salt, or any other rules on food seems to be a legislative job, not a bureaucrat job. The Germans brag about a medieval law on the purity of beer, still in force in Germany, but a real law, they didn't have bureaucracies in the middle ages. I think the FDA is stepping beyond it's legal authority.
And then there are recent scientific studies claiming that salt ain't all that bad for you. These are disputed, but then True Believers won't accept any thing that cast doubt upon their beliefs. Lotta bureaucrats are True Believers.
My chemistry is weak, but it is clear that all sorts of biochemistry in your body needs just the right amount of saltiness to work. The body has mechanisms to maintain the right salt level, one mechanism is appetite, when your salt level is low, salt tastes better, when your salt level is high, less salt tastes better. In the service, they issued us salt tablets on hot days when we were sweating hard.
One effect of the drive for lower salt, is to sharpen my eye in the store. Original Recipe Stoned Wheat Thins, taste a helova lot better than Low Sodium Stoned Wheat Thins. Both come in nearly the same packaging, you gotta look sharp to buy the good tasting ones. On the other hand, down the canned soup aisle, I find the traditional Campbell's is just too salty for my taste. The new fangled Healthy Request soup tastes better with about half the salt of Campbell's.
And then there are recent scientific studies claiming that salt ain't all that bad for you. These are disputed, but then True Believers won't accept any thing that cast doubt upon their beliefs. Lotta bureaucrats are True Believers.
My chemistry is weak, but it is clear that all sorts of biochemistry in your body needs just the right amount of saltiness to work. The body has mechanisms to maintain the right salt level, one mechanism is appetite, when your salt level is low, salt tastes better, when your salt level is high, less salt tastes better. In the service, they issued us salt tablets on hot days when we were sweating hard.
One effect of the drive for lower salt, is to sharpen my eye in the store. Original Recipe Stoned Wheat Thins, taste a helova lot better than Low Sodium Stoned Wheat Thins. Both come in nearly the same packaging, you gotta look sharp to buy the good tasting ones. On the other hand, down the canned soup aisle, I find the traditional Campbell's is just too salty for my taste. The new fangled Healthy Request soup tastes better with about half the salt of Campbell's.
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
That giant leak of off-shore tax dodgers
So far, all the low lifes exposed have NOT been Americans. They got Putin and Assad and the premier of Iceland, and a whole bunch more, but no American names that mean anything to me. This may change, but for the time being I can enjoy a little smugness.
Monday, April 4, 2016
The Donald trashes NATO
We set up NATO shortly after WWII in order to keep the Soviets from gobbling up western Europe the way they did eastern Europe. In those years the European countries were still all smashed up from WWII and pretty helpless against the USSR. The NATO treaty was mostly D'Artangnan's cry from the Three Musketeers, "One for all and all for one". It told the Soviets that the United States would resist any further takeovers in Europe.
And it worked. The Iron Curtain stayed where it was, and didn't move west.
And in 1989 the Soviets collapsed, ending the threat for many years. NATO kept going, doing a bit here and a bit there, helping out in Afghanistan. Until we got Putin in the last few years and all of a sudden, the Russians are looking dangerous again. Since Georgia and the Ukraine, and Syria, the Europeans can see a need for NATO, especially the eastern Europeans like Poland and Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
I dunno where Trump is coming from when he calls NATO obsolete. It is an anti Russian alliance, which was needed in the 1950's and look to me like we still need it in the 2010's for the same old reason.
And it worked. The Iron Curtain stayed where it was, and didn't move west.
And in 1989 the Soviets collapsed, ending the threat for many years. NATO kept going, doing a bit here and a bit there, helping out in Afghanistan. Until we got Putin in the last few years and all of a sudden, the Russians are looking dangerous again. Since Georgia and the Ukraine, and Syria, the Europeans can see a need for NATO, especially the eastern Europeans like Poland and Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
I dunno where Trump is coming from when he calls NATO obsolete. It is an anti Russian alliance, which was needed in the 1950's and look to me like we still need it in the 2010's for the same old reason.
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