Income Redistribution

The Federal tax system is nothing less than income redistribution. Our all knowing and all powerful rulers take as much money as possible from the people who have it and then dole it out as only they are able to.

The Tax Foundation has statistics as to how all of the states do in terms of paying more to DC then they get back or vice versa. Some states, such as Tennessee, are net winners, while others send more money to DC than they get back.

KMK

Facing Reality

As I predicted back in April, Bill Simon had to cave in to the media hounding to release his personal tax return data to the press. It didn’t help things that some Clintonites inside the IRS broke the law and violated Bill Simon’s personal privacy by releasing charges that he was using questionable tax shelters.

While he is trying to limit that disclosure to a few hours, that won’t happen. I’m sure some of the reporters will be bringing digital cameras or small scanners with them. Politics is a dirty business and leftist journalists will stop at nothing to help their candidates.

KMK

Low Cost Accounting Lessons

Some good analogies illustrating what some corporate accounting departments did to artificially beef up their balance sheets.

While everyone is expressing shock & surprise at these tricks, I can remember a lot of good coverage of them years ago; especially AOL’s bogus accounting for the millions of freebie disks they were littering the nation with. It was no surprise that eventually they would have to be written off against income.

KMK

Whose Fault Was It?

In hindsight, almost everyone is now admitting that the high values placed on stocks during the dot-com frenzy were wrong. I took a lot of flack for saying just that during the market run-up by people who fell for the con that the old fashioned business & market cycles were permanently extinct.

The cartoon below actually illustrates the situation in that crazy market. However, the blame for the market bubble is a different story. The cartoonist, Ted Rall, is a proud leftist and is trying to give the impression that the evil corporate executives were at fault. As always, I see this from a completely different perspective.

Those stocks couldn’t have been sold if there hadn’t been people willing (stupid enough) to buy them. I have yet to hear a story of a corporate executive sticking a gun to the side of an investor’s head and forcing him to purchase stocks at inflated values. I lay the blame squarely at the feet of the idiot investors. While many of them were simply following the leads of the media and stupid financial advisors, common sense should have alerted them to the folly of their advice.

KMK

Are MBAs Worth The Cost?

Some people are casting doubt on the assumption that an MBA degree will automatically return a much higher salary.

KMK