Lottery winner, 94, sues to get it all now – If anyone’s a candidate for the secondary market to sell off her future rights to these payments, this 94 year old woman is.  Making her wait 20 years to be paid off is ridiculous.

Nebraska Man May Have Rare Coin. Silver Dollar May Be Worth Millions. – Nice retirement benefit.

Smokers make run on loose tobacco before tax begins – Just another reminder of how much taxes affect personal behavior.  One of the long running frustrations in debates over tax issues is that the other side remains so oblivious to this simple fact of life.  In their fairy tale world, tax rates can be raised and new taxes can be added and everyone will continue doing the exact same things as before.  The fact, as proven over and over again, is that higher rates stimulate less taxable activity and lower rates encourage more.  Please remember this in the face of so many calls to raise tax rates to attack the deficit. 

This is also the reason I have never been in the least bit afraid of losing my livelihood if we were to achieve our wish and replace the Federal income tax with a national sales tax or any other such change in the way governments fund their activities. People will still need our services to help them minimze those new taxes.