Category: News and Politics
-
38 years of small business struggle
In February 1987 I left one of Wall Street’s richest and most successful firms of that era, Drexel Burnham Lambert, led by junk bond king Michael Milliken, because I saw how this was destroying middle income Americans, small businesses, and our local towns. I set up a company Freedom Benefits that eventually became an early…
-
5 tax reform proposals to watch out for in 2025
All of these are aligned with expressed Presidential and Congressional goals, so I assess that there is a reasonable risk that any or all of these could become law this year.
-
The golden age of tax fraud:
IRS Commissioner Werfel resigned yesterday. By almost all accounts, he was one of the better Commissioners of our era based on his work to modernize service and enforcement. His tenure is widely praised for laying a foundation for digital transformation of the agency and enhancing IRS enforcement capabilities. His proposed replacement is best known for…
-
Crimes by politicians continue to go unpunished and underreported
I am concerned about the unaddressed political crime wave across America. High profile cases occasionally make headlines. But it appears that hundreds or thousands of crimes are charged, underreported, and not prosecuted. It seems like hardly a day goes by that an elected politician is not named in criminal charge somewhere and then we rarely…
-
Random reflections tonight after the Super Bowl
When the members of churches who taught me my most fundamental ethical beliefs like: Iove my neighbor and foreigners alike, treat all people equally, respect the poor and disabled, give money and time freely, do not steal, do not kill, turn the other cheek – now teach the exact opposite, When the person I recognized…
-
Reflecting on the military cargo planes that keep coming
It was a sad day for our country as three Army Reserve engineers killed in Jordan, including a local South Jersey resident, arrived Friday morning at Dover Air Force Base. My Money Island NJ home office is directly east of Dover Air Force Base eight miles across the Delaware Bay and so we see and…
-
Why we use CPAs to testify about accounting statement fraud
Disclosure: While I have served as professional accounting witness in other unrelated court cases, I did not testify in past Trump fraud cases. In past Trump fraud cases in the 1990s, I offered accounting statements taken by an attorney for the plaintiff victims that included a statement of my direct communication with Trump and his…
-
Looking for insight into the thinking of our Latino neighbors
Slowly, over many years, I built a strong track record of serving the local Spanish-speaking community when they need tax or business services representation (in English language) to resolve problems with government even though I have often struggled to communicate with these clients. Years prior to this, my former business MedSave was a pioneering online…
-
Thanksgiving Day Insights into Black Voters
One of the most puzzling things to me personally in my work discussing local economic development is the increasing support of Donald Trump by some black neighbors. While I was part of the early fraud cases representing small business contractors against him, that was decades ago and much has changed in the world. Journalist Astrid…
-
Hit and run
A hit and run of a pedestrian is a terrible crime that is too often ignored. The hit is often unintentional but the act of fleeing rather than helping is usually intentional. Often other crimes are connected. Police and prosecutors have a poor track record in these cases. Insurance companies vigorously fight claims made by…