Category: News and Politics
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Puzzling weekend politics by The Wall Street Journal
Over this past weekend the Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, and Time Magazine all published news stories saying that Bernie Sanders was a clear winner of Saturday’s (9/14) Democratic debate. According to the WSJ, “Mr. Sanders was declared the winner by 44% of Democratic primary voters who watched the nationally televised debate, with 32% choosing…
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U.S. Leader Admits Government’s Financial Crimes
“The government has lied to you and they’ve stolen from you” – NJ Governor Chris Christie, former Chairman of the Republican Governors Association, talking about entitlements like Medicare and Social Security during the nationally televised presidential debate in Boulder, Colorado on 10/28/2015 . This is likely as close to an official admission of institutionalized crime and systematic corruption…
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A country bumpkin visits the state capital in Trenton
I visited the NJ state capital in Trenton for the first time this week. I had to make an appearance before an administrative law judge nearby. Under state law a business’ representative is not required to be an attorney to represent a client in this court. The hearing went fine; I avoided a larger fine…
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Stock market crash in a nutshell
Over the past 60 days investors around the world have pulled more than $6 billion in investments from worldwide emerging markets. This caused worldwide stock prices to drop by about 10%. Much of this money has been reinvested in U.S. Treasury bonds. U.S. stocks have dropped about 4% so far as a side effect. The…
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Now is the time to review financial plans
In the event of stock market panic, read this: Many of my recent articles and blog comments about financial planning surround the concept that a financial wake-up call and a reality check are very badly needed by individuals and small business owners today. Recent news about the unhealthy global stock market makes it clear that many others share these…
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Mourning the loss of my Republican party
Last night’s Republican debate very plainly shows why I conclude that my party is so out-of-touch with reality that they do not have any chance of assembling effective leadership. The top 10 presidential candidates talked on national television for a combined total of 64.5 minutes without any of them ever once mentioning even a single…
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Comment on “A Tale of Two Recoveries: Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy”
Researchers Susan L. Cutter and Christopher T. Emrich at the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute at the University of South Carolina published information about recovery from super storm Sandy as compared to Katrina. I think that I participated in submitting responses to their survey. I noticed that one area not mentioned in the article in Emergency Management “A Tale…
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NJ state workers need to revise their financial plans
(This post follows yesterday’s announcement that the state Supreme Court ruled that the state is not required to make negotiated pension plan contribution. More at NJ.com). “The future isn’t what it used to be.” New Jersey state workers and other participants in the state pension system (like teachers) who were promised solid pensions will receive less…
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Sales tax on interstate accounting services
The Democrat-led Finance Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly voted yesterday (4/29/2015) to expand its state sales tax to include accounting services. The Senate President Pro Tem said that he supports the changes but there appears to be opposition to the move beyond that. Three states currently tax professional services: New Mexico, Hawaii and South…