Category: News and Politics
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Money Island NJ: ‘Ground Zero’ for regional climate change response
With the April 15 tax deadline past, today I turned my attention to local New Jersey politics in Money Island New Jersey. My friends and acquaintances know that for many years I’ve been working in support of a sustainable future for my time home community. Today I spent time speaking with our political consultant, our…
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Letter in support of agricultural tourism in New Jersey
This is the text (with hyperlinks added) of my letter to the Cape May County Agricultural Development Board regarding New Jersey’s attempt to draw visitors to South Jersey’s farms for recreation and tourism purposes. The matter is covered in this newspaper article. My larger concern is that if local government reacts to a small number of…
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10 good reasons why I might choose not to vote
The right to vote in a self-governing society also recognizes that electing not to vote is an option in appropriate circumstances. The election to abstain from voting is arguably the most valuable tool we have to preserve the integrity, value and meaning of the voting process. Here are ten good reasons that I may choose…
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How to fix your small business 401(k)
This week President Obama’s administration gave a strong endorsement of the Department of Labor’s plan to impose fiduciary obligations on investment brokers and advisors working with retirement plans. The controversial proposal is based on a belief that new rules are a needed consumer protection to prevent billions in costs due to bad advice. Most consumer advocates…
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No tax penalties for Healthcare.gov customers given wrong information
Yesterday the Department of Treasury issued a press release saying that the IRS announced that it will not penalize taxpayers who filed taxes based on incorrect reporting information from the federal health insurance exchange. That’s mighty kind of them.
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ACA – The law that really wasn’t
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 really hasn’t had any significant impact on individuals and small businesses despite the volumes of information, rhetoric and threats of penalties for non-compliance. Today the Obama administration extended the individual health insurance enrollment deadline (again) regarding the individual mandate. Last week they postponed the effective deadline for small business…
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My most popular articles in January 2015
All five most of my most popular articles on LinkedIn Pulse for the month of January 2015 were actually published in December. That seems odd given the short-lived value of the type of news-related consumer finance topics and commentary that I typically cover. I notice that the top four are direct commentaries on current events reported…
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Rich and Poor: The Growing Divide
I did not write this 2001 book by UK’s professor Tony Novak. But I’m tempted to write a 2015 US version on the same topic of the growing wealth divide and its impact on every aspect of our society.
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The full burden of college debt is still unrecognized
While only 17% of the U.S. population has earned an undergraduate college degree, education debt is a major economic drag on the country. Over our lifetime college tuition costs have risen much faster than the rate of a typical salary earner’s income. Government and news media now describe the current cost of college as “out of…
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The latest financial planning twist for same-sex couples
I try to follow developing news for my same-sex couple clients (some now married, some not) and occasionally post something that attempts to summarize or help with planning like this “Financial Planning Checklist for Unmarried Couples” that has turned out to be quite popular. Recall that in 2013 the Supreme Court ruled on a case…