With the "supercommittee" remaining deadlocked over taxes, "sequestration" - or automatic spending cuts (and not, as it sounds, a form of torture) - look increasingly likely. Although the official deadline for an agreement is midnight on Wednesday, a CBO cost estimate of any final plan must be available 48 hours earlier. [View news story]
Stop worrying. Nothing happens automatically until Jan 1, 2013, giving Congress plenty of time to work loopholes, find a way to keep over-spending and generally keep the lobbyists happy.
The collapsing Greek economy is making a myth of the purported wages and benefits enjoyed by workers. Companies are using the crisis to tear up collective bargaining agreements and forcing labor into more hours and lower-paying contract work. "Politicans are fighting for something which does not exist anymore," says an electrican of the EU/IMF push to cut minimum wage. [View news story]
Yes, but that is what happens in these schemes. Eventually they run out of new suckers. Everyone can't be made whole again. People should have paid more attention in the past.
The collapsing Greek economy is making a myth of the purported wages and benefits enjoyed by workers. Companies are using the crisis to tear up collective bargaining agreements and forcing labor into more hours and lower-paying contract work. "Politicans are fighting for something which does not exist anymore," says an electrican of the EU/IMF push to cut minimum wage. [View news story]
That should teach 'em in the future. ----------- Yes, it would! People need to learn that politician promises nearly always take from the future to pay for votes now. Politicians don't care about the future because they will [hopefully] be retired with a nice pension, a few retirement properties and nice yacht. And the people don't care as long as they continue getting benefits.
The problem with the Occupy protests is that they're not hurting big banks and the 1%; instead, they're killing small business owners who are part of the 99%. "The bodegas, coffee shops, food trucks, restaurants... they’re simply trying to earn a living and are seeing a significant portion of their customer base being blocked from entering their premises." [View news story]
But how exactly are you "supporting" these things that you favor? By posting on the internet? It's real easy to "talk the walk".
The problem with the Occupy protests is that they're not hurting big banks and the 1%; instead, they're killing small business owners who are part of the 99%. "The bodegas, coffee shops, food trucks, restaurants... they’re simply trying to earn a living and are seeing a significant portion of their customer base being blocked from entering their premises." [View news story]
The problem with OWS is that they aren't accomplishing much of anything. They should lynch some Wall Street people. Or get themselves shot like at Kent State back in 1970. Now that would ramp things up!
Best Buy (BBY +2.1%) backs off a plan to charge $10 for recycling items with screens. The company says it will stick with its free dropoff policy for items less than 32 inches for tube screens and 60 inches for flat panels - settling for lapping up the goodwill from being the industry's largest recycler of electronics. [View news story]
Most consumers don't care. If they have to pay to recycle, they will just dump the dead product anywhere that they can do so.
I think the recycle fee should be built into all products sold and then you can drop them off anywhere w/o payment.
A trio of Senators plan to push a federal law enabling all 50 states to collect sales tax on internet purchases. The bill looks to leapfrog the state-by-state battle waged by online sellers such as AMZN, OSTK, and EBAY to deliver a national plan. Sponsors Senators Richard Durbin, Lamar Alexander, and Michael Enzi say the bill will exempt sellers with annual sales of $500K or less from collecting state sale tax. [View news story]
People always come back with your retort. Please point me to one of these computer programs.
A list of tax rates would not be hard to compile and include. A program that also captured EVERY exception in EVERY locality across the whole USA, one of which I pointed out with the Calif. foods calc example in my original post, is an entirely different thing, computer or no computer.
It is possible that the list of qualifications and exceptions for computing sales taxes on a state/county/city basis may be more complicated that the entire USA income tax code. Now imagine having to wade through that complexity for EVERY ZIPCODE and EVERY SINGLE PRODUCT that you sell. Talk about slowing down the checkout! But then there is more. Because after the sale, you have to forward the money collected (along with a bunch of forms) to each state sales tax collection agency (that would be the California State Board of Equalization here) on a typically quarterly basis. And you have to save all the records because you may be audited.
Remember, this might not be so bad of a problem for B&M stores because they only have to know the rules for their limited selection of products and the sales tax rate for their particular store location (it doesn't matter where the buyer comes from or lives) in their own state.
A trio of Senators plan to push a federal law enabling all 50 states to collect sales tax on internet purchases. The bill looks to leapfrog the state-by-state battle waged by online sellers such as AMZN, OSTK, and EBAY to deliver a national plan. Sponsors Senators Richard Durbin, Lamar Alexander, and Michael Enzi say the bill will exempt sellers with annual sales of $500K or less from collecting state sale tax. [View news story]
This can't work for national retailers until sales taxes are vastly simplified.
It is not just the plethora of different rates among not only states, but also counties and even individual cities with the states (I've heard that there are more than 7000 different sales tax rates in the USA).
But the even bigger problem is WHAT is actually taxed. Each state has a complex set of what is eligible to be taxed and what is not. My sister lives in NJ and clothes are [used to be?] not taxed there, which is why NY people would come shopping in NJ.
Here in Calif., clothes are taxed. But food is not. EXCEPT if the food is sold in heated condition (but EXCEPT that the heated exception doesn't apply to donuts and hot beverages sold separately). Then it IS taxed! [roflol]
Pump prices continue to slip, now $3.407 for a gallon of regular, AAA reports, but that shatters the old record for this week of the year: $3.013/gallon, set in 2007. "We are at the highest fuel prices ever for this time of year," oil analyst Tom Kloza says, expecting 2012 prices to break records, adding that rising South American demand has offset a 4% drop in U.S. demand. [View news story]
Still $3.95 to $4.30 for premium in Bay Area, Calif.
Major airline carriers plan to start using biofuels this week for the first time, led off by United Airlines' (UAL +1.1%) Houston to Chicago flight flown by its Continental Airlines subsidiary that it calls the first to use a "sustainable, advanced biofuel and traditional petroleum-derived jet fuel." [View news story]
So the air is going to start smelling like fired chicken and greasy burgers now?
The Greek referendum on continuing within the eurozone looks to be set for December 4. Earlier, Sarkozy and Merkel said Greece will be cut off from any further aid until after the vote. Merkel made clear that stabilizing the eurozone is goal number one, rescuing Greece the lower priority. [View news story]
Suckers... ---------- Fast cars and loose fiscal morals: there are more Porsches in Greece than taxpayers declaring 50,000 euro incomes October 31st, 2011
What has the Fed actually accomplished with its lower rates? Bernanke says the view behind the question is "understandable," while noting constraints; the Fed can push mortgage rates lower, but there are other problems in the housing market. "Monetary policy may be somewhat less powerful" than it was in the past, but he says it is affecting economic growth. [View news story]
LPS Mortgage Monitor: Over 4 Million Loans 90+ Days Delinquent or in Foreclosure, 72% in Foreclosure Not Made Payment for at Least 1 Year!
Why the sense of urgency, ask 2 accounting profs about the rush to launch the Groupon (GRPN) IPO. They argue for a postponement until Groupon has in place the financial reporting necessary to either confirm or dismiss the viability of the company's business model. Either the prospects for a future IPO will be far brighter or this is "the 2011 version of the 1990s Internet bubble." [View news story]
This is a "take the money and run" IPO before the whole thing evaporates.
The savings rate as a percentage of personal disposable income dropped to 3.6% - lowest since the recession's onset - but don't ask experts why. Theories range from "consumers just need to spend" to the prospect that the numbers (always subject to revision) are just that far off. [View news story]
Dream on. There are still 14 MILLION unemployed people and maybe another 15 MILLION UNDER employed people (working part-time jobs). Is that a recipe for confidence in the economy? Only if the economic numbers have been massaged (lowered) so much that these people can be eliminated both from counting and from Wall Street and the politicians conscience!
I mean damm. If all the unemployed and under-employed people were fully employed, we'd probably be growing at 9% like China!
Restaurants appear poised to raise prices to keep pace with grocery stores. U.S. consumers paid 2.6% more at eateries in September Y/Y, while food prices at supermarkets rose 6.2%. If people go to the supermarket and see that the items they’re purchasing are higher, then they're less likely to be surprised if restaurants are raising prices too, so the rationale goes. [View news story]
Food prices don't count towards "core" inflation, so Benny doesn't give a hoot one way or the other.
With the "supercommittee" remaining deadlocked over taxes, "sequestration" - or automatic spending cuts (and not, as it sounds, a form of torture) - look increasingly likely. Although the official deadline for an agreement is midnight on Wednesday, a CBO cost estimate of any final plan must be available 48 hours earlier. [View news story]
The collapsing Greek economy is making a myth of the purported wages and benefits enjoyed by workers. Companies are using the crisis to tear up collective bargaining agreements and forcing labor into more hours and lower-paying contract work. "Politicans are fighting for something which does not exist anymore," says an electrican of the EU/IMF push to cut minimum wage. [View news story]
The collapsing Greek economy is making a myth of the purported wages and benefits enjoyed by workers. Companies are using the crisis to tear up collective bargaining agreements and forcing labor into more hours and lower-paying contract work. "Politicans are fighting for something which does not exist anymore," says an electrican of the EU/IMF push to cut minimum wage. [View news story]
-----------
Yes, it would! People need to learn that politician promises nearly always take from the future to pay for votes now. Politicians don't care about the future because they will [hopefully] be retired with a nice pension, a few retirement properties and nice yacht. And the people don't care as long as they continue getting benefits.
The problem with the Occupy protests is that they're not hurting big banks and the 1%; instead, they're killing small business owners who are part of the 99%. "The bodegas, coffee shops, food trucks, restaurants... they’re simply trying to earn a living and are seeing a significant portion of their customer base being blocked from entering their premises." [View news story]
The problem with the Occupy protests is that they're not hurting big banks and the 1%; instead, they're killing small business owners who are part of the 99%. "The bodegas, coffee shops, food trucks, restaurants... they’re simply trying to earn a living and are seeing a significant portion of their customer base being blocked from entering their premises." [View news story]
Best Buy (BBY +2.1%) backs off a plan to charge $10 for recycling items with screens. The company says it will stick with its free dropoff policy for items less than 32 inches for tube screens and 60 inches for flat panels - settling for lapping up the goodwill from being the industry's largest recycler of electronics. [View news story]
I think the recycle fee should be built into all products sold and then you can drop them off anywhere w/o payment.
A trio of Senators plan to push a federal law enabling all 50 states to collect sales tax on internet purchases. The bill looks to leapfrog the state-by-state battle waged by online sellers such as AMZN, OSTK, and EBAY to deliver a national plan. Sponsors Senators Richard Durbin, Lamar Alexander, and Michael Enzi say the bill will exempt sellers with annual sales of $500K or less from collecting state sale tax. [View news story]
A list of tax rates would not be hard to compile and include. A program that also captured EVERY exception in EVERY locality across the whole USA, one of which I pointed out with the Calif. foods calc example in my original post, is an entirely different thing, computer or no computer.
It is possible that the list of qualifications and exceptions for computing sales taxes on a state/county/city basis may be more complicated that the entire USA income tax code. Now imagine having to wade through that complexity for EVERY ZIPCODE and EVERY SINGLE PRODUCT that you sell. Talk about slowing down the checkout! But then there is more. Because after the sale, you have to forward the money collected (along with a bunch of forms) to each state sales tax collection agency (that would be the California State Board of Equalization here) on a typically quarterly basis. And you have to save all the records because you may be audited.
Remember, this might not be so bad of a problem for B&M stores because they only have to know the rules for their limited selection of products and the sales tax rate for their particular store location (it doesn't matter where the buyer comes from or lives) in their own state.
A trio of Senators plan to push a federal law enabling all 50 states to collect sales tax on internet purchases. The bill looks to leapfrog the state-by-state battle waged by online sellers such as AMZN, OSTK, and EBAY to deliver a national plan. Sponsors Senators Richard Durbin, Lamar Alexander, and Michael Enzi say the bill will exempt sellers with annual sales of $500K or less from collecting state sale tax. [View news story]
It is not just the plethora of different rates among not only states, but also counties and even individual cities with the states (I've heard that there are more than 7000 different sales tax rates in the USA).
But the even bigger problem is WHAT is actually taxed. Each state has a complex set of what is eligible to be taxed and what is not. My sister lives in NJ and clothes are [used to be?] not taxed there, which is why NY people would come shopping in NJ.
Here in Calif., clothes are taxed. But food is not. EXCEPT if the food is sold in heated condition (but EXCEPT that the heated exception doesn't apply to donuts and hot beverages sold separately). Then it IS taxed! [roflol]
See:
http://1.usa.gov/tbeHxT
Pump prices continue to slip, now $3.407 for a gallon of regular, AAA reports, but that shatters the old record for this week of the year: $3.013/gallon, set in 2007. "We are at the highest fuel prices ever for this time of year," oil analyst Tom Kloza says, expecting 2012 prices to break records, adding that rising South American demand has offset a 4% drop in U.S. demand. [View news story]
Major airline carriers plan to start using biofuels this week for the first time, led off by United Airlines' (UAL +1.1%) Houston to Chicago flight flown by its Continental Airlines subsidiary that it calls the first to use a "sustainable, advanced biofuel and traditional petroleum-derived jet fuel." [View news story]
The Greek referendum on continuing within the eurozone looks to be set for December 4. Earlier, Sarkozy and Merkel said Greece will be cut off from any further aid until after the vote. Merkel made clear that stabilizing the eurozone is goal number one, rescuing Greece the lower priority. [View news story]
----------
Fast cars and loose fiscal morals: there are more Porsches in Greece than taxpayers declaring 50,000 euro incomes
October 31st, 2011
http://tgr.ph/rU7Q6G/
What has the Fed actually accomplished with its lower rates? Bernanke says the view behind the question is "understandable," while noting constraints; the Fed can push mortgage rates lower, but there are other problems in the housing market. "Monetary policy may be somewhat less powerful" than it was in the past, but he says it is affecting economic growth. [View news story]
http://bit.ly/vQyFVo
Why the sense of urgency, ask 2 accounting profs about the rush to launch the Groupon (GRPN) IPO. They argue for a postponement until Groupon has in place the financial reporting necessary to either confirm or dismiss the viability of the company's business model. Either the prospects for a future IPO will be far brighter or this is "the 2011 version of the 1990s Internet bubble." [View news story]
The savings rate as a percentage of personal disposable income dropped to 3.6% - lowest since the recession's onset - but don't ask experts why. Theories range from "consumers just need to spend" to the prospect that the numbers (always subject to revision) are just that far off. [View news story]
I mean damm. If all the unemployed and under-employed people were fully employed, we'd probably be growing at 9% like China!
A comic:
http://bit.ly/rFgnsl
Restaurants appear poised to raise prices to keep pace with grocery stores. U.S. consumers paid 2.6% more at eateries in September Y/Y, while food prices at supermarkets rose 6.2%. If people go to the supermarket and see that the items they’re purchasing are higher, then they're less likely to be surprised if restaurants are raising prices too, so the rationale goes. [View news story]