Seeing The Forest, Losing Sight Of The Trees
By Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®
August 20, 2010
A tall, handsome white ash tree shades the east side of our Vermont home. Its golden-brown autumn foliage contrasts with the reds of the sugar maples around it. Its ramrod-straight trunk reminds me of a favorite baseball bat, also ash, that I swung as a boy. This tree should outlive me by many years, but it [...]
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315 view(s)
August 20, 2010
A tall, handsome white ash tree shades the east side of our Vermont home. Its golden-brown autumn foliage contrasts with the reds of the sugar maples around it. Its ramrod-straight trunk reminds me of a favorite baseball bat, also ash, that I swung as a boy. This tree should outlive me by many years, but it [...]
To read the complete post, click here.
315 view(s)
A Government Regulation That Works, So Far
By Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®
August 19, 2010
Federal regulators cannot solve every problem of modern life, but that does not mean that well-targeted rules cannot solve any problems. Case in point: airline passengers who become airline hostages during extended ground delays. Last June, passengers on 268 commercial flights in the United States were stranded on the tarmac for more than three hours. This [...]
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292 view(s)
August 19, 2010
Federal regulators cannot solve every problem of modern life, but that does not mean that well-targeted rules cannot solve any problems. Case in point: airline passengers who become airline hostages during extended ground delays. Last June, passengers on 268 commercial flights in the United States were stranded on the tarmac for more than three hours. This [...]
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292 view(s)
MoveOn Targets Target, And Free Speech
By Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®
August 18, 2010
The liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org believes in freedom of speech for everyone, with the exception of anyone who backs Republican or conservative causes with corporate money. So when Target Corp. recently got involved in politics, MoveOn made a target of Target. MoveOn’s call for a national consumer boycott against the retailer is an obviously self-serving, demagogic [...]
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4 responses
1,458 view(s)
August 18, 2010
The liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org believes in freedom of speech for everyone, with the exception of anyone who backs Republican or conservative causes with corporate money. So when Target Corp. recently got involved in politics, MoveOn made a target of Target. MoveOn’s call for a national consumer boycott against the retailer is an obviously self-serving, demagogic [...]
To read the complete post, click here.
4 responses
1,458 view(s)
Does The Supreme Court Need Reserve Players On The Bench?
By Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®
August 17, 2010
A standing-room-only crowd filled the courtroom of Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently when retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor appeared there to help decide three Montana cases. Although it is rare to see a former member of the nation’s highest court fill in on a lower court panel, it is not unusual in [...]
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288 view(s)
August 17, 2010
A standing-room-only crowd filled the courtroom of Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently when retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor appeared there to help decide three Montana cases. Although it is rare to see a former member of the nation’s highest court fill in on a lower court panel, it is not unusual in [...]
To read the complete post, click here.
288 view(s)
Bank of Mom and Dad Offers Great Rates
By Jonathan Bergman, CFP®, EA
August 16, 2010
Banks are being criticized both for insufficient lending and for making too much profit. While some of these claims are dubious, there is one bank indisputably offering ultra-low rates with potentially high lending capacity: the Bank of Mom and Dad. Loaning money to children, whether adolescents or adults, is a valuable way to increase family wealth, [...]
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349 view(s)
August 16, 2010
Banks are being criticized both for insufficient lending and for making too much profit. While some of these claims are dubious, there is one bank indisputably offering ultra-low rates with potentially high lending capacity: the Bank of Mom and Dad. Loaning money to children, whether adolescents or adults, is a valuable way to increase family wealth, [...]
To read the complete post, click here.
349 view(s)
In Hot Pursuit Of Publicity
By Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®
August 13, 2010
Teams are in place in 35 Brazilian cities, ready to launch as soon as any of 50 global positioning devices begins to move. Technicians can follow the signal and arrive at any house in the country within days, sometimes hours. “They may get to your house as soon as you do,” said Fernando Figueiredo, the head [...]
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138 view(s)
August 13, 2010
Teams are in place in 35 Brazilian cities, ready to launch as soon as any of 50 global positioning devices begins to move. Technicians can follow the signal and arrive at any house in the country within days, sometimes hours. “They may get to your house as soon as you do,” said Fernando Figueiredo, the head [...]
To read the complete post, click here.
138 view(s)
Night Of The Grizzlies
By Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®
August 12, 2010
Exactly 43 years ago, on a hot August day much like this one, two young women with summer jobs at Glacier National Park set off on camping trips from which they never returned. By sunrise the next morning, college students Julie Helgeson, from Albert Lea, Minn., and Michele Koons, from San Diego, were dead – fatally [...]
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156 view(s)
August 12, 2010
Exactly 43 years ago, on a hot August day much like this one, two young women with summer jobs at Glacier National Park set off on camping trips from which they never returned. By sunrise the next morning, college students Julie Helgeson, from Albert Lea, Minn., and Michele Koons, from San Diego, were dead – fatally [...]
To read the complete post, click here.
156 view(s)
Outflanking Mastercard And Visa
By Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®
August 11, 2010
In business, as in war, it seldom pays to attack a powerful and well-entrenched adversary head-on. A successful assault is more likely to come from an unexpected, and less well-defended, direction, or from a source that is not perceived as a threat until too late. Mastercard and Visa have long been the payment-processing industry’s entrenched powers. [...]
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158 view(s)
August 11, 2010
In business, as in war, it seldom pays to attack a powerful and well-entrenched adversary head-on. A successful assault is more likely to come from an unexpected, and less well-defended, direction, or from a source that is not perceived as a threat until too late. Mastercard and Visa have long been the payment-processing industry’s entrenched powers. [...]
To read the complete post, click here.
158 view(s)
Seeking Grown-Ups At Hewlett-Packard
By Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®
August 10, 2010
The abrupt resignation of Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd has left many questions unanswered, not least of which is this one: Is a major American corporation being run without any adult supervision whatsoever? An independent consultant who worked for HP, Jodie Fisher, had accused Hurd of sexual harassment. Before resigning on Friday, Hurd reached an out-of-court settlement [...]
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1 response
150 view(s)
August 10, 2010
The abrupt resignation of Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd has left many questions unanswered, not least of which is this one: Is a major American corporation being run without any adult supervision whatsoever? An independent consultant who worked for HP, Jodie Fisher, had accused Hurd of sexual harassment. Before resigning on Friday, Hurd reached an out-of-court settlement [...]
To read the complete post, click here.
1 response
150 view(s)
Creative Financing For Uncle Sam
August 23, 2010
Check the national debt clock: Our federal debt is $13.3 trillion, next year’s budget is $1 trillion in the red, and we have unfunded commitments for Social Security, health care and other programs as far as the eye can see. Is the United States already insolvent? Yes, according to a recent Bloomberg column by Boston University [...]
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277 view(s)