Other stuff

You can find my two posts for April 1 at my other blog, Outrun Change:

Pending outbreak of hostility between the Federation and Empire. New intel on prospects for Star Trek and Star Wars battle.

Democracy and innovation will trump totalitarianism and lack of freedom. Of course, it helps to have cloaked starships that fire photon torpedoes at warp speed hitting their targets hundreds of thousands of kilometers away go up against death stars that manually target lasers using visual observation.

News reports you may have missed on history books you may have read

Some books keep getting filed in the fiction section instead of the history section where they belong. Here are some news reports on a few of those books. Historian J.R.R. Tolkien gets good coverage.

Remember, it is April 1st.

Not a lot of new info in this report on the TBTF banks’ settlement discussions for manipulating foreign exchange rates, or forex. There are a few tidbits at the inside-baseball level that are interesting. If you’ve been reading my posts on banking fiascos, you will appreciate this info.

2/13 – Bloomberg Business – U.S. is Seeking Billions from Global Banks in Currency Manipulation Settlement –

DoJ is looking for a simultaneous settlement with all the banks so none of them are singled out.

Total dollar amount on the table is reportedly $4B with starting point for each bank about $1B, give or take.

Here’s what the really deep-inside-baseball lineup is looking like: …

Another Forex updateRead More »

March 14 is referred to as Pi day by people who enjoy math. Since pi equals 3.14159, that makes March 14 pi day.

3/14

3.14

Get it?

Well, it’s funny for some of us. Really.

Million Dollar Way points out that tomorrow, March 14, 2015, is the Pi day of the century.

I’ll let Mr. Oksol explain it: …

About half past 9 tomorrow will be Pi day of the centuryRead More »

About a week ago I renewed the fictitious business name used for my publishing projects. Paid San Bernardino county $55. Only reason it took 20 minutes to prepare it is that the county revised the form since my last filing. Since I’m a cautious accountant, it was obviously necessary to read all the instructions just to make sure nothing changed.

Also received an invoice in the mail today that looks like it is from the Fictitious Business Name office reminding me the FBN is about to expire and the fee will be only $150.

Hmm. The form I just filed said the fee was $55.

If you look carefully, the outside envelope and “invoice” both contain one statement each saying this is not an official government request.

(This discussion is cross-posted from my other blog, Nonprofit Update, because I think it might be helpful for CPAs to help their clients.)

…

About that “invoice” to renew your fictitious business name for $150. It’s either a “misleading solicitation” or a scam. Take your pick.Read More »

Table 4 of the Fairness and Tax Policy document from the Joint Committee on Taxation contains projections from the committee for 2015 tax returns. The table projects income and taxes paid by income level.

All of the following income numbers are based on a fairly broad definition of income, starting with AGI and adding items such as employer social security taxes, employer payments for health insurance, workers comp payments, and nontaxable social security benefits.

(cross-posted from my other blog, Outrun Change.)

Key items that jump out at me:

…

A: 48% & 0%. Q: Percent of individual income taxes paid by top 1% of taxpayers and bottom half (projected for 2015)Read More »

The Wall Street Journal features a brief debate today asking Do Cryptocurrencies Such as Bitcoin Have a Future?

If you haven’t thought about the idea of Bitcoins much and don’t know what cryptocurrencies are, the Yes and No positions will provide a lot of brain expanding ideas. If you have pondered the issue enough to sorta’ kinda’ have an answer to the question, you may still find the article to be worth a read. If you already have a position, check out the arguments from the other side.

(Cross-posted from my other blog, Outrun Change.)