...But it is going to last a long time for the rest of us. As I wrote on February 15th, “The conservative mantra that 'offering tax incentives and other perks to business will stimulate job recovery' is true, but the jobs will not be in the USA.” The tax incentives being offered today will exacerbate the problem in still another way. The major offering to business is allowing the manufacturer to deduct up to $500,000 of new equipment in the current tax year. In the past the cost of such equipment had to be spread over the life of the equipment. (In the interest of being “fair and balanced,” this tax break has been available for several years, although on a smaller scale). For example, suppose a manufacturer buys $500K worth of equipment that is estimated to last for 20 years. In the past he could deduct 1/20 of the cost each year for 20 years. If his tax rate was 35%, he would reduce his taxes by $8,750 each ye...
My alarm clock goes off every morning at eight, except for the few times when I have a breakfast date. Usually I wake up about an hour before that, or at least I partly wake up. It is important that I remain in a “not quite awake but not quite asleep” state, because I consider that time as the germination period for whatever seeds happen to have blown into my head.