Next Bailout Candidate: The Letter Carrier
February 22, 2010“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” reads the inscription on the James Farley Post Office in New York City. But, while weather and darkness may not halt the movement of the mail, economic realities might. The U.S. Postal Service is supposed to run itself as a self-supporting business, but the political powers that be in …
Handicapping This Year’s Senate Races
February 17, 2010If 2010 were a presidential election year, we would be deep into the primaries by now. There would be front-runners and challengers, and we would have some ideas about how the final election showdown might look. But the big battle this year is for control of Congress. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for grabs in November, along with 36 of the 100 seats in the …
Winds Of Political Change Blow In Massachusetts
January 19, 2010Democrats lose races in Massachusetts about as often as the Harlem Globetrotters lose basketball games, which is why today’s special election in that state is so interesting. Some polls last week indicated that Republican candidate Scott Brown, a state senator, has a chance to beat Democratic attorney general Martha Coakley in today’s balloting to fill the U.S. Senate seat held until last year by Edward Kennedy. Coakley had been expected …
It’s 2010. Do You Know Where Your Lawyer Is?
January 4, 2010In a few weeks, about 2,000 of the country’s best estate planners — most of them attorneys — will gather in Florida for an annual technical conference which, this year, is likely to be more of a pep rally. The estate tax has been dropped, at least for now, from the federal tax code. Nearly all of these lawyers want it restored ASAP. Safe amid the obscurity of the 44th …
The Estate Tax Disappears, For Now
December 17, 2009A lot of tax professionals are going to be surprised to learn, when they read this morning’s newspaper, that the estate tax really is going on hiatus effective New Year’s Day. I am not. Events have played out pretty much as I anticipated in the commentary that appeared in this space on Aug. 20. Last night, Senate Democrats abandoned their attempts to extend the tax before Congress adjourns for the …
Ben The Boogeyman
December 11, 2009With unemployment in double digits and elections less than a year away, the search for an economic boogeyman is in high gear on Capitol Hill. Meet Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve. President Obama’s nomination of Bernanke for a second term, together with financial regulatory reform proposals from both the administration and Congress, have given lawmakers a chance to blame the Fed for current conditions and to try to …
Something Better Than ‘Cash For Caulkers’
December 10, 2009As we struggle to emerge from the Great Recession, the United States is relying on its charismatic president to boldly lead us back to prosperity. Would somebody please tell Barack Obama that we can’t weatherize our way to full employment? President Obama this week announced a new package of proposals to stimulate hiring. He wants yet more road- and rail-improvement spending, which will stack up in the pipeline behind the …
Loose Change
December 8, 2009You know that good feeling you get when you put on your warm jacket for the first time in the season, reach into the pocket and find a $20 bill you didn’t know you had? President Obama knows that feeling. Just when he was under pressure to do something — mainly, to spend money — to reduce unemployment, his administration reached into the pocket known as TARP and pulled out …
Admitting A Mistake, 10 Years Later
November 13, 2009Titans of industry do not readily admit their errors, so it was noteworthy when John S. Reed, who helped to orchestrate the 1998 merger that created Citigroup, Inc., said last week that the merger was a mistake. “I’m sorry,” he told Bloomberg News. In 2008, Citigroup lost $27.7 billion and took $118 billion in writedowns. The company was spiraling into an abyss and threatened to bring the entire U.S. economy …
Be Careful What You Wish For
November 10, 2009The health care bill that the House of Representatives approved Saturday night did two things its sponsors never intended: It virtually doomed health reform legislation for this year, and it showed how to eliminate legal abortion in the United States. We may soon see abortion opponents leading the charge for a single-payer, government-run health care system, which could refuse to provide or pay for abortions. There would be no need …
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