"Planning year-end tax strategies in a down year"

"Year-end tax planning this year will be different from years past, largely because of the recession. For many taxpayers, the year has meant a job loss, a job with less income or perhaps a home foreclosure. There also have been government stimulus programs that have added to taxpayers' take-home pay or given some homebuyers a tax credit. All these need to be taken into account. "Things are different this year for a lot of people in situations they've never been into before because of the economic times," said Jimmy Averitt, tax partner at accounting firm BDO Seidman LLP in Dallas. "Those need to be assessed before the end of the year and" . . .

quoting The Dallas Morning News Times

"The biggest lies fund companies tell"

"My friend Keith works for a big mutual fund company, and assumes I hate mutual funds because I “always write about the things we do wrong.” He insists fund companies don’t actually do much wrong, because they follow the proscribed rules and regulations and they’d get in trouble if they violated those standards. While he’s right from a legal standpoint, he ignores the simple truth that the rules leave fund companies a lot of ways to fudge the statistics, and the meaning of the numbers. What’s more, industry practices let fund companies - or research firms - hype red herrings, information that’s attractive but not necessarily meaty and important. In our recent discussion, I laid out for Keith what I considered the most misleading statistics and data points in the fund world" . . .

quoting The Boston Herald

"Jobless benefits, tax credit extended"

"WASHINGTON — Congress on Thursday decisively approved an extension of unemployment benefits for almost 2 million people out of work nearly a year or more as the U.S. continues to lose jobs. The White House quickly announced that President Obama would sign the bill today. The measure cleared the House 403-12 on Thursday, a day after it won unanimous support in the Senate. The legislation would provide 14 additional weeks of unemployment benefits in all states, plus another six weeks in those with jobless rates topping 8.5 percent, including Washington state. About 1.9 million Americans will exhaust their unemployment benefits by the end of this year without the bill, the Labor Department said. The national jobless rate is now 9.8 percent." . . .

quoting The Seattle Times

"Obama administration plans new efforts on foreclosures"

"WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration, battling a foreclosure crisis that shows no signs of relenting, will step up pressure on mortgage companies to do more to help people remain in their homes, officials said Saturday. The administration will announce its expanded program on Monday, Treasury spokeswoman Meg Reilly said" . . .

quoting Chicago Sun Times

"Dubai debt plea sends fear around world"

"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Just a year after the global downturn derailed Dubai's explosive growth, the city is now so swamped in debt that it's asking for a six-month reprieve on paying its bills — causing a drop on world markets Thursday and raising questions about Dubai's reputation as a magnet for international investment. The fallout came swiftly and was felt globally after Wednesday's statement that Dubai's main development engine, Dubai World, would ask creditors for a "standstill" on paying back its $60 billion debt until at least May." . . .

quoting MSNBC

 

Cool News

 

"Overweight? Blame the Internet"

"Too much time online can expand your waistline, a new study show. If you really want to win the weight-loss battle, learn to strike a balance — not just on your plate, but also in how you spend your free time. A new study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research finds that people who spend more time in front of computers have a higher obesity risk, even if" . . .

from MSNBC

"Americans Toss Out 40 Percent of All Food”

[Ed: Not so Cool considering about 1 billion people worldwide don't have enough to eat, according to the World Food Program]. " U.S. residents are wasting food like never before. While many Americans feast on turkey and all the fixings today, a new study finds food waste per person has shot up 50 percent since 1974. Some 1,400 calories worth of food is discarded per person each day, which adds up to 150 trillion calories a year. The study finds that about 40 percent of all the food produced in the United States is tossed out. Meanwhile, while some have plenty of food to spare, a recent report by the Department of Agriculture finds the number of U.S. homes lacking "food security," meaning their eating habits were disrupted for lack of money, rose from 4.7 million" . . .

quoting LiveScience

"As Within So Without . . . "

"Shocking Speech to the United Nations (must watch)"
"S.N. Goenka give a revolutionary speech, where he talks about what is needed to achieve our highest potential as humanity." . . .

watch on You Tube