Would anyone in their right mind sit down from scratch and develop the tax withholding system we have today? The IRS publishes tables telling employers how much to take out of everyone’s paycheck, depending on their income, their filing status, and the amount they guesstimate they’ll be claiming in deductions and credits. Then, at the […]

Just a couple of generations ago, it just wasn’t polite to discuss money. We mostly knew who was rich and who wasn’t. But it wasn’t until about 1984, when crack investigative journalist Robin Leach launched Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, that Americans began following celebrity houses, cars, and bank accounts with the same gusto as […]

With the new tax law, miscellaneous Itemized deductions are now eliminated. What does that mean for your tax deductions? If you are a wage earner you used to be able to deduct work-related expenses not reimbursed by your employer such as: Mileage Office in the home Office expenses All expenses normally are taken on form […]

America’s economy has morphed throughout our history, starting from agricultural to manufacturing to service to technology. Now it seems we’re moving towards a celebrity-based economy. The world is full of D-list celebrities competing for attention: third-rate rappers hoping to break through their own noise, random Kardashian cousins, and spurned bachelorettes fighting for one last rose. […]

Americans love puzzles, games, and brain teasers. Newspapers publish crossword puzzles, word-search puzzles, and word jumbles. Bookstores sell jigsaw puzzles. And airport gift shops stock Sudoku puzzles to pass the hours in the sky. We love puzzles so much that someone found their way to a basement office in Washington where the Department of Bogus […]

In 1982, the movie Blade Runner presented a technologically advanced vision of the year 2019. There were flying cop cars. (What grim dystopian movie doesn’t feature flying cars?) There was commercial space travel. There were bioengineered androids, known as “replicants,” that drove the story. The film even predicted voice-controlled video phones to communicate with our offices! Today’s […]