Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/181788848?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
How I Did on my 2011 Financial Resolutions (Free Money Finance)
Last year I detailed my financial resolutions for 2011 and I thought I'd give you all an update on how I performed against them. Here goes:
- Keep going -- spending less than I earn to have as big of a gap as possible. Did pretty well (since it's in my nature), though I did splurge for our upcoming cruise (which I'm happy with.)
- Reviewing my investments. I didn't do as much as I wanted to fine tune our investments. As you probably know, the majority of what we do is on automatic pilot, but I need to close a few accounts, move a few others around, and generally just make things a bit more efficient to manage. Didn't get a lot of that done this year.
- Considering major purchases. At this point last year, we were thinking of going to Hawaii. That changed to the Caribbean and we'll be there soon. We also still need some new furniture -- haven't made much progress on that purchase front this year.
- Looking at retirement. I did complete a financial retirement plan (which I'll be giving an update on later this year) and will continue to monitor/adjust it as needed.
- Consolidating charities. I stopped giving to some but added to others. I'd like to get down to less than 10 that I support, but not sure it's going to happen.
- Investing in my career. I did not do a career review. I did however grow and maintain my network and have picked up a few additional job-related skills, so I'm happy with my overall progress.
Looking back, I'd give myself a B- for 2011. Several things were completed but not to the level I wanted them to be. I hope to do better in 2012.
How about you? How did you do compared to your financial resolutions for 2011?
Source: http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2012/01/how-i-did-on-my-2011-financial-resolutions.html
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CNYcentral: RT @MichaelBenny: Inferno part 2. Wild photo of raging barn fire near Lake Delta, Rome, NY. No injuries - no word on animals. http://t ...
Inferno part 2. Wild photo of raging barn fire near Lake Delta, Rome, NY. No injuries - no word on animals. Source: http://twitter.com/CNYcentral/statuses/154013791431036928
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Monday, January 2, 2012
What If the IRS Asked Website Visitors to 'Like' President Obama on Facebook?
? Illegal Immigrants Pay Social Security Tax, Won't Benefit | Main
December 31, 2011
What If the IRS Asked Website Visitors to 'Like' President Obama on Facebook?
I was shocked when I went to the (normally sedate) New York State Tax Department website this morning. About 20% of the real estate on their front page was given to a rather garish promotion from Gov Cuomo's office concerning issues that had little to do with tax policy (a press release about the upcoming State of the State message and an announcement that the governor is reopening the ice skating rink near the State Capitol for public skating.)?
Most egregiously, there was an instruction to "Like" Gov. Cuomo on Facebook. ... I was taken aback?at the notion that?the NYS Tax Dept would?tell me to "like" the governor.
?
One can only imagine the outraged reaction if the IRS website frontpage encouraged taxpayers to "like" President Obama and used up 20% of the space on the irs.gov page to promote him!?
The equivalent at the state level seems equally inappropriate to me.? I am interested in whether others agree.
December 31, 2011 in IRS News, Tax | Permalink
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Comments
I assume the Republican's "outraged reaction" would serve as proof of their racism.
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Who are we kidding, as a Democratic President and Obama to boot, there would be no major newspaper or TV coverage and the story would just go away.
Posted by: lobo | Dec 31, 2011 9:09:13 PM
Thanks, you just gave the Obamatrons an idea.
Posted by: amenjohnson | Dec 31, 2011 9:34:54 PM
That's just creepy. I'd be very uncomfortable with it, even if the governor in question was someone with whom I agreed politically.
Posted by: Wacky Hermit | Dec 31, 2011 9:38:04 PM
Agree with O'Keeffe. The instruction to "like" the governor (or the president) would not be so objectionable, however, if Facebook offered a "detest" option.
Posted by: Jake | Dec 31, 2011 9:42:36 PM
I agree.
Posted by: Darren | Dec 31, 2011 9:42:46 PM
You know why they haven't asked us to "like" BHC? They hadn't thought of it!
Posted by: Steven | Dec 31, 2011 9:48:24 PM
Only if included a prominent picture of Governor Dearest.
Posted by: M. Report | Dec 31, 2011 9:50:41 PM
I agree, that's pretty creepy.
Posted by: Zilla | Dec 31, 2011 10:01:52 PM
No. It would have been inappropriate if President George W. Bush had done it. It will be inappropriate if some future Republican president does it. But it would be totally appropriate, and way cool, too, for President Barack H. Obama to do it.
In fact, President Obama is so awesome that Facebook should automatically have each of us "like" him and "friend" him, and they should put the opt-out options on the IRS website.
Posted by: Murgatroyd | Dec 31, 2011 10:08:15 PM
If they had a "dislike" option they might get more response...
Posted by: Phil in Englewood | Dec 31, 2011 10:13:01 PM
Mary is right to be shocked. Whether at national, state, county, or city level the "government" at that level should be totally neutral to their elected leader. Anything else is breaking through the traditional separations of three branches inherent in many of these tiers of government.
Go get 'em Mary!
Posted by: Frank M | Dec 31, 2011 10:24:54 PM
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Source: http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2011/12/what-if-the-irs-.html
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What Were Lady Gaga & Mayor Bloomberg Saying During The Kiss?
Bloomberg: "Nice to meet you! You know, Gaga, some people look a lot different on TV than in person, but your face is exactly the same."
Bloomberg: "Nice to meet you! You know, Gaga, some people look a lot different on TV than in person, but your face is exactly the same."
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Sunday, January 1, 2012
Arson suspected as fire hits San Diego church a second time
A?second arson fire to hit the same San Diego church within a week is being investigated?by the San Diego Fire Department and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The fire hit the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in the University Heights neighborhood early Friday, not long after midnight. Damage was estimated at $350,000 for the structure, $50,000 for the contents.
The number 666, considered to have satanic overtones, had been spray-painted on the outside wall.
The church was also struck late on Dec. 21. No one was injured in either fire.
?
ALSO:
Rose Parade: Volunteers put in long hours to finish floats
Top quirky stories of 2011: Dinner on 405, SpongeBob and more?
Hollywood arson spree: Ruin, wreckage at Jim Morrison's former home
-- Tony Perry in San Diego
?
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And you thought 2011 was tough? (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Shaky Europe. Political gridlock. Volatile markets.
Familiar themes for those who lived through 2011, and investors should be ready to revisit them next year.
With a spiraling debt crisis in Europe, political upheaval around the world, and crumbling creditworthiness in major industrial nations, 2011 was a tough year to know where to invest. 2012 is unlikely to offer much respite.
The S&P 500, a measure of the biggest U.S. companies' market value, spent much of the year getting pushed up and down, flummoxing shorts and longs - and scaring Moms and Pops away from stocks. In the end, it will finish about where it started.
But the S&P 500's tepid performance was encouraging, compared with other world equity markets. The United States may still be seen as a safe haven, though even that looks uncertain.
For every rally built on improving economic figures this year, selloffs were never far away on worries the European debt crisis would eventually drag the continent into a recession and perhaps the United States as well. That could continue in 2012.
China and other fast-growing emerging markets can no longer be leaned on as those economies slow. In 2011's last half, the poorest-performing sectors outside of banks were most connected to global growth - materials, energy and industrial companies.
"There is a growing realization that the global economy is in jeopardy," said Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Robert W. Baird & Co in Nashville. "There is uncertainty in every corner of the world."
That uncertainty fed substantial volatility in 2011. Despite the S&P's flat performance this year, there were 66 trading days when stocks moved in a 2 percent range. In 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed during a global financial crisis, there were more than 130 trading days when stocks swung that much. But that led to a flight from equities by retail investors.
U.S. equity funds had outflows in every month since May. More than $483 billion left U.S. mutual funds in 2011 through the year's second-to-last week, even though the U.S. market outperformed foreign stocks late in the game.
BEATING GLOBAL RIVALS
The S&P 500 was up just 0.3 percent for the year on Friday afternoon. In contrast, the MSCI world stocks index (.MIWD00000PUS) fell 9 percent, while the FTSEurofirst-300 index (.FTEU3) slid nearly 11 percent.
The darlings in the emerging markets fared the worst. China's Shanghai Composite index (.SSEC) lost 22 percent, India's BSE (.BSESN) sank 25 percent, and Brazil's Bovespa (.BVSP) dropped 18 percent.
Strategists say the U.S. stock market may benefit from reasonable economic growth and attractive market valuation. The S&P 500 is expected to rise 6 percent by the end of 2012, according to the most recent poll of Wall Street strategists.
Volatility is likely to persist through early 2012 because of the uncertainty in Europe and rising concern about slowed earnings growth due to recent revisions.
The S&P 500's price-to-earnings ratio - what investors are willing to pay for a dollar of earnings - is under 12, below the 25-year average of 15. In weaker markets like Germany's DAX, the figure is below 9.
"We're building in a massive recession into these numbers," said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. in San Francisco.
U.S. companies cutting earnings' outlooks recently outpaced those raising theirs by the greatest ratio in 10 years. Some sectors, such as materials, have seen a sharp drop in forecasts for the fourth quarter, Thomson Reuters data showed.
Last week, downbeat earnings from Oracle Corp (ORCL.O) shook confidence in the tech sector's health before the quarterly earnings season's start in January. Oracle joined a growing list of companies, including some of technology's biggest names, whose results and outlooks have set off alarm bells.
Next year, S&P 500 earnings are seen rising 9.9 percent, down from an estimate of 13 percent in October.
RECESSION FEARS
Many economists believe the euro zone is already in recession. They forecast that the economies of the 17-nation bloc will stagnate in 2012 after contracting in this year's fourth quarter and the first quarter of the next.
Investors are worried that Italy and Spain will have to keep refinancing borrowings at unsustainable levels early next year, which could escalate the crisis.
The correlation between the U.S. stock market and the euro skyrocketed in 2011 as investors tied bets on risky assets to the euro's moves. That trend ebbed as equities rallied near the end of the year, but it is likely to flare up again.
So far the U.S. economy has stayed on course for moderate growth. Economists expect it to expand by about 2.1 percent next year. But it is unclear how a slowdown in the rest of the world will affect the economy stateside.
The key may be China rather than Europe.
"China is the 800-pound gorilla in the room and is probably the most important country to watch in terms of their contribution to global growth," said Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at RDM Financial in Westport, Connecticut.
Chinese business confidence is weakening. A survey showed export orders fell for the first time in nearly three years.
The drop in materials shares in 2011's second half reflects worry about declining activity overseas. The S&P Materials Index (.GSPM) lost nearly 14 percent in the last six months.
GRIDLOCK SHOCK
One of the pivotal events of 2011 was the downgrade of the United States' perfect triple-A credit rating. Standard & Poor's cited congressional bickering as the reason for the downgrade.
August's stalemate in Washington over raising the debt ceiling sparked a selloff that accelerated after the downgrade.
Investors expect the gridlock in Congress to get worse as the U.S. presidential election approaches in November. The election is likely to be close, which will not make legislative efforts to tackle high debt levels and weak demand any easier.
Rancor was in view again in December as Congress struggled to pass a two-month extension of U.S. payroll-tax cuts.
"There will be less certainty about taxation and regulation so that will inhibit business formation and business growth," said Brian Battle, a trader at Performance Trust Capital Partners in Chicago.
Goldman Sachs sees global growth highly susceptible in 2012 to even minor shocks - and those shocks may be political.
"Slowing growth (and in places outright contraction), public-sector cuts, and a renegotiation of the social compact between state and society in different parts of the world is an environment ripe for political turmoil," Goldman said in a note to clients.
(Reporting By Edward Krudy; Editing by Jan Paschal)
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