Wisconsin consistently ranks in the top 10 states for the tax burden on individuals. Our property taxes are sky-high, especially if you live in the metro-Milwaukee area. Personal income taxes are very high. And we have lots of “fees” that are really just taxes in disguise.
Governor Jim Doyle is crying about a big “budget deficit” for a budget he hasn’t even created yet. i.e. He is telling us that he’s going to budget to spend billions more than he knows will be coming in from taxpayers.
This isn’t the first time (and won’t be the last time) that a contribution to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff’s campaign fund is followed by questionable activity. The latest allegations of impropriety involve a computer consulting company called DigitalBridge.
On September 29, 2008, AG Shurtleff wrote a letter on his office’s letterhead to the National Association of Attorneys General, endorsing the services of DigitalBridge and providing the company’s contact information. This doesn’t sound like a big deal unless you consider that on September 18, 2008, DigitalBridge made a $10,000 contribution to Shurtleff’s campaign.
Read moreUtah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff: More Suspect Campaign Contributions
Lawyers are restricted in their advertising efforts. That’s not new. But what is new is a law that was passed in Louisiana. Starting early next year, lawyers in Louisiana will be prohibited from blogging, tweeting, participating in online message boards, and engaging in other online activities. Lawmakers claim this is consumer protection, but it seems more like a law created by people fearful of the internet.
One law firm is taking on the lawmakers, and has filed suit in federal court to challenge the law. This will be an interesting case to watch. The press release about the lawsuit:
Read moreLouisiana lawyers prohibited from blogging and other online activities
It takes no college degree and very little common sense to come to the conclusion that spending $7.4 trillion of taxpayer money on these “bailout” efforts is idiotic. It was easy to see what a slippery slope all of this bailout nonsense could easily become. And it has.
A few billion here, several billion there… And pretty soon we’re over $7 trillion with this nonsense.
Read moreHank Paulson’s Plan Called “Truly Idiotic.” Ya Think?
It’s amazing what several hundred thousand a million dollars will buy you these days. Get ready for an opinion from McKinsey & Co. that says Milwaukee Public Schools suck. (And I’ve been telling you that for free!)
Read moreMPS spending a million dollars on consultants who will tell them they suck
A month ago, I wrote on AOL’s WalletPop about the money grab being done by the government of Argentina. Essentially, the government needed money, saw $30 billion sitting in privately-owned retirement accounts, and decided to take the money away from the rightful owners.
I’m convinced that America will go in this direction soon too. Why shouldn’t our government do the same thing? There’s billions of dollars sitting around… why not take it away from the people and promise them a retirement fully funded by our government? I speculated in my article on Argentina that this would be sold to Americans as a bigger and better Social Security system.
Here are a few of the more interesting articles I’ve written at AOL’s personal finance site WalletPop recently.
An uglier side to the AIG story – Employees being harassed and intimidated by consumers.
It has long been a mystery how a school system as bad as Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) can spend over $14,000 per year per child.On a daily basis, the school district is spending $3,287,671.23 a day, 365 days a year.
At that rate of spending, you’d think they would have something to show for it. Instead, 61% of 10th graders students can’t read and 71% can’t do math. Their two excuses have been not enough money (thoroughly debunked) and bad home lives of children (also debunked based on results in other urban school districts).
For almost two years, Sam Antar (convicted felon and former CFO of Crazy Eddie) has been writing about Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK) and his questions about their financial reporting and disclosures. I became interested in the company’s financial statements and SEC filings a few months later and began blogging about Overstock and nutty CEO Patrick Byrne as well.
One constant since then has been the criticism of fans of Patrick Byrne and Overstock. Byrne has been trying to silence his critics, and even went so far as to hire cyberstalker Judd Bagley to threaten and intimidate the company’s critics.