The Check Is Not in the Mail
This week marked the final final final 2022 tax filing deadline for everyone who filed an extension back in April and doesn’t have the good fortune to live in an area affected by certain hurricanes, floods, wildfires, earthquakes, or other natural disasters. If you live in parts of Louisiana affected by seawater intrusion, for example, […]
Do You Smell a Conspiracy?
Creepy sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein continues to cast long shadows since his “suicide” in a Brooklyn prison shortly before the government sponsored “pandemic.” (People across the country who scoff at any other conspiracy theory will blithely dismiss official accounts of his death at age 68.) His business associates have paid tens of millions to settle […]
Agents Behaving Badly
Last year, Americans earned about $21.8 trillion in personal income. Uncle Sam stepped in to intercept $4.9 trillion of that haul in personal income taxes. Now, moving nearly a quarter out of every dollar America earns to Uncle Sam’s pocket is a pretty monumental task. So, our Internal Revenue Service works to manage that process. […]
Don’t Do the Crime If You Can’t Do the Time
Americans are raised from childhood to believe that crime doesn’t pay. But any adult who opens their eyes realizes crime actually pays quite well. As Glenn Frey sang in his 1985 hit, Smuggler’s Blues, “It’s the lure of easy money, it’s got a very strong appeal.” And so a Ponzi schemer buys lavish homes in […]
Penalty on the Field
Labor Day is fading in the rearview mirror, and that means Official Tax Planning Season™ is in full swing. But instead of thinking about savings, millions of taxpayers are celebrating something else. No, it’s not pumpkin spice. It’s football! High schools play on Friday nights. Colleges play on Saturdays. And the pros play whenever they […]
Husband Hunters
From 1874 through the early 1900s, hundreds of fabulously rich American heiresses crossed the Atlantic to find love—or at least suitable marriage—with titled British peers. These so-called “dollar princesses” included Jennie Jerome (mother of future Prime Minister Winston Churchill), Consuelo Vanderbilt (Mrs. Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough), and Mary Leiter (a Marshall Fields heiress […]
Workingman’s Blue
Turn the dial on the Wayback Machine to September 5, 1882. Most Americans work 12 hours per day, seven days per week, often in physically demanding jobs under unsafe conditions. “Helicopter parenting” doesn’t exist yet because the kids are working in factories, farms, and mines. A group of 10,000 men risk their jobs on a […]
If I Had a Hammer
When you hear the name Abraham Maslow, you probably think of his hierarchy of needs: a pyramid, starting with a base of life-sustaining fundamentals like air, food, and water at the bottom, progressing upward through shelter and security, love and belonging, self-esteem, and finally an aspirational triangle of self-actualization at the top. Generations of therapists […]
It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year
2023 has been a summer of discontent for millions of parents across America. Record-high temperatures have kept kids indoors. They’ve closed parks and camps. And they’ve left armies of sweaty little malcontents barking like circus seals for ice cream and shade. The only good news is that schools start earlier than they did a generation […]
Goal!
Sports fans love when new stars join their teams. Sometimes it’s a promising rookie called up to the majors, like Elly de la Cruz lighting a fire under the moribund Cincinnati Reds. Sometimes it’s a mid-career trade, like Justin Verlander taking the Houston Astros to the World Series. And sometimes it’s a grizzled veteran pining […]