A century ago, America was “a nation of shopkeepers.” Beginning in the 1950s, we became a nation of malls. Today, we’re a nation of big-box stores. Walmart, Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Home Depot have stomped their way across our landscapes like so many commercial Godzillas. In the words of the counterculture philosopher… Read More

Scientists recently announced finding a fossilized horseshoe crab brain from 310 million years ago. As the New York Times reported, “Siderite, an iron carbonate mineral, accumulated rapidly around the dead creature’s body, forming a mold. With time, as the soft tissue decayed, a white-colored clay mineral called kaolinite filled the void left by the brain.”… Read More

The much-anticipated 2020 Tokyo Olympics have come and gone. As usual, the quadrennial celebration of sport included a few surprises. For starters, there were no spectators in the audience. Gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from several marquee events with a case of the “twisties,” which seemed a perfectly reasonable alternative to paralyzing herself in a fall.… Read More

Infrastructure Week We’ve talked here a time or two about how taxes factor into every financial choice you make. Whether you’re selling a business, exercising stock options, or just treating yourself to a summer sundae at the neighborhood soft serve, you’ll find a government with its hand out. There’s no way to avoid it entirely… Read More

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures (Part II) Last week, we talked about one of Uncle Sam’s priciest problems. Specifically, the current lineup of taxes on income, payrolls, corporations, gifts, estates, imports, and gas and alcohol sales isn’t getting the job done. We’re collecting almost $12 billion/day, and we’re still $29 trillion in the hole!… Read More

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures In 1986, President Ronald Reagan quipped that the government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases, including, “If it moves, tax it.” Well, Uncle Sam is already chasing income, payrolls, corporations, gifts, estates, imports, and gasoline and alcohol sales. Yet we’re still almost… Read More

Help Wanted Fifteen months of COVID-19 have changed the face of employment here in America. The pandemic wiped out 20 million jobs, yet employers are struggling to hire while employees reevaluate their post-pandemic plans. Can you spin your old position into a work-from-home opportunity? Should you take advantage of soaring housing prices to make a… Read More

Overstuffed Back in 1997, Delaware Senator Bill Roth sponsored a new kind of retirement savings account with a back-end benefit. In contrast to traditional IRAs, which let you deduct your contributions and defer tax until you pull money out, the Roth IRA lets you contribute after-tax dollars in exchange for tax-free withdrawals. Roth designed his… Read More

Writing a funny tax column every week, and keeping it as consistently brilliant as we do, is actually harder than it looks. (Less glamorous, too.) Sometimes there just isn’t an obviously fun story to cover. What do we write about in a week with no criminals cheating, celebrities misbehaving, or holidays we can skewer? If… Read More

  Pure Imagination Fifty years ago on June 30, Paramount Pictures released an enchanting spun-sugar delight of a movie that remains a classic. Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory features Gene Wilder as the reclusive confectioner who hides five Golden Tickets in his candy bars and promises the finders a tour of his mysterious factory… Read More