Healthcare Tax Credit

We've been treated a shocking level of incompetence and ignorance, as a ranking Member of Congress bloviated about the tax -related writedowns that companies just took. Companies offering health care to retirees and others that qualified for a tax credit are required to adjust the carrying value of tax assets and liabilities when the law changes. Congressman Henry Waxman (D. CA), showed his ignorance of the SEC rules and ineptness at finding out how the process works.
If you are Waxman, wouldn't it be easy to wander over to the room where the committee that budgets the SEC meets, and do a little checking? Presumably not, one being consumed with the task of summoning those miscreant corporate officers in for a major public humiliation. Or,couldn't you have a staffer call the SEC? I mean, it is a government agency after all.
If you've ever read an 8K (which is the document these companies are legally required to file within days of such an event) or a 10Q or 10K, you will know that, betwen the lawyers and the CPA's, SEC filings are the most edited, bland, inoffensive, boring manuscripts to be regularly published.
In an economy that badly needs job creation, this is not an encouraging sign.

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Book Review: What Matters Now by Gary Hamel

Interview of Eric Schmidt by Gary Hamel at the MLab dinner tonight. Google's Marissa Mayer and Hal Varian also joined the open dialog about Google's culture and management style, from chaos to arrogance. The video just went up on YouTube. It's quite entertaining. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Cover of The Future of ManagementMy list of must-read business writers continues to expand.Gary Hamel, however, author of What Matters Now, with the very long subtitle of How to Win in a World of Relentless Change, Ferocious Competition, and Unstoppable Innovation, has been on the list for quite some time.Continuing his thesis on the need for a new approach to management introduced in his prior book The Future of Management, Hamel calls for a complete rethinking of how enterprises are run.

Fundamental to his recommendation is that the practice of management is ossified in a command and control system that is now generations old and needs to be replaced with something that reflects an educat…

Add This Great Work to Your History Bookshelf

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The more I study American history, the more I realize how little I really know. I just completed Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals in which she explores the inter-workings, personalities and politics of the Lincoln administration.Every American schoolboy or schoolgirl knows that Lincoln presided over the most difficult period in American history save the George Washington era.Most know that he struggled with a series of second rate generals until Grant emerged. And that he was tragically assassinated just as the War Between the States ended. But how many of us know that many of the cabinet members opposed Lincoln in the primary?That many of those thought he was unqualified for the office?That one of them – Salmon Chase – actually tried to build support to oppose Lincoln in the 1864 election?Or that Lincoln’s opponent in 1864 was former General McClelland, who so famously failed to take advantage of his…

New Research on How to Use Exercise to Grow a Bigger Brain

The Good News We’re swamped with research on how to grow and maintain a bigger brain into old age. Much of the research emphasizes exercise as essential to brain health at every age. Here’s a summary of relevant baseline research, then we’ll move to some new, interesting and thought-provoking research. Background Dr. Carl Cotman and Dr. Nicole Berchtold of the University of California Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia performed research on aerobic exercise and brain health. Cotman and Berchtold concentrated on “brain-derived neurotrophic factor” (BDNF). Because, in their words “it supports the survival and growth of many neuronal subtypes, including glutamatergic neurons”. In our (very) layman understanding, BDNF is a protein that helps nerve cells do, well, a lot. Grow in particular, as well as get stronger and avoid premature cellular death. Cotman and Berchtold learned that the act of consistent exercise increased levels of BNDF in the hippocampus. This finding was important, b…

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