If The American Dream is home ownership then The American Nightmare is digging out from the mortgage. Fortunately Uncle Sam saves the day once again in his never-ending quest to save us from ourselves. Last week The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as mandated under the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform bill released its first major rule to shape [...]
Today General Motors announced it will spend $5.5 billion to repurchase 200 million shares from the U.S. Treasury at about $27.50/shr. In turn Treasury announced its intent to sell its remaining stake of about 300 million shares within the next 12-15 months. GM will not be the buyer. Instead the government intends to liquidate its [...]
Chuck Jaffe thinks so. Channeling his inner Forrest Gump the personal finance columnist reflects upon his years of writing about the Stupid Investment of the Week and decides that sometimes it's not the car but the driver.
The Internal Revenue Service has issued proposed regulations on the "Additional Medicare Tax / Net Investment Income Tax" scheduled to take effect in 2013 as a result of the Affordable Care Act. Additionally and likely of more value is this handy FAQand this FAQ addressing such topics as income thresholds, what's included in the tax, tax treatment of the sale of a personal [...]
If you have a toothache and head to the dentist your only concern is he or she can resolve your problem...so when you call for an appointment and the receptionist insists you walk to the office instead of driving or taking a bus or whatever you're thinking, "Why does it matter?". If your child wants [...]
The Internal Revenue Service has raised most of the standard mileage rates by $0.01/mile for 2013 when calculating the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes. Beginning 1/1/13 the standard mileage rate for the use of a car, van, pickup or panel truck will be $0.565/mile for business miles [...]
At Apollo we're fond of tuning out the noise as we embrace a small handful of influential voices. We don't seek these people out because they are 'right' or 'wrong' but because they provide thought-provoking commentary. One of the people we take pleasure in reading is Jeremy Grantham at GMO. His latest commentary contains a sobering [...]
The Internal Revenue Service is allowing 401(k) and similar employer-sponsored retirement plans to make loans and hardship distributions to victims of Hurricane Sandy and members of their families as part of the Obama administration's efforts to bring all available resources to bear to support state and local partners affected by Hurricane Sandy. The IRS said [...]
A tentative settlement reached in October of Jimmo v. Sebelius (a class action lawsuit brought against the federal government) will make Medicare a bigger player in funding LTC. Under the settlement the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will relax Medicare's requirements for enrollees seeking coverage for institutional or in-home skilled nursing and therapy services. Currently the standard [...]
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." " . . . whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that, whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be [...]