Good morning. Here’s what’s caught my eye so far, on the last day of the year!
The US needs to overcome its allergy to taxes (New York Daily News) It’s an interesting article, although the author neglects to mention one key reason for the allergy, and that is the government’s reputation for managing the revenue.
The bottom line: Few elected leaders these days are willing to go to bat for the idea that shared sacrifice is required to improve the public sphere, even though studies show that the tax burden in America is the lightest in the developed world.
How to fix your finances in 2010 (Wall Street Journal)
Real financial literacy means paying attention to how banks, lenders and investment firms make money off of us. “Failing to really focus is rolling the dice–and the house tends to win,” says Adam Levin, co-founder and chairman of Credit.com, a credit-information Web site. Reflective and forward-thinking consumers understand what they’ve signed up for.
I wouldn’t put too much stock in New Year’s predictions (MSN Money)
At the end of 1999, Edward Kershner, then of PaineWebber and now with Citigroup, told The Wall Street Journal to expect the Dow Jones Industrial Average to ring in 2010 at 25,000. Though it’s easy to chuckle at such an estimate when that index is down more than 8% for the preceding 10 years, Kershner based his forecast on a modest 7% annual compounded gain.
Campaign finance tops the list for the Supreme Court in 2010 (NPR)
If the law regulating such corporate donations were overturned, she says, “the effect on sort of the role of money in politics, in our national life, and the ability to control that money — you can see that the door would suddenly be wide open.”
Fox is gonna get pulled from Time Warner (LA Times)
In an internal memo to staff, News Corp. President and Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey said he did not think an agreement would be reached with Time Warner Cable regarding carrying Fox’s local TV stations and several cable networks before the deadline of the current deal expired at midnight Thursday.
A debate over full body scanners (Daily Intel)
The top “nontroversies” of 2009 (NPR)
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