Not much action at the end of last week Gold closed the week over $1,600. Oil remained over $100.
The show goes on!
We are watching the destruction of an empire. All empires must go away sometime. They are natural things. And nature puts a time bomb in everything she creates.
The US empire is doomed. Just like all the others that went before it. It is doomed by nature herself — condemned by the gods to blow up and die.
None of this should be surprising to you, dear reader. We’ve seen this movie before. Hundreds of empires have come and gone. We know how this movie ends. More or less.
What we know for sure is that the US is going broke. There is hardly any other plausible outcome. We’ve gone over the numbers so often we don’t need to repeat them.
Yes, it is true that the feds could still save themselves.if they had the will. They co
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As the economy and consumers continue to struggle, scam artists seem to be thriving. In 2011, Americans saw some of the biggest financial scams to hit the nation in years, even decades. To start the new year off on the right financial footing and avoid falling prey to these scams, take a look at the five biggest scams of last year, including purchase overcharges, benefit buybacks, family scams, fraudulent rental deposits and loans that aren’t yours.
1. Purchase Overcharges
Overcharging for purchases in retail transactions is one of the biggest scams of the year. In fact, one retail chain was charged with overcharging its customers for purchases in a settlement lawsuit. To avoid purchase overcharges, do your homework upfront to find out the price you should be paying for any big-ticket item. D
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Years ago, I found myself sitting in law school in Moot Court wearing an oversized itchy blue suit. It was a horrible experience. In a desperate attempt to avoid anything like that in the future I enrolled in a tax course. I loved it. I signed up for another. Before I knew it, in addition to my JD, I had a LL.M Taxation. I needed only to don my cape…. taxgirl® was born. Today, I live and work in Philadelphia, PA, one of the best cities in the world . I landed in the City of Brotherly Love by way of Temple University School of Law. While at law school, I interned at the estates attorney division of the IRS. At IRS, I participated in the review and audit of federal estate tax returns. I even took the lead on a successful audit. At audit, opposing counsel read my report, looked at his file and said, “Gentleman, she’s exactly right.” I nearly fainted. It was a short jump from there to practicing, teaching, writing and breathing tax.
If you’ve been doing your research on tax credits and deductions, some of the sources that youve come across might mention that you’ll want to watch out for the AMT when using them. The alternative minimum tax (AMT) system is intended for higher-income taxpayers, but over time has come to affect middle-class families as well, and if you trigger it, it can be very expensive.
Lets take a look at what the AMT is, why you need to be aware of it, and how it can be triggered.
Why is there an Alternative Minimum Tax?
The alternative minimum tax was added to the tax code in 1969, and its present form was created in 1982. It is an alternate system of calculating the income tax that you owe, in which many credits and deductions are phased out when your income is very high. The
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Gold fell 4.7 percent over the previous six sessions to the lowest since July 7 as gains by the dollar against the euro curbed demand for the metal as an alternative investment. That may boost seasonal purchases, said Marc Ground, a commodities strategist at Standard Bank Plc. In the first quarter of 2011, jewelry demand jumped 12 percent from a year earlier in India, the world’s biggest buyer, according to World Gold Council data.
While we haven’t seen physical demand pick up yet, maybe people are anticipating it for next year, Ground said in a telephone interview from Johannesburg. January and February are usually good months in India, and a lower gold price might attract some buyers.
Gold futures for February delivery climbed 2.1 percent to $1,573.30 an ounce at 9:52 a.m. on the Comex in New York, ending a six-session slump that was the longest since March 2009.
While gold was up 8.4 percent this year as of yesterday, heading for an 11th straight annual gain, prices have plunged as much as 21 percent since touching a record of $1,923.70 on Sept.
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