"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you an fake that you've got it made." - Groucho Marx

I overdid it yesterday. Between the tree in the morning and the gym in the afternoon I was so sore I couldn't sleep. My fingernails hurt.
I am old.

They promised another round of robust monsoon storms overnight and throughout today. They lied.

We watched the Emmy's last night. OK, the Emmy's were on, Pam watched, and I sat here doing other things. I don't know who 90% of those people are, don't watch those shows, and don't care about either one. So why did I turn it to that 18 hour show? A: a small price to pay up front for a season's worth of MNF.
Yes, I am ready for some football.

Talked to the machine shop this morning. The block is worn beyond acceptable limits and can't be re-bored, and the crank is also bad. He doesn't know about the head yet. So that second engine I bought for the external parts had better be good on the inside, too, or I've got problems. Aron will help me disassemble it tonight and I hope to take it in tomorrow. By the end of this week or the first of next I should know if I have an engine or have to go hunting.

If I understand correctly, U.S. firms can buy up a foreign company, move their HQ to that country, and escape the higher corporate tax rate they paid while located here. Burger King is looking at purchasing Tim Horton's, a Canadian donut chain, for that purpose. This has led Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown to call for a boycott of BK (he recommended White Castle sliders, proof that he has no taste buds). The President has suggested he'll take executive measures to "de-incentivize tax inversions." MSNBC's Joe Scarborough agrees on the need for a boycott, saying Burger King is "stealing money" from the U.S. The accounting firm KPMG (they do tax stuff for really big companies) estimates that the move to Canada could save BK about 46.4% in tax liabilities.

I'm curious if the Sen. Brown, the President, and Joe Scarborough itemize their deductions on April 15. Do they use accountants to reduce their tax liability to the lowest level legally possible? And if so, are they stealing from the U.S.?

Nothing in BK's plan (or any of the other companies using this strategy) is illegal. So how can it be stealing? Don't like it, Mr. President? I have an idea! Either change the law or lower the tax rate.
Duh.

Business are fleeing California faster than U-Haul can rent them trucks. Why? Because after decades of bad financial policies that state has decided to solve its raging deficit by taxing the bejeebers out of corporations located there. Add in reams of regulations on everything from safety procedures to employee benefits and it makes no sense for business that can function just as well from Nevada or Arizona to stay there. The increased costs of transportation are a piece of cake. There's a good reason Amazon is building monster warehouses just outside of Phoenix and shipping books and cordless drills to CA.

The net effect, of course, is to kill the goose that (could) lay the golden egg. Instead of getting a reasonable tax income from those corporations CA gets none, while NV and AZ reap the rewards.

Instead of de-incentivizing a move to Canada (or Switzerland in the case of pharmaceutical companies) how 'bout we incentivize staying here? Lower govt. spending, reduce tax rates, and have a Whopper for lunch. Why is this so tricky? (A: because the notion of lowering taxes is outside the range of options to be considered.)

Have you read about the number of uber-high income celebs and athletes who are renouncing U.S. citizenship and moving to Europe? Wanna guess why?