Yonkers Tribune

Current Commentary: Graceless Candidate, Graceless Exit By LARRY M. ELKIN

Rick Santorum was a graceless presidential candidate, so it is not surprising that he made a graceless exit yesterday.

The fight for the Republican nomination was, as I wrote in this space on Feb. 1, effectively decided when Mitt Romney won the Florida primary. Neither Santorum nor Newt Gingrich, the two challengers who still had viable candidacies at that point, was ready to quit. Nor was Ron Paul, whose candidacy has never been viable, but who continues to run anyway.

Current Commentary: Broadcast Standards Malfunction By LARRY M. ELKIN

 

The New York Giants get their moment in the spotlight this morning with a ticker tape (actually, a paper shredder output) parade through lower Manhattan celebrating their Super Bowl victory. Attention then will shift to the game’s real stars: the judges, regulators and lawyers who endlessly debate broadcast decency standards.

But we should cut the folks in business suits a break. They were not the ones who started this diversion of attention from the athletes, who really matter (to the extent competition staged for entertainment actually “matters”), to the people who merely want to matter.

Current Commentary: Carrying The Political Burden Of “Carried Interest” By LARRY M. ELKIN

 

A person’s income tax returns paint a pretty vivid portrait if you know what to look for, and the picture of Mitt Romney that emerged last week is that of a successful investor and politician who does his best to make his financial affairs bulletproof.

Current Commentary: The Fed’s Sunshine is Blinding Me By LARRY M. ELKIN

Image via Wikipedia

 

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke believes government functions best in sunshine, when decision-making is transparent and predictable. I usually applaud this philosophy.

 

Current Commentary: New York Times Tilts News On Taxes, Again By LARRY M. ELKIN

When you read a liberal-leaning paper like The New York Times, you have to expect the opinion pieces to tilt a bit to the left.

So I was not surprised recently when a Times writer referred to the treatment of a well-established form of executive compensation as an “obscure” provision “buried in the tax code” that “will deprive the federal government of tens of billions of dollars” while delivering a “windfall” to corporations.

Current Commentary: Leading From The Rear On Energy, Again By LARRY M. ELKIN

By deciding to delay a decision – in this case, on the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline – the Obama administration has given us a concise summary of everything that is wrong with the executive branch today.

This is the presidency that takes a firm stand against taking firm stands. The buck always stops someplace else. The Obama White House is a quicksand where policy choices, on everything from nuclear waste disposal to shale gas development to offshore oil drilling, disappear into the muck.

Current Commentary: Death Is Still Certain; Taxes Not So Much By LARRY M. ELKIN

At the founding of this country, Benjamin Franklin said that despite the promise that the new Constitution would endure, only two things could truly be certain in the newly United States of America: death and taxes.

The death rate continues to hold at 100 percent, as The Onion once entertainingly reported. But for about half of the country, taxes – or at least federal income taxes – have disappeared.

Current Commentary: Papandreou Tells Greeks It’s Time to Grow Up By LARRY M. ELKIN

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou seems like an intelligent, honest and patriotic man. His country’s back is against the wall, and he is exasperated with his citizenry for demanding what it cannot have.

So while global leaders, especially his European peers, no doubt felt betrayed by Papandreou’s call for a referendum on last week’s financial bailout agreement, they ought to pay close attention when Papandreou explains why he did so. His motive wasn’t his own political survival. It was desperation. Papandreou wants to roll the dice because he feels he has no other choice.

Current Commentary: Corzine Gets Into Another Wreck By LARRY M. ELKIN

Europe’s debt crisis is being blamed for MF Global Holdings Ltd.’s bankruptcy filing yesterday, but the real culprit is hubris – specifically, Jon Corzine’s hubris.

Bad things tend to happen in the vicinity of Corzine, a former New Jersey governor who became MF Global’s chief executive in March 2010. He sharply increased the company’s exposure to risk with a big bet on European sovereign debt, which was disclosed to analysts last week. Corzine was apparently convinced that eurozone governments would never be allowed to renege on their debts. This conviction was misplaced, however, as evidenced by Greece’s impending renunciation of about half of the debt it owes to banks.

Current Commentary: Reality Takes Down the CLASS Act By LARRY M. ELKIN

“Buy when you see blood in the streets,” the old-timers used to tell us, before I became an old-timer. The streets are looking pretty bloody.

The biggest one-day drop in the stock market since the financial crisis got the headlines yesterday. But the real indicator of how bad things are getting, or at least how bad people think things are getting, came in a letter from the Bank of New York to some of its biggest depositors. Beginning next week, the bank is going to charge them interest, rather than pay them interest, for keeping their money on deposit. This is the banking world’s equivalent of a flying pig.

Current Commentary: Sweet Music to Soothe the Savage Banker By LARRY M. ELKIN

The world’s biggest central banks came together September 15, 2011, in a financial choir to sing a hymn called “There Will Never Be Another Lehman.”

It was music to the ears of financial markets. European and U.S. stocks moved sharply higher on the announcement that the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and their counterparts in Japan, Switzerland and the United Kingdom are ready to lend unlimited amounts of dollars to European banks that are having trouble funding their operations.

Current Commentary: Southwest’s Lesson: Inspections May Not Be Enough By Larry M. Elkin

Federal authorities and independent aviation experts are assuring travelers that last week’s emergency aboard Southwest Airlines Flight 812 was an isolated event, which can be addressed with newly ordered inspections of some Boeing 737s.

I have serious doubts about that.

Current Commentary: A New Enemy of The People By Larry M. Elkin

In Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 play “An Enemy of the People,” Dr. Thomas Stockmann tries to tell his town that its popular tourist baths are so polluted that they sicken those who visit them for a cure. The town, led by Stockmann’s brother the mayor, brands Stockmann an alarmist rather than face the expensive repairs that must be made.

Current Commentary: Paying People Not To Work By Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®

To economists and the business-savvy elements of the public, the recent recession is history. But some who lost their jobs more than a year ago are still sitting at home — and getting paid to do so.

In 25 states workers are able to collect unemployment benefits for 99 weeks, thanks to emergency measures enacted by Washington after the widespread layoffs and job losses in 2008 and 2009. Ordinarily, unemployed workers receive only 26 weeks of state-paid support.

Current Commentary: Nut Jobs with Guns By Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®

A nut job with a gun shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 other people on Saturday, killing six and leaving Giffords, a moderate Democrat who represents a Republican-leaning Arizona district, clinging to life after brain surgery.