Category: Money

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NC State Auditor Beth Woods can’t pay her taxes.

According to the News and Observer NC State Auditor Beth Woods admits she intentionally pays her taxes late every year and she  cannot pay them for 2009 until she gets her tax refund. What’s more shocking is the number of people who are okay with this because they say it makes her a “normal person like the rest of us”.

Well now let’s put this in perspective. Beth Woods makes $123,000 a year as the State Auditor. She has a property valued at $124,000 with an annual tax bill of $1234. That’s less than what I pay. I pay on time every year and make less than Mrs. Woods. I bet Mrs. Woods doesn’t have 2 car payments, 3 kids and a 45 mile commute costing her $70-$100 a week in gas. Hell, $102 a month would pay her tax bill. State employees get paid monthly so before taxes Mrs. Woods is paid $10,250 a month. Yet she can’t come up with $1234 to pay her tax bill.

Some people are saying it’s OK, “she’s human”. That’s bullshit. She is responsible for auditing state spending yet she can’t manage her own. In her position she needs to be above reproach and if she’s got personal financial difficulties then she is not.

Here’s the kicker: Her excuse is that she owes $90K on a loan for her campaign. Let me give you a little bit of financial advice Mrs. Woods: If you can’t manage your personal finances well enough to pay your taxes on time you have no business taking out a $90K loan to run for a public office making you accountable for the states spending. It’s not sound financial decision making. What unsound decisions are you making with the states money?

It’s one thing if your household earns around $40-60K a year, have a family of four and can’t pay your property tax bill right when it’s due. It’s another matter entirely if your are the NC State Auditor making $123K a year and can’t pay a $1,234 tax bill because you can’t manage your personal finances. I guess a credit check is not necessary if you are voted into a state office. Probably a good thing for Mrs. Woods. Based on the information available I speculate hers score isn’t looking too wonderful.

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NC Tax Refund Delay

money bagI e-filed my 2009 taxes on January 24th.  The IRS acceptance occurred the next day for my federal return.  The NC Dept. of Revenue has yet to accept my electronic filing.

Last year I filed at the end of January and NC accepted and processed my refund faster than the feds.  It will be interesting to see how long the delay is for NC this year as their income tax base and overall state revenue has decreased.  I speculate the NC delay in acceptance and processing will be intentional this year.

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Public option would lead him to filibuster, key senator says – CNN.com

“Republicans oppose a public option, saying it would drive private insurers out of the market and eventually lead to a government takeover of the health care system.”

OK.  So where’s the problem?  I trust the government to handle health care benefits far more efficiently and morally than a private business with a profit motive.

via Public option would lead him to filibuster, key senator says – CNN.com.

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Hot Damn. Traction. Banks under fire for ‘criminal’ overdraft fees…

Banks under fire for ‘criminal’ overdraft fees – Washington Post- msnbc.com.

If you read my posts with any regularity you know this is one of my hot buttons.  Carolyn Maloney’s bills couldn’t get traction during a hyper-conservative, pro Wall St. era.  Now the banking industries true nature is showing.  They are enemies of the public and must be exposed for their extortion.  This issue should be ON FIRE.

“A backlash is brewing on Capitol Hill against banks that charge large fees for overdrafts without asking or telling customers, the latest sign that the financial crisis is shifting the balance of power from banks toward borrowers.”

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Wilson makes top of the line golf clubs. Who knew?

Last week I sold my Nike Pro Combo forged irons after only playing them a couple of months.  The swing weight was way too low on these clubs.  I think they are D1’s and D2’s depending on the club.  Since I like to think of my swing as though I’m swinging a lead ball at the end of a string I want some weight on the club head.  In the past three seasons I’ve played the Nike’s, a set of Cobra SSI’s and Titleist 695 forged cavities.  I keep coming back to my 1999 Top Flite Tour OS clubs for the swing weight and shot consistency.  I’m about exactly 140 yards with my 7 iron, 150 if I crank it.

I’ve been trying to find clubs to replace the Top Flite Tours for years.   I think they are the most under rated irons in the history of golf but mine are beat to death.  The 9 iron looks like I’ve been swinging it in the gravel parking lot at the driving range.  I went on an extensive search recently at Golfsmith and the Pro Shop at the Falls driving range.

I hit Ping G10’s and Titleist AP1’s.  They are both $599 retail.  The Pings were alright for swing weight but pretty boring and I hate the looks of Pings at address.  I think Ping has become a golf cliche and a victim of their own success.  The Titleists were quite awesome as any $600 set of irons should be.  But then I decided to try a brand I’ve never really considered before.  On the rack was a set of Wilson Staff Ci7’s.  They sure look damn good.  Better than any club on the rack (I later learned they won the Golf Digest 2008 award for “best looking” club along with “best feeling” club).  Then I saw the price – $389.00.  The rep in the store told me Padrick Harrington won the 2008 British Open Championship with this exact Wilson model.  It was time to hit them.

First thing I noticed on the Wilson’s was the stock grip.  Nike should take a lesson.  These were straight up Golf Pride DD2’s with a Wilson logo.  That’s an $8 grip on each club.  No need to change them right out of the box like I had to with the Nike’s.  Then I noticed that the shaft sticker that said “spline aligned”.  If anyone’s ever bought a replacement shaft they know this is a critical part of club assembly often not incorporated in “game improvement” irons.  Manufacturers reserve it for the $1000, hand assembled, forged pro sets.

After the first few swings I took with the Ci7’s I was ready to buy.  To me the swing weight is better than my Top Flite Tours.  I haven’t been able to say that about any clubs in 10 years.  I was real impressed with the TX-105 True Temper shafts.  Every component Wilson chose for these clubs is top of the line.  And if pros are winning majors with these sticks then they are only “game improvement” irons by classification and price.

So Wilson is bad ass.  Again, who knew?  These are not my Grandfather “Pops” old Wilson persimmon woods sitting around in the cracked and dusty leather bag.  That was the image I always had in my head of Wilson golf clubs.  Sales volume is about brand name recognition but performance has nothing to do with logos.  If Wilson had the reputation in golf that they do in tennis these clubs would sell for more than the Ping G10’s and Titleist AP1’s.  I’m getting some this week.

I hear the Staff Di9’s are incredible, I haven’t seen them in person, but priced at the point of the Ping and Titleists.   And guess what… I found the Ci7’s even cheaper on ebay where they are going for about $249 or less with free shipping.  I actually feel like I’m stealing or that I know something I shouldn’t.  The guys I play with will never understand why I got rid of my Nike Pro Combos for Wilson Staff’s.  Until I beat them by six strokes each next weekend.

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Word is the Executive Staffing Group can’t make payroll.

This morning I learned from a few readers, who are Executive Staffing Group employees, that the Clifton and Savage operation have issued some payroll checks that bounced.  Apparently they also issued a notice to all employees that all direct deposits would cease immediately.  So does this mean that ESG employees should only expect to receive bad checks?

If this is true it’s a bad situation.  The Department of Labor or Insurance could step in a shut down ESG but where does that leave ESG’s contracted employees or the ESG clients they’re working for.   At the time any possible connections between ESG and the Castleton Group were made by investigators all efforts should have been made to shut down ESG before anyone else got hurt.  I personally believe the only reason this was not done was pure greed and arrogance on the part of the Savages and Clifton.   It gives the appearance they wanted to try to maintain some level of prominence and lifestyle in the face of personal bankruptcies and investigations.  They will argue they were trying to keep people employed in a down economy.  But what service are you doing to keep people employed when you can’t pay them?

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Still don’t think that banks and politicians are in bed?

Then just look at this article about Hawaiian Senator Daniel Inouye and calls his office made to influence the distribution of TARP funds to a bank where most of his personal wealth is invested.  The bank did not qualify, at all, for TARP funds prior to his mysterious phone call.  If this continued rip-off by Congress and the banks is not annoying and obvious by now then I have no alternative than to think that most  American’s are dumb ass-hats who genuinely don’t care.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31675539/ns/politics-washington_post/

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Ready for a whole lot of nothing? Here comes “Healthcare Reform”.

Reuters reported this morning “Obama has invited several large trade groups, including the American Medical Association, America’s Health Insurance Plans and the American Hospital Association, to discuss wringing savings from the health system”.

And do you know what every one of these groups is discussing on their way to this meeting?   They’re each deriving ways they can come away from Washington and maintain or increase their profit levels.  All they care about is making sure that revenue stays the same or increases.  The AMA wants the health insurers to pay more, they will no doubt fall to the malpractice insurance argument.  The health insurers will argue that the hospital associations need to reduce operating expenses and the hospitals will want to pay less to Doctors and increase the payouts by insurers to cover their “operating expenses” (that’s code for shareholder return).

Capitalist, Socialist… whatever you want to call yourself, know this: As long as taking care of shareholders is the primary focus of these organizations the one thing that will not come up in the conversation as a point of concern is care for the sick, injured and dying.  Patient care and patient monetary expense is an afterthought in the Wall Street bureaucracy that is the American health care system.

So despite Obama’s nice little gesture only the most naive of the hopeful among us could possibly believe any meeting involving these organizations will evolve into less expensive or better care.  Wishful thinking without the guts to stand up to corporatism is nothing more than pandering to the whims of big business.  That’s what Obama is doing.  When it comes to health care in America you either stand on the side of corporate revenue or patient care.  There is no in between.  Patient care lost a long time ago.  You are a number in a process.  Stay healthy.   But even that concept once promoted by a few health insurers (wellness programs) were cut when they realized it costs money to promote wellness.  Some highly paid think tank ran the math and figured out it was cheaper to let people get sick and deny the claims.

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The banks wield power in Washington today.

This week we will find out who rules America: the US Government put in power by the people for the people, or the banking industry lobby and the Republican legislators they hold in their pocket.

Obama is meeting with bank industry leaders to once again ask them to conform to more appropriate consumer protections.  The evil, vile bank lobby will attempt to argue they are too poor right now to ease up on fees and credit gouging.   Why are they poor?  Because of their own greedy lending practices but never mind that little inconvenience.

Even though many Democrats are on board with new consumer credit regulation they are not completely convinced they will get any bills passed.  The banking industry has a way too powerful special interest lobby working to convince lawmakers they must protect the interest of the banks.  It will be close regardless of which direction this takes and what’s at stake is more important than interest rates on credit cards.  It’s a decision of who controls the future of the American economy, lawmakers for the consumers or bankers for well, the banks and wealthy bank investors.

Update: From the NY Times this morning:

“Having won some early skirmishes by teaming with Republican allies, the banks now appear to have the upper hand and may wind up killing — or at least substantially diluting — both pro-consumer measures.”

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Castleton’s Jay McLamb’s sentencing was postponed again.

I just got an email response from Jonathan Cox of the News and Observer that sentencing has been postponed again, until June, for the ex-CFO of The Castleton Group, Jay McLamb.  He also said that no specific date had been set.

I hate to speculate, but since this is a blog and full of my opinions, I will.  I would guess that Jay’s sentencing is probably taking a while for various reasons:  The investigators are probably digging though a web of financials only he can help untangle as they work to build a case against Suzanne Clifton and potentially her son.   Jay’s lawyers could still be negotiating his sentence based upon the amount and quality of information he’s provided.  If I were Clifton I would be more and more weary of the case being built the longer Jay’s sentencing is postponed. There are lots of Internet comment rumors about the funds transferred between Castleton and The Executive staffing group.  If there is any truth to these accusations then the investigators could be taking their time to build an air tight federal case to avoid defense loopholes.

The Trustee suing Clifton and her mortgage companies could step up efforts to recover from her personal assets despite her supposed insolvency through bankruptcy.  I read somewhere that she didn’t not even file some of the papers for her bankruptcy within the required time frame.

There are a lot of people who don’t want Clifton to just walk away from this with millions in bankruptcy protected personal assets while there are so many small businesses still suffering from the ramifications of her companies criminal activity.  I also think it’s a great addition to the argument surrounding why 2nd and 3rd homes qualify for bankruptcy protection when primary residences do not.  Clifton should not be allowed to keep these home regardless of her criminal involvement (because of her companies debts to former customers). They should be seized by US Marshals the same way Madoff’s yacht and Florida vacation home were.

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