Draw your own conclusions
By
Rory Ryan-hcpress@cinci.rr.com
Random is as random writes…
Just before watching the much-anticipated Urban Meyer press conference Monday evening, I reread Joe Posnanski's Sports Illustrated column (print edition) from Jan. 10, 2011. And, yes, some nuts will save anything.
For those who appreciate irony, let's review. The occasion of Posnanski's column from this past winter was the Outback Bowl between Meyer's Florida Gators and Joe Paterno's Penn State Nittany Lions. Florida won, by the way, 37-24.
Meyers had announced, weeks prior to the bowl game, that he was leaving the ranks of college football coaches. He wanted, as the often overused phrase goes, to spend more time with his family.
Eleven months must have been about right.
Paterno, on the other hand, had no such ambitions. Many college football fans fully expected Paterno to die as head coach at Penn State.
This past New Year's Day, Meyer was 46 and wanted out. Paterno was 84 and didn't want to leave – ever, perhaps.
"The clock expired, and the two coaches met at midfield like two eras passing in the late afternoon," Posnanski wrote. "There is the Meyers era, in which things move impossibly fast, where legends rise and fall with each news cycle.
"And there is the Paterno era, in which a coach simply does his job day after day. They exchanged brief words and went their separate ways – the young coach into whatever vision he has of retirement, and the old coach, back to Pennsylvania to work on protecting his punter."
Less than one year later, the young coach who wanted to spend time with his family has accepted the pressure-packed coaching job at Ohio State and the Old Lion who wanted to coach forever has been ousted in disgrace from Penn State.
Draw your own conclusions...
* * *
Quote of the week
"As the Wall Street Journal put it recently, public-sector unions 'may be the single biggest problem...for the U.S. economy and small-d democratic governance.' They may also be the biggest challenge facing state and local officials — a challenge that, unless economic conditions dramatically improve, will dominate the politics of the decade to come."
Draw your own conclusions...
* * *
Taxes
A report this month from the Citizens for Tax Justice, which can be read at http://ctj.org/ctjreports/2011/11/corporate_taxpayers_corporate_tax_dod…, suggests that the 280 most profitable United States corporations shelter half of their business profits from taxes.
“These 280 corporations received a total of nearly $224 billion in tax subsidies,” said Robert McIntyre, director at Citizens for Tax Justice.
The study examined 280 corporations, all from the Fortune 500 list and found that 78 of them paid no federal income tax in at least one of the last three years. The study did find that the average effective tax rate for all 280 companies in the study over the three-year period was 18.5 percent.
From a counter perspective, William McBride writes at www.taxfoundation.org, the report "…rightly notes that these companies are taking advantage of various legal tax breaks and not some nefarious strategy for evading the law. Further, many of these tax breaks are bad tax policy because they unnecessarily complicate the tax code and benefit a select few at the expense of the many. However, CTJ gives us a lot of reasons to doubt the veracity of their claims.
"First, why did they choose just three years (2008-10)? And why the three years which happen to be the worst recession since the Great Depression? The last study they did like this also covered a recessionary period (2001-03). It would be more believable if they averaged over a longer period of at least five years, mainly to include both the boom and bust portions of the business cycle. Also, certain tax provisions such as net operating losses can be carried forward or back more than three years, and take longer to resolve if disputed in court. For example, a company may have a huge loss in 2007 (out of sample) which is carried forward into 2008 through 2010 (in sample), grossly distorting their long run average profits and taxes paid on those profits.
"Second, why just 280 companies? CTJ started with the 500 biggest corporations and only chose those that were profitable in each of the three years they look at. The question for CTJ is what sort of bias does this introduce, especially given the short and peculiar time frame?"
Draw your own conclusions...
Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Highland County Press, the county's only locally owned newspaper.[[In-content Ad]]
Just before watching the much-anticipated Urban Meyer press conference Monday evening, I reread Joe Posnanski's Sports Illustrated column (print edition) from Jan. 10, 2011. And, yes, some nuts will save anything.
For those who appreciate irony, let's review. The occasion of Posnanski's column from this past winter was the Outback Bowl between Meyer's Florida Gators and Joe Paterno's Penn State Nittany Lions. Florida won, by the way, 37-24.
Meyers had announced, weeks prior to the bowl game, that he was leaving the ranks of college football coaches. He wanted, as the often overused phrase goes, to spend more time with his family.
Eleven months must have been about right.
Paterno, on the other hand, had no such ambitions. Many college football fans fully expected Paterno to die as head coach at Penn State.
This past New Year's Day, Meyer was 46 and wanted out. Paterno was 84 and didn't want to leave – ever, perhaps.
"The clock expired, and the two coaches met at midfield like two eras passing in the late afternoon," Posnanski wrote. "There is the Meyers era, in which things move impossibly fast, where legends rise and fall with each news cycle.
"And there is the Paterno era, in which a coach simply does his job day after day. They exchanged brief words and went their separate ways – the young coach into whatever vision he has of retirement, and the old coach, back to Pennsylvania to work on protecting his punter."
Less than one year later, the young coach who wanted to spend time with his family has accepted the pressure-packed coaching job at Ohio State and the Old Lion who wanted to coach forever has been ousted in disgrace from Penn State.
Draw your own conclusions...
* * *
Quote of the week
"As the Wall Street Journal put it recently, public-sector unions 'may be the single biggest problem...for the U.S. economy and small-d democratic governance.' They may also be the biggest challenge facing state and local officials — a challenge that, unless economic conditions dramatically improve, will dominate the politics of the decade to come."
Draw your own conclusions...
* * *
Taxes
A report this month from the Citizens for Tax Justice, which can be read at http://ctj.org/ctjreports/2011/11/corporate_taxpayers_corporate_tax_dod…, suggests that the 280 most profitable United States corporations shelter half of their business profits from taxes.
“These 280 corporations received a total of nearly $224 billion in tax subsidies,” said Robert McIntyre, director at Citizens for Tax Justice.
The study examined 280 corporations, all from the Fortune 500 list and found that 78 of them paid no federal income tax in at least one of the last three years. The study did find that the average effective tax rate for all 280 companies in the study over the three-year period was 18.5 percent.
From a counter perspective, William McBride writes at www.taxfoundation.org, the report "…rightly notes that these companies are taking advantage of various legal tax breaks and not some nefarious strategy for evading the law. Further, many of these tax breaks are bad tax policy because they unnecessarily complicate the tax code and benefit a select few at the expense of the many. However, CTJ gives us a lot of reasons to doubt the veracity of their claims.
"First, why did they choose just three years (2008-10)? And why the three years which happen to be the worst recession since the Great Depression? The last study they did like this also covered a recessionary period (2001-03). It would be more believable if they averaged over a longer period of at least five years, mainly to include both the boom and bust portions of the business cycle. Also, certain tax provisions such as net operating losses can be carried forward or back more than three years, and take longer to resolve if disputed in court. For example, a company may have a huge loss in 2007 (out of sample) which is carried forward into 2008 through 2010 (in sample), grossly distorting their long run average profits and taxes paid on those profits.
"Second, why just 280 companies? CTJ started with the 500 biggest corporations and only chose those that were profitable in each of the three years they look at. The question for CTJ is what sort of bias does this introduce, especially given the short and peculiar time frame?"
Draw your own conclusions...
Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Highland County Press, the county's only locally owned newspaper.[[In-content Ad]]