Tag Archives: Bandit Gang Writ Large

I Wish My Job Didn’t Exist

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“I was not hired to teach students, perform research or help our students become better leaders. But without my work, many of our students would not be able to enroll in our university.  My work entails keeping Norwich out of trouble with many regulations, such as the Clery Act, FERPA, and Title IX, but I’d like to focus on perhaps the most maddening set of regulations—those pertaining to online education. Over the last four years, Norwich has spent over $500,000, a figure that includes my salary, fees paid to states, surety bonds, agent permits, registered agents, and travel costs. Not one cent had any educational value.”

http://fee.org/anythingpeaceful/detail/i-wish-my-job-didnt-exist

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Speeding Ticket in Finland Costs Businessman $58,000

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“When the ‘day fine system’ was devised for petty crimes, Finland did not even have any speed limits on its roads. Those did not arrive until the 1970s.  Back then, the police had to rely on the honor system, that is, asking drivers to declare their incomes, before calculating the fine. In today’s digital age, however, a few seconds is all it takes for the police, using mobile devices, to get information directly from the Finnish tax office.  Police officials say that there are really very few tickets issued of this magnitude, though they do not keep track.  Mr. Kuisla would have gotten a fine of about 100 euros if he had been traveling three kilometers per hour slower.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/26/world/europe/speeding-in-finland-can-cost-a-fortune-if-you-already-have-one.html

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The Danger Of Overstuffing Your IRA

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“If you put too much in an Individual Retirement Account, you can expect to hear from the Internal Revenue Service. That’s the bottom line of a new report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, ‘Actions Can Be Taken To Further Improve The Strategy For Addressing Excess Contributions To Individual Retirement Arrangements.’  It’s not just taxpayers making mistakes. When analyzing tax year 2011 Forms 5498 for excess contributions, TIGTA determined that approximately 834,000 (7 percent) of 11.9 million Forms 5498 filed by IRA custodians appeared to be inaccurate.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ashleaebeling/2015/04/23/the-danger-of-overstuffing-your-ira/

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Bloomberg: The Death of Cash

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“JPMorgan Chase recently sent a letter to some of its large depositors telling them it will charge certain customers a ‘balance sheet utilization fee’ of 1 percent a year on deposits in excess of the money they need for their operations.  That amounts to a negative interest rate on deposits. [..] Several central banks have discovered that depositors will tolerate some rates below zero if withdrawing cash and storing it themselves is costly and inconvenient. There are signs of an innovation war over negative interest rates. There’s a surge of creativity around ways to drive interest rates deeper into negative territory, possibly by abolishing cash or making it depreciable.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-23/negative-interest-rates-may-spark-existential-crisis-for-cash

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It’s Google’s Turn to Be Plundered

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hornberger1

“Let’s face it: raising taxes to fund Europe’s ever-burgeoning welfare state is not an easy process, politically speaking. It’s much easier to plunder and loot big, wealthy foreign companies. The process reminds me of how local communities here in the United States impose exorbitant taxes on hotels and motels under the idea that it’s politically better to tax ‘foreigners’ than one’s own residents. Or U.S. asset-forfeiture laws that enable cops to fund their departments with cash seized from highway travelers.  In the late 1990s, the EU went after Microsoft, which was the economic boogeyman at that time.  Microsoft ultimately was plundered to the tune of $2.3 billion.”

http://fff.org/2015/04/20/googles-turn-plundered/

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Black Caucus slams Rand Paul for opposing AG nominee Lynch

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“The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) issued a sharp condemnation of Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) opposition to Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch on Thursday.  Paul said he opposed confirming Lynch because she supports civil forfeitures, a controversial law enforcement tactic, but the chairman of the CBC dismissed those concerns.  Under the laws, police departments and other law enforcement agencies can keep the proceeds of properties they seize during investigations — even when they never charge the owner with a crime.  He also cited Lynch’s support for President Obama’s executive action on immigration and what he called her ‘non-committal’ stance on the legality of drone use.”

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/231967-black-caucus-slams-rand-paul-for-lynch-opposition

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Court returns rare gold coins Treasury seized from jeweler’s family

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“A fortune in 1930s gold coins seized by the federal government from the family of a deceased Philadelphia jeweler must be returned, a federal appeals court said Friday.  For more than a decade, the U.S. Treasury Department insisted, and persuaded a jury, that the rare coins had been stolen and belonged to the government.  But on Friday it lost the argument and the coins – because of paperwork.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said the government had failed to file a timely forfeiture action, and therefore had waived its right to keep 10 rare 1933 $20 double eagle gold coins. How valuable were they? One similar coin was auctioned for $7.6 million in 2002.”

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20150418_Court__Rare_coins_belong_to_jeweler_s_family.html

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US Government Moves To Seize 139-Year-Old Family Gold Mines

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“Earlier this month, officials with the Bureau of Land Management sent a letter ordering local miners working at the Sugar Pine Mining Claim in the Galice Mining District near Merlin, OR to vacate the property that locals have mined for the past 139 years.  The dispute centers around the Sugar Pine Mining Claim itself, which Congress set aside for local miners in 1876, allowing them to establish their own rules and regulations.  The stakes are high, as The Blaze notes that the Galice Mining District has already yielded over 10 million ounces of gold, with experts saying that 90 million more ounces are available to be extracted.”

http://benswann.com/oath-keepers-rally-in-oregon-to-prevent-139-year-old-gold-mines-from-being-seized-by-blm/

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Nick Giambruno: Securing Your Assets When Financial Privacy Is Dead

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“You never hear of financially sound countries, like Switzerland, Singapore, or Hong Kong, advocating privacy-killing measures like FATCA. You never hear their governments denouncing the supposed ‘danger’ of tax havens. It’s only the bankrupt states drowning in debt – like the US, France and the UK – that have become hostile to privacy. The hostiles have won. Practically speaking, financial privacy is dead. Given what has happened, it’s only prudent to assume that sooner or later all the details of your financial life will come to rest in a government computer – if they’re not sitting there already. You should plan accordingly.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/exclusive-interviews/36224/Daily-Bell-Staff-Nick-Giambruno-Securing-Your-Assets-When-Financial-Privacy-Is-Dead/

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House Committee Expresses “No Confidence” in DEA Administrator

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“Today, members of the House Oversight Committee have issued a statement of ‘No Confidence’ in Drug Enforcement Administrator Michele Leonhart. The unprecedented move by a group of over twenty bipartisan lawmakers comes a day after her shambolic performance in Congress during a hearing focused on DEA agents who paid for sex workers and sex parties using taxpayer dollars.  Leonhart was widely panned and her answers deemed inadequate during testimony on her agency’s handling of sexual harassment and misconduct allegations. The call to dismiss Leonhart comes against a backdrop of scandals and incompetence at the DEA.”

http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/2015/04/house-oversight-committee-expresses-no-confidence-dea-administrator-leonhart

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