What’s Tax Got to Do With It?
Allan Rolnick, CPA Singer Tina Turner’s death last month at age 83 leaves an enormous hole in the genre of rock and roll. Turner cut her first record in 1958 on her way to becoming a star with husband Ike in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Then, at age 44, she launched a solo comeback. Tina […]
Flying Friendlier Skies
Allan Rolnick, CPA In 1748, Benjamin Franklin published an essay called “Advice to a Young Tradesman,” where he wrote, “Remember that time is money.” Back then, a trip from Philadelphia to New York could mean four or five days bouncing up and down over muddy dirt roads and three or four nights sharing straw beds […]
Action!
Allan Rolnick, CPA When you think of a labor strike, you probably picture a line of blue-collar workers carrying picket signs in front of a coal mine or factory. The Writers Guild of America, which represents 11,500 entertainment writers, hardly fits that mold. Yet the WGA strike, which began May 2, is already rippling through […]
Check Your Speed
Allan Rolnick, CPA Here in these United States, tax policy rests on the notion that tax rates should rise with income, so those who earn more pay a greater share of their income. In 2020, the top 1% of earners took home 22% of all income and paid 42% of all federal income tax. While […]
It May be Artificial, But Is It Intelligence?
Allan Rolnick, CPA Last month, an outfit modestly calling itself “The Future of Life Institute” released an open letter calling for all artificial intelligence labs to pause the development of new AI systems more powerful than OpenAI’s GPT-4, the current gold standard. The group argues that if labs won’t do this voluntarily, “governments should step […]
Sing for Your Supper
Allan Rolnick, CPA Summer is coming, and for music fans across America that means stadium tours. Swifties went through several bear attacks to get tickets to her Eras tour shows. And on May 10, a singer we’ll call B hits the road for 41 stadiums in ten countries. The summer renaissance is her first tour […]
Fake It ‘Til You Make It
Allan Rolnick, CPA Here in America, we’re world champs at “fake it ‘til you make it.” Just look at Anna Delvey (Inventing Anna), Representative George Santos (if that’s really his name), Elizabeth Holmes (scheduled to report to prison by April 27), or Sam Bankman-Fried (cooling his heels under house arrest while he waits to get […]
I Won’t Go, Go, Go
Allan Rolnick, CPA When you were young, mom said, “It’s all fun and games until somebody loses an eye.” But now the rules are different. Now, it’s all fun and games until somebody winds up in rehab, as many actors’ and actresses’ lives are upended by various addictions and vices. As one famous singer said, […]
Monopoly Money
Allan Rolnick, CPA In 1935, Americans were mired in the depths of the Great Depression. Gross domestic product had shrunk from $103.6 billion in 1929 to $73.3 billion. Unemployment stood at a horrendous 20.1%. Even the suicide rate was higher during those dark years. And on February 6th of that year, the Parker Brothers company […]
Quelle Horreur!
Allan Rolnick, CPA Considering how much Americans think about retirement, it’s sometimes hard to realize what a new concept that phase of life really is. It wasn’t too long ago that you worked right up until you died. Or, if you were lucky, you took good care of your kids at the beginning of their […]
