Mmmm, Donuts
Allan Rolnick, CPA In 1917, the Salvation Army sent 250 volunteers called “Donut Lassies” to deliver donuts to soldiers serving on the front lines in France. They collected excess rations for the dough, used shell casings and wine bottles as makeshift rolling pins, and filled a soldier’s helmet to fry the first batches of crullers. […]
Pummeled by The Bear.
Allan J Rolnick, CPA On the first day of 2022 trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record high of 36,585.06. Since then, markets have dropped like a Paul Walker movie: fast and furious. Last week, the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, lost $12 billion in a single day. (That might be more […]
The Evolution of the Tax Professional Starts Here
Allan Rolnick, CPA Many years ago, ambitious social climbers had just two career tracks to choose from: you could hunt or you could gather. (Cave painting was a fun hobby, but no one had figured out how to monetize it.) Training was entirely on-the-job. There were no classrooms, written exams, or licensing boards, and “distance […]
Injury, Meet Insult
Allan Rolnick, CPA Back in the day, investors looking to realize gold-plated dreams on Wall Street spent hours poring through newspapers and magazines to sniff out promising stocks. By the 1980s, though, many investors grew tired of picking their own and turned management over to mutual funds. Peter Lynch became the iconic celebrity manager after […]
A Little Goes a Long Way
Allan Rolnick, CPA Sometimes, when Washington changes tax laws, it’s Big Freakin’ News. Back in 1986, a bipartisan group of senators and representatives re-wrote the entire Internal Revenue Code from stem to stern. Publishers killed entire forests printing their analyses in newspapers and magazines, and tax pros spent years catching up with the changes. (Passive […]
Membership Has Its Privileges
Allan Rolnick, CPA In 1958, American Express launched its first credit card. They worked to position it as a premium offering right out the gate, with a whopping $6 annual fee – a full $1 higher than Diners Club. Those first cards were purple cardboard with typed names and account numbers. But one year later, […]
Unaffordable at Any Speed
Allan Rolnick, CPA Have you tried buying a car lately? It’s nuts! Carmakers are scrambling to find the chips they need to power features like entertainment systems and digital displays. That means fewer vehicles are rolling off assembly lines. And as everyone knows, when supplies go down, prices go up. That means dealers can scrawl […]
Lights, Camera, Action
Allan Rolnick, CPA Last weekend, Hollywood’s elite gathered to do what they do best: celebrate themselves at the Oscars. And while Will Smith smacking Chris Rock sucked most of the oxygen out of the room, Sunday night’s “main event” still managed to honor the big-name nominees for awards like Best Picture, Best Director, and Best […]
Fill ‘er Up!
Allan Rolnick, CPA With Vladimir Putin’s troops wreaking havoc in Ukraine, Western governments have hammered Russia with unprecedented sanctions that may have already destroyed the country’s economy for a generation. However, those moves have cost us here at home, too. Russia is the world’s second-largest oil producer, and gas prices have hit all-time highs. Millions […]
Cascading Consequences
Allan Rolnick, CPA Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has shocked the world and united the globe. In less than a week, Putin turned himself, his country, and the billionaire oligarchs who back him into international pariahs. Russia’s currency and economy has been destroyed. Interestingly, the Russian legislature has made it a crime, punishable by 15 […]