Doing my usual rounds reading various personal finance blogs yesterday, I discovered the IRS has raised the business mileage deduction to 58.5 cents per mile, up 8 cents per gallon over the past year.   Obviously, as a small business owner or somebody who spends a lot of time driving for work, you’d be a fool [...]

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According to the aptly named logicalfallacies.info, a logical fallacy is, quite simply, an error of reasoning.  Logical fallacies abound in everyday life:  everybody from college professors to politicians, businessmen, and scientists unknowingly commit these errors of reasoning on a daily basis.  The financial media is not exempt from this.  Following are logical errors the financial [...]

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The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was the Pièce de résistance of the Clinton presidency and is likely to form the major part of his legacy.  While I have my problems with it (is it REALLY a free trade agreement?), it did represent a symbolic step forward in the drift towards globalization.  I say [...]

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Government stimulus packages are big business, apparently.  Everybody wants a piece of that $50 billion pie and prostitutes are no exception.  The Moonlight Bunny Ranch in Carson City is offering the first 100 customers who show up with their stimulus rebate check a two-for-one deal, according to CNBC.  It’s called, you guessed it, “more bang [...]

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Before the Fair Tax advocates attack me as being uninformed, first let me tell you I am actually for the Fair Tax, or at least some form of consumption tax instead of the current income tax system.  Unfortunately, the Fair Tax proposal in its current incarnation has a few serious flaws, some of them unintentionally [...]

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Ah, the age-old question:  do the rich pay their fair share in taxes?  Many liberals argue that they don’t, saying the rich owe their success to the efforts of the poor and middle class and should bear a higher percentage of the tax burden in gratitude.  On the opposite side of the spectrum, most conservatives [...]

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This morning, I paid more than I ever have in my life for a gallon of gasoline:  $3.97.  It was a Chevron station.  8:27 AM eastern time.  It cost me $40 to fill up my Corolla.  Manual.  $40.  Luckily, my Corolla is very fuel efficient and I live relatively close to work, so I only [...]

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Memorial Day is a day to remember fallen American soldiers and show respect for their sacrifice.  Unfortunately, the loss of life never ends.  This newest battle is for the very soul of America: our beer!  InBev, a Belgian beer conglomerate, is mulling a of hostile takeover of Anheuser-Busch (BUD).  Anheuser-Busch, of course, is the brewer of a [...]

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According to popular tradition, one particularly harmful affect of a depreciating dollar is the prospect of an uptick in consumer price inflation.  Denial of this self-evident truth is usually met with a vitriolic tirade of ad hominem attacks, straw men arguments, and comments about the sobriety of your mother during pregnancy.  Yet, just how much [...]

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Nobody questions Warren Buffett’s investment ability.  He is a singularly talented investor, business man, and one of the most respected men in the world.  When Buffett talks, people listen.  There are plenty of Buffet-mimickers out there.  When he buys Bank of America, they buy Bank of America.  When he buys railroads, they buy railroads.  That doesn’t [...]

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