Multiple Inconsequential Issues
Taxes
Intuit’s TurboTax should be the punchline of a joke. For the second year in a row I chose TurboTax as my “free” automated software platform for filing Federal Income Tax. I chose “Start for Free” because it was the only option offered me to file a personal return without paying a fee. It was part of a selection of TurboTax platforms, all of which were for people who operated a business. I could not convince Turbo Tax that I did not want nor need the “operate a business” version.
As I’m going through the online software, I hoped that it would pick up on the facts that I don’t have a business, I don’t have any business income and I have no business expenses. No luck. I followed the software down a rabbit hole, hoping it would give me a chance to tell it I know I don’t have enough deductions to make a difference, please let me use the standard deduction. No such luck. I had to go item by item through every possible deduction.
I got to the point where it ensures you’ve not experienced some sort of deductible catastrophic loss. It asked if I had encountered a catastrophe in 2022. I said “Yes.” It then asked me for the nature of the catastrophe. I replied “Joe Biden.” Damned software doesn’t have a sense of humor. I’m going to use a different package next year.
What Act of War?
In other exciting news, we learned that a Russian military aircraft had destroyed a US military aircraft in international airspace. Our feckearless leader made it clear he would give the Russians a stern talking-to as soon as he learned their preferred pronouns. We don’t want to offend them, trusting that if we take care not to offend them they will see the error of their ways and be nice in return. It’s worked so well in the past.
Banks are Safe
We also have been assured (by the same Janet Yellen who assured us that inflation was transitory) that the bailout of Silicon Valley Bank will not entail the use of any public funds. All depositors’ money will be repaid despite the cap of $250K per account established by the FDIC, a government-guaranteed entity that insures accounts in Federally-regulated banks. The government guarantee obligates public funds. The bulk of deposits held in SVB are held by Democratic donors and the bulk of the money that will be covered is in accounts well over the established maximum; most of these accounts are themselves owned by large Democratic donors.
This raises several issues. First, a precedent has now been set. It will be necessary to cover every deposit account in American banks – a total exceeding $17 Quadrillion. For comparison, Global GDP is about $100 Trillion. Paying for today’s deposits woulrequire the entire world’s economic output from today through the year 2192.
Second, Signature Bank collapsed immediately after SVB, and Credit Suisse is in trouble, along with First Republic Bank. There is serious concern about a major recession later this year, and Central Banks in Europe are raising interest rates to curb inflation. The term used for spreading defaults in s “Contagion.” Don’t worry, we’ll have a vaccine for that right around the corner, and it’s all Trump’s fault.”
Multiple Inconsequential Issues
FYI that cross-post you just sent out from 2nd Smartest Guy in the World was excellent. I generally dislike this cross-posting thingy but I'm really glad you chose to post this one.
These comments from Yellen are disgustingly corrupt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mA4Sk5VGIg