International associates:

Tavana & Co.
Chartered Accountants
Toronto, Canada
Tel.416-229-2221

• Year 2009 + a short story:
It is the month of August, on the
shores of the Black Sea.  It is
raining, and the little town looks
totally deserted.  It is tough times,
and everybody is in debt.
Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to
town.  He enters the only hotel,
lays a 100 euro note on the
reception counter, and goes to
inspect the rooms upstairs in
order to choose one.  The hotel
proprietor takes the 100 euro note
and runs to pay his debt to the
butcher.  The butcher takes the
100 euro note, and runs to pay his
debt to the pig grower.  The pig
grower takes the 100 euro note,
and runs to pay his debt to the
supplier of his feed and fuel.  The
supplier of feed and fuel takes the
100 euro note and runs to pay his
debt to the town's prostitute that in
these hard times gave her
services on credit.  The hooker
runs to the hotel, and pays off her
debt with the 100 euro note to the
hotel proprietor to pay for the
rooms she rented when she
brought her clients there.  The
hotel proprietor then lays the
100 euro note back on the counter
so that the rich tourist will not
suspect anything.  At that moment
the tourist comes down after
inspecting the rooms, and takes
his 100 euro note, after saying that
he did not like any of the rooms,
and leaves town.
No one earned anything. But the
whole town is now without debt,
out of misery and looks to the future
with a lot of optimism.

• U.S. federal income tax was
levied for the first time in August of
1861.  It aimed to help pay the bills
for the Civil War and was
rescinded in 1872.

• End of nuclear weapons?
Putin says Russia is willing to
abandon nuclear weapons if the
U.S. and all other countries that
have them do the same!

• For more of the Generalist,
please visit ARKCPA•COM.