| A.
R. Kakhsaz Company
an accountancy corporation
Member
American Institute of
Certified Public Accountants
International associates:
Tavana & Co.
Chartered Accountants
Toronto, Canada
Tel.416-229-2221
|
On Americans' income gap:
The deepest downturn in the U.S.
economy since the Great
Depression may finally bring
some adjustment between the
very best-off Americans and
everyone else. If so, it won't be by
lifting up the bottom. It will be by
pulling down the top. Over the
past 30 years, chief executives,
Wall Street bankers and traders,
law-firm partners and such
amassed ever greater incomes,
while the incomes of factory
workers, teachers, office
managers and others in the
middle grew much more slowly. In
2007 the top 1% of U.S. families
received 23.5% of all personal
income in the U.S. Now the top
1% share appears to be falling.
The top 1% of taxpayers are those
with $400,000 or higher income a
year. Their income is expected to
drop by some 15% in 2010. That
still would leave income
distribution more top-heavy than in
many other countries. One early
indication: Median chief-executive
pay at companies in the S&P 500
fell 15% in 2008 (to $7.3 million).
"It looks like inequality will go
down and change the long-term
trend of America becoming a less
egalitarian society."
Stung by the great
recession,
U.S. businesses are holding more
cash - and a greater percentage of
assets in cash - than at any time in
the past 40 years. Top on the list
of such businesses are the 500
largest nonfinancial U.S. firms.
How bad is the economy?
the economy is so bad that Dick
Cheney took his stockbroker
hunting.
The U.S. Senate voted to
let
Amtrak passengers transport
handguns in checked baggage.
64% of women shave
their legs before a date.
For more of the Generalist,
please visit ARKCPACOM.
|
theGeneralist, a
one-page monthly
publication of the accounting firm of
A.R. Kakhsaz Company, is in its 16th
year of providing information, presented
fairly and accurately, from sources we
can depend upon and trust.
Wishing you the season's
peace, joy and blessings.
Happy 2010 and thank you for
your friendship.
For America's Santas
it's hard
to be jolly with the tales of
economic hardships they're
hearing. Kids ask for bare
essentials, shoes, eyeglasses
and a job for dad. Two years ago,
children were shooting for the
moon, asking Santa for Xboxes,
iPods and laptops.
Smoke-free laws reduced
the
rate of heart attacks by 17% after a
year and 25% after three.
From cereal to cars,
buyers
usually have an idea of how good
the products are and how much
they cost before they buy them.
But that's not how U.S. healthcare
works. Patients rarely know which
hospitals offer top-quality lung or
aortic surgery, and which are more
likely to harm them. Hospitals
don't compete on price and rarely
publish measurements of their
quality, if they measure it at all.
Hospitals are increasingly finding
out that providing better medical
treatments is often less expensive
than bad care. One big reason is
reduction in readmission rates.
The recession may be over,
but it could take years before the
U.S. economy pulls in all the
slack it created.
Student loans at
for-profit
colleges have a higher default rate
than those at nonprofits.
We see more in numbers
than just numbers...
Ali R. Kakhsaz, CPA, MAcc
www.arkcpa.com
|
