Taibbi Does Mitt

[Thailandnotes]

Re: Taibbi Does Mitt

[QUOTE=flintlock;237343Why can't people get their minds around the fact that some people are so good at working the system for financial gain that they don't have to break the law to do it. [/QUOTE]

Joe Conason...

“Unlike carried interest, which is unseemly but perfectly legal, Bain’s management fee conversions are not legal,” the Colorado professor wrote on his blog. “If challenged in court, Bain would lose. The Bain partners, in my opinion, misreported their income if they reported these converted fees as capital gain instead of ordinary income.”

Equally troubling is the use of offshore accounts to avoid taxation on stock holdings. This tactic is called a “total return equity swap,” because it involves swapping real equities for derivative paper investments that provide all the same dividends as the stock itself—but aren’t subject to federal taxes. According to Shaviro, this practice was sufficiently blatant to elicit a warning from the IRS two years ago. He wrote recently that those who used it over the past decade “were coming perilously close to committing tax fraud, in cases where the economic equivalence to direct (stock) ownership was too great.”

[don]

Re: Taibbi Does Mitt

Joe Conason...

“Unlike carried interest, which is unseemly but perfectly legal, Bain’s management fee conversions are not legal,” the Colorado professor wrote on his blog. “If challenged in court, Bain would lose. The Bain partners, in my opinion, misreported their income if they reported these converted fees as capital gain instead of ordinary income.”

Equally troubling is the use of offshore accounts to avoid taxation on stock holdings. This tactic is called a “total return equity swap,” because it involves swapping real equities for derivative paper investments that provide all the same dividends as the stock itself—but aren’t subject to federal taxes. According to Shaviro, this practice was sufficiently blatant to elicit a warning from the IRS two years ago. He wrote recently that those who used it over the past decade “were coming perilously close to committing tax fraud, in cases where the economic equivalence to direct (stock) ownership was too great.”

All readily available to Joe Six-pack

[flintlock]

Re: Taibbi Does Mitt

Joe Conason...

“Unlike carried interest, which is unseemly but perfectly legal, Bain’s management fee conversions are not legal,” the Colorado professor wrote on his blog. “If challenged in court, Bain would lose. The Bain partners, in my opinion, misreported their income if they reported these converted fees as capital gain instead of ordinary income.”

Equally troubling is the use of offshore accounts to avoid taxation on stock holdings. This tactic is called a “total return equity swap,” because it involves swapping real equities for derivative paper investments that provide all the same dividends as the stock itself—but aren’t subject to federal taxes. According to Shaviro, this practice was sufficiently blatant to elicit a warning from the IRS two years ago. He wrote recently that those who used it over the past decade “were coming perilously close to committing tax fraud, in cases where the economic equivalence to direct (stock) ownership was too great.”

No, its only illegal when you and I do it. It's a "misunderstanding" when the well-connected do this.

[Raz]

Re: Taibbi Does Mitt

Yeah that Romney guy sure is a crook.
BTW, what ever happened to the "honorable" John Corzine? Did he fall of the side of the earth?

I'm sure we'll get an update on him any day now from Matthews, Maddow, O'Donnell, Schultz and the rest of the NBC gang.
And should NBC drop that ball we can count on CNN to pick it up and run with it.

[vt]

Re: Taibbi Does Mitt

What about Charlie Rangle? Chairman of the committee on Taxes, and the king of evasion, offshore to boot!

[jk]

Re: Taibbi Does Mitt

Yeah that Romney guy sure is a crook.
BTW, what ever happened to the "honorable" John Corzine? Did he fall of the side of the earth?

I'm sure we'll get an update on him any day now from Matthews, Maddow, O'Donnell, Schultz and the rest of the NBC gang.
And should NBC drop that ball we can count on CNN to pick it up and run with it.

i think corzine should be in jail, along with several others of his type. they deserve the attention of prosecutors. otoh, he's not running for president. romney certainly deserves the attention of journalists.

[Raz]

Re: Taibbi Does Mitt

i think corzine should be in jail, along with several others of his type. they deserve the attention of prosecutors. otoh, he's not running for president. romney certainly deserves the attention of journalists.

Indeed he does. Perhaps I didn't make my point clear: who vets the Democrats? After Corzine, Dodd, Rangel, and yes, Obama, it's apparent that without Fox we would likely never hear about any misdeeds of those from the Left of the political spectrum.

[don]

Re: Taibbi Does Mitt

FOX has their part to play in the two-party farce . . . and does it quite well.

[Thailandnotes]

Re: Taibbi Does Mitt

Failure to prosecute the obvious fraud underlying the housing bubble is the most depressing economic story of my lifetime. It is complete regulatory capture and it's bipartisan. Coming in second is a tax system easily gamed by the uber rich. Both signal demise.

Corzine, Mozilo, Rangle, Raines, Delay...have all been exposed, but with little consequence.

Often nobody does it better than...

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tu...e-walking-debt

[vt]

Re: Taibbi Does Mitt

Leftists conveniently ignore that Romney worked for the 2002 Olympics for nothing. They don't bring up that during his term as Governor of Massachusetts he took no salary. I don't think he has had any earned income since then either. That means all of his income may have come from tax free bonds and capital gains. They also ignore that he gives huge amounts each year to charity; some of that is to his church of course, but a lot goes to programs to help the poor. If this were counted as taxes, he would show a higher rate. The government has shown itself to be inefficient in helping the poor. What the poor need are jobs, not more government spending that only benefits overpaid government workers.

And liberals don't bring up the fact that John Kerry actually had a LOWER tax rate than Romney!!

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sh...-kerrys-income

http://nation.foxnews.com/john-kerry...id-13-tax-rate

Plus John Kerry appears to cheat on taxes:

1. • Courtesy Mark Schumacher
2. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)$193.07Million
   
   
   • Assets $232.39 Million
   • Liabilities $39.32 Million
   • Change 2.5%
     
     Supplementary Information & Commentary:
     
     I’m surprised to find that most of these people are Democrats! I would have thought just the opposite. I think that there should be a petition made on whether it is fair to have such wealthy people in office. For example, John Kerry is dodging taxes with his 7 million dollar Yacht ” Isabel” being docked in Rhode Island rather than Massachusetts. This makes this clown look bad in itself because his own state he represents is strapped for cash. This would be a good start. Target Massachusettes some how so these people seethis outrage. Most of them probably already know about it but…… See below:
     Mark Schumacher
     UPDATED INFORMATION:
     Deadbeat John Kerry still has not’t paid the taxes on his 7$ Million Dollar Yacht! Real piece of work, Isn’t he?
     Just as I suspected, even though there has been reports that this tax was to be paid, It still hasn’t…
     “You may recall that Kerry lowered the flag and surrendered in July, agreeing to pony up more than $400,000 to cover state taxes on the toney tub. Mr. Teresa Heinz broke out the checkbook four days after the Track set off a furious tempest with our report that he had purchased the 76-foot floating palace and ported her in Rhode Island, thus depriving the commonwealth of its pound of flesh.”
     “A spokesman for the state Department of Revenue confirmed that “a sales [COLOR=#009900 !important]tax return[/COLOR] was filed” by Kerry last summer to cover state taxes that would have been owed, had he kept the Isabel in his home state’s waters. But according to the Nantucket tax collector, he never paid any excise taxes to the town on the Isabel.”
     
     People, this is a man who clearly doesn’t like to pay taxes. But he wants to have all the toys of a billionaire and not pay for the privilege. This puts him in the “TAX SKIPPER” category."
     
     There are a number of other Democrats and Republicans that seem to have questionable tax and influence problems:
     1. • By Mark Schumacher
     2. Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.)$65.91Million
        
        
        • Assets $67.94 Million
        • Liabilities $2.03 Million
        • Change 16.7%
          
          Supplementary Information and Commentary:
          
          Jared Polis, Congressman for the 2nd district of COLORADO, was elected to the Colorado Board of Education in 2000, where he served for six years. He is the first openly gay man elected to the House as a freshman. I think we all know who the other one is. You guessed right , our good friend Barney Frank, Rep of Massachusetts’s 4th congressional district.
          During the 2009 session Mr. Polis was absent from roll call 15 times. Looks like polis likes the easy life.
          Being absent from roll call so many times might explain why he enjoys the Cayman Islands so much. Why you ask? See below:
          “Jared Polis still needs to explain to voters about his investments in power generation facilities, energy speculation, oil and gas development and war profiteering-and these investment connections to the Cayman Islands.”
          “For five years Jared Polis paid no personal U.S. income taxes for years 2001, 02, 03, 04, and 05 “I have paid a lot of taxes. I should have paid more, by the way.”
          
          This tax dodger is what we all love to hate here in real America. You can read more about this clown’s cheating ways.
          Polis also has his enemies. See Below:
          “In October 1999, right before the first dotcom crash, Polis, then known as Jared Polis Schutz, sold Bluemountain.com, his family’s online greeting-cards website, to Excite@Home for $780 million, including $350 million in cash that Excite couldn’t really spare. Excite sold it for $35 million in September 2001, and filed for bankruptcy a month later. People still talk about it as one of the most spectacular cashouts of the dotcom boom.” (Source: Gawker)
          
          “Killing Of Gay Iraqis Shouldn’t Be Ignored” This is the kind of thing that Polis is interested in. Maybe he should spend more time and energy with our own problems here at home instead of the gay rights of the Iraqis. See below:
          “The first openly gay man to be elected to the House, Polis has been investigating the treatment of gays in Iraq for several months, according to The Post’s Michael Riley. His research led to the discovery of a transgender Iraqi man who told the congressman he had been arrested, beaten and raped by security forces with Iraq’s Ministry of Interior.” (Source: Vote Smart)
          
          In conclusion Polis is another one of our esteemed hypocrites who believes that paying taxes is for the little people. He is a man who believes he can hide his investments tax free in the Cayman Islands and spend his hard earned money here in America. Another piece of trash that needs to be thrown out.
     
     

Let's start to argue other issues than just picking on Romney's wealth. Let's start to deal with how to unwind FIRE, and replace both parties.

[lektrode]

Re: Taibbi Does Mitt

Leftists conveniently ignore that Romney worked for the 2002 Olympics for nothing. They don't bring up that during his term as Governor of Massachusetts he took no salary.
.....
Le(t)'s star(t) to argue other issues than just picking on Romney's wealth. Let's start to deal with how to unwind FIRE, and replace both parties.

well... now we're gettin off on the ole hopium again, but yeah!
+1
and whens the last time kerry and the rest of the limo-libs did _anything_ fer 'free'
(that didnt come with some kind of angle to stump on....)
or gave away THEIR money - vs The Rest of Ours - to their favorite cause (mostly their own re-elections, by giving away the treasury to buy a few more votes!)

[Raz]

Re: Taibbi Does Mitt

Failure to prosecute the obvious fraud underlying the housing bubble is the most depressing economic story of my lifetime. It is complete regulatory capture and it's bipartisan. Coming in second is a tax system easily gamed by the uber rich. Both signal demise.

Corzine, Mozilo, Rangle, Raines, Delay...have all been exposed, but with little consequence.

Often nobody does it better than...

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tu...e-walking-debt

I feel the same way you feel. But as an aside, Tom Delay - the only Republican on your short list - is a convicted felon out on bond awaiting resolution of his appeal.

And here's a bit of "interesting" info on "Friends of Angelo" Mozillo: (You'll notice more than a few Democrat bigwigs listed here.)

"Friends of Angelo (FOA)" VIP program

In June 2008 Conde Nast Portfolio reported that several influential lawmakers and politicians, including Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, and former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson, received favorable mortgage financing from Countrywide by virtue of being "Friends of Angelo."^[13][14]
Senator Dodd received a $75,000 reduction in mortgage payments from Countrywide at allegedly below-market rates on his Washington, D.C. and Connecticut homes. Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story shows on film that this was actually over a million dollars of a sweet-heart mortgage deal.^[13][15] Dodd nonetheless called for stronger regulation of mortgage lenders and proposed that predatory lenders should face criminal charges.^[16]
Clinton Jones III, senior counsel of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, and "an adviser to ranking Republican members of Congress responsible for legislation of interest to the financial services industry and of importance to Countrywide." was given special treatment. Jones is now state director for federal residential-mortgage bundler Freddie Mac. Alphonso Jackson, acting secretary of HUD at the time and long-time friend and Texas neighbor of President Bush, received a discounted mortgage for himself and sought one for his daughter. "In 2003, using V.I.P. loans for nearly $1 million apiece, Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae’s chairman and C.E.O. from 1999 to 2004, twice refinanced his seven-bedroom home, which has a pool and movie theater."^[16]

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's son, Paul Pelosi, Jr., also received a loan with Countrywide. Barbara Boxer, Adam H. Putnam, Richard C. Holbrooke, James E. Clyburn, and Donna Shalala are also among those with mortgages from Countrywide.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelo_...22_VIP_program

[dcarrigg]

Re: Taibbi Does Mitt

I feel the same way you feel. But as an aside, Tom Delay - the only Republican on your short list - is a convicted felon out on bond awaiting resolution of his appeal.

And here's a bit of "interesting" info on "Friends of Angelo" Mozillo: (You'll notice more than a few Democrat bigwigs listed here.)

"Friends of Angelo (FOA)" VIP program

In June 2008 Conde Nast Portfolio reported that several influential lawmakers and politicians, including Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, and former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson, received favorable mortgage financing from Countrywide by virtue of being "Friends of Angelo."^[13][14]
Senator Dodd received a $75,000 reduction in mortgage payments from Countrywide at allegedly below-market rates on his Washington, D.C. and Connecticut homes. Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story shows on film that this was actually over a million dollars of a sweet-heart mortgage deal.^[13][15] Dodd nonetheless called for stronger regulation of mortgage lenders and proposed that predatory lenders should face criminal charges.^[16]
Clinton Jones III, senior counsel of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, and "an adviser to ranking Republican members of Congress responsible for legislation of interest to the financial services industry and of importance to Countrywide." was given special treatment. Jones is now state director for federal residential-mortgage bundler Freddie Mac. Alphonso Jackson, acting secretary of HUD at the time and long-time friend and Texas neighbor of President Bush, received a discounted mortgage for himself and sought one for his daughter. "In 2003, using V.I.P. loans for nearly $1 million apiece, Franklin Raines, Fannie Mae’s chairman and C.E.O. from 1999 to 2004, twice refinanced his seven-bedroom home, which has a pool and movie theater."^[16]

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's son, Paul Pelosi, Jr., also received a loan with Countrywide. Barbara Boxer, Adam H. Putnam, Richard C. Holbrooke, James E. Clyburn, and Donna Shalala are also among those with mortgages from Countrywide.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelo_...22_VIP_program

No doubt. Corruption is a true equal opportunity employer. Sex, race, creed, or political affiliation, it doesn't discriminate. How I wish it were as easy to identify.

[jk]

Re: Taibbi Does Mitt

btw, raz, note that michael moore spotlighted dodd's sweetheart deal. an equal-opportunity muck raker, at least in this instance.