Couldn’t Help But Comment (081808, Morning)
Front-runner for “Worst Business Reporting Math Error, Ever.” In an August 12 report (HT Powerline), New York Times reporter Lynnley Browning assumed that corporations pay the highest federal income tax rate (35%) on their gross receipts, and not their profits (I’m not kidding). Thus, Browning claimed that the corporations reviewed in a GAO study of eight years of tax returns weren’t paying $875 billion in taxes on their $2.5 trillion in sales during that period. Assuming collective pretax profits of 20% of that $2.5 trillion (even that’s probably high), they would owe only $175 billion (35% of $500 bil). That’s at least a $700 billion error, even before taking into consideration Uncle Sam’s lower rates on small amounts of reported corporate profit, and the fact that many of these firms are Sub-S Corporations and LLCs, which pass through their profits and tax-paying responsibilities to the firms’ individual owners.
The Times did issue a correction at the end of the article, and took out the original erroneous text.
An error that size is appropriate, given how much latitude the Times gave former investigative journalist David Cay Johnston to annually mishandle IRS data to promote class envy for so many years. We had fun with that last year — less-than-perfect fun, but fun nonetheless.
____________________________________________
IBDeditorials.com made the hugely important point last Monday that one of the reasons we don’t have good estimates of the oil available on the Outer Continental Shelf is that Congress, including “The One†I refer to as “Mr. BOOHOO-OUCH†(Barack O-bomba Overseas Hussein “Obambi†Obama – Objectively Unfit Coddler of Haters) won’t let us find out. So the opposition claims that 20-40 year-old data is OK, despite decades of improvement in methods for finding and extracting oil, and getting more of it economically. Horse manure. Based on experience elsewhere, there are billions of more barrels available.
____________________________________________
The Clintons REALLY didn’t like “The Path to 9/11″ when it was on TV in September 2006, largely because it blew their attempt at a crafted legacy to bits. ABC, which held firm and showed the film despite intense protests, won’t release it on DVD. 2+2+??. Given that the DVD would probably make millions, there’s no business reason not to release it, and its value diminishes over time. “Path’s” producers and Disney shareholders should sue.
____________________________________________
Race to the bottom — The presidential candidate I refer to as “JS3M3″ (John Sidney the Mad Maverick McCain III) might name Objectively Unfit Mitt Romney as his Veep, putting a hero and a zero on the same ticket.
In what must be causing wailing and gnashing of teeth in the leftosphere (indeed), “The One†is considering naming 2004 Dem nominee John Kerry as his Veep, putting a race-baiter and a 1970s traitor on the same ticket, with the added bonus of giving us a replay of “Christmas in Cambodia.”
Each presumptive nominee needs to remember that convention delegates must approve their choice. I think there’s a legitimate chance that neither would be acceptable to their respective assembled multitudes.
