There's No Accounting for the New Social Security Plan- April 23, 2005 One of the reasons that an outsider like me has so much fun writing about Washington is that the politicians in our nation's capital talk one way but act another. They want corporations to provide the public with numbers that bear some resemblance to reality, but they've never bothered to clean up their own budget numbers.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62440-2004Dec13.html?nav=rss_business/colum... Stocks' Payoff Myth- April 23, 2005 At Friday's close, the Dow was still 10 percent below its all-time high. And that understates the damage investors have suffered since stocks peaked five years ago.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11377-2005Jan15.html?nav=rss_business/colum... Editorial Page Has No Say in Tax Breaks Won by Parent Company- April 23, 2005 The New York Times editorial page is unsparing when it comes to flogging tax-dodging corporations. Corporate tax avoidance, it intoned in a typical piece last April, is "both a straightforward fiscal problem" and "a broader threat to our civic culture." Indeed.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42678-2005Feb21.html?nav=rss_business/colum... Morsels Learned in 2004: Talk Turkey, but With a Side of Humble Pie- April 23, 2005 One of the ways I try to keep myself intellectually honest is to sit down at the end of the year and review my own work, especially my mistakes. It's a humbling experience, particularly this year. I'm not talking about factual mistakes, which I correct as soon as possible. I'm talking about having the facts right but drawing the wrong conclusions from them.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30401-2004Dec27.html?nav=rss_business/colum... No Accounting for White House Accounting- April 23, 2005 We're in our fourth year of post-Enron corporate scandals, with no end in sight. Barely a month goes by without a new scandal, or a new trial from an old scandal. But there's good news to report for business -- on the public relations front, that is. It's that Congress and the White House have managed the seemingly impossible: When it comes to accountability and accounting, they're making corporate America look good.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24835-2005Feb14.html?nav=rss_business/colum... Better Marketing Won't Make Smarter Economics- April 23, 2005 It's become a Washington routine: President George W. Bush once again shuffling his economic team, with word emanating from the White House that the newbies will do a better job of marketing the president's program. So you can see a big reason that Bush picked Kellogg's chief executive, Carlos Gutierrez, as commerce secretary. Anyone whose company persuades millions of consumers to pay five bucks a box for grain, packaging and air has got to be a marvelous marketer.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41829-2004Dec6.html?nav=rss_business/column... Bush Marketing Beats His Plan- April 23, 2005 You've got to give President Bush an A-plus for the way he marketed the Social Security proposals last week, but the centerpiece of his reforms doesn't do anything to fix the system's woes.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6222-2005Feb7.html?nav=rss_business/columns... Read Tax 'Reform' as More Cuts- April 23, 2005 The big parlor game in Washington these days is guessing who's going to get the big jobs in the Bush administration's second term. It's fun, it's gossipy, it's all about power. But I'd like to propose my own game: guessing what George W. Bush is really up to when he talks about "reforming" taxes and Social Security, and how he proposes to deal with the budget deficit. Since it's my game, I get to go first. Prediction one: Despite Bush's promises that tax reform will be "revenue-neutral," we'll..http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52932-2004Nov15.html?nav=rss_business/colum... In the Acquisition Super Bowl, P&38;G Scores a TD and SBC Kicks a Field Goal- April 23, 2005 Listen up, fans. This is Super Bowl week, prime season for pro football, and it's prime season for corporate takeovers, what with Procter &38; Gamble buying Gillette and AT&38;T finally managing to sell itself to SBC, the former Southwestern Bell. These events aren't unrelated.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52843-2005Jan31.html?nav=rss_business/colum... An Honest Deed Turns Misstep Into a Capital Experience- April 23, 2005 When you spend as much time as I do dealing with dollars measured in trillions and subjects so complicated they make your teeth hurt, it's nice to find something simple, unexpected and upbeat. And that's what I came upon in Washington last week. I can report, without fear of contradiction, that there's at least one honest man working in Our Nation's Capital, and I've met him.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15542-2005Mar7.html?nav=rss_business/column... |