General Motors Getting Eaten Alive by a Free Lunch- April 23, 2005 A free lunch can be the most expensive meal in the world. For living proof, look at General Motors. A big reason that GM has gotten into such trouble is that the pension and health care commitments it made to employees decades ago seemed to be a free lunch.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64599-2005Apr18.html?nav=rss_business/colum... New Law Will Create Jobs, All Right, but for Whom- April 23, 2005 Congress trying to control what corporate America does with its money is like a toddler trying to go one-on-one with Michael Jordan in his prime. It's no contest.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33966-2005Jan24.html?nav=rss_business/colum... From Tax 'Reform' Panel, Expect a Foregone Conclusion- April 23, 2005 Now that April 15th is almost here, you're likely to be either licking your wounds from filling out tax returns or obsessing about the imminence of tax day. Maybe even both. You may have gotten all sorts of bad news, such as losing tons of deductions to the alternative minimum tax or discovering that if you work in one state and live in another, you've been taxed coming and going. If you're one of the brave souls who do taxes by hand, rather than using a software program, you may have...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45395-2005Apr11.html?nav=rss_business/colum... Leading the Way in Loophole Efficiency- April 23, 2005 When it comes to creating the most-efficient manufacturing plants or fuel-efficient cars, we in the United States still lag behind other countries. But when it comes to creating tax-efficient corporate transactions, we continue to lead the world. No matter how many tax loopholes get closed, corporate America and its tax technologists always seem to find new ones to squeeze through. The latest piece of corporate-tax tech is something called a "cash-rich split-off." Don't try this at home. It's...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62841-2004Oct25.html?nav=rss_business/colum... A Modest Proposal to Patch Up Social Security- April 23, 2005 Yes, it must be spring. Lawns are turning green, baseball season is almost here -- and Social Security's trustees have just issued their annual report about the state of the nation's biggest benefits program. Normally, the last of these annual vernal events passes unnoticed by everyone but hard-core numbers junkies. After all, a report consisting largely of statistics isn't exactly a page-turner.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8276-2005Mar28.html?nav=rss_business/column... Halliburton Pays Dearly but Finally Escapes Cheney's Asbestos Mess- April 23, 2005 It's time for yet another Halliburton story -- but not the one you may be expecting. This isn't about the endlessly scrutinized Iraq contracting business of the big energy services company that Dick Cheney ran before he became vice president. And it's not about Halliburton's profit-boosting accounting change during Cheney's regime, or the scandals and problems currently affecting some of the firm's far-flung projects.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64535-2005Jan10.html?nav=rss_business/colum... Enron Book Reads More Like Notes Than a Finished Story- April 23, 2005 "Conspiracy of Fools," the new Enron book by New York Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald, is the hottest and most heavily promoted book about business that we've seen in years. It's even hotter than Jim Stewart's "DisneyWar," which unlike this book is about a subject -- the Walt Disney Co. -- that you don't need a master's degree in business to understand.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55491-2005Mar21.html?nav=rss_business/colum... Stock-Options Rule, Merck, AOL Ads: The Top Turkeys- April 23, 2005 With Thanksgiving just around the corner, what better time to talk about turkeys Of the business variety, of course. You know, the kind of foul-up that makes you say, "Wow, that idea was a real turkey." Normally, a single candidate stands head-and-drumstick above the flock. But this year three candidates -- involving math, medicine and marketing -- are so strong that picking one is like choosing among roast turkey, turkey gravy and turkey sandwiches. They're all wonderful in their own way; the..http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6043-2004Nov22.html?nav=rss_business/column... Small Investors Should Resist the Pull to Bet Against the Dollar- April 23, 2005 Betting against the U.S. dollar seems like a sure way to make money. After all, the dollar's been falling for years, and as traders say, "The trend is your friend."http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35368-2005Mar14.html?nav=rss_business/colum... Small Business, Ill-Defined- April 23, 2005 You may not have heard my name mentioned, but I was a hot item of discussion during the Bush-Kerry debates. How can that be, given that the words "Allan Sloan" passed the lips of neither Kerry nor Bush Because it turns out that I'm one of the 900,000 top-two-tax-bracket "small businesses" that Bush claims will be hurt if Kerry succeeds in enacting his proposed tax plan and whose pain will cause them to hire fewer people. This has become a key part of the debate, because everyone -- even me --...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43712-2004Oct18.html?nav=rss_business/colum... |