Our financial system is crumbling this week.

[Leroy]

Exactly right Popeye. It's been done.

[ghostrunner]

I'm really sorry to derail any kind of discussion going on, but I just found this.

Topic 357 - Tax Information for Parents of Kidnapped Children

You may claim a kidnapped child as your dependent if the following requirements are met:

1. The child must be presumed by law enforcement to have been kidnapped by someone who is not a member of your family or a member of the child's family, and
2. The child had, for the taxable year in which the kidnapping occurred, the same principal place of abode as the taxpayer for more than one-half of the portion of such year before the date of kidnapping.

If both of these requirements are met, the child may meet the requirements for purposes of determining:

* The dependency exemption
* The child tax credit, and
* Head of household or qualifying widow(er) with dependent child filing status.

This tax treatment will cease to apply as of your first tax year beginning after the calendar year in which either there is a determination that the child is dead or the child would have reached age 18, whichever occurs first.

For more information, refer to Publication 501, Exemptions, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information.

http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc357.html

I mean really?

That part in bold is ridiculous. Hopefully you get a decent cop on the case.

As ridiculous as this all seems, they wouldn't have made these rules if people haven't tried to abuse the system.

How would you abuse this? If the kid is there, he's a dependent. There's no reason to fake a kidnapping.

Anyway, if there's the possibility of the kidnapping, just give them the damn credit. It's just a child credit, which probably won't have a significant impact on the amount they need to pay. Seize property or whatever later if there's some fraud going on. I don't care if it's more expensive, there's no reason to nickel and dime people over something like this.

[sighyoung]

The Onion has a solution to the financial crisis:

http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion ... his_crisis

[greenback44]

This bit in the New York Times doesn't merit it's own thread, so I'll put it here to tick off Michael and haltz:

In early March, the rating agency Moody’s included OSI Restaurant Partners on its list of “bottom-rung” companies that are most likely to default on debt payments. A company spokesman, Michael Fox, said the company had recently significantly improved its financial position by retiring $300 million of debt at a discounted cost of $85 million.

The company also is trying to lure customers with values and created a new menu with 15 meals for $15.99 each.

Other restaurant chains on that ignoble bottom-rung list included Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Sbarro and Arby’s.

Of course, there are some exceptions to the industry’s malaise, even in the casual dining sector. Darden Restaurants, which owns Olive Garden and Red Lobster, recently announced a better-than-expected outlook for the coming year. In the most recent quarter, same-store sales dropped 3 percent, compared with a 6 percent decline for the rest of the casual dining industry.

Doesn't DeWitt own a bunch of Arby's franchises?

[dangerous]

Gold is down $20 in night trading, breaking support, ruh roh for the goldbugs.

[Popeye_Card]

n

Doesn't DeWitt own a bunch of Arby's franchises?

He does. Unless he's sold them.

Hopefully people are still buying playing cards.

[maddash]

I can't tell if this is a conspiracy theory, another overly complex accounting trick, or just bunk... but, there's been talk that the US is taking advantage of this current economic crisis by purposely devaluing dollar, thereby devaluing our debt as well. I know China has said, in so many words, that they're worried about the US devaluing the dollar through increased spending. Is it possible that this is a strategy on the part of the US? Obviously Obama is aware that printing all this money will lead to inflation, I'm just wondering if devaluing our debt is a major end goal of that, or just a somewhat unintended consequence.

[Hungary Jack]

I guess if China won't float its own undervalued currency, one way to combat it is to devalue your own.

[clement]

I can't tell if this is a conspiracy theory, another overly complex accounting trick, or just bunk... but, there's been talk that the US is taking advantage of this current economic crisis by purposely devaluing dollar, thereby devaluing our debt as well. I know China has said, in so many words, that they're worried about the US devaluing the dollar through increased spending. Is it possible that this is a strategy on the part of the US? Obviously Obama is aware that printing all this money will lead to inflation, I'm just wondering if devaluing our debt is a major end goal of that, or just a somewhat unintended consequence.

I think it's been a semi-strategy for a while already. One of the mirages of the economic boom of the past few years has been the weak dollar leading to cheaper exports, which has simultaneously staved off job losses in the manufacturing sector while offsetting our growing deficit. But I don't think there is some grand strategy to allow the dollar to tank. There are a lot of negative consequences of a value-less currency as well.

I think the clamor from the Chinese is a bit of tit for tat. The US has been lecturing the Chinese for years about their currency being kept artificially low (in order to keep their exports cheap and selling like hotcakes). Now they are saying the same has become true of the Americans without admitting their own strategy. Plus I can see them being concerned about the US dollar falling off the map, because the fundamentals of the currency are really bad... the only reason it hasn't completely tanked is because there is no other currency that is clearly safer to move it to.

Just my 2 cents (now worth only 1 cent).

[TimeForGuinness]

I guess if China won't float its own undervalued currency, one way to combat it is to devalue your own.

Interesting thought