Welcome to Happy Hour. Another end of the week round of great reads I came across throughout the week. Sit back, relax and enjoy!
State Grades
The Center for Public Integrity recently released its grades on accountability and integrity in state governments. Surprisingly, my home state of Illinois got a C grade (not bad when 4 of the last 9 governors were sent to jail and 1,828 people have been convicted of public corruption since ’76). The grade doesn’t include the local level, like the Chicago Machine that requires regular financial greasing. How did your state do?
A Long Bet
I came across an article this week about a long bet between Warren Buffett and Protege Partners. Good ole Warren is wagering $1,000,000 that the S&P500 will outperform a portfolio of hedge funds from 2008 to 2017. The site is a great time waster reading through all the bets and predictions. You can put some money on the line, accept a bet or make your own predictions.
The STOCK Act
The House and Senate finally passed the STOCK Act on Thursday, sending it on to be signed into law by the president. It’s a good first step to gaining some public trust by preventing government officials (themselves) from trading off of non-public government information. Which is probably why they weren’t in a hurry to pass it. The bill has been around in some form or another since 2006. More than enough time to liquidate any profits.
Last Call
With tax time comes the chance of being audited. Len Penzo offers up several ways to avoid the IRS audit and not raise any red flags on your tax returns.
What did we do without Facebook? I ran across this post about reasons to deactivate Facebook. It’s great for businesses but personally I rarely use it, which is why I’m only on it long enough to post links from this site.
