Incomes Jump Record 3.7 Percent in Dec. (watch for catch!)

[Career Prole]

WASHINGTON - Personal income, boosted by a large dividend payment from computer software giant Microsoft Corp., shot up by a record 3.7 percent in December. That helped to boost consumer spending during the all-important holiday season by 0.8 percent.

The Commerce Department reported Monday that the income gain would have been a smaller 0.6 percent in December without the one-time $3 per share dividend payment Microsoft made on Dec. 2.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=668&ncid=749&e=6&u=/ap/20050131/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/economy

Might want to mention Microsoft in that headline, I would think...y'know, just to give the correct impression?
Because my income stayed decidedly and undeniably flat. :(

[rodeodance]

1. so much for that 'liberal" media bias

[liberalmuse]

2. Oh happy days are here again....

Thank god for Bush! He'll save us all! He truly is a man of god to make us so rich! My income fell about 10% since Bush took office, and we are in a war started by lies and over 100,000 people have been killed by America, but who am I to question the will of the Lord, who counts Bush as his favorite (after Hitler, that is, who of course killed more of us godless liberals than anyone in recent memory)?

Sorry. I'm just sick of it and over-the-top, tasteless sarcasm is the way I'm dealing with it.

I do have to say that my income did jump 3.7% in the past month, but that's mostly because I put in 44 hours worth of overtime. Yay, Bush!

[Career Prole]

6. "...because I put in 44 hours worth of overtime..."

I find all chimp-related sarcasm to be not only tasteful but educational.
Keep your chin up...your overtime will force the productivity number go up too! Whoopee! We're all just cleaning up in this new "economy" they've fabricated. My pay keeps falling, my expenses keep rising, but as long as I look at the business headlines instead of my checkbook I feel like a gazillionaire! :bounce:

[NYC]

14. Happy Days Are Here Again.

Happy days are here again,
The stocks you hold have split again,
We plan to raise the dividend,
Happy days are here again.


Caption from a New Yorker cartoon decades ago. The drawing was of corporate executives high kicking. I don't remember who the cartoonist was.

[Career Prole]

21. Hilarious!

That one should be reissued. Thanks for the memory! :D

[Magleetis]

3. Factor in

the weak dollar and the price of gas and my income is going down. Todays America is for the rich.

[kikiek]

4. Microsoft is the most widely held stock. Gee I thought most had no stock.

[AP]

5. 50% of Americans have some stock. 90% is owned by 10% (or something...

...like that).

So even this story is about the continued concentration of wealth in the hands of the wealthy.

Isn't that amazing that story about how the top 10% of Americans just got so wealthy it resulted in a 3% shift in the wealth of the entire nation is turned into a story about how the country is doing better?

The polarization of wealth in America is NOT good news.

[kikiek]

13. I had no idea how they figured that until now. It was eye opening, and

very amazing.

[booksenkatz]

7. Let's see, I currently earn $0.00, so I guess if you multiply that by 3.7%

you still get $0.00, right? So this article sounds about right to me.
:puke:
:crazy:
:eyes:
:hi:

[TahitiNut]

8. "Personal income" is NOT just wages and salaries

It includes executive compensation, realized captial gains, dividends, and other 'rich-get-richer' pigs at the trough. When one fat cat collects $1 billion, it's portrayed as an increase for everyone. It's not.

[fasttense]

9. But what was the inflation rate?

I own stock in Microsoft and we hardly got much from our few shares. So we just put the whole amount back into stock.

But even without Microsoft, I heard that inflation was out pacing wage increases. Has anyone else heard this?

[durablend]

11. Nope, no inflation

The gubermint sez after they strip out those nasty food and energy increases, inflation is low or non existant.

You're OBVIOUSLY making a TON of money so WHY DO YOU HATE UHMERIKKKA? :crazy:

[Missy Vixen]

10. Microsoft boosted personal income? It's not showing here

>That helped to boost consumer spending during the all-important holiday season by 0.8 percent.<

Wow. Can't wait to share this with the other merchants in our building eleven miles east of Microsoft's world headquarters. Our holiday season was busy but definitely not outstanding. The proof of this is the fact that we learned over the weekend that two local businesses are shutting their doors in February for good, and several others are teetering on the brink.

I'm not buying the spin, either.

Julie

[mirror]

12. Tax Payers Free To Ignore An IRS Summons

Queensbury, NY � On January 25, 2005, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that taxpayers cannot be compelled by the IRS to turn over personal and private property to the IRS, absent a federal court order.

Quoting from the decision (Schulz v. IRS, Case No. 04-0196-cv),

�...absent an effort to seek enforcement through a federal court, IRS summonses apply no force to taxpayers, and no consequence whatever can befall a taxpayer who refuses, ignores, or otherwise does not comply with an IRS summons until that summons is backed by a federal court order� cannot be held in contempt, arrested, detained, or otherwise punished for refusing to comply with the original IRS summons, no matter the taxpayer's reasons, or lack of reasons for so refusing.�

Without declaring those provisions of the Code unconstitutional on their face, the court, in effect, nullified key enforcement provisions of the Internal Revenue Code, stripping the IRS of much of its power to compel compliance with its administrative demands for personal and private property. The court characterized IRS summonses issued under Section 7602 as mere �requests.�

The court went on to say that the federal courts are there to protect taxpayers from an �overreaching� IRS, and that the IRS must go through the federal courts before force can be applied on anyone by the IRS to turn over personal and private property to the IRS.


Key Enforcement Provisions Of The
Internal Revenue Code Nullified

The paragraphs above begin a press release that will be sent to thousands of media outlets and influential individuals across the nation over the next several days.

The evolution of this lawsuit, Schulz v. IRS, has played an integral role in the execution of the Right-to-Petition lawsuit strategy and may soon, after the conclusive and far-reaching decision of the Appellate Court, provide the legal basis necessary to finalize, and secure jurisdiction over the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice to answer our claims of constitutional abuse.

In their decision in this case brought by WTP Chairman Bob Schulz, the court has expressly recognized that the IRS, as has been asserted in the Right-to-Petition lawsuit, routinely violates people's Due Process rights in their day-to-day administrative practices. As such, the findings of the Second Circuit firmly establish for the (D.C.) District Court the substance of the causes of action put forth in our Right-to-Petition lawsuit.

In the coming days, WTP Chairman Bob Schulz will make further statements about these unfolding events and detail our assertive plans to generate widespread public awareness of our efforts, and our success.

[NYC]

15. This is good news

because I heard the IRS will be outsourcing/privatizing its collection department. In other words, the IRS will first, be sharing your tax information with a private company; second, be sending that private company after you.

[SharonAnn]

19. Meet "DOG, the Bounty Hunter". He's for real, in some silly TV show.

[VegasWolf]

16. No, the ultra wealthy's income jumped 3.7%. n/t

[moondust]

17. The billionaires are doing well. Very well. n/t

[MGKrebs]

18. You mean to tell me

that the average personal income in the whole country changes by 3.1% because Microsoft pays a lousy 3 bucks dividend??? Sheesh. That's scary somehow.

[Yavin4]

20. It's Like The "Average Income" Joke

Bill Gates walks into a bar, and the average income of all of the bar attendees is over $10 million.