No comments about JK Lasser's Small Business Taxes 2009: Your Complete Guide to a Better Bottom Line (J K Lasser's New Rules for Small Business Taxes).

1 comments about Federal Income Tax Examples & Explanations.

1. I bought an earlier edition while I was in law school. This book is very well organized and covers both the conceptual and practical perspectives of taxation extraordinarily well. The questions at the end of each section help to solidify your understanding of the concepts by varying the fact scenarios from question to question.
   
   I've been in tax practice for ten years, and I purchase each updated edition for a review of the conceptual aspects of taxation and for a quick review of the tax treatment of transactions I haven't handled very often in practice.

5 comments about Trump University Asset Protection 101 (Trump University).

1. Asset Protection 101 is a book that everyone should read. We all know about corporations, LLC's, Revocable Living Trusts etc and we all know about law suits and being sued - but this book puts it altogether in an easy to read format that anyone can understand. If you want to save money on your taxes, if you want to keep from losing everything in a lawsuit, if you want to be able to pass on your estate to your family, without probate and with the least amount of taxes - then Asset Protection 101 is a "must reading" for everyone.



2. I know a little about business entities since I own a small business. I was worried that this book would either be over my head, or too basic. I found that it did a fantastic job of covering the basics without seeming to talk down to me. I also got some great ideas and strategies to really increase my protection and dramatically cut my taxes. JJ Childers manages to make complex strategies digestible for those not versed in legal jargon, yet doesn't talk down to anyone with familiarity in the areas he covers. Since studying JJ's strategies, I find I can understand and speak with my CPA and attorney with more confidence and comprehension. I have also found that I can make better tax and legal decisions with my new knowledge and my tax and legal advisors were impressed with my understanding of the topics of asset protection, estate planning and tax reduction. Thanks, Mr. Childers!



3. I was really taken by just how vulnerable many of us are to attacks by lawsuits and other events. Asset Protection showed me a world that I never knew existed a world where greedy lawyers (who should be disbarred in my opinion) sue for a living. Actually targeting companies and individuals not because they did something wrong but simply because their assets were easy to get at. Once that target is found then an "offense" is "created".
   
   A lot of the concepts I have heard of before but this book broke them down and made them simple to understand. I have already begun to shape my assets in line with the models in this book by working with my Lawyer and my Accountant both of whom have since bought a copy of this book and have begun to use it to discuss options with their clients. The list of missed tax deductions alone is worth a hundred times the cost of this book and I can not recommend it highly enough.



4. This is an extremely informative and well-written book. Building wealth is vitally dependent on legally reducing your taxes by forming companies and properly structuring your income between earned income and passive income. The author covers the various forms of company entities such as general and limited partnerships, S Corps, C Corps, and LLCs. I've read several books about corporate entities and this is the first one I've found with practical, real-world examples that explain why an S Corp is better in one situation, while a C Corp is better in another, and an LLC is better in other circumstances. I came away believing (rightly or wrongly!) that I actually understand the differences now. The author then builds on that and explain how you can use multiple entities of different types to create a solid asset protection plan. He gives an excellent example of how a actively traded investment account can be structured as a limited partnership (with brokerage accounts held inside it) and whose general partner is a corporation. I've noticed this same structure when reading annual reports over the years, and now I understand why this structure reduces liability and has very significant tax advantages.
   
   There is much more than what I've covered here. I highlighted text on almost every page in the book. My highlighting ratio is the predominant factor of how high I will rate a book. I will continue to pull this book off the shelf and refer back to it.



5. The only thing The Donald supplies to this book is his powerful brand and two generic paragraphs for all this books in this series. There really is no thoughtful forward or anything to do with his insights. That being said, this is a pretty good beginners guide to the whys, whats, and hows of protecting your assets from the various income taxes, business taxes, estate taxes (the death tax), and lawsuits.
   
   The author, J. J. Childers, is an attorney but writes clearly and simply enough for regular folks. The book's 17 chapters are presented in five parts. Part I covers the problem of excessive spending and a too passive approach to paying taxes. You can't build wealth that way. Childers shows you some basic principles on understanding the tax code and ways to use exemptions and deductions to keep more of your money. He also talks to you about the power of having your own business and the right structures to use to manage the risks involved.
   
   Part II covers protecting yourself from lawsuits and carefully explains why this matters to you and matters more and more as your wealth grows. He presents you with some basic principles of using corporations to protect your assets and using multiple entities to match risk and assets rather than leaving all your assets in one pot vulnerable to a single catastrophic suit. Part III cover estates and death taxes. He introduces you to trusts and why they are essential to you and why a will simply does not provide you any protection from probate. Part IV shows you how to think like the wealth. Childers calls this the Mogul Mindset. He also takes you through the process of creating an asset protection team and what professional expertise you simply must have. As the author says, you may think you don't have enough wealth to worry about these things, but when you start adding it up, you can get surprised in a hurry. Don't let anyone simply take it from you because you failed to act.
   
   Part V provides you with various resources such as a list of common deductions, which business structures provide various kinds of protection, a state by state guide to which assets you can protect during bankruptcy and a glossary of business and legal terms.
   
   As with any 101 basic course, this is introductory and you will need to study more and dig deeper to master the topics in this field. But this can certainly get you started in the right direction.
   
   Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

5 comments about Complete Guide to Real Estate Tax Liens and Foreclosure Deeds: Learn in 7 Days-Investing Without Losing Series (Investing Without Losing).

1. A good book that demistifies any confusion about tax sales throughout the country. Easy to read and easy to follow. Breaks down all the information into an organization fashion. Unfortunately, the author's website isn't working.



2. This book is very easy to understand. It gives you step by step information and resources on tax liens and deed. I would recommend this book to any one that wants to know about tax lien and deeds.



3. I read this book in just a couple of days and found it to be simple yet very informative. I probably will not be jumping into investing into liens and deeds right away until I research some more, but this book is definitely one to read first before starting your adventure. It is definitely not boring and I highly recommend it to anyone who, like me, is just starting to learn about this type of investing.



4. I got burned on this recent financial crisis and was looking for some new ways to invest without being burned. When i heard about tax liens on the john beck program but didn't want to pay for thousands just to read info about it, I bought this book. An eye opener for sure, there are risks but at the same time there are guides on here and online county listings on the free web site. Highly recommended.



5. Excellent book if you are interested in tax liens. Covers the topic throughly. Includes web site addresses that are useful for tax liens.
   Highly recommend.

5 comments about The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need.

1. This is a good read for those of us looking to improve our financial health and know only a little about investing. No magic solutions here: save money and invest wisely. But what does investing wisely mean exactly? Read this book for more. The author reviews concepts we know about the benefits of compound interest and the wisdom of index funds, and he does this by using his own stories to make this dry subject a bit more fun. The version I read didn't have a section on ETFs so you'll have to look elsewhere for that information.



2. I found this book very readable and full of excellent information. Although not all the latest vehicles are included, the information is useful for the typical investor. It is easy to read and understand by the beginning investor.



3. It is funny how several reviewers criticize the author's recommendation to "not lose money", while that is the number one rule from the richest person on the planet, Warren Buffett.
   They miss the fact that there is more to that statement that its simple basic message.
   I too have read a number of investment books and I found this one to shine above the rest for a simple reason: It covers a wide range of basic investment options, without equivocating, and goes into just enough detail to explain the investment without bogging down the reader with unnecessary details. If the reader wants more info, they can certainly continue researching.
   I really like the fact that the author gives definite thumbs-up or thumbs-down to certain investment vehicles (and gives good reasons why), where other advisors hem and haw about even the most ridiculous ideas such as annuities.
   Some reviewers claim this book is for beginners while others say that it's NOT for amateurs. I think it requires some basic knowledge but overall is a great reference and guide to get the average investor on track to a good solid foundation in investing and well on their way to a respectable portfolio. Any expectations beyond that are totally misguided.



4. I've read a lot of personal finance books and this one has some of the best information I've found. If you are interested in personal finance and investing, you should definitely read this book!
   
   Tobias writes in a witty style to keep the reader's attention while providing detailed information on investing that I haven't found anywhere else. He begins with information on how to save money on personal expenses like dining out and vacations. There are several good tips in this section. Then he moves on to retirement accounts and saving for education. He explains each type of account in detail and includes every kind I know of.
   
   His sections on bonds and stock investing are really informative. He explains items like treasury bills and TIPs and their advantages. He explains all kinds of bonds (I-bonds, corporate bonds, municiple bonds) and provides his recommendation on whether you should own them or not and why. I especially found his section on stock market investing useful. He has explanations of a stock's beta, buying on margin, options, selling short, LEAPS and penny stocks and explains the pitfalls that often get investors into trouble.
   
   The last portion of the book talks a bit about estate planning and also some very clever methods of teaching your kids about saving and investing.
   
   I like the author's philosophy on investment strategies and agree with most of his advice. This book covers a lot of topics in personal finance and is both a great reference and a fun read. I highly recommend it to others!!!



5. I bought this book in 1999 and read it annually. I always laugh out loud and recommend it to everyone I meet who is not and does not want to be an "expert" in the market but does want honest, forthright, expert advise on what's what in personal finance and investments. I re-read it recently and 10 years after it's release it's still dead on. I hope he updates it again soon cause the internet is even better than it was when he wrote this and there are even more investment "schemes" out there to AVOID!

5 comments about The Fair Tax Book: Saying Goodbye to the Income Tax and the IRS.

1. It is sad to see all the negative reviews for this book. The history and explanation he goes into on taxes and how we are fooled as a country by our politicians is awesome. This book is full of good ideas, that if we all had the courage as a country to follow through on would make us a powerful country.
   
   I would strongly recommend this book to all those with open minds.



2. This is a must read for any one interested in the economy of the United States and the welfare of its citizens. A complete explanation of the Fairtax tax plan to revitalize the tax system of the United States.



3. Taxation is Theft whether it is the current system or through universal sales tax. It is taking money, taking the product and hours of your life, by force by the government to be used for whatever the government wishes. It is utterly and completely immoral and unconscionable. So I consider it no great improvement to more efficiently enslave all of us.



4. The Fair Tax is a profound concept to fully fund the federal government without confiscating personal and business property - taxing income. An embedded national sales tax replaces all federal taxes on income - even those income taxes by another name (payroll taxes, capital gains, etc.) Getting one's head around an income-tax-free United States isn't always easy. Fortunatley Boortz and company present the logic, the common sense, the incredible personal, social, national, and economic benefits of the Fair Tax in clear, concise, and fun reading. An IRS free U.S.? This is how.



5. This is the first time I've ever left a review. I've just got to offset some of those one star reviews since I'm sure that only 23 percent of the people who gave it one star actually read the book. By the way, I am talking about an inclusive 23 percent. I think this book should get at least 3 stars even from opponents of the fairtax. It's one of the easiest books to read. It's entertaining, funny, and just informative even to the person who hates good ideas.
   
   Get the book and call your congressman.
   
   Also, I have a recommendation for anyone who liked this book: Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson. You can throw that in your cart too since, if you're anything like me, you're trying to get to $25 for free shipping.

5 comments about Quicken Willmaker Plus 2009 Edition: Estate Planning Essentials (Book with Software).

1. I am at the age where a will and living will are more important and decided it was time to get working on them. I got Willmaker the other day and in just a few minutes had a draft of a living will and am well on my way to having a will in place. There is some confusion on how to set up my step-children in my will, but the descriptions and the included book assure me I'll get the help I need to accomplish it. Basically it goes step-by-step, asking questions as you go along until you are done - VERY simple to use. This software/book combination will allow you to file numerous legal documents including Bill of Sales, Power of Attorney and Medical care requests. Heck, it even allows you to leave your money to your cat if you wish. Since all of the people you put into the system are saved, when you need to fill out a new form, you don't have to repeat any of that information - Willmaker does it for you. While I intend to run anything this product produces through a real attorney for protection, it certainly will save me hundreds of dollars on drafts. Like any other Quicken product, this is first-class.



2. I'm a big fan of NOLO products but this is one of my top picks/favorites of all time. Not only is it easy to use and understand but it is packed FULL of many of the most useful tools you will use on a regular basis in addition to the willmaker and other planning tools. For example, authorization for medical treatment - an important document to have prepared prior to sending your child to visit family out of town. Others include health care directives, durable power of attorney etc..
   
   The book provides easy to understand step-by-step instructions that follow perfectly with the 2 cd's [one for the Willmaker and the other a pdf version of the Executors Guide]. TWhile this is unlikely to take the place of an attorney - especially for those with complex needs - the ancillary products alone are worth more than the price of the book plus it makes a superb general reference. For others with minimal estate planning needs or those without anything...this provides a great starting place that can walk you through the basics.
   
   What's included;
   Book - WillMaker 2009 Estate Planning Essentials by Quicken
   CD 1 - Forms and pdf to accompany Willmaker
   CD 2 - PDF version of the Executors Guide also by Nolo. An excellent companion to the Willmaker set that can assist in helping make decisions while going through the estate planning process.
   
   Benefits:
   -Easy to use, easy to understand, easy to install.
   -Plain language with examples to help walk you through the entire process.
   -Ability to save, quickly modify and change without time and cost of attorney.
   -Excellent anxcillary items.
   
   Limitations:
   Unlikely to be sufficient for those with complex estate planning needs.
   
   Bottom Line: Superb resource, excellent value!



3. Quicken Willmaker Plus 2009 Edition: Estate Planning Essentials (Book with Software) is probably the simplest to use and most comprehensive estate planning software out there. I had previously used Suze Orman Will & Trust Kit and found the software to be much 'less' on many levels. I actually gave up on personal estate planning until I spotted the Quicken Willmaker Plus 2009 version.
   
   The 4-star review is due to TWO issues.
   
   First, the "Online" tab's "Find a Lawyer". Just by way of checking out the software after installation, I clicked on it and decided to check for divorce attorneys in my area. Knowing a few names, I thought I'd see them on the list, but was irked to find that only "1" attorney at the opposite end of the state (you put in your county to get 'attorneys in your area...') was listed as a "member" in the Nolo directory. Ten other 'non-member' attorney's names came up and only one was within 40 miles of me. At the top of the page there is something for attorneys to click on to 'sign -up'. To be a member I assume.
   
   Second, the Webupdate and online support for this software version is only good through JANUARY 1st, 2010. I realize that's over a year to get your stuff done, but it means that eventually, you'll be paying for an upgrade.
   
   The install:
   
   Using Windows Vista Premium 64-bit, this software installed in less than 1 minute. Adobe Reader was needed and it installed in under 2 minutes using a high speed cable connection.
   
   Tips...
   
   UPDATE YOUR SOFTWARE: you'll find it under the "Online" tab. Click it and do a "Webupdate". This will take approximately 1 minute and then you're good to go!
   
   REGISTER FOR COUPON CODE: If you register this software they give you a coupon code for $10 off your next Nolo purchase. Mine was A424 if anyone wants to give it a try.
   
   TO START: For your own estate planning go to the "File" tab and click "New Portfolio". From there it's just a matter of reading and moving through the step-by-step guides to create multiple legal documents. The book is supplemental, and you could literally never look at it and come up with all the documents and information you need.
   
   Helps pop up from time to time to give you info to aid in ease of use of the software and there is a vertical tab bar on the right hand side of the software that offers a Guide, Contact List (people named in the documents), Glossary and Online Resources.
   
   I liked that this software allows you to lock your portfolio (password protect your documents), needs no keycode to install it, and allows for multiple users. The purchase of one of these packages could provide thousands of dollars in legal fee savings to your entire family and most of your friends!
   
   A solid, easy to use, complete estate planning kit that's good, but with the 'get 'cha to buy more updates...' built in.



4. I have Will Making software that is several years old- and I use it fairly often for an elderly friend with 4 adult children that keeps changing his Will and Power of Attorney when he gets annoyed at some of the kids...so I decided to redo my Will, Power of Attorney, who raises the kids, etc. and found this software very impressive. I am sure I will get a few more chances a year to use it to help my friends out as well.
   
   First of all, it installed without a hitch and did an update very easily, even on my clunky dog of a computer. Next, you can opt to tell the software your approximate age and child rearing position, and it helps you by suggesting which forms you will probably need. Once you select the forms, it takes you through each one, in a painless manner, by asking simple questions (your name, your spouse, your kids, etc.). Along the way, it very clearly explains what is going on, and why. This is a huge help for people not experienced with legal documents of this nature. It also suggests what is normally done and why, which I found to be very helpful since I had not thought some of the questions through. At the end, your form can be reviewed and printed, and you can easily make changes. A handful of questions becomes many pages of leagal documents that read very professionally (I compared them with some I had that were drawn up by attorneys and preferred the ones this software makes).
   
   In under an hour, I had 4 documents to cover every possibility I could imagine (and some I had not thought of)- a new Will with provisions for the minor children, Power of Attorney, and Healthcare arrangements. You can also make a revocable Living Trust, a Back-Up Will, a form for Caregivers and Survivors, an AB Trust, and Final Arrangements. Questions are very detailed- like exactly what your Power of Attorney has the power to do and what you don't want him/her to do. Oh, and you can make bequests of certain items- so since my teenager was giving me a hard time about all my yarn yesterday I have left it to her (ok, so I may rethink that in a day or two, but I did have a lot of satisfaction filling that one in). You can also make provisions for the care of your pets- and I have not seen that in other software.
   
   One thing I really did appreciate was the really extensive, beautifully formatted book that came with the software. It has been a LONG time since I bought software of any kind that came with any sort of instructions or explainations- except some software that has really lame online help! There is also an e-book about how to settle a loved one's estate or trust.
   
   While none of us like to think about needing these documents, death is indeed something that will happen to all of us one of these days- so it truly does make things so much easier on your family and friends to be prepared. Oh, and did I mention there are questions about the likelyhood of your family members FIGHTING? Sad to say this also happens in a lot of families...
   
   In short, this can save you a lot of money in attorney fees by making up the very professionally done documents. Even if you take these documents to an attorney to have his nod of approval it will still save you money by having everything thought out and written down at the onset.



5. Ok, let me preface this by saying I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV. Having said that, this program is terrific.
   
   My husband and I are in the process of redoing our wills, as he is getting ready to retire from the service. However, the idea of possibly saving a bit of money (particularly in this economy) was very appealing. Enter WillMaker Plus 2009.
   
   When the software arrived, I plugged it into my computer (a laptop running Vista). It loaded effortlessly. I went straight into the program and began creating a will. The image on the screen is very spare, but easy to read and understand. The input area takes up about 3/4 of the space, and the remaining 1/4 is explanation regarding the questions to be answered in that area.
   
   Each document that you work on will begin with a checklist of things that need to be covered and questions that need to be answered. As you complete each section, the program will take you back to that checklist so you can see where you've been and where you're headed. You can go back to that checklist at any point in time. The program is also state-specific...one of the first questions it will ask is what state you're living in, so that it can use the laws relevant to your particular area.
   
   The amount of documents this program has is staggering. I can honestly only see myself needing a few of them any time soon, but I still feel better knowing that the rest exist. The book that comes with this Plus version is quite large, but is written just as well as the program - everything is broken down into chapters and then into sections, making it easy to find just the part you need if you have a question. There are also several examples for each option, so that users have a "real-life" type situation to compare with to make the correct choices and decisions. Honestly, the book could be used as a textbook, it is so easy to read and understand.
   
   Going through and creating this will took me no more than half an hour, from start to finish. If someone is unsure of different aspects of creating a will, a trust, or any of the other documents available, then it will probably take longer. But all their questions will be answered, either right on the screen as the program works, or with the companion book. By the time any user is finished, they should feel very comfortable in the legality of the document that was created.
   
   I highly recommend this program. It is easy to use and is very comprehensive.
   
   *Caveat: You should always have your legal documents at least reviewed by a lawyer to ensure no difficulties.

5 comments about FairTax: The Truth: Answering the Critics.

1. Neal Boortz and John Linder have a revolutionary idea with the Fairtax! I believe it is the answer to our country's ills. This is a must read!!



2. I wish everyone in America would read this book and the first book that Neal Boortz and Congressman Linder wrote about the Fair Tax. This is the best way to fix our economy!!!



3. This is a great idea for an tax structure. At first I thought it was stupid and you couldn't sell this to me. Then I started listening to Neal Boortz'sshow, and I decided to educate myself.
   
   Neil explains how little people understand the current tax system in our country. To quote neal from his program: "If we had a fair tax (or something similar), Barack Obama would not have been able to use the lie that 95% of American will get a tax cut." The problem is many people confuse payroll taxes with income taxes.
   
   Neal goes through a list of response for the critics of this system. The things I want to hilight are how our government uses the tax code to play favorites, and that the current income tax system subsidizes debt and penalizes savings.
   
   I have no idea if the Fair Tax will ever come to fruition, but all Americans who care about their own liberty should read (or listen) to this book. You'll be able to sniff out the BS artists every election year. Hopefully one day enough of us will wake up and tell the government to go back to your powers that are in the Constitution.



4. As a regular attendee to the church of the painful truth I was looking forward to this book coming out. It truly does answer the critics and give plenty of ammo to us "FairTaxers"!



5. Answers questions that one may have had after reading the first FairTax book. Written well.

No comments about J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax 2009: For Preparing Your 2008 Tax Return (J.K. Lasser).

5 comments about The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy--If We Let It Happen.

1. This book was pretty much what I expected: a loud siren acting as a wake-up call to the Obama administration. But, to my surprise, it turned out to be a lot more. I learned a great deal here.
   
   The most surprising thing: JFK was a supply-sider! Back in the early 60s, Democratic President John F. Kennedy was proposing tax cuts to get the economy moving, and the NAY-SAYERS were a bunch of curmudgeonly Republicans. (In a similar vein, you will be astonished to learn that this story goes back all the way to Warren Harding!)
   
   Kennedy got his tax-cut package passed (just as Ronald Reagan did) and the economy took off. Tragically, Kennedy was shot dead, and America unfortunately entered what the authors call the "Four Stooges" period of the American Presidency: LBJ, Nixon, Ford, and Carter. Particularly interesting was the slicing-and-dicing of Richard Nixon. He has become known as "The Watergate Villain," and almost nobody remembers his disastrous, idiotic mismanagement of the economy. Wage and price controls, anyone? "We are all Keynesians now?" Ford and his silly WIN buttons helped not a bit, and then Jimmy Carter managed to drive the misery index to its highest level in decades. The Four Stooges, indeed.
   
   I haven't finished this book yet, but I've already learned so much from it that I thought I should post this review. And I will close with a single image, which may be helpful to those who still think that the U.S. President can do as he pleases. This is Bill Clinton, who is getting sound advice that his re-election depends on maintaining credibility with key financial markets.
   
   Clinton is so angry he pounds his desk, and shouts, "You mean to tell me that the success of the program and my re-election depends on the Federal Reserve and a bunch of *(%@&(% bond-traders??!!"
   
   I suspect that this Clinton Moment is due for a replay in the very near future.
   
   In the meantime, read this book. It is excellent in every way.
   
   I sometimes wonder why we don't teach economics in high school!
   
   As for those who think this is a "pro-Republican book," or an "anti-Democrat book," please go back and read this review again. The book heaps praises on JFK, trashes LBJ, Nixon, Ford & Carter, praises Bush Senior until his tax-betrayal -- and, in sum, is almost totally indifferent to partisan politics. What counts, for the authors, is how we will manage our economy.
   
   Can we find a candidate willing to commit to a goal of economic growth? I suspect the White House is waiting for him.



2. While there is more to the economy than taxes, "The End of Prosperity" offers a cogent analysis of the things government does right (increases incentives, minimizes its own role in making thisgs happen) and wrong (protective enterprises and industries of changes that should happen and regulating the financial system). The authors are pessimitic because they conclude that the age of incentivizing risk-taking through lower taxes on capital is all but at an end.
   
   If timing is everything, the authors' timing was poor, not that they had any control over it. The financial crisis, the collapse of equity prices, and the economy in turmoil did not get the treatment is deserves. Why we are here and how we get out of it is not addressed in this book which is unfortunate. I would like to know the authors' analysis of what went wrong and of government's response to it. They need to do a new last chapter, not an easy thing to do when the book is aleady published. A revised edition anyone?



3. The publication of Dr. Laffer's new book [where appropriate, I will write `Laffer' to refer to authors Laffer, Moore, and Tanous] has turned out to be perfectly timed to be greeted with the laughter it deserves: just when the economy is in serious trouble as a result of seven+ years of the Bush administration implementing Laffer's cockamamie economic theories. Whoever it was that said "Show me a supply-side economist and I'll show you an intellectual courtesan!" really hit the nail on the head. If I understand it correctly, that remark suggests that supply-siders begin with the economic conclusions that the super-rich want to hear (and want the general public to believe), and reinterpret or edit economic history to support those theories. And the current economic meltdown renders Laffer's theories truly laughable.
   
   But we cannot have the first laugh: see the December, 1981 issue of Scientific American for Martin Gardner's famous article "The Laffer Curve, and Other Laughs in Current Economics.
   
   I will not discuss the introduction and chapter 1, because I would have little to add to Mr. Tim Warneka's excellent review. He was, quite reasonably, unwilling to commit any more time to reading Laffer's drivel. I persisted, and except for the final chapter, it didn't get better.
   
   On page 40, Laffer states that " In fact the vast, vast majority of the people who got rich over the last twenty-five years were not rich at the start of this period . . . ." This comes as a surprise? Most of those who were already rich GOT RICHER, but those who were already rich at the beginning couldn't GET RICH unless they first lost their wealth. Some no doubt did, but they were a tiny minority.
   
   The last sentence on page 40 is "Lower tax rates have made the tax system more progressive, not less so (see figure 2-2) This is an outright lie. The tax SYSTEM was, and is, regressive, and the Reagan tax cuts made the only tax in the system that was progressive, less so. A progressive tax system would take a larger percentage of a larger income; a proportional (flat) tax the same percentage, and a regressive tax a smaller percentage. For example, if my income is $X and I pay a total of $1,000 in taxes, (including income, FICA, sales tax, property tax, and other taxes, then if my income doubles to $2X, under a flat tax I would pay $2,000. If the tax system were progressive, I would pay more, say S2,500. Under our present regressive tax system, I would pay less, perhaps $1,500.
   
   Now Figure 2-2 shows "Top Marginal Income Tax Rates and Income Tax Share for the Top 1% of Earners 1980-2005" and the correlation between the two appears to be slightly less than zero, but nowhere near a perfect negative correlation of -1. But the key item that is omitted is the percent of total income received by the top 1%, which increased many fold, so with even a proportional (flat) tax the percent of total tax revenue received by the government from the top 1% would have much more than doubled. It didn't. If you include all taxes, it didn't even double. A more pertinent graph would show total income and total taxes paid per $100 of income received by the top 1%, and the same for the bottom 20%, but that information would undermine the thesis Laffer is promoting.
   
   Reading this book does, indeed, seem like a journey thru fairyland, or at least some fanciful alternate history, but one nowhere near as well-crafted as Eric Flint's 1632 (The Assiti Shards) and its sequels. And Eric Flint made no deceptive use of statistics, whereas Dr. Laffer is, I gather, a serious student of Darrell Huff,^ but at face value. For example, on page 116, Laffer states:
   
   . "The New York Times published a front-page story on March 5, 1992 which screamed [sic]: "Even Among the Well-Off, the Richest Got Richer." It then pronounces that "the top 1% received 60% of the gain from the 80's boom."
   . Not quite. From 1981 to 1989, every income group--from the richest to the poorest--gained income, according to the Census Bureau economic data (see Figure 5-7). The reason the wealthiest Americans saw their share of total income rise is that they gained income at a faster pace than did the middle class and the poor. But Reaganomics did create a rising tide that lifted nearly all boats.
   
   Those of us who have never heard a printed page scream, or pronounce anything, may be justified in doubting the neutrality of the first of Laffer's two paragraphs quoted above. "Screamed" carries a connotation of irrationality and "pronounced" of arrogance, qualities best associated with those one wants to discredit, but with deniability.
   
   But note that "Not quite." Is the only thing in the second paragraph that contradicts the claim that "the top 1% received 60% of the gain from the 80's boom." Figure 5-7 may seem to, unless you read and understand the fine print, which reveals the bar graph to be a clever case of deceptive use of statistics. Figure 5-7 is headed "Changes in Real Family Incomes (by upper limit of each quintile )." The last word, `quintile' is followed by an asterisk, which refers to some fine print below the graph: "Since there is no upper limit on the richest quintile, that figure refers to the lower limit of the top 5 percent." This is what logicians call `equivocation,' because the phrase `no upper limit' is used in such a way as to suggest that, there being `no upper limit,' it would have been impossible to graph the entire top quintile. Not so. There is no DEFNITIONAL upper limit. If there had been an American with an income of a trillion dollars ($1,000,000,000,000), that American would have been in the top quintile by definition. But there was an ACTUAL upper limit, because no quintile contains an infinite number of families. The actual upper limit was the highest before-tax income of any American family. Including the top 5% in the graph would have been possible, but then the graph would have shown the truth Laffer apparently wanted to conceal.
   
   It is difficult for a retired individual like me, without subordinates to do extensive research, to find the exact figures on which Figure 5-7 should have been based, but I found on page 31 of Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich--and Cheat Everybody Else, by David C. Johnston, a graph showing that from 1970 to 2000, the real income, adjusted for inflation, of the top 10% of American taxpayers, increased by 88.6% while that of the lower 90% of American taxpayers DEcreased by 0.1%; and on page 34, another graph shows that over the same period, the average income of the lower half of the the top 10% (percentiles 90+ thru 95) increased by 29.6%, while that of the lower 4/5 of the top 5% (percentiles 95+ thru 99) increased by 54.2%, that of the lower half of the top 1% increased by 89.5%, and that of the top ½% by 144.8%. The data for these graphs were taken from a paper by economists Thomas Picketty and Emmanuel Saez, who also reported that the share of national income received by the top 0.01% in 2000 was more than 500% of what it was in 1970. I think we can safely estimate that if Laffer's Figure 5-7 had presented an honest picture, the black bar on the right would have been about twice as high as it is.
   
   It would have been more honest had Laffer put the `Not quite.' at the end of the second paragraph. Ronald Reagan claimed credit for taking millions of Americans off the income tax rolls entirely, reducing their income tax payments to zero. That claim is true with respect to income tax payments made directly to the IRS, but it ignores the incidence of the federal income tax. For those poor and middle class people who lived in homes rented from private landlords, what they saved in direct payments to the IRS was more than offset by the rent increases caused by increased income taxes on owners of rental housing. The incidence of a tax is who ultimately ends up paying it. The incidence of the increased tax on landlords was mostly on the tenants, who typically paid about $200.00 less per year in income tax and $1000.00 more per year in rent. Oh those lucky poor!
   
   On page 68, Laffer states that the Clean Air and Clean Water acts "were well-intentined but heavy-handed blows to the solar plexus of American industry, imposing costs far exceeding benefits from the cleanup legislation." Evidence presented in support of that claim? None whatever. Now it may be that the costs newly imposed ON THE POLLUTERS (which were from the beginning their MORAL responsibility, which they had been IMMORALLY imposing on the general public) far exceeded the benefits TO THE POLLUTERS of cleaning up their act. But experience has shown that such cost-benefit comparisons are generally arrived at by resolutely ignoring all benefits that cannot be mathematically proven (such as less loss of work from respiratory illness--`that may have been the result of taking more vitamins or getting more exercise or . . .'), placing no monetary value on reductions in pain and suffering, making the lowest possible estimate of the value of any proven benefits, and making the highest possible estimate of the costs, often including theoretically possible costs never shown to actually occur.
   
   On page 93, Laffer quotes from "Paul Craig Roberts of the Treasury Department" without revealing that Roberts is a leading supply-sider:
   
   . . . "Keynsians do not realize that investment is crowded out by taxation. SUPPOSE that a 10 percent rate of return MUST BE EARNED if an investment is to be undertaken. In the event that the government imposes a 50 percent tax on investment income, investments earning 10 percent will no longer be undertaken." [emphasis added]
   
   The first sentence is what is called hostile mind-reading, and like most such, it is of highly dubious accuracy. I would challenge anyone to find a living Keynesian who doesn't realize the theoretical possibility of crowding out (the dead may, if you insist, be considered not to realize anything any more). As for the rest of the paragraph, so what? The stated supposition has never been enacted into law and is extremely unlikely to be so enacted; and for every potential investor so stupid and pig-headed as to keep his money in non-interest-bearing cash rather than invest at 9 percent instead of the 10 percent he'd like to get, there are surely dozens who would prefer any positive rate of return to zero, and would take the best return they could get, rather than pout and sit on their money and get nothing.
   
   Figure 7-2 on page 143 is a deceptive graph, because the vertical scale runs from 124 to 140 million. By not showing the lower 88% of the vertical scale, Laffer makes it look as if the number of jobs more than doubled under the Bush administration, when actually the increase over the first six and a half years was a measly 4%, or about 5/8% yearly, compared to 1¼% in the last year of the Clinton administration.
   
   On page 149, Laffer writes: "The biggest budget atrocity of all was the Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska. This bridge, recommended by Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, had a $200 million price tag to service an island with fewer than fifty residents." Now I will agree (1) that it is probably better that Senator Stevens was not reelected and (2) that the proposed bridge almost certainly would not have been worth the cost of building it, and therefore it is good that it was cancelled. But it is deceptive to make it appear that the only purpose of the bridge was to serve the fewer than fifty residents of Gravina Island. The truth is that the primary benefit of the bridge would have been to serve travelers arriving at or departing from Ketchikan International Airport (which is on Gravina Island), and a secondary benefit might have been to open up the rest of Gravina Island to residential and/or commercial development (maybe a good idea, maybe not, I don't know). But it is not honest or decent to lie about it by omitting significant facts in order to pile onto Senator Stevens more ridicule and opprobrium than he deserves.
   
   Figure 7-3 on page 151 has an honest vertical scale (it starts at zero, as it should) but the choice of data graphed is deceptive, because it shows the gross dollar amount of revenue received from each group (omitting to say what taxes are included; I assume federal income tax only, because that choice skews the graph the most in support of Laffer's desired conclusion, and the poor pay far more in total sales tax than do the rich). If it showed the total taxes (including state and local taxes) paid per dollar of income, it should come as no surprise if the line for the bottom 50% turned out to lie above the line for the top 1%.
   
   Figure 9-2, page 196, has an honest vertical scale on the left, for the bar graph of GDP per Capita, but a dishonest one on the right, for the line graph of life expectancy. And the horizontal dimension, "economic freedom," is not clearly defined; it is said to be the ranking of 80 nations by three professors in a "Cato Institute study," but what is counted as more or less economic freedom is not revealed. Considering the source, I would expect that their definition of economic freedom to be freedom of the very rich to have things their way. For example, their idea of economic freedom might include freedom of businesses from being subject to lawsuits, whereas you and I might prefer to count our freedom to sue for damages if we suffer injury caused by a defective product. And could the good professors have chosen to rank those 80 nations which would best support their thesis?
   
   Even having taken a high-school economics course should be sufficient to prevent one from writing the laughable statement on page 203 regarding a lemonade stand: ". . . the lemons and the stand are the essential capital . . . ." The stand is capital, but the lemons are not. They are material, that becomes part of the finished product.
   
   On page 211, Laffer argues that taxing capital gains is double taxation. But actually every tax can be regarded as double (or multiple) taxation. Income and FICA taxes are deducted from every worker's pay even before s/he receives it. Then, when s/he spends it, in most states sales tax is added to the price of most goods and services bought. The purchase price becomes income to the seller, which is taxed, and if the seller has employees, s/he must pay FICA tax on their wages, and so on. If every after-tax dollar were marked `taxed' and never again be subject to tax, soon every coin and every piece of paper money and every bank account and investment account would be so marked and no more taxes could be collected except on money newly created. Government services would virtually cease. Chaos would reign, briefly, until someone (likely not a benevolent someone) seized power.
   
   To obtain the benefits claimed for a low or zero tax on capital gains, it is neither necessary nor desirable to reduce or eliminate taxes on all capital gains; this merely encourages firms to arrange that profits be eliminated and the stockholders be given capital gains instead. Better to have partial exemptions for venture entrepreneurs and suppliers of venture capital, but not for rentiers.
   
   Laffer devotes chapter 11 to arguing against the estate tax, which he incorrectly refers to as the `death tax,' because that term is believed to evoke a more negative response. On pages 217-8 he writes: "The left has concocted a fairy tale that Americans don't have to sell their businesses or farms to pay the death [sic] tax, but the reality is it happens all the time." I challenge anyone to document even one example of a farm that had to be sold to pay the estate tax; the last I knew, it hadn't actually happened. What does happen quite often is that heirs who don't want to run a business or farm sell it, pay whatever taxes are owed, if any, and spend or invest the rest as they wish.
   
   Laffer also claims on page 218 that the estate tax "slows economic growth and thus reduces other tax receipts," but presents not a shred of evidence.
   
   Perhaps the book's high point of absurdity is on page 231, where Laffer writes: ". . . the politicians say: We must eliminate our trade deficit. Well, the BEST WAY to do that is to slow the economy and slide into the ditch of a recession." (emphasis added) Laffer may think that a recession is the best solution, but surely I am not the only one who finds that notion laughable.
   
   Almost as laughable is: "The greater net wages received, the more willing a worker is to work. If wages received fall, workers find work less attractive and they will do less of it." Obviously written by someone who never worked for an hourly wage, where the number of hours one works per day and per week is set by the employer, as are productivity goals. Most hourly work is not attractive in itself; it is the pay that attracts the workers, who have to work to support their families. If pay is too low, the worker may be forced to hold 2 or even 3 jobs to make ends meet. Raising pay of one job to a living wage would likely cause the worker to quit the extra job(s) and thus to work less.
   
   While it is true that a significant correlation between two phenomena suggests that causation is involved, it can not necessarily be correctly inferred that the direction of causation is that which would give support to the conclusion you wish to arrive at. On page 286 Laffer writes: "There is very little evidence from the past twenty-five years that immigrants displace native workers from jobs or depress wages on average. States with high levels of immigration have lower overall rates of unemployment than states with few immigrants." The conclusion which would support Laffer's argument, which he obviously wants the reader to jump to, is that high levels of immigration lead to lower levels of unemployment. But this has causality exactly reversed. It is precisely those areas with low unemployment which most attract immigrants. They want to go where the jobs are plentiful, not where unemployment is rampant.
   
   On page 288. ". . . these ideas have been tested again and again, always with negative consequences." Conclusion: they are bad ideas, right? WRONG! Virtually any economic or political idea that is tested will have negative consequences, AND POSITIVE ONES! If the negative outweighs the positive, of course, the idea should be rejected or, possibly, modified to reduce the bad consequences before testing it again. But if the positive outweighs the negative, then go with it!
   
   Watziznaym@gmail.com
   
   * Thanks to Jim Hightower's "Lowdown" for suggesting the term Laisez-Faire.yland
   ^ Darrell Huff, How to Lie With Statistics



4. Fortunately for us readers, the authors did not use such a doomsday title. From the viewpoint of a US citizen, though, end-of-prosperity is ugly enough. These three authors, quite famous academic-grade finance/economic people, did do a superb job of spelling out their points in very clear language. For readers who have had to slog and struggle through "regular" works on economic systems, you will understand how important this is in choosing another book on the topic!
   
   The style of "Prosperity" is not only clear and simple, the topics of each chapter can almost stand on their own, and may very well have done so over past years for various essays and papers. Lest anyone reading this review shudder at the thought of "essay" and "papers," be assured that all the text is written with good humor, and the thoughts flow freely one to the next. At the end, the reader will most assuredly understand clearly the arguments of supply-side economics, and see the backup information justifying their conclusions. Above all, they wish to convince the reader that there are well-defined policies which lead to national economic growth, and those which have proven never to work. Obviously the goal is avoid the ones which have never worked.
   
   Personal favorite chapters: Ch 4, "Honey, We Shrunk the Economy - the 1970s," Ch 6, "What Bill Clinton Could Teach Barack Obama," Ch 8, on how the good Gov Schwartzenegger ran California down, and Ch 13, which explains the flat tax option. As other reviewers have stated, that last chapter could be skipped: what to invest in for "troubled times" ahead. One senses that they are really out of their depth here. None of their business anyway! Good book - buy, or borrow from your library.



5. This is an exceptional book for those who relate taxes and economy. The authors with years of experience analyze in a comprehensible way the effect of high taxation on the economy. In particular, the advantages of flat taxation has been clearly and convincible demonstrated. It is wishfull thinking for our politicians to read this book and begin a non-ideological discussion on taxes. Furthermore, it is anazing to read the 180 degree turn of eastern Europe to such taxation. As Milton Freedman said " there is no Democracy without economic freedom"