Companies with sufficient volume can now submit a check for payment to the bank without having to physically transport the check to the bank.  The means the float will virtually dissappear for purchases from major retailers. See  Chuck Jaffe’s coverage for more details.

Leimberg Information Services has written a great summary of the tax treatment of long-term care Insurance. For individuals, deductions flow through itemized medical expense deduction (subject to 7.5% floor) and if self-employed, through the self-employed health insurance deduction (subject to age based maximums).

CalculatedRisk describes the evolution of the underwriting process for alt-a (just below prime) and subprime (junk status) mortgage loand.  It is a dense read, but to me clearly makes a case that it would be imprudent at this time to invest in mortgage backed securities that include alt-a or subprime mortgages.  The underwriting process is [...]

The Coming Generational Storm written by Laurence Kotlikoff and Scott Burns is now available online. It is one of the earlier works that really brought the issue of Social Security and Medicare funding over the next 50 years to the fore.  The punchline is that at some point either benefits must be cut, taxes raised [...]

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