Info

You are currently browsing the Capital Comments weblog archives for the day 30. November 2009.

Calendar
November 2009
S M T W T F S
« Oct   Dec »
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930  

Archive for 30. November 2009

Who Spends the Most Money on Lobbying in the USA?

According to the Center for Responsive Politics they are:

1. US Chamber of Commerce

2. Exxon Mobil

3. Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America

4. General Electric

5. Blue Cross/Blue Shield

For the whole list go here.

Pay Attention to This Corporate Trend

Up until this year the corporate mantra was “outsourcing, outsourcing outsourcing” which meant hiving off non-core divisions, just-in-time inventory management and contracting low cost suppliers to supply product inputs through the product development and delivery cycle.

This trend is changing with the corporate tide swinging the other way to “in-sourcing” where companies are seeking to control end to end product development, manufacturing an delivery. This is only the beginning.

Several deals this year such as Oracle/Sun, Pepsi/ Pepsi Bottling/Apple/ Hewlett Packard and others are “buying in” and corporate integration is back.

See the recent article at the WSJ here. (subscription)

To Tap or Not to Tap Your IRA

You can skip your distribution this year and save on taxes.

If you are at least 70½ years old, you normally must take a taxable distribution from your traditional IRA or employer-provided retirement plan by the end of the year — whether you need the money or not — or face a stiff penalty equal to half of the amount you failed to withdraw. But this year is different. Uncle Sam says you can skip your required minimum distribution for 2009. (Employees who continue working past age 70½ are not subject to mandatory distributions from their company plans until they retire, but they still must take distributions from their IRAs.)

IRA owners who turned 70½ between July 1 and December 31 would normally have to take their first distribution by April 1, 2010. But thanks to the waiver, they can skip that, too, delaying their first mandatory-distribution deadline until December 31, 2010.

Read more here.

|