Monthly Archives: August 2010

August 20, 2010

“Targeted tax cuts are government programs”

by: Joseph S. Fichera


August 20, 2010

“Targeted tax cuts are government programs”

By: Joseph S. Fichera

Martin Feldstein wrote an important op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journalyou might have overlooked. We need to see that the popular positions of Democrats and Republicans for so called “targeted tax cuts” are really taxpayer subsidies and government programs. This is not a moral issue but one of efficiency and effectiveness. Whether we should subsidize the activity directly with oversight or indirectly by the tax code and without oversight is an important question that often gets overlooked. I don’t agree completely with Feldstein’s prescriptions but his point is critical to the discussion swirling around. As I noted in a Bloomberg News television commentary in May 08, one part of the solution to our economic crisis is comprehensive tax reform that will bring back a truly bi-partisan moment from 1986. Yet, as my friends counsel me, this is nostalgia (or worse “idealism”) on my part. Yet, we may ultimately get there because of the enormity of our problems we face and the fact that the new four letter word in Washington and in the nation’s states and cities is “math”.

https://saberpartners.com/press/articlepages/wsj_07_20_10.html


Post Published Date: August 20th, 2010

August 6, 2010

“But everybody is doing it.” Denver Board of Education and Synthetic Fixed Rate Swaps

by: Joseph S. Fichera


August 6, 2010

“But everybody is doing it.” Denver Board of Education and Synthetic Fixed Rate Swaps

By: Joseph S. Fichera

As I noted in Friday’s (8/6/10) front page NY Times article attached, the Denver Board of Education was another issuer of a complex derivative deal who took on risks and wasn’t prepared for a downturn. Can risks be better known and managed? One help would be if the advisors weren’t also on the other side of the transaction. But equally important to remember is that, in the long run, the deals we don’t do for our clients are as important as the deals we do.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/business/06denver.html?emc=eta1


Post Published Date: August 6th, 2010