[SK in CV]

No, I only mentioned one because that’s what I thought you were describing. (I wrote the comment before you clarified in your comment.) It would work the same way if any or all of the partners wanted to go into separate §1031s or some wanted to join you in your new investment.

[SK in CV]

Generally, the interest paid on a cash out refi of investment property is not deductible. Read that again. It is NOT deductible. Unless it meets some pretty stringent requirements. You have to be able to trace the funds to a deductible purpose. If the proceeds are invested in another piece of investment real estate it’s deductible. If the money is invested in non-trade or business investments like stock or taxable bonds, it’s deductible as investment interest (subject to investment interest expense limitations). Interest on debt used to acquire tax-free bonds specifically do not qualify for the investment interest expense deduction.

(In the old days, this would be like $200 you owe me.)

[SK in CV]

Me thinks the question is whether 1 of the 4 partners can do a §1031 exchange while the others take the money and run. The answer is maybe yes, but not without some pretty careful planning. Generally, what you need to dissolve and liquidate the partnership prior to the sale, which would include distributing the property to the individual partners, and sell an undivided interest in the former partnership property. There’s all kinds of other things that might make it not feasible or even desirable. Pay the professional fees necessary to make sure you do it right.

[SK in CV]

[quote=Allan from Fallbrook]Except for the fact that Lincoln had no such option. He had to preserve the Union at all costs and when it became apparent that the Southern states were bent on secession, war was inevitable.

A common mistake, and one that clearly informs spdrun’s thinking, is that the Civil War was fought over slavery and thus slavery (versus abolition) was the primary driving force. It wasn’t. This was an inevitable collision between two cultures: the rapidly industrializing and modern North and the agrarian and antebellum South.

Slavery was a factor, but not the primary factor, thus the Emancipation Proclamation was not signed until 1863, well into the war.[/quote]

I think that’s an over-simplification. The conflict was centered on social/economic differences between the north and the south. But the primary difference, both socially and economically was slavery. The north was industrial. The south was agrarian, and integral to the southern economy was cheap slave labor. If not but for that slave labor, the war would not have happened. It was pretty much a done deal as soon as Lincoln was elected.

[SK in CV]

[quote=UCGal]my understanding is that one of the issues of the strike was that hostess brands stopped funding the pension in August 2011, despite union contracts requiring the. too.

The size of the near $1 billion union pension claim is likely, in part, because Hostess’s hedge fund owners stopped contributing to the company’s pension plan in August 2011, as a result of bitter labor negotiations and deteriorating finances.

http://www.thestreet.mobi/story/11771361/1/twinkies-defense-is-private-equitys-pension-offense-street-whispers.html

Hard to put the blame of the pension problems 100% on the workers….[/quote]

Worse than just not funding the pensions, they continued to deduct employee contributions from their paychecks to their own pensions, and rather than transferring that money that was deducted to the pension plan, they kept it. Essentially forcing the employees to loan the company over $150 million.

[SK in CV]

[quote=flu]Oh well…

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/twinkies-bakers-theyd-rather-lose-020904983.html

“I really can’t afford to not be working, but this is not worth it. I’d rather go work somewhere else or draw unemployment,” said Johnson, a worker at Hostess for 23 years.”

I don’t get it. Can someone explain? $0 is better than some $ ?

I mean, I’ve been in situations in which I considered being underpaid..But wouldn’t one first find a job and then quit?[/quote]

It’s a double edged sword. It’s hard searching for a job when you’re working. Particularly in blue collar jobs where time off for interviews at other employers is frowned upon.

The employees were asked to take signficant pay cuts stretching out over the next 4 or 5 years, with some of them ending up making just a little over minimum wage. As one of them wrote…I like the job I have…not the one they’ve offered.

We’ve all been excited about new jobs with hope, expectations or even promises of raises down the line. Promises of making less every year after they’ve already suffered some pretty severe cuts, not so much. It makes sense to me.

[SK in CV]

[quote=Diego Mamani]Our friend Meg was interviewed by Marketplace (NPR) yesterday. The interviewer asked some tough questions… Too bad I only listened towards the end.

The questions were along the lines of (paraphrasing) “what is it that HP does?” Or, “can you explain to a consumer, in a few, plain words, what HP is?”

Meg answered that HP has two types of customers: households (consumers) and CIOs of large corporations.

Eventually, the question was “Tell us in 5 words, what is it that HP is.” Meg starting saying that (again paraphrasing) “HP is the largest hardware and software company that can solve all your needs as a consumer or as a corp…”

“That’s more than 5 words!” the interviewer cut her off.

So, there you have it. Meg admitted that HP is not very clear on what their objectives are. Unless the objective is to be everything for everybody. But we know that hasn’t worked well in business before…[/quote]

That’s a bs question for any CEO. Even many small companies, much less large enterprise companies, are too complicated to be described in 5 or 10 word answers. At least half the DOW 30 CEO’s could not answer that question with a meaninful answer. Best she could have done is say “HP is a technology company”. Not very enlightening.

[SK in CV]

[quote=squat250]i buy from amazon, sometimes, but we hang out at barnes and noble. so i feel bad not buying books there too… because we enjoy the ambience.

i would not buy any of my kids any tablet or smartphone.[/quote]

I love bookstores. I try to buy from them for the same reason. A few bucks extra for the browsing time.

Best thing you can do with a book is give it to someone else to read. Not counting reference books, I have a few books that I want to keep, but none bad enough that if I knew someone else wanted to read it, I wouldn’t pass it on. Nothing sadder than a book gathering dust on a shelf. They should be read, over and over and over again. Ideal mechanism to pay it forward.

[SK in CV]

[quote=flu]What a turd…

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/hewlett-packard-quarterly-revenue-falls-123741360.html

Whoa…Fraud…[/quote]

It’s a shame, they make pretty decent products in sleeping or dying product lines.

Interesting that they’re getting into enterprise consulting. It’s a cut throat business line, and I’m guessing their rates are going to be similar to IBM, Accenture, Deloitte that have been in the business for years. Which means close to double botiques that do better work. Big companies are just monstrosities when they need to shift gears.

[SK in CV]

[quote=Hobie]On paper it looks like a new sale. Overinflates sales numbers. Is B&N looking for a buyer? Besides lots of people never redeem gift cards and they have the cash. All said, I bet they limit that deal very soon. Smart kid. Proud Dad.[/quote]

Doesn’t quite work this way. Sales aren’t reported until the cards are redemmed. Trading in one gift card for another doesn’t affect sales volumne. But absolutely correct about cards that are never redeemed. Same thing with cashiers checks and travelers checks, that’s one of the ways Amex makes so much money, they keep the cash (and earn a return on it) while the travelers checks sit in someone’s dresser. The liability remains on their balance sheet, but they get the cash.

[SK in CV]

[quote=no_such_reality]Got sources for that?

Sadly the. Internal plundering of companies by the c-level is nothing new

A brand likentwinkies or ding doings makesnannice little cash cow for a employee owned to run. It also makes an even nicer target forenamed vulturen to strip and run[/quote]

source is http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/18/1162786/-Inside-the-Hostess-Bankery

[SK in CV]

[quote=flu]
The problem is cost….It always is…A lot of people don’t get that…Well, I guess those unemployed ex-twinkies people have a better thing lined up now… Good for them.

I’m still betting money a multinational will pick them up… Like nestle..Or some overseas company…The key is the brand and the recipes….[/quote]

Some of those ex-twinkie people probably do. I just read a story about one of them in KS. He worked for them for many years used to make $48K a year, but after a couple bankruptcies, his last pay rate put him down to $34K a year. About a year ago, $3 an hour of money that used to get deducted from his pay for his pension, got loaned to the company. Mandatory. And now it’s gone. Won’t be paid back. The new offer was an additional 8% pay cut, with an additional 27% pay cut over the next 5 years. Doubling the cost of his medical insurance with worse insurance. Elimination of all company paid retirement benefits. So over about 10 years, he’d go from $48K with good benefits, to $23,400 a year with almost no benefits.

His conclusion is that it will be pretty hard to replace the job he had. The one that paid him $4K a month plus benefits. But replace the $11.26 an hour with no benefits that they were offering? Not so much.

Oh, and over the last 10 years, the 6 CEO’s and other top management got big raises. Each one failed and each new one got paid more than the previous failed CEO. When this bankruptcy was filed, most got 300% raises.

[SK in CV]

[quote=KSMountain]Just had 2 twinkles as a parting shot. Absolutely delicious. The world is a sadder place without them.[/quote]

Indeed a sadder place. But stoners can rejoice, there is an alternative:

Twinkies
Ingredients
4 egg whites
One 16-ounce box golden pound cake mix
2/3 cup water

Filling
2 teaspoons very hot water
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups marshmallow creme (one 7-ounce jar)
1/2 cup shortening
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

You will need a cream canoe baking pan (or foil and a round spice jar to shape the “canoes”), a cake decorator or pastry bag, and a chopstick.

Preheat oven to 325ºF.

If using the foil: fold each piece of aluminum foil in half twice. Wrap the folded foil around the spice bottle to create a mold. Leave the top of the mold open for pouring in the batter. Make 10 of these molds and arrange them on a cookie sheet or in a shallow pan. Grease the inside of each mold with a light coating of non-stick spray (Pam or Baker’s Joy).

Ignore the directions on the box of cake mix. Instead, beat the egg whites until stiff. In a separate bowl combine cake mix with water and beat until thoroughly blended (about 2 minutes). Fold egg whites into the cake batter and slowly combine until completely mixed.

Pour the batter into the molds, filling each one about 3/4 of an inch. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.

For the filling, combine salt with the hot water in a small bowl and stir until salt is dissolved. Let this mixture cool. Combine the marshmallow creme, shortening, powdered sugar and vanilla in a medium bowl and mix well with an electric mixer on high speed until fluffy. Add the salt solution to the filling mixture and combine.
When the cakes are done and cooled, use a skewer or chopstick to make three holes in the bottom of each one. Move the stick around inside of each cake to create space for the filling.

Using a cake decorator or pastry bag, inject each cake with filling through all three holes.

SnoBalls
Cakes:
4 egg whites
1/2 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Rind of 1 lemon, finely grated
2 cups sifted cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2/3 cup milk
2 to 3 cups sweetened shredded coconut

Frosting:
1 (16 ounce) package powdered sugar
1 (7 ounce) jar JET-PUFFED Marshmallow Creme
1/4 cup margarine or butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons milk

Heat the oven to 350ºF. Butter and flour muffin tins or dome shaped baking molds and set aside.

Whip the egg whites in a clean bowl until stiff but not dry and place in the refrigerator while you make the rest of the batter. Cream the butter and add the sugar. Continue mixing to blend well. Add the vanilla extract, almond extract and lemon rind and mix well.

Sift the flour 3 times with the baking powder then add it to the butter mixture alternately with the milk in 3 additions. Fold in the whites and pour the batter into the molds, filling about 3/4 of the way up. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until batter is firm to the touch in the center.

Frosting: Beat sugar, Marshmallow Creme, margarine or butter and vanilla extract with electric mixer at medium speed, beating in milk as needed to desired frosting consistency.

Place the coconut in a bowl and add 1 drop of red or green food coloring for a pale color. Toss until food coloring is well mixed in and the coconut is the desired color. Frost the top and sides of the cakes and dip/roll in coconut to make them look like snowballs.

[SK in CV]

[quote=Allan from Fallbrook]SK: Kinda makes you wonder when they had anytime to do their jobs.

Didn’t mean the Mossad comment as any sort of racial slur, rather, I meant it as though I wouldn’t be surprised, especially given the close ties that the Mossad has maintained with the Lebanese Christian factions (anyone remember Sabra and Shatila?) over the years.

Combine that with the success that Israel has had penetrating US military and intelligence agencies and how interested they undoubtedly are in US intentions regarding Iran and I think one could definitely make a case. We are talking about the highest levels of the US military command structure here and the fact that a huge amount of classified information mysteriously wound up on a civilian’s computer.[/quote]

I think you misunderstood. The racial slur is spontaneously making the connection between Kelley’s ME heritage and her being a spy, irrespective of who she’s accused of working for. It was making the rounds as early as a couple days ago.

And having enough time to do their jobs was exactly why I mentioned the 20,000 pages. Even if every email and response and response to the response gets printed over and over again, that’s a lot of content over a pretty short period. Particularly for a guy that’s supposed to be running a war.

[SK in CV]

[quote=Allan from Fallbrook]SK: I was being tongue-in-cheek there and mainly based on how freaking weird this whole story is (and continues to be.)

Of course, if the Khawams had been turned we both know which intelligence operation would have done it: Mossad. Not kidding on this. Mossad and the Phalangists and the Maronites go way back.

You have to admit, this situation is getting weirder by the day and I have the sense more revelations are forthcoming.[/quote]

Yeah, it’s getting bizarre. Maybe the most bizarre that I’ve read is amidst the allegations of too sexy texts between Allen and Kelley is the report of 20 to 30 thousand pages of emails. The sexy texts get the headlines. But 20,000 pages of emails? WTF?

(and yes, Mossad is much more likely, though without a shred of evidence, it’s nothing more than a racial slur.)

[Author]

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