Illinois' Frail Finances

Late payers would effectively face a 20pc VAT “fine” under the terms of proposals being aired to provide shock treatment for offenders, reports The Telegraph. Beatrice Bartlay, managing director of 2B Interface, the jobs agency, is canvassing support for reforms to a problem she says is “killing” small businesses.

IRS waives late payment penalties for returns containing delayed forms.  If you can’t file or pay taxes on time, it’s always better to extend your return while you round up the information or the cash.  The penalty for filing a late unextended return is 5%, plus an additional 5% for every additional month of late filing.  The penalty

On Tuesday we heard news that July retail sales rose, breaking a three-month downtrend. Doug Short at advisor Perspectives has a great set of charts in his report Retail Sales: At Last, an Improvement! Doug puts the improvement in proper perspective. However, my first thought in reading the report was "July sales will be likely revised lower". Now I'm Wondering "What's Going on in California?"

Fashion-industry blog Fashionista reported earlier this month that Occupy Wall Street's "Intern Labor Rights division" had made plans to protest unpaid internships in the industry at New York Fashion Week.

Lucas Papademos, the ex-technocrat prime minister of Greece says public finances face collapse. Greece’s public finances could collapse as early as next month, leaving salaries and pensions unpaid unless a stable government emerges from the June 17 election, according to Lucas Papademos, the technocrat prime minister who left office after this month’s inconclusive vote.

Curious how Europe's insolvent peripheral countries, where the government is increasingly the only source demand (if not funding), have managed to avoid falling into a primary budget deficit abyss? Simple: instead of paying their outstanding bills, Europe's insolvent nations are simply not paying them. And with the entire European bond market now a central bank controlled policy mechanism, meaning there are no longer any checks and balances to keep governments honest, there is no pressure on said countries to actually pay.