We have had a lot of brainteasers lately, some easy, some hard, some answered quickly without much effort, some answered incorrectly by our smartest posters, most of them involving some simple combination of a tractable number of elements or decision trees. But imagine if,1) the brainteasers were all intractable involving chaos and innumerable elements,2) we discovered the current answer by taking a vote, and3) anybody would didn't accept the answer as accurate was thrown in prison!That is how I feel when I hear people solving the "economic stimulus" brainteaser each day, where their answer is how much of my income they are going to require me to hand over to avoid incarceration. They get it wrong a thousand times, as the amount of my income they confiscate rises and falls randomly, how did I become involved in other people's errors?MP

yep, taxtime comin' around again... uncle sammie taking over half of my bonus againI was joking with my brother that for what I'm paying I should have a bridge named after me in some minor metropolis, to which he replied: well, it's going to blow up a bridge in some minor metropolis, so don't complain.But back to the point, wouldn't mind discussing a little tax policy, national budget policy, and the ensuing financial policy.I agree, the amount of energy and supposed precision applied to a problem with such uncertainty is hardly merited... though it's amusing that they put out such a big incentive to do your own little game of aggressive accounting.Is there anyone on this board who can put together a concrete argument for supply-side when we have such massive overcapacity to produce and such overextended credit to consume?How about economic support of far-flung regimes whose major export is ill will right back to us? It may sound evil, but what incents you to make intelligent investments in banana republics if you have such a tough time measuring the upside? I'd be more comfortable with the Iraq situation if we just said it was like a corporate hostile takeover: If you dudes can't employ your resources fairly and equitably, we'll take you over, give you your fair share, and keep the equity that rises in value because we know how to manage them. Beats false altruism anyway.