Where is the US economy headed?

AGAIN!:

Quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051527/posts
Partial History of U.S. Federal Income Tax Rates
Highest and lowest Income Tax Rates 1913 to 2007
...
1971-1981: minimum = 14%; maximum = 70% [CARTER 1977-1981]

1982-1986: minimum = 11%; maximum = 50% [REAGAN 1981-1989]

1987-1987: minimum = 11%; maximum = 38.5%

1988-1990: minimum = 15%; maximum = 33% [BUSH 41 1989-1993]

1991-1992: minimum = 15%; maximum = 31%

1993-2000: minimum = 15%; maximum = 39.6% [CLINTON 1993-2001]

2001- 2001: minimum = 15%; maximum = 39.1%

2002-2002: minimum = 10%; maximum = 38.6% [BUSH 43 2001-2009]

2003-2009: minimum = 10%; maximum = 35%

Quote:

ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.cpseea1.txt
HISTORY OF TOTAL USA EMPLOYMENT 1980 - 2009

....Total USA Employed.....Change
Carter
1980…… 99,302,000………….. + 7,285,000
Reagan
1984….. 105,005,000…………...+ 5,703,000
Reagan
1988….. 114,968,000…………...+ 9,963,000
Bush I
1992….. 118,492,000…………...+ 3,524,000
Clinton
1996….. 126,708,000…………...+ 8,216,000
Clinton
2000….. 136,891,000…………...+ 10,183,000
Bush II
2004….. 139,252,000…………...+ 2,361,000
Bush II
2008….. 145,362,000…………...+ 6,110,000
Obama
As of October 2009 ....138,275,000.........- 7,087,000

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Wave Goodbye to the Cheque
(or, no more "The cheque is in the mail.")

I read today in the British press that some government body has decreed that cheques ("checks" to us in the U.S.) will be phased out and totally eliminated in the U.K. by late 2018.
The board feels that, by then, existing and evolving technology...along with old farts like some of us dying off...will make checks obsolete.
The earliest known check dates back some 350 years.
In the U.K. the peak year for checks was in 1990, with some 2.4B of them being written by individuals. In 2008, the number of personal checks had fallen to 663M.
I warned yall that a thread left fallow for 24 hours was fair game.

1 Reply

@realjohnboy,

I wonder how that'll affect financial audits?

1 Reply

@cicerone imposter,

I am finding increasingly difficult to use checks in the US.

1 Reply

@hawkeye10,

You know, I only use checks to pay regular bills. The only local merchant I offer them to is the bike shop, and that's because I don't want to see them docked for the service charge.

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@roger,

I use checks to send donations to charities, and not much else.

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@roger,

Quote:

You know, I only use checks to pay regular bills. The only local merchant I offer them to is the bike shop, and that's because I don't want to see them docked for the service charge.

Not really a great benefit, most everybody for over a decade has run checks through a guarantee service such as telecheck. Telecheck gets %1.6 of the check total.
http://www.anz.com/Documents/AU/Business/merchant/TeleCheck_PDS.pdf

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@roger,

Roger. According to the British article I read, merchants pay more to have checks processed than credit card transactions. I have an MBA and have tried to decipher the monthly credit card statements and my bank statements for my businesses re revenues. Impossible to figure out.
If you want to do your local businesses a favor, pay in cash. Otherwise 1-3% goes to some check or credit card processor.
Can I prove that? I think I could if challenged.

(edit: thanks Hawkeye, for confirming that).

2 Replies

@realjohnboy,

not if it is a small business that does not have a check processor. then checks are less costly.

although it depends on their relationship with the bank.

(and if they get a bad check, they are screwed)

1 Reply

@Rockhead,

Well ya, the potential downside is to be out not only the written value of the check, but also the bank can try to run the check three times and collect three bounce charges.

1 Reply

@realjohnboy,

I'll have to ask. I'm sure if there is a per check charge for getting the check verified, he just wouldn't verify mine.

When I was doing books for a well servicing company, I did the reconciliations, and there was no charge for processing a check. Now, we didn't verify checks, and there was never a bad one in 10 years. The Oil & Gas business is kind of exceptional in that respect. The number of checks was quite low, but there were some really good checks coming in. Oh, and we didn't do credit cards.

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@hawkeye10,

That is a really big problem, hawkeye, and I know they do it. Why penalize the seller? They didn't write the damn thing.

1 Reply

@roger,

because normally the seller will then collect the charges from the person who wrote the check.....it is easy money for the bank.

I know a couple of people who work for banks, they tell me that profitability is all about collecting fees. I moved to Credit Unions years ago primarily because they do less of this. In theory I get charged $5 each time a check hits but the checking does not have enough so it needs to come from savings, but most of the time my CU does not bother to charge me. You would never find a bank passing up $5 of pure profit (pulling from savings costs no money because it takes no labor, the computer does it)

1 Reply

@hawkeye10,

Banks have been sending out notices to its customers about increased fee schedules. You never want to pay the bank's overdraft fee.

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We, in my businesses, get very few checks anymore. We don't use any kind of verification service. Most of the writers are of an older age and the check number is, like 5587. Not likely to be bad.
My bank does charge me - the merchant - a fee for processing that check.

Checks will disappear as a means of exchange within a decade. Cash? Perhaps a bit longer. But it will happen.

Credit/debit cards or whatever evolves from that will be the new method. It is not at all unusual for a (young) person to come into one of my stores and make a purchase on a card for 75 or 49 cents.

2 Replies

@realjohnboy,

rjb, I would refuse to process those tiny transactions. After all, it costs more to process than you get out of it, especially considering the probable almost nil profit margin in a transaction under a dollar, even without the cost of processing the card.

1 Reply

@okie,

yeah, what are the odds that they will grow up to be real customers, anyway...

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@realjohnboy,

rjb, I learned that old trick of buying check numbers beginning with a huge number to make it look like we write checks all the time. But, that was several decades ago. I'm lucky if I write a half dozen checks a year now.

1 Reply

@cicerone imposter,

The great story I can tell about checks comes from the owner of an old hardware store/farm equipment dealer here in Cville. This rich lady bought a bunch of equipment for her "yard boys." She agreed to pay $200/month for 6 months ($1,200).
She came into town faithfully on the 1st of the month but asked if she could write the check for $400 and get back $200 in cash to go shopping. They agreed.
After 3 months, she claimed the debt was paid off and she had the canceled checks (3 x $400) to prove it.
How clever is that?

3 Replies

@realjohnboy,

Quote:

After 3 months, she claimed the debt was paid off and she had the canceled checks (3 x $400) to prove it.
How clever is that

when behaviour violates our morality we normally substitute "devious" for "clever"..... JSYK

2 Replies

Where is the US economy headed?

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