Well-worth Reading

David Cay Johnston is one of my favorite journalists.  Though he writes about taxes and economics, he does so in an uncommon way, as an investigative reporters.  In fact, he won a 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting.  He used to write for the New York Times, he now writers for the National Memo and has several books.  

Though he writes about such esoteric topics that usually numb people or are incomprehensible, he does so in a way that is as accessible and interesting as any news reporting of anything that I've seen.  For instance, I once saw he describe why deficit financing is actually a really good and smart way to have budgets, and isn't the horror that conservatives like to portray it.  The way he described the concept was along these lines --

Consider that you're out of work, in dept and don't have a car.  Someone offers you a good job, but it's an hour away from your home, and there's no public transportation.  Is it better to go further in debt to buy a car, which will allow you to take the job, earn money and pay off your debt -- or is it better to not buy the car, and stay in debt?  As he said, most people would not just say to buy the car, but understand clearly why that's best.

That's the sort of thing Johnston does so well.  And he does it wonderfully in this article here about all the discussion swirling around the issue of Donald Trump releasing his taxes.  So much of the reporting has said things like this will allow us to learn what Trum's net worth actually is and other such questions,but Johnston says it will do nothing of the sort.  That income tax returns only show income, not net work.  But -- he notes that there are actually a lot of things a tax return can reveal, which he writes in the piece, "9 Key Points About Trump's Income Taxes (And Many More Questions."

For instance, the Republican front runner's tax returns would show how much he "relies on tax-deductible interest to leverage his assets and, thus, how vulnerable he is to pressure from bankers if, as in 1990, he cannot pay his debts as they come due."  And how much Trump made "on his fraudulent Trump University," which just last week had New York state's indictments upheld against the Trump-lawyer challenges.

Johnston also writes that "I also suspect his returns will show negative income. That’s right — negative. The last line on the front page of his Form 1040 likely shows a number less than zero, because of a special tax rule for very rich real estate professionals that I’ll explain below. In essence, that rule means not having to pay income taxes."

And then he goes on to explain in as clear a way as David Cay Johnston always does what that special tax rule is.  And explains a great deal more.  It's a very good article that will not likely drag you down into head-banging angst, but instead should be extremely fascinating.  Again, you can find it here.