J
    James Sunshine

    James Sunshine

    Contributor

  • Agency's Request For Huge Number Of Bullets Raises Some Eybrows

    The people who cut your retirement check may be packing some heat. The Social Security Administration recently posted a purchase request for 174,000 .357 Sig 125 grain bonded jacketed hollow point bullets. SSA is processing more applications than ever, which means more traffic in SSA offices.

  • 14 States Where Making Just $5,000 Can Get You Kicked Off Medicaid

    How much is too much for someone to be ineligible for Medicaid? Medicaid is a federal program designed to provide health coverage to children and adults with limited financial means and disabilities. Different states have different financial qualifications that adults must meet in order to receive coverage.

  • This Was Once Marketed As A Cure For Gonnorrhea

    Is anyone today using Listerine as a cure for gonorrhea? When it was originally marketed over 100 years ago, Listerine was sold as a treatment for gonorrhea, as a floor cleaner and as a powerful antiseptic, according to the best-selling book "Freakonomics." Those uses may be a bit surprising, considering the product is today used for dental hygiene. Listerine is not alone.

  • How The Private Sector Can Reduce Unemployment

    There is a skills gap in the U.S., and it is expected to widen over the next decade. Addressing it will take the concerted efforts of both government and -- especially given strained federal and state budgets -- private industry. A paper issued last week by the National Bureau of Economic Research attributes roughly one-third of the recent rise in the unemployment rate to a mismatch between vacant jobs and unemployed workers.

  • 10 Ways Paul Ryan's 'Path To Prosperity' Budget Would Hurt Americans

    Paul Ryan's budget proposals have earned him recognition from his fellow party members in Congress, and the presumed Republican vice presidential nominee's plans could have far-reaching effects on the American people if signed into law. In Ryan's 2010 "Roadmap for America's Future" and the more recent "Path to Prosperity" in 2012, the Wisconsin congressman has laid out his vision for the role of the U.S. government and the future of federal entitlement programs. Under Ryan's most recent proposal, the way Americans pay taxes would be markedly different.

  • Romney Would Have Paid Nothing In Taxes Under Old Ryan Plan

    Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan's assertion that programs like Medicare and Social Security are staring at bankruptcy did not stop the Wisconsin congressman from once proposing a federal budget that would have eliminated virtually all taxes on people like his new running-mate, Mitt Romney. While Ryan's positions have gone through a makeover of late, his 2010 version of the federal budget -- which propelled him to become the so-called "intellectual leader" of the Republican Party -- provided a straightforward plan for tax cuts. Under Ryan's 2010 proposal, taxes on income derived from capital gains, interest, dividends and inheritance would be eliminated.

  • Will France's Extremely High Income Tax Scare Away The Rich?

    French president Francois Hollande wants to go back to the future on taxes. When running for the job he eventually won, Hollande famously proposed a marginal tax rate of 75 percent on income above €1 million per year. Progressives argued it was only fair while those on the right — and those who would be impacted — made noise about fleeing France.

  • Millionaire Buys 403 Foreclosed Homes

    You might decide to buy a house with a million dollars, but with an extra 4 million, you could have bought every tax-foreclosed home up for auction in Michigan's Macomb County. For the dirt-cheap price of $4.9 million, McMachen bought all 645 tax-foreclosed properties in the county, including 403 residential properties. "By packaging the good with the bad, it's in the center for somebody to come in and buy it all," Macomb County Treasurer Ted Wahby told Fox 2 in Detroit.

  • Workers Spend Insane Amount Of Day Just Dealing With Email

    Office workers spend an average of 2.6 hours per day reading and answering emails, according to a survey conducted by McKinsey Global Institute. Employees spend about 28 percent of their day interacting with their email accounts, the most time of any daily activity at the workplace. Searching for and gathering information comes in at a distant second by taking up 1.76 hours a day, or 19 percent of the workday.

  • 10 States With The Biggest Underemployment Problems

    Today, 8.2 percent of Americans are officially struggling with unemployment. Nearly double that number can be classified under a larger umbrella group: the underemployed, a classification that includes the previously mentioned, as well as part-time workers searching for full-time work and people who aren't looking because they don't think jobs are available. It has a tangible effect on consumer confidence and spending too.

  • The Most Pessimistic Countries In The World

    Despite this general optimism, pessimism had a much stronger pull in several places. Based on Gallup’s survey, 24/7 Wall St. examined the 11 most pessimistic countries in the world. This may be due to the moribund economies brought on by the global recession and the European sovereign debt crisis.

  • Lawyer Allegedly Stole Huge Sum From Orphan Girls

    Last Friday, Attorney John Milton Merritt plead guilty to 12 counts of using forged court orders to defraud clients, Oklahoma News 9 reports. Prosecutors appear unmoved by the claim that Merritt always intended to pay back his clients but was prevented from doing so by the federal investigation. Prosecutors intend to seek full financial restitution.

  • Elderly Couple Alleges JPMorgan Called Them 75 Times A Week

    JPMorgan Chase allegedly called John and Anna Canaday 15 to 75 times a week between 2009 and 2012, claiming they were at risk of losing their home to foreclosure, according to a lawsuit filed by the couple earlier this month. "It defies logic what seems to be happening here," James McKiernan, the Canaday's attorney, told The Huffington Post. "When homeowners fall behind on their mortgage payment, we actively try to reach them," a JPMorgan Chase spokesman wrote in an email to The Huffington Post.

  • Record Number Of Employers Not Paying Overtime, Stealing Wages

    Lack of clarity in overtime laws and lucrative settlements for plaintiffs are just some of the reasons why the number of reported wage abuse cases is going up. The study also found that 21 percent of workers reported that they were being paid less than the required minimum wage. Only non-white U.S. born workers did not report a minimum wage violation.

  • Lots Of You Make Less Than Ten Dollars Per Hour

    Ever considered what it's like to live on anything less than a living wage? Many private-sector workers know how it feels. Just over half of low-wage workers are employed in industries such as food service, accommodation, retail, administration services and arts and recreation.

  • 10 Cities Where Homes Cost Less Than A Car

    24/7 Wall St.: For many Americans, homeownership is the epitome of living the American dream. Call it the dark side of the American dream – but if you can only afford to buy just one, which would you choose? In hard-hit cities, why own a home when you can rent one without the risk of foreclosure if your job falls through?

  • 10 Countries Where Romney's Tax Plan Creates Jobs

    Mitt Romney's proposal to stop taxing corporate overseas profits may create jobs, just not here, according to a new report. The Republican presidential candidate's proposal to eliminate the repatriation tax, which requires companies to pay taxes on the overseas profits they bring back to the country, will lead to the creation of 800,000 jobs overseas, Reed College economist Kimberly Clausing estimates. The incentive for multinational corporations to locate jobs in low tax havens will likely be too great to ignore, she says.

  • Death Of The Spanish Siesta?

    Spanish workers are also making sacrifices. The siesta, a time-honored afternoon nap in Spanish culture, appears to be on a siesta of its own, Reuters reports. Grappling with crushing levels of unemployment and enormous budget deficits, Spaniards are cutting back on what has often been the daily respite in an attempt to maximize production.

  • Report: Romney's Tax Plan Would Cost 800,000 Jobs

    Mitt Romney's plan not to force companies to pay taxes on profits they bring back from overseas will eliminate jobs, according to a new report by the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Between 1999 and 2010, U.S. corporations eliminated 1 million jobs at home while creating 3 million jobs abroad. Romney's plan to eliminate the Repatriation Tax altogether would simply exacerbate the problem, CAP argues.

  • 'We Are Truly Sorry': The 10 Most Famous Corporate Apologies

    A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a solid apology is pretty good too. Most recently, Barclays posted an apology to its Facebook page, telling its customers that it is sorry for the role it played in the Libor rate-rigging scandal. The apology also ran in The Telegraph, a British newspaper, according to Business Insider.