Bob Lord

Bob has mostly wound down his 39-year career as a tax and business lawyer (with a 1-year interruption to run for Congress in 2008 (CD3), when he tried to unseat John Shadegg. Bob now serves as the senior advisor on tax policy for the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of wealthy Americans who believe the light taxation of America's rich is destabilizing our democracy, and as an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. Bob has been writing for Blog For Arizona since late 2011, concentrating mostly on federal issues, with an occasional foray into Arizona state politics.

It’s Not the Dark; It’s the Money

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I held my tongue for the past few months, so as not to step on the Democrats’ messaging during this campaign. But the intense focus on the source of conservative funding is, to me, idiotic. So, on last night’s comment thread, I asked if it was the dark, or the money, that was the problem. The root … Read more

Diane Douglas, The Control Group Candidate

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The campaign Diane Douglas has run in the Supe Race will provide us with information about the Arizona electorate we may not want to know.

You see, Douglas, and the campaign she has run, have given us an electorate as close as you could get to the analogue of a group that takes only a placebo in a drug trial, a group otherwise known as a control group. Actually, a terrific Democratic candidate, David Garcia, running a top-notch campaign, also was a necessary condition in this experiment.

What this year’s Supe Race will provide is a measure analogous to what a control group in a drug trial gives us. In a drug trial, the control group results from taking a placebo tell us what we can expect with no drug intervention. In science speak, that’s a baseline.

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The End of Insanity?

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Months ago, I wrote a post musing about whether those living in the moment recognize when their society has gone off the rails, or whether that only becomes clear in hindsight.

I may have used the old metaphor of a frog in water that heats slowly, or perhaps a marriage that grows ever worse incrementally. You never realize just how bad it was until you look back on it.

Is that how it is with American Empire? It started smoothly enough, at the outset of the 20th century. At some point, it became more difficult to control outcomes. But, no big deal. Take out a freely elected leader here; foment a coup there; prop up autocrats, well, everywhere.

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The 0.01 Percent’s ‘I Reap All’ Accounts

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Multi-millionaires and billionaires are shielding vast fortunes from taxation with monstrously huge IRAs.

[Distributed via OtherWords.org]

Do you remember when Mitt Romney’s IRA made headlines during his failed 2012 presidential campaign?

That outsized retirement stash estimated at between $20 and $102 million probably led President Barack Obama to propose limiting the buildup of IRA values. It turns out that Romney’s gigantic IRA was no fluke.

At least 9,000 wealthy Americans have amassed $5 million-plus sized IRAs. Indeed, the former Massachusetts governor’s use of a monster IRA to defer taxation is modest compared to others.

Meet Max Levchin. When he helped launch Yelp, Levchin had the foresight to place at least 7 million of his original shares of Yelp stock in a tax-sheltered Roth IRA when he acquired it.

The Ukrainian-born entrepreneur has sold off some of those shares since then, so estimating the size of that Roth mega-IRA requires some guesswork. Based on Yelp’s recent trading range, it easily could exceed $275 million.

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Brahm Resnik: Diane Douglas Still Hiding

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Overall, I was quite impressed by the Arizona media during the Thucky coverage. Top honors, however, had to go to Brahm Resnik. I already had shared the story with Steve Lemons, but Brahm got the privilege of breaking it because he’d been following it himself here at BfAZ. Within hours of my posting Does ANYONE Actually Like John Huppenthal?, Brahm was on the phone asking to chat about the Peloponnesian Wars.

So, is Brahm still following us here at BfAZ? Could be, although I doubt he needed me to help him figure this one out. A month ago, I wrote Did the AZGOP Instruct Diane Douglas to Stay Inside?

And today, from Brahm Resnik, we have The Invisible Candidate. If you possibly can, click through and play the clip. After Douglas snubs his invitation to be interviewed, he actually knocks on her door. That’s what a reporter is supposed to do, right?

Here’s a tidbit from the print version of Brahm’s report:

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