By Nancy Birdsall - I’m delighted to congratulate my colleague David Roodman on his winning the first ever Editor’s Prize of the Stata Journal for his 2009 and 2011 articles. Here is one of the more easily understood bits of the citation: Roodman’s formal education ended in 1990 with a Bachelor’s degree in theoretical mathematics from Harvard College. After [...]
By Sarah Jane Staats - The State Department and USAID get a gold star this week for publishing a detailed plan for reporting all US government aid data to the Foreign Assistance Dashboard and the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) by the end of 2015. The press release says initial data is up on the Foreign Assistance Dashboard and is [...]By Sarah Jane Staats - Liberia, Sierra Leone and Niger are the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)’s newest eligible partners. The MCC board selected these three new countries–plus two new countries eligible for second compacts and four countries already developing compact proposals–as eligible for FY13 assistance. We predicted 8 of the 9 picks. The outlier? Morocco. The big takeaway: MCC is putting competition [...]
: skip to main skip to sidebar Kopsa Otte Agriculture Blog Kopsa Otte CPAs Advisors have been involved in Income Tax Planning , Estate Planning Succession Planning for over 30 years . For more information about Kopsa Otte services , please contact us via e-mail at lkopsa kopsaotte.com or call 800-975-4829. Thursday , December 20, 2012 526,421 FAMILY FARMS THREATENED BY NEW DEATH TAX New legislation that jumps the death tax to 55 percent of estates exceeding 1 million threatens 526,421 family farms , of about 25 percent of all farms in America , according to a Senate . analysis According to the analysis from the Senate Republican Policy Committee chaired by Wyoming's John : Barrasso If President Obama and Senate Democrats do not act , the federal government will begin taking more than half: skip to main skip to sidebar Kopsa Otte Agriculture Blog Kopsa Otte CPAs Advisors have been involved in Income Tax Planning , Estate Planning Succession Planning for over 30 years . For more information about Kopsa Otte services , please contact us via e-mail at lkopsa kopsaotte.com or call 800-975-4829. Thursday , December 20, 2012 SCIENCE GOES WILD 2 Last week I mentioned the Ig . Nobels Our second : winner A British-American group won the physics prize for Figuring Out How a Ponytail Bounces . 8221 Posted by Legal : Disclaimer at 3:28 PM Newer Post Older Post Home Visit us on Facebook : at facebook.com kopsa.otte Wondering about the IRS's important due dates Gain access by clicking the link . below Small Business Tax Calendar Blog Archive 2012 199 December 13 526,421 FAMILY FARMS
By Amanda Glassman - This is a joint post with Denizhan Duran and Kate McQueston. The global health legacy of 2012 will be twofold, a year of both increased commitments to health and flat lining budgets. Just look at this past summer: world leaders made a call to end preventable child deaths, the London Summit on Family Planning has [...]
Adult orthodontics / edited by Birte Melsen.
D 617.648 A24
This is a major new work dedicated to the increasingly prominent area of adult orthodontics. Written by renowned contributors from the orthodontic community and beyond, and compiled by a world-class editor, it provides an authoritative resource on the subject, marrying together clinical guidance with a thorough [...]: skip to main skip to sidebar Kopsa Otte Agriculture Blog Kopsa Otte CPAs Advisors have been involved in Income Tax Planning , Estate Planning Succession Planning for over 30 years . For more information about Kopsa Otte services , please contact us via e-mail at lkopsa kopsaotte.com or call 800-975-4829. Wednesday , December 19, 2012 QUICKBOOKS 2013 UPDATE In response to customer feedback , QB’s has released an update for QB 2013 that will allow you to change the black ribbon at the top to a lighter color which is easier to read and looks similar to the older versions of QB’s . nbsp This is under EditPreferencesSwitch to colored icons light background . nbsp Always run updates because they may contain more options to switch the color scheme back to normal . Default Preference Posted by
By Beth Schwanke - I thought I would take a look to see if the recently released National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends 2030 report had anything of interest to say on development-related issues. And whoa, did it. The report is essentially a primer on why—from regional instability to the global economy to the US role in the international system—policymakers [...]By Amanda Glassman - This is a joint post with Charles Kenny. This week, eight polio vaccination workers in Sindh and Peshawar have been killed in Pakistan during a three day anti-polio drive (see here). Last week in Afghanistan, two polio vaccinators were also killed. Suspicions of CIA involvement in the campaign have been identified as causes of the [...]
By Will McKitterick - What were the most popular Rethinking US Foreign Assistance blog posts in 2012? White House development initiatives get a lot of attention. Major evaluation and learning efforts do too (think: MCC). Budget battles and the more troubling aid stories in aid get a lot of interest, too. Take a look at our top 10 list [...]
By Sarah Jane Staats - This is a joint post with Will McKitterick. Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) introduced a 923-page rewrite of the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act last week. He first vowed to rewrite the bill in 2008 when he was chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Unfortunately, Berman has only days left in Congress and the bill won’t [...]By Kate McQueston - It’s that magical time of the year when we bring you the top 10 most read entries on the CGD Global Health Policy Blog. Together, these top posts had a total almost 20,000 unique page views. This year the blog asked for your feedback on evaluating the quality of health aid, addressed the debate over [...]
By Jenny Ottenhoff - As 2012 winds down, it’s time once again to look back at the most popular posts to our Views from the Center blog. Surprisingly, posts on the selection process for the World Bank president accounted for four of the top 10. To see what all the fuss was about, read Nancy Birdsall’s Why it Matters [...]By Amanda Glassman - This is a joint post with Jenny Ottenhoff. Ambassador Eric Goosby has been selected to head the US Department of State’s new Office of Global Health Diplomacy, officially turning the page in the ongoing saga of the program formally known as the Global Health Initiative (GHI). Goosby’s appointment will be on top of his role [...]By Sarah Jane Staats - The race is on for FY2013 Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) funding. The MCC board of directors meets December 19th to decide which countries will be eligible for FY2013 assistance. CGD’s MCA Monitor offers a sneak peek at the countries we think the MCC is most likely to select as eligible for compacts or threshold programs and [...]
By Jenny Ottenhoff - With 2012 coming to a close, it’s time again for a little light-hearted reflection on what’s hot and what’s not for global development and the wider world in the year ahead. We at CGD put our heads together and came up with the following list. Got better ideas? Add your suggestions in the comments section [...]
Earth Day Network completed a tree-planting project in central Uganda today that saw 350,000 trees planted in three high-poverty districts: Kiboga-Kyankwanzi, Kayunga and Kamuli.
read more</p: skip to main skip to sidebar Kopsa Otte Agriculture Blog Kopsa Otte CPAs Advisors have been involved in Income Tax Planning , Estate Planning Succession Planning for over 30 years . For more information about Kopsa Otte services , please contact us via e-mail at lkopsa kopsaotte.com or call 800-975-4829. Saturday , December 15, 2012 SELLING SOME LOSERS CAN TRIM YOUR TAX BILL Capital losses offset your gains , plus up to 3,000 of other income . Any excess losses are carried over to next year . Note the wash-sale : rule If you buy the identical securities within 30 days before or after the sale , the loss isn't deductible . Instead the disallowed loss is added to the basis of the new shares . The rule can bite you if your IRA quickly buys stock that you sold at a loss in a taxable account If your income other than gains and dividends is in the 10% or 15% bracket, profits on sales of assets owned for over a year and dividends are tax free until they push you into the 25% bracket. That bracket starts at $70,700 of taxable income for couples and $35,350 for singles. The balance of your long-term gains and dividends is taxed at 15%. But short-term capital gains are taxed as ordinary income ... up to a 35% rate. You are able to claim the deduction this year even if the checks do not clear until January. And make sure you know the tax rules if you are charging deductible items. For charges that you make with a retail store credit card, you are allowed to claim the deduction for the item only in the tax year in which you pay the bill. For transactions made with a bank credit card, you take the write-off in the tax year that you charged the goods, even if you pay the bill next year. By Sarah Jane Staats - Hooray! The White House has nominated Lorne Craner and Morton Halperin to fill the two vacant non-governmental positions on the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) board of directors. I’m thrilled to hear this announcement—naming these board members was one of three foreign aid tasks I argued the White House could accomplish before January 20th—and hope the [...]
Due to Congressional inaction, the 2008 Farm Bill has expired without a new bill or extension to take its place. In the absence of a farm bill, numerous innovative programs that invest in sustainable agriculture systems are shut down and left without funding. This post is the final post in our 10-week blog series that Read the Rest...: skip to main skip to sidebar Kopsa Otte Agriculture Blog Kopsa Otte CPAs Advisors have been involved in Income Tax Planning , Estate Planning Succession Planning for over 30 years . For more information about Kopsa Otte services , please contact us via e-mail at lkopsa kopsaotte.com or call 800-975-4829. Wednesday , December 12, 2012 CHECK THE BALANCE IN YOUR FLEXIBLE SPENDING ACCOUNT Just a reminder~ If your employer still has not implemented the 2½-month grace period that IRS now permits you must clean it out by December 31. If you do not , any money remaining in your account is . forfeited Remember that in the Patient Protection Act there is a 2,500 annual ceiling on health FSA that takes effect for 2013. Posted by Legal : Disclaimer at 1:24 PM Newer Post Older Post Home Visit us on
By Todd Moss - This is a joint post with Ben Leo, former CGD research fellow and now Policy Director at ONE. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation is the best US development agency you’ve probably never heard of. Known as OPIC, it’s often mistakenly confused with the oil cartel. But if you care about promoting economic opportunity around the [...]
By Julie Walz - This is a joint post with Vijaya Ramachandran. January 12 will mark the third anniversary of the tragic Haiti earthquake that killed over 220,000 people, displaced millions, and flattened much of Port au Prince. Damage and losses estimated at $7.8 billion exceeded Haiti’s entire GDP at the time. The country received unprecedented support in response: [...]
Due to Congressional inaction, the 2008 Farm Bill has expired without a new bill or extension to take its place. In the absence of a farm bill, numerous innovative programs that invest in sustainable agriculture systems are shut down and left without mandatory funding. This is the last post in our 10-week “What’s at Stake?” Read the Rest...
By Michele de Nevers - The annual UN climate summit, this year held with some irony in Doha, Qatar, has come and gone. Where does that leave us? Let’s look at a few key action areas. Binding emissions reductions? The only legally binding international commitment to reduce emissions, the Kyoto Protocol, was renewed at the last minute for eight more [...]By Victoria Fan - This is a joint post with Rachel Silverman. Last week, I attended a conference on South Africa’s national health insurance (NHI), which was hosted in Pretoria by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). A key recurring theme and consensus emerged: South Africa must develop a clearer plan and strategy for the “piloting” phase of its [...]
By William Savedoff - Yes, but not necessarily in the way most people think. Peter Reuter addressed this question at the Center for Global Development last week based on research in Draining Development? Controlling Flows of Illicit Funds from Developing Countries – a volume that he edited for the World Bank. It is clearly the most thorough assessment to [...]
For the past two weeks, heads of state gathered in Doha, Qatar, for the 18th Conference of the Parties (COP-18) organized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This annual conference brings together representatives from every country in the world to negotiate how the global community will respond to the dangers associated with climate change.
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By Todd Moss - This post originally appeared on Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs’ Policy Innovations blog. Imagine the United States sending low-calorie food aid to Ethiopia in response to the global obesity epidemic. Absurd, right? Even if global waistline trends are worrisome, Ethiopians didn’t create the problem. Such a policy would be futile since it would have [...]: skip to main skip to sidebar Kopsa Otte Agriculture Blog Kopsa Otte CPAs Advisors have been involved in Income Tax Planning , Estate Planning Succession Planning for over 30 years . For more information about Kopsa Otte services , please contact us via e-mail at lkopsa kopsaotte.com or call 800-975-4829. Friday , December 7, 2012 AG EXPORTS AT RISK WITHOUT LONG-TERM FARM BILL Brownfield BrownfieldAgNews.com reports U.S . Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says that without a five-year farm bill , ag exports are threatened . nbsp He adds that it's not just farm income , it's also nearly a million jobs that are at risk here . To read the article : CLICK HERE Posted by Legal : Disclaimer at 10:09 AM Newer Post Older Post Home Visit us on Facebook : at facebook.com kopsa.otte Wondering about the IRS's
By Beth Schwanke - As Washington waits for a fiscal cliff deal, negotiations on the FY13 appropriations bills are moving. The deal is likely to affect the final numbers in those bills. But barring a series of continuing resolutions, we can expect to see minibuses or an omnibus appropriations bill once a deal is reached. What the State and [...]By Sarah Jane Staats - The MCC will soon select countries that are eligible for FY2013 funding. This is the tenth time the MCC has used its indicators-based selection system, but only the second time it has required countries to pass the control of corruption indicator and either the political rights or the civil liberties indicator. A new MCA Monitor [...]
By Amanda Glassman - Today in Health Affairs, Jishnu Das, Alaka Holla, Veena Das, Manoj Mohanan, Diana Tabak, and Brian Chan publish a unique and important study on the messy realities of health care in rural areas of the extremely poor state of Madhya Pradesh in India. Despite their relative poverty, the citizens of Madhya Pradesh seem to use [...]