An IRS office was keeping a close eye on a small company with only a few employees.  The income reported by the small business on its annual income tax form seemed to the IRS to be more than could be expected by the company’s limited number of employees, unless there was a lot of overtime.  The problem was that the small business reported no overtime being paid to its employees.  Hence, an IRS agent was sent to look into the matter.

When he arrived, he introduced himself and explained to the owner that he wanted to take a look at his books.  The owner responded by laying out his books on his desk and inviting the agent to spend as much time as he wanted looking over all the figures.  The agent confirmed that no overtime was being paid, yet the income was more than seemed reasonable for the number of employees.  He decided to interview the owner. Read more…

The other morning I went to a Starbucks I am well acquainted with and know the flow of customer traffic.  I went at a time when there would be a really good cross section of people: high school and college students, young adults, and older people.  I concentrated at first on high school students; I knew they were just killing a few minutes before hurrying on to school. 

I went from table to table, sitting down in a chair, and saying to the somewhat surprised students sitting around the table, “I’m William Bradshaw.  I’m a writer working on an article, and I need your help.  Would you mind answering a few questions?”  The responses were always in the affirmative. Read more…

Leading up to next week’s elections—November 4—the mail, newspapers, radio, and TV are saturated with political ads.  Time and again, Democrats and Republicans say, “I’m going to fight for you.”  That’s the big problem we have on all levels of government—there’s just too much fighting.  I’m looking for the candidate who says, “I’m going to work for you.”   We need politicians who spend time “working”—not “fighting”—with their fellow legislators on the other side of the aisle. 

We hear political pundits—both the Democrats and Republicans—saying it is a mistake to compromise: “We must stand up and fight for what we believe in.”  It is important to hold firm on principles that are the very core of who you are, but in most instances, it is possible to reach consensus.  However, it takes “give” and “take”—and that takes work—it doesn’t just happen. Read more…

Last week, my wife and I went to our favorite pizza place.  When we were finished eating, the waiter brought us the check.  I didn’t have the correct change.  So I quickly figured the tip in my head, gave him two larger bills, and said to him, “Just bring me back five dollars, and I’ll be happy.”  He replied, “Okay, I’ll bring you back five bucks.” 

His referring to five dollars as five “bucks” caught my attention.  When growing up in southern Missouri, “bucks” was a very common term used for “dollars,” but having lived in the St. Louis area for the last twenty years, it had been some time since I had heard “bucks” used in this way. 

This caused me to wonder how bucks came about to mean dollars and, for that matter, what about other terms often used to refer to money such as “grand,” “dough,” “lettuce,” “bacon,” “sawbuck,” “scratch,” and “stash,” to mention a few.  So for the third week in a row I am writing about money. Read more…

When writing last week’s article, Where did that money come from?, a banker called my attention to “Bitcoin,” a virtual currency introduced in 2009.  An informal survey I took indicated that few people know very much about “virtual” currencies.  So this week I decided to do a brief sketch of the historical development of the U.S. monetary system, hitting the highlights of what most of us have known and perhaps become a little foggy about, concluding in more detail with the development of virtual money.  Acknowledging that I am not a currency historian, after extensive research I am using layman’s terminology to explain things as I understand them. 

The value of a country’s currency is basically dependent upon the country’s integrity and having the assets necessary to pay its debt and back up its currency.  This was a real problem for early Americans prior to, and for several years following, the Revolutionary War. Read more…

$$$   Where did that Money Come From?   $$$

“Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar; all for Lebanon stand up and holler.”  I was reared in Lebanon, Missouri, attended Lebanon High School, and that was a cheer used especially at our basketball games.  Of course, other teams used the same cheer, inserting their own names.  Back then, it was quite common to refer to a quarter as “two bits” or a half-dollar as “four bits” or seventy-five cents as “six bits.”  

We hardly see half-dollars now, and although quarters are still quite common, we seldom hear them referred as “two bits.”  In fact, from an informal survey I took, most people about forty years and younger do not have any idea what “two bits” or “four bits” or “six bits” or any number of bits refer to.  Many people assume that using “bits” to refer to USA money is slang.  But the “bit” has a legitimate historical connection with the USA monetary system that can be traced to colonial times.  Read more…