The stupid investment that raises your taxes. By Henry�Blodget

"Taxes You Shouldn't Pay
How your mutual funds are raising your IRS bill.
By Henry Blodget
Posted Thursday, April 13, 2006, at 11:56 AM ET


Own a mutual fund? If so, a couple of months ago, you probably got a note like this:
Dear Fund Owner: We are pleased to report that your fund did well in 2005. Thanks to the tireless efforts of our analysts, traders, and portfolio managers, we beat the market �
Well, actually, you probably didn't get a note like that, because most funds lag the market, but you probably got one trumpeting some fund feat or other. What you almost certainly didn't get was a note like this:
Dear Fund Owner: We are sorry to report that your fund did poorly in 2005. Oh, we beat the market, but of course this performance was pretax. We would like to imply that pretax performance matters (everyone else does), but it doesn't. Most of our shareholders have to pay taxes, and after taxes, our fund probably cost you a pretty penny.
It's no mystery why you don't get notes like this, even though they describe the reality for most fund owners (except for the market-beating part). Unless you own your fund in a tax-free retirement account, however (which some investors do�thus providing fund managers with an excuse), reading about pretax performance is a self-deluding waste of time. Instead, skip to the after-tax punch line, which, sadly, you probably won't find in the annual letter. Because if you don't, you'll just be setting yourself up to get socked with an unexpected tax bill.
Like other investing costs�management fees, brokerage commissions, transaction costs, etc.�taxes have a big impact on investment returns. A 2000 study by First Quadrant L.P. confirmed the familiar finding that index funds outperform most mutual funds"

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The $104 Billion Corporate Tax REFUND!!!

"The $104 Billion Refund
The most absurd corporate tax giveaway of 2005.
By Michelle Leder
Posted Thursday, April 13, 2006, at 12:33 PM ET


Feeling flush because you're getting a nice tax refund this year? You're not alone. Some of America's largest corporations�a virtual who's who of the Fortune 100�have been reporting their own hefty tax windfalls, thanks to an absurd provision of a law designed to create jobs.
IBM, for example, is banking a $2.8 billion refund�well, better to call it a 'tax savings'�because instead of paying the normal corporate tax rate of 35 percent on $9.5 billion in profits it earned overseas, the company paid only 5.25 percent. That's the magic of the American Jobs Creation Act, a piece of legislation that passed with comfortable margins in both the House and the Senate and was signed into law by President Bush just two weeks before the 2004 elections.
The AJCA, which was pushed through during the last fit of panic about outsourcing, was ostensibly designed to encourage companies to add jobs here. It gave a small tax deduction to American manufacturers, and it offered a one-time tax holiday in 2005 when corporations could repatriate their foreign income at a massively reduced tax rate. This repatriation, the theory went, would encourage R & D and capital investment in the United States, leading to new positions down the road. But, like President Bush's creatively named Clear Skies initiative and Healthy Forest Restoration Act, the American Jobs Creation Act has not lived up to its title.
Take IBM. According to its annual report for 2005, the company added fewer than 400 jobs worldwide last year to its workforce of 329,000 people. At the same time, IBM shed 5 million square feet of space in the United States, making it highly unlikely that any"

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Gas-price squeeze to fuel refiner profits - Oil & Energy - MSNBC.com

Gas-price squeeze to fuel refiner profits - Oil & Energy - MSNBC.com: "Gas-price squeeze seen pumping refiner profits
Threat of summer supply bottlenecks sends gas prices higher
By John W. Schoen
Senior Producer
MSNBC
Updated: 7:41 p.m. ET March 17, 2006


With the summer driving season still months away, pump prices have already begun rising as a combination of factors threaten to squeeze supplies. And with pump prices expected to continue rising as summer approaches, drivers� pain may soon become refiners� gain, according to analysts who follow the industry.
The national average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline hit $2.42 Friday, up nearly 16 cents a gallon in the past month, according to the latest figures from AAA. That�s up nearly 38 cents from this time last year. Diesel prices averaged nearly $2.64 a gallon nationwide, up 7 cents in the last months and nearly 40 cents from a year ago.
Pump prices continue to vary widely from one part of ht country to another. The lowest average price regular unleaded was in Newark, N.J., at $2.15 a gallon, according to the most recent Lundberg Survey, an energy consulting firm. But prices at some stations have once again topped $3.00 a gallon.
The jump in prices comes as demand for gas has been creeping upward.
�Gasoline consumption over the past 4 weeks has been 2.4 percent above prior-year levels, on average, suggesting momentum continues to build ahead of the summer driving seasons,� said Jacques Rousseau, an analyst at Friedman Billings and Ramsey.
Meanwhile, bottlenecks may also be looming for U.S. gasoline supplies, which could push prices even higher from current levels.
Though most refiners damaged by hurricane Katrina and Rita have come back on line, much of the industry was forced to postp"

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