A Sad Irony

On the day when the New York legislature did this:

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed into law a sweeping package of gun-control measures on Tuesday, significantly expanding a ban on assault weapons and making New York the first state to change its laws in response to the mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school.

I learn about this:

BREWSTER — A 13-year-old boy was found dead Monday night at home of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, state police said.


The teen, an eighth-grader at Henry H. Wells Middle School, was found about 5:45 p.m. by his father, who was returning to their Elmwood Drive home from the grocery store after leaving less than an hour earlier.

No one else was at home when the teen died, police said.

School was in session Tuesday and counselors were available for students and staff, Brewster Superintendent Jane Sandbank said in a statement.

“Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family,” Sandbank said.

The mood at Wells Middle School on Tuesday was one of great sadness, with students crying openly in the hallways; others walking around with had the young man’s jersey number written on their necks, alongside his name and the letters RIP, according to students. All the district’s counselors were on hand to offer assistance.

The social media site Twitter was filled with heartfelt messages from Brewster students shocked and distraught by the tragedy, recalling a boy who made them laugh. Some rallied to wear the school colors, green and white, as a sign of respect for him.

A state police investigator said police were looking into “every possibility” but declined to give a possible reason. The investigator also declined to comment on the gun.

Yes, I know him.  He played youth basketball with my son, who is one year older than him.  I haven't lived in the community for about a year now, so I really have no idea whether this was an accident or something else.

Just incredibly sad.

The SEC is About to Get Pounded

I just received a summary, put together by the accounting firm Deloitte, of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 - the fiscal cliff bill - which, because it was signed by the President today, is officially enacted on January 3, 2013.  At the end of its summary Deloitte notes:

Enactment of the new law shortly after December 31 may creat unique issues concerining the financial reporting impact.  Absent the issuance of guidance by regulators or standard-setters providing for another alternative, the guidance in U.S. GAAP requires that the effect of a change in tax laws or rates be recognized at the date of enactment....A company that has not yet issued its financial statements for the interim or annual period that ended prior to enactment cannot consider the enactment in preparing those financial statements; however, the company should consider whether current disclosure of the subsequent period financial statement impact of the enactment is appropriate.

One of the components of the bill was the so-called "extenders" - a number of special business tax provisions that expired at the end of 2011.  This includes the R&D tax credit, the Work Opportunity Credit, the New Markets Credit, and a number of other special credits and deductions.  It also includes special rules dealing with reporting of profits from overseas.  In particular, one special rule that permitted banks to exclude overseas profits from taxable income expired at the end of 2011 - it was retroactively extended to cover 2012 and 2013.

By retroactively extending these provisions to January 1, 2012, companies will be able to take these benefits into account when filing their 2012 tax returns.  But - as Deloitte's note emphasizes -  they will not be able to take them into account in their 2012 financial statements, although presumably they will disclose this in footnotes and other supplemental disclosures. 

Thus, by missing the deadline by one day, Congress royally screwed up financial reporting for a whole bunch of public companies, including banks.  I wonder how this will impact their bonus pools....

I bet there are a lot of pissed-off CEOs and CFOs right now.

And I can already sense the huge effort to get the SEC and FASB to allow these changes to be reflected in 2012 financials....

What Digby Said

Read the whole thing.

She's right, of course.  But it is truly, thoroughly depressing.

Pierce on Chris Christie

I have to admit that I was amused and, yes, even cheering when I saw Christie's tirade yesterday.

But I have to admit, Charlie Pierce is right about this:

Nevertheless, the storm has been a godsend to Christie. Unlike public school teachers and veterans, the storm was an enemy that actually was worth bullying. He got great credit for "working with" the president, as if he had any choice. What was his alternative? Leave a couple of million constituents foundering in the surf? He got a ridiculous amount of credit for summoning up the grace to thank the president for helping his state climb out from under the wreckage. (And, yes, it is a measure of how far down the rabbit hole the national Republican party has fallen that, a) Christie gets credit for doing something that has been obvious to every politician since Pericles, and b) that he took heat within his own party for it.) Now, though, with everyone in the Beltway pretending that a new era of bipartisanship has descended upon the place, and that a new governing coalition has sprung up literally overnight, you can almost see the next part coming.

There always is a serious faction of Democrats who have a sweet tooth for tough-daddy Republicans -- and, yes, I'm looking at you, Matthews, and you, O'Donnell, and you, too, Rendell -- and Christie now fits that bill admirably. You don't have to be clairvoyant to predict that people are going to confront what appears to be yet another field full of extremists contending for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, and then you will have Chris Christie, who "took on his own party" over storm relief, and who "worked with a Democratic president" in the aftermath of a horrendous natural calamity. Plus, he is "honest." He "says what's on his mind." And he likes Springsteen! I can write Mike Allen's piece in Politico for him right now.

The fact is that he's still the same guy he always was. Somebody who would pull the wings off flies if he thought it meant 15 minutes on CNN. Someone who almost never picks on anyone his own size. Someone who kicks down, always. Someone who was OK with federal storm relief, but ostentatiously refused federal money for another tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York. He's still the same megalomaniac who stunned the party in Tampa by giving a keynote address at the Republican National Convention in which he barely mentioned the nominee. He's the guy who put the bully in the bully pulpit. And he has not changed, any more than Washington has. Be advised.

This guy took a state police helicopter to his son's little league baseball game and derided reporters who questioned him about it in the same stark manner that he took down Boehner yesterday.  And until I see him apply his newfound respect for the positive things government can do outside the area of disaster relief, I will continue to oppose him.

As Atrios said yesterday, "sometimes people are down and need help, even without a hurricane."