~ Happy Hanukkah to everyone celebrating!
Mortgage Tax Break in Crosshairs [WSJ]
The co-chairmen of the White House’s bipartisan deficit-reduction commission said Tuesday they would propose a significant paring of popular middle-class tax breaks, including the mortgage-interest deduction, and push for an increase in the Social Security retirement age.
The recommendations will be included in a final debt-cutting proposal from Democrat Erskine Bowles and Republican Alan Simpson to be unveiled Wednesday. The ideas are part of a broad and controversial proposal to tackle the U.S. government’s debt through a combination of spending cuts and an overhaul of the tax code. The proposal would hold down the growth of the federal debt by at least $3.8 trillion by 2020, and perhaps more, the two said at a news conference. Messrs. Bowles and Simpson said their plan was preferable to a debt crisis like Europe’s that could ensue without changes to fiscal policy.
AccountingWEB announces 2011 accounting student scholarship program [AW]
Three scholarships will be awarded to students who are declared accounting majors based on the submission of an essay and the subsequent judging thereof. Funding is provided by AccountingWEB with the goal of encouraging accounting as a major and a career choice.
FCC chair announces net neutrality push without re-asserting role over broadband Internet [WaPo]
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission plans to announce Wednesday a controversial proposal that would prohibit Internet providers from favoring or discriminating against any traffic that goes over their networks.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski would do so, however, without resorting to a more drastic step of changing the way the FCC regulates broadband providers that would have more clearly asserted the government’s authority over Internet access.
KPMG hires directors for new oversight body [FT]
Sir Steve Robson, Tom de Swaan and Alfred Tacke will serve as non-executive directors on an oversight body for the firm’s UK operations.
FASB, IASB Update Convergence Priority List [A&A Update/CW]
The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board said they are still on target to finish writing new accounting standards for financial instruments, revenue recognition, leases, comprehensive income, and fair value measurement by June 2011 or earlier. The IASB is also on target to align its disclosure requirements for derecognized assets and other off-balance-sheet risks with U.S. rules and to finish its updates for consolidations and insurance contracts by the same date.
The Perpetual Debt Machine As Explained By The TV Series “Good Times” [JDA]
Nothing like a 70s sitcom to explain the banking system.
House may vote on tax cuts Thursday [Reuters]
Key word is “may.”
Spreading the Corporate Holiday Cheer [WSJ]
Cupcakes go a long way.