Category: News

The White House has released potions of a speech to be made by the president later today in NYC. In it Mr. Obama calls on banking industry lobbyists to halt their efforts to stop financial reforms that he feels are in the best interest of the market and the country.

Here is the excerpt, from USAToday:

One of the most significant contributors to this recession was a financial crisis as dire as any we’ve known in generations. And that crisis was born of a failure of responsibility — from Wall Street to Washington — that brought down many of the world’s largest financial firms and nearly dragged our economy into a second Great Depression.

I am sure that many of those lobbyists work for some of you. But I am here today because I want to urge you to join us, instead of fighting us in this effort. I am here because I believe that these reforms are, in the end, not only in the best interest of our country, but in the best interest of our financial sector. And I am here to explain what reform will look like, and why it matters.

A comprehensive plan to achieve these reforms has passed the House of Representatives. A Senate version is currently being debated, drawing on the ideas of Democrats and Republicans. Both bills represent significant improvement on the flawed rules we have in place today, despite the furious efforts of industry lobbyists to shape them to their special interests.

It was that failure of responsibility that I spoke about when I came to New York more than two years ago — before the worst of the crisis had unfolded. I take no satisfaction in noting that my comments have largely been borne out by the events that followed. But I repeat what I said then because it is essential that we learn the lessons of this crisis, so we don’t doom ourselves to repeat it. And make no mistake, that is exactly what will happen if we allow this moment to pass — an outcome that is unacceptable to me and to the American people.

As I said two years ago on this stage, I believe in the power of the free market. I believe in a strong financial sector that helps people to raise capital and get loans and invest their savings. But a free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it. That is what happened too often in the years leading up to the crisis. Some on Wall Street forgot that behind every dollar traded or leveraged, there is family looking to buy a house, pay for an education, open a business, or save for retirement. What happens here has real consequences across our country.

The administration also has on their website an outline of what financial reforms they support and why.

“Relying on market discipline to compensate for weak regulation and then leaving it to the government to clean up the mess is not a good strategy for economic growth nor financial security,” reads the post.

According to the White House the goals of these proposed reforms include:

* Clearer accountability in supervision and regulation so that financial firms can operate under a coherent set of rules and expectations without the current regulatory arbitrage opportunities that allow some firms to “game the system.”

* Stronger capital buffers to increase the ability of financial companies to weather the ups and downs of financial markets.

* Lesser concentration of risk among the largest financial firms so that any one firm can fail without creating a domino effect throughout the entire financial system that jeopardizes jobs, family savings and the entire economy

* Greater transparency in the derivatives market that will make the system safer by providing regulators with the data they need to manage systemic risk and help ensure the integrity of financial markets so we can prevent future AIG-like disasters.

The speech can be viewed live here at 11:55 EDT.

Obama: ‘Free market’ is not a ‘free license’ [USAToday]
Wall Street Reform [White House]

Deep Silver has announced a new arcade racing game called nail’d for PS3, PC, and Xbox 360. Hit the jump for details and a video.

Jonathan Chait over at TNR is strangely amazed that financial reform may happen:

What’s happening with financial reform right now is unlike anything that’s happened since I’ve been following American politics. Look at the fundamentals of the issue. This is a matter where a massive industry — one that accounts for close to half of all corporate profits — is adamantly opposed to new regulation. The merits of the issue are so mind-numbingly complex that even economists and policy wonks sound distinctly fuzzy on the details. Throw in a Republican Party that had pursued, with evident political success, a policy of total obstruction. I’d tell you this was a formula either for defeat or a toothless reform.

And yet a substantial reform now appears close to inevitable. It’s not a toothless reform — a set of derivative regulations more hawkish than anybody could have dreamed possible a couple weeks ago just passed through the Agriculture Committee. It’s one of those strange moments when the normal laws of politics have been suspended.

Me:  I am more amazed that given the magnitude of the financial crisis and the level of public rage, the banks weren’t broken up and turned into quasi-public utilities. But Wall Street can thank the White House for that. After passing the stimulus, it decided to focus on healthcare. Time passed, passions ebbed, and the lobbying effort cranked up. But the aftermath of the crisis (+Goldman) always made it likely that reform would pass.

Vern Granger

KNOXVILLE — Vern Granger, undergraduate admissions director for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has been named president-elect of the Southern Association for College Admission Counseling.

His nomination was approved by the membership on April 20.

Granger has been at UT since September 2009. Prior to that, he worked in admissions at North Carolina State University.

The Southern Association for College Admission Counseling is a nonprofit, professional association founded in 1966 as a chartered affiliate of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC). The organization includes about 1,600 members from secondary schools, colleges and universities, and educational consulting firms in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and the Caribbean. Members work together to promote high professional standards in the college admission process by exchanging ideas, sharing common goals and preparing counselors to serve students in the transition from high school to college. Additionally, more than 250 non-voting associate members from 30 other states participate in the association.

C O N T A C T :

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, [email protected]@utk.edu)

2011 Jaguar XJ

Going along with the launch of the new 2011 XJ sedan, Jaguar announced today that it is launching a free scheduled maintenance program for all 2011 models. Known as the “Jaguar Platinum Coverage” customer care, the coverage will give all 2011 Jaguar U.S. and Canada owners increased vehicle warranty and a strong maintenance plan.

The new Jaguar Platinum Coverage features a five year/50,000 mile new vehicle limited warranty and complimentary scheduled maintenance for the duration of the warranty period, including no-cost replacement of select wear and tear components, and 24/7 roadside assistance.

Click here to get prices on the 2011 Jaguar XJ.

The no-cost coverage includes oil changes, filters, brake pads, brake discs, brake fluids and wiper blade inserts. The four programs combined offer customers class-leading coverage.

“Jaguars have always been known as beautiful, fast cars, and now, with our modern lineup supported by Jaguar Platinum Coverage, they will be known as beautiful, fast cars with exceptional customer care and dealership service,” said Jaguar North America Vice President of Marketing and Sales, Richard Beattie. “We are delighted to now provide our customers the class-leading warranty and maintenance package in the luxury segment; we hope to turn our customers’ affair with Jaguar into a long term relationship. We are firm on our mission to continue to provide an extraordinary level of customer satisfaction.”

2011 Jaguar XJ:

– By: Kap Shah

Lloyd Blankfein — head of Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs, against which the SEC filed civil charges last week for defrauding clients in some mortgage-backed securities trades — famously stopped speaking to the press after he mentioned he thought Goldman was doing “God’s work” in the midst of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

My guess is that the public still won’t be hearing from Blankfein too often. The Financial Times reports that in his numerous calls to major clients, assuring them of the firm’s stability despite the SEC charge, he has argued the suit will “hurt America.”

Unlike Goldman’s participation in over-financializing the U.S. economy, stoking the mortgage crisis and shorting the housing market, leading to an $8 trillion loss in household wealth, the suit will hurt America. Right.

Citicorp posted a $4.4 billion profit this past quarter. Pretty fantastic, right? How are they rewarding their loyal customers? By jacking their interest rates and closing their credit card accounts, of course.

Reader Matt wrote to Consumerist for help:

I’ve been a Citibank cardholder for eight years now. I got my first card, a Citi Platinum Select, my freshman year of college in spring of 2002. Subsequently, over the intervening years, I’ve received three more cards: a Dividend rewards card, a Diamond Preferred card, and a Citi Professional card. Prior to this fracas, I maintained a FICO score above 700 on all three bureaus. My one major ding, however, was the balances to limit ratio…I fell into the trap of lots of college students. Going through grad school didn’t make things any easier. But I never missed a payment, was late only once in 8 years (and that only by 1 day), and I always made more than the minimum payment.

The problems started when, in preparation for the CARD act about six months ago, Citi sent me letters regarding my Dividend Rewards and Diamond Preferred cards, casually alerting me to the fact that they were changing the terms of my card. My rates would increase from 6.99% and 9.99%, respectively, to 29.99% each. (The former rates were not promotional rates, they were the result of consistently calling in every six months and slowly whittling down the rates over time.) The only way to I could retain my old rate on these cards was to cancel them. They explained the rate increase as the result of “increased lending costs”. I didn’t buy it, and immediately canceled the cards.

Since I carried balances on both cards, it immediately hurt the already bad situation in my debt ratios on my credit score. i.e. I had X amount of debt, with a $0 limit on the closed accounts. Kind of turned me upside-down.

Today I received another letter from Citi, notifying me that, “In our normal course of business, we review the standards we use to extend credit. We recently adjusted our credit standards and your account does not meet our new standards. As a result, your account will be closed on May 13, 2010.” So there goes my Platinum Select card, my longest held, most established revolving account. The only card remaining is my Citi Professional card, and I worry it’s only a matter of time before the other shoe drops.

To sum it up, Citi arbitrarily rate-jacked two of my cards, leaving me with no recourse other than to close them. Then, on the third card, they punished me even further for the problem that they helped cause, by randomly changing the requirements (which I failed to meet) and canceling the card. Color me surprised….I thought the CARD act was supposed to stop this kind of customer abuse?

I’m writing both as a cautionary tale (cut those cards up, PAY THEM OFF!) but also to ask for advice. Did I mention I’ve been unemployed since February 2009? Through all this time, yes, the balances crept up even further in relation to their limits, but I’ve never once gone over my limit, and I’ve still managed to scrape enough together each month to pay in excess of minimum, if even only $10 or $20. I deeply worry this will cause a cascading effect, further hurting my score and creditworthiness. I’d be glad to open another card and transfer balances, but that doesn’t seem like a very realistic option right now. I’d love to get rid of Citibank completely, but I don’t have any idea how.

There’s great advice from the Consumerist hive mind in the comments to this post from a reader who lost her job while carrying credit card debt. Also, try calling the secret backdoor numbers for Citibank to plead your case and try to get them to act in a civilized way. Good luck.

Danny Sullivan Robinson, the co-founder of venture fund and startup incubator Bootup Labs, has apologized publicly for the failure of the company’s Y Combinator-style startup camp, which fell apart last week after the fund failed to raise enough money to back all of the startups it had accepted into the program. The story came to light when one of the entrepreneurs who had sold his belongings and moved across the country to join the Bootup Labs project in Vancouver, British Columbia was told his company could not be funded, and wrote a blog post calling out the venture fund for making promises to entrepreneurs that it couldn’t keep.

In a blog post of his own, Sullivan Robinson admits that would-be startup founder Jamie Martin was right, that Bootup Labs didn’t have the money to fund his and several other companies when they were accepted into the program. “This was my gravest of errors and seems pretty obvious now,” he writes. “I sincerely apologize to the founders who were affected by this. It will not happen again.” He also admits that he and the rest of the Bootup Labs team made some serious mistakes, including:

• Getting defensive: “I should have done a better job responding to Jamie’s concerns on this blog. At the time, I felt everything we have worked for was being questioned, and I got defensive and it made things worse. Jamie didn’t do anything wrong, and I apologize to him in particular.”
• Failure to disclose: “I should have announced the downsizing of the cohort as soon as it happened. We actually tried to hide it, hoping that people wouldn’t notice and it would just go away. That was a big mistake that I should have known wouldn’t work.”
• Leaving startups hanging: “I should have done a better job listening to the personal concerns of the founders who were cut. If I had thought more about that, I would have worked harder to help them in other ways.”

The Bootup Labs co-founder adds that he feels a “stronger and better Bootup Labs 2.0 is emerging” from the wreckage of the entrepreneurship program, and that to help prevent any further such incidents, “new controls have already been instated at the board level with addition of [venture investor] Boris Wertz, and more announcements are coming soon.” He says he hopes that the startup community will give him the chance to “work hard to earn your trust and respect back.” Wertz’s addition and financing from venture fund Growthworks were announced shortly after last week’s blowup.

Some of the comments from users on Hacker News, where the link to his post was shared, show just how far he and the Vancouver venture fund have to go in order to do that. One asks: “Why is this guy any more trustworthy today after issuing an artfully written apology, that was clearly crafted by a PR professional skilled in crisis management communications? Startups, do yourself a big favour and steer clear of this underfunded, unprofessional slow motion train wreck.” Another writes: “Bootup Lab’s reputation has still been badly damaged. An entrepreneur’s commitment and sacrifice to their business is very serious and they took a very nonchalant approach to handling this situation.”

Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr user Autumn Bliss

Segundo revelação da Fiat feita essa semana, a companhia pretende apresentar mais seis novas Ferraris no mercado nos próximos três anos, como parte dos planos de negócios da companhia até 201a. Os novos modelos da Ferrari começarão a aparecer a partir de 2011, com a Ferrari 458 Spider e novos modelos Enzo e 458 que estão em desenvolvimento.

Depois de lançarem a 458 Spider em 2011, também será apresentado a nova versão do 612 Scaglietti. Esse projeto tem o codinome F151 e terá um motor V12 e provavelmente será o primeiro carro híbrido da Ferrari a ser apresetado no salão de Genebra.

Para 2012, além dos anúncios de fim do mundo modelos citados anteriormente, um sucessor da Ferrari Enzo vai ser mostrada, e também um sucessor da 599 GTB Fiorano. A sequência de apresentações terminará em 2013, se o mundo ainda existir até lá com a apresentação da versão Scuderia da 458 Itália, que por sinal foi lançada no Brasil recentemente.

Via | Piston Heads

A proposal announced today by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) would, for the first time in almost 25 years, endorse the killing of whales in one of their most critical feeding grounds – the Southern Ocean.

In an effort to bring Japan, Norway and Iceland’s continued whaling under the IWC’s control, the Chair of the IWC has proposed giving these countries official commercial whaling quotas for the next 10 years.

“The proposed quotas are not set using the IWC’s own scientific methods, but are a result of political bargaining which has little if anything to do with the whales themselves,” said Rob Nicoll, WWF-Australia’s Antarctic and Southern Oceans Initiative Manager.

If adopted the new proposal would legitimise commercial whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, despite the IWC’s absolute ban on commercial whaling in this area since 1994. The Southern Ocean is the main feeding ground of many whale species such as blue whales, humpback whales and fin whales.

“Some whales feed exclusively in the Southern Ocean – not eating at all during the winter months when they travel up to tropical waters,” added Nicoll.

“If there is one place on earth where whales should have full protection, it is the Southern Ocean. Allowing commercial whaling in an area where whales are so vulnerable goes against all logic.”

The new proposal would allow for the killing of 400 minke and 10 fin whales each year in the waters around Antarctica. 725,000 fin whales were killed in the Southern Hemisphere in the twentieth century.

“Fin whale numbers were depleted to severely low levels by previous whaling that spun out of control, and remain endangered as a result. Allowing new commercial whaling on this species when they have yet to recover from previous whaling is management madness,” said Nicoll.

The members of the IWC will decide whether to adopt the proposal at its next annual meeting in Agadair, Morocco, June 21st – 25th.

WWF-Australia is calling on all members of the IWC to support the Australian government’s alternative proposal to break the IWC deadlock, put forward in February.

“If accepted, the Australian Government’s proposal would uphold the current moratorium and ensure that existing internationally recognised sanctuaries are indeed sanctuaries where no whales will be killed,” said Mr Nicoll.

More information

Jonathon Larkin, Senior Media Officer, 0410 221 410, [email protected]

Former New York Governor George Pataki was in Boston on April 18 to launch a petition that proposes to repeal the Obama administration’s healthcare overhaul.

He was leading a rally staged by Revere America, an organization working to advance public policies rooted in freedom and free markets. The petition-signing event kicked off its national campaign to gather the signatures of one million Americans who want to repeal and replace "ObamaCare."

The event coincided with the 235th anniversary of Paul Revere’s famous ride for freedom.

"Just as 235 years ago our freedoms were in danger, they are now as well," the former governor said at the rally, quoted by NECN.com, a news website.

"We can’t wait until 2012 to take back this country. We have to do it in 2010, and every single day this year counts," he added.

The next day, Pataki was continuing his campaign for signatures in Iowa, where he explained why he decided to return to the national stage.

"I was happy as a private citizen," he said, quoted by Radio Iowa, "but when I see what is happening in Washington over the course of the last year and a half, like most Americans I believe we are seeing a government that is dramatically headed in the wrong direction."

Pataki is chairman of Revere America and served as the 53rd Governor of New York from 1995 to 2006.

The NYT has an article on generating power by incinerating waste – Europe Finds Clean Energy in Trash, but U.S. Lags.

The lawyers and engineers who dwell in an elegant enclave here are at peace with the hulking neighbor just over the back fence: a vast energy plant that burns thousands of tons of household garbage and industrial waste, round the clock.

Far cleaner than conventional incinerators, this new type of plant converts local trash into heat and electricity. Dozens of filters catch pollutants, from mercury to dioxin, that would have emerged from its smokestack only a decade ago.

In that time, such plants have become both the mainstay of garbage disposal and a crucial fuel source across Denmark, from wealthy exurbs like Horsholm to Copenhagen’s downtown area. Their use has not only reduced the country’s energy costs and reliance on oil and gas, but also benefited the environment, diminishing the use of landfills and cutting carbon dioxide emissions. The plants run so cleanly that many times more dioxin is now released from home fireplaces and backyard barbecues than from incineration.

With all these innovations, Denmark now regards garbage as a clean alternative fuel rather than a smelly, unsightly problem. And the incinerators, known as waste-to-energy plants, have acquired considerable cachet as communities like Horsholm vie to have them built.

Denmark now has 29 such plants, serving 98 municipalities in a country of 5.5 million people, and 10 more are planned or under construction. Across Europe, there are about 400 plants, with Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands leading the pack in expanding them and building new ones.

By contrast, no new waste-to-energy plants are being planned or built in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency says — even though the federal government and 24 states now classify waste that is burned this way for energy as a renewable fuel, in many cases eligible for subsidies. There are only 87 trash-burning power plants in the United States, a country of more than 300 million people, and almost all were built at least 15 years ago. …

Yet powerful environmental groups have fought the concept passionately. “Incinerators are really the devil,” said Laura Haight, a senior environmental associate with the New York Public Interest Research Group.

Investing in garbage as a green resource is simply perverse when governments should be mandating recycling, she said. “Once you build a waste-to-energy plant, you then have to feed it. Our priority is pushing for zero waste.”

Filed under: Videos

There’s a reason Detroit is called the Motor City. The U.S. Auto industry was born there in a swath of southeast Michigan no larger than the state of Vermont. And when the industry was booming, the area was the epicenter for all things automotive. But times have changed for the domestic auto industry, and no region of the United States has felt the pain more than Detroit.

Dateline traveled to Detroit to show just how far the Motor City has fallen, and the moving pictures shows an urban area that looks more like a war zone than a sprawling metropolis. The city of about 800,000 residents has only eight budget grocery stores, yet there are 400 liquor stores. Some 40 square miles of property is either vacant or abandoned – roughly the same land mass as the city of Buffalo. Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has even gone as far as to suggest that the city shrinks its boarders in an effort to survive. Hit the jump to see video that is sure to depress.

[Source: Gawker TV]

Continue reading Video: Dateline describes Detroit as Sarajevo from the air

Video: Dateline describes Detroit as Sarajevo from the air originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 08:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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On its quarterly conference call, AT&T’s CFO once again talked up how the company needed to
move away from flat-rate mobile data plans because its networks are being overwhelmed by traffic from a small percentage of its users. This rhetoric — which is really just trying to warm up the market for future price increases — comes despite figures showing that AT&T’s data revenues are increasing, while its network investment is decreasing. On some level, if an operator like AT&T wants to try to force through higher prices by increased flat rates or usage-based pricing, go right ahead; we’ll see just how the market reacts. But all of their talk about their poor overwhelmed networks would go down a little bit better if they wouldn’t decry flat-rate plans in situations like this, while they launch cheap flat-rate unlimited plans at the same time, as AT&T has done for the iPad 3G. If AT&T’s network is already taxed and cheap data plans are to blame, why launch another one on a device that’s built to consume data?

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Last year the interwebs were abuzz when HTC’s 2010 roadmap managed to get itself leaked.  The images and specs from the pamphlets were viewed on just about every tech publication in existence, and were referenced for several months to follow.  Whether or not it was leaked intentionally is inconsequential, as the hype it created for the HTC brand was something no advertising dollars could have bought.

Today, the atmosphere feels quite the same as Engadget has uncovered what appears to be Dell’s roadmap for upcoming devices.  But unlike the HTC version, which was blurry with low quality renditions of the devices, Dell brings us crisp images, clear details, and a better picture of how they intend to approach the market – with the boundless power that nature commands and the grace most men only dream of.  Not to mention, it answers most of the “regular” questions (carrier, specs, etc.), with the exception of launch date and pricing.

The roadmap packs in four phones and two tablets, most of which will be running Android OS.  Don’t think for a minute, though, that Dell plans on sitting on the sidelines and watching the Windows Phone 7 (still used to saying “series”) craze pass them by this holiday season, because it looks as if they have a WP7 phone planned as well.  In an effort to provide you, our beloved readers, with the valuable information you seek in one seamless package, we have compiled pertinent information about each device below under the appropriate headings.  Stay tuned for part two, which will cover “Flash,” “Smoke,” and the company’s tablets!

Lightning

The lightning is the only device on the roadmap designed specifically to meet the requirements of the new Windows Phone 7 operating system (notice on the spec sheet they call it Windows Mobile 7).  It boasts a 4.1-inch WVGA OLED capacitive touchscreen,  1GHz QSD 8250 Snapdragon processor, full QWERTY physical slider keyboard, 5 megapixel camera, 1GB Flash ROM, 512MB DDR SDRAM, GPS, Bluetooth, and WiFi.  From the looks of it, the device is set up to work on both AT&T and T-Mobile’s 3G networks.  The Lightning is targeting business professionals or ‘Life Maximizers’ if you will (remember Miles and Anna?) who desire “multi-purpose, always connected functionality.” Engadget has the release date “pegged at Q4” of this year and also note that there is some indication that the Lightning will get an upgrade to LTE at the end of 2011.

For more information and pictures on the Lightning, go here.

Thunder

The Thunder is the only device on the roadmap that doesn’t come with a detailed spec sheet.  But fear not, we still have plenty of information to send your way.  As you can see above, the thunder is an impressive looking device which, like its WP7 brother, is sporting a 4.1 WVGA OLED display backed up by Android 2.1 (perhaps Froyo by launch?).  The device comes loaded with all your social networking and media needs such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Hulu, to name a few.  But don’t get too confused because Dell wants you to know that the Thunder is “not all looks & play.”  It also comes ready to handle “a full complement of email services, including ActiveSync, so you can take care of business on the move.”  “Lightning fast 7.2Mbps HSPDA” and “integrated WiFi” are other features listed to compliment your on-the-go, high-speed business needs. 

The Thunder’s target audience, according to Dell, is “creative explorers and affluent professionals (sounds kind of like Apple to me, just a thought).  Though the spec sheet for this device seems to be missing, Engadget is speculating that it also comes equipped with the now standard 1GHz Snapdragon processor.  There’s also mention of an 8MP camera and “on-device image editing” software.  The Thunder is expected to be sold via AT&T sometime in the Q4 timeframe of this year, with an LTE model coming in 2011. 

For more information and pictures on the Thunder, go here.

Via Engadget

OK, here is what President Obama said on CNBC to reporter John Harwood about a value-added tax:

HARWOOD: If reducing consumption is a good idea, could you see the potential for a value-added tax in this country?

OBAMA: You know, I know that there has been a lot of talk around town lately about the value-added tax. That is something that has worked for some countries. It’s something that would be novel for the United States. And before I start saying that this makes sense or that makes sense, I want a better picture of what our options are. And my first priority is to figure out how can we reduce wasteful spending so that, you know, we have a baseline of the core services that we need and the government should provide, and then we decide how do we pay for that. As opposed to figuring out how much money can we raise and then not have to make some tough choices on the spending side.

Me: Well,  I certainly agree with the general principle that we should optimize government and then see how much money we need.  But the important thing here is that a) despite Ways & Means Chair Sander Levin badmouthing the idea and b) 85 Senate votes against the idea, c) the White House won’t rule the idea out. Not all.   I also noticed that  the NYTimes has yet to run a correction on Hardwood’s piece that the WH has run the numbers on how much they think a 5 percent VAT would raise (nearly $300 billion a year). That, despite the WH saying they have not done so. It should also be noted that Obama seems to be qualifying his pledge to not raise middle-class taxes as applying only to income taxes.