Domestic Economy Returns

Domestic Economy Returns...length of stay uncertain.

Yes, it's fish or cut bait here at domecon. Thank you to those who have kept me on your blogrolls despite months of inactivity. I promise (well maybe) to make it up to you.

In the meantime, I wish I had profound insights about the state of the American consumer, but I don't .

What have I been up to while I've been away? Finished a bunch of tax returns. Whiled away the month of May with some payroll activity and some business property statements (answering questions like, "wait, you mean they tax my photocopier?"). Spent quality time with SGH and the offspring. Ran a couple of road races. Read the new Harry Potter book (more on that below). Finished another accounting class (ask me about consolidated financial statments - just ask me). Took an all-American family camping vacation. And now I'm back at my station, staring a bunch of September 15th and October 15th deadlines in the face, coming up against the wall with my CPE hours, and on and on.

But enough whining. Back to Harry Potter. Great minds out there have subjected the Harry Potter books to some exhaustive financial analysis and come up with these insights:

Death and Taxes - the Blog brings our attention to some estate planning issues that arise in Harry Potter that might not arise in, say, Illinois. (Caution, Book Five Spoiler, sort of.)

Juan E. Pardinas from CIDAC points out how certain aspects of Hogwarts Castle resemble the Mexican tax system. (No spoiler here, just an analogy I never in a million years would have thought of.)

Megan McCardle of the Guardian points out some fundamental economic inconsistencies in J.K. Rowling's treatment of magic as a commodity. She says it works in Lord of the Rings but not in Harry Potter.

On the meta-level, marginal revolution tells us exactly why J.K. Rowling makes the big bucks and why she is so much more able than Shakespeare or Homer to leverage the market.

And finally, for those who haven't seen it, I bring you Harry Potter's correspondence with a Nigerian scam artist, courtesy of scamorama.

Happy reading!