The Year of the Rat

"Quite often good things have hurtful consequences.There are instances of men who have been ruined by their money or killed by their courage."
--Aristotle
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It’s the first working day of the New Year.
2008.
The Year of the Rat.

Wow, seems like it was just 1998, and that Artist Formerly Known as Prince was talking about partying until it’s 1999.

Lot’s of ponderables floating about in your mind this morning, I’m certain:
What’s in store for the year ahead?
What will the markets do?
How will the Presidential elections in a little over 10-months affect your business and your life?

Even more importantly, how did those Taiwanese guys get that 9-foot, three-piece faux-fir Christmas tree (with collapsible stand) into the box it came in, because, I cannot for the life of me get all the pieces to fit back inside.

On this first working day of the New Year, the Iowa Primary is 24-hours away…
A Winter Storm is giving school kids an extra day of vacation (check your flight connections before heading to the airport, if you’re flying north and east today)...
The last NAFTA tariffs went away yesterday for Mexican Orange Juice Concentrate and US corn.

They’re not happy about that in Mexico…demonstrators protested the opening of Mexico’s market to American corn, sugar, dry beans and milk powder. We’ll be getting Mexican peanuts and winter veggies from south of the border, for those of you with a NAFTA aftetite.

(I think I just created the first New Word of 2008: that yearning, craving feeling for imported items like Mexican orange juice concentrate, now available tax-free, thanks to the North American Free Trade Act; that hunger shall now be henceforth known as an “aftetite.”
Anita Bryant must be having fits.)

Rip- off is not a new word, however, but a fairly accurate description of the State’s new business margin tax…designed to replace the franchise tax…and for some of you, exponentially increase your tax liability.

Like I said, 2008 is The Year of the Rat.
Now you know why.