Web Surfing Helps at Work, Study Says [WSJ]
Don’t feel guilty about browsing the Internet at work—turns out it may actually improve your performance. According to a new study, Web browsing can actually refresh tired workers and enhance their productivity, compared to other activities such as making personal calls, texts or emails, let alone working straight through with no rest at all. The study, “Impact of Cyberloafing on Psychological Engagement,” by Don J.Q. Chen and Vivien K.G Lim of the National University of Singapore, was presented last week in San Antonio, Texas, at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management, an association of management scholars.
Corporations pushing for job-creation tax breaks shield U.S.-vs.-abroad hiring data [WaPo]
Some of the country’s best-known multinational corporations closely guard a number they don’t want anyone to know: the breakdown between their jobs here and abroad. So secretive are these companies that they hand the figure over to government statisticians on the condition that officials will release only an aggregate number. The latest data show that multinationals cut 2.9 million jobs in the United States and added 2.4 million overseas between 2000 and 2009.
My Response To Buffett And Obama [WSJ]
Harvey Golub: “Over the years, I have paid a significant portion of my income to the various federal, state and local jurisdictions in which I have lived, and I deeply resent that President Obama has decided that I don’t need all the money I’ve not paid in taxes over the years, or that I should leave less for my children and grandchildren and give more to him to spend as he thinks fit. I also resent that Warren Buffett and others who have created massive wealth for themselves think I’m “coddled” because they believe they should pay more in taxes. I certainly don’t feel “coddled” because these various governments have not imposed a higher income tax. After all, I did earn it.”
Romney plans to quadruple size of Calif. home [WaPo]
A Romney campaign official confirmed the report, saying the Romneys want to “enlarge their two-bedroom home because with five married sons and 16 grandchildren it is inadequate for their needs. Construction will not begin until the permits have been obtained and the campaign is finished.”
File Under Regulatory Capture: Deloitte’s “Fireside Chats” [Forbes]
Apparently the SEC has a historical society.
Accounting Reform, Sans the Reform [The Street]
Sweeping reforms of the accounting industry are being discussed, but whether they will survive industry lobbying efforts remains to be seen. Ask the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), which helps define the rules about what companies report, or the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), which keeps an eye on the auditors, about any particular trouble area and they’ll point to a new rule or a speech as evidence they are on the case. Given recent history, however, it is hard to take them seriously.
Michele Bachmann’s ‘war’ on the IRS [WaPo]
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) used to work as a lawyer for the Internal Revenue Service. Now she’s running for president and discovering, apparently, that not everyone loves the IRS. So this week she came up with a novel explanation for the principal job she’s held outside of elected office. “I went to work in that system because the first rule of war is ‘know your enemy,’ ” Ms. Bachmann told a crowd in South Carolina [last] Thursday.
