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In late nineteenth-century USA, technological developments in paper production—a shift from a reliance on scarce cotton rag to plentiful wood—drastically reduced the price of newsprint. That decline helped overturn the reigning economics of the daily newspaper and resulted in the rise of new cheap papers with vastly expanded circulation. This novel mass press encompassed almost all Americans in the public sphere as represented by its pages. Focusing on newspapers in Detroit, this study examines the manifold consequences this shift had for the press's economics, its news agenda, and the implicit identity of the audience it addressed. The rise of a mass press in the late nineteenth century, however, was not specific to Detroit or the USA. As comparative historians have highlighted, the emergence of a mass press in Europe and elsewhere was a turning point that deeply marked the historical evolution of press systems around the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article explores the history of laws related to fringe benefits in the U.S. and discusses the efforts of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to create a consistent framework for analyzing fringe benefit exclusions. Topics discussed include confusion pervading the fringe benefit due to use of varying theories and justifications for excluding fringe benefits, need of exclusion of the fringe benefits from taxation, and the nonstatutory exclusions of the benefits.

During the ACA debate, much confusion occurred about the legislation's impact on Medicare. The reality is that Medicare's traditional guaranteed benefits remain intact and there are significant improvements in access to preventive services and better prescription drug coverage for Medicare Part D. There is also misunderstanding surrounding Medicare Advantage Plans, which received a reduction in reimbursement levels to make them more on par with traditional Medicare benefits. As a result of this reduction and other components of the ACA, the Medicare trust fund's solvency is projected to extend an additional 12 years. This article summarizes these changes and projects how they might actually play themselves out through the implementation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the impact of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as the Obamacare, on elderly Americans. It examines the changes in Obamacare including the coverage of prescription drugs under Medicare Part D, long term care financing and Medicare managed plans. It cites the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act, the Independent Medicare Advisory Board and the reinsurance program. Conclusions indicated the significant impact of the 2010 Obamacare legislation on older Americans.

In their essay, Richard L. Kaplan and Richard W. Olson examine one of the most important problems in consumer choice in the current health care delivery system: choice of prescription drugs and medications in the recently enacted prescription drug benefits of Medicare. Their essay analyzes the new benefits and what their implications are for consumer choice. The authors conclude that the effect of all of the consumer choices is inevitably consumer confusion. This predicament is made worse when one considers that consumers' future drug needs are not always predictable. Thus, a drug plan—be it in Medicare Part D or one of the alternatives—may be perfectly appropriate today and be totally inadequate in two years, even assuming no structural changes in the plans themselves or in the cost of medications. Clearly, under the new Medicare Part D program, consumer choices will abound. Whether consumers find this array of options comforting or disconcerting very much remains an open question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the conflict of interest that has pervaded the corporate accounting environment in the United States. Finding that auditor independence is the only reason to require that public corporations be audited by outsiders; Resolution of the conflict of interest by the Sarbanes-Oxley ACt of 2002; Failire of audits to uncover large frauds and major financial misstatements; Ways in which auditing firms have become too cozy with corporate management to provide an independent check on management's abuse of corporate financial reports.

This article focuses on American journalism. The American press's remarkable performance as chief governmental propagandist and flag-waver in the "war against terrorism" provides with insights into the real nature and identity of American journalism. Beyond a presentism that reads one's most fervent hopes and most ardent beliefs back into history, the press's performance in striking back at terrorism allows to explore a new and with opened eyes, the central dynamics and historical workings of the news media. Anyone tuning into the 24/7 headline machine of cable news during the last months of 2001, stretching from the attack on September 11 through the October and November war against the Taliban on into 2002, would see that the press moved within a fairly restricted range of views and information. Such parameters resulted from a mix of forces that doubtlessly included the patriotic fervour of the populace.

Focuses on the Tax Reform Act, 1976 relating to income taxes of companies doing business with foreign countries in United States. Denial of income tax benefits with boycott operations; Deferral of tax on unrepatriated earnings of foreign subsidiaries controlled by foreign corporations; Tax Deferral of tax on earnings of export subsidiaries qualified as Domestic International Sales Corporation.

Focuses on tax breaks granted United States corporations that significantly reduce the tax burden of the business sector. Tax law provisions available to businesses seeking to reduce their obligations; Measures used to compute an effective tax rate; Background on deferred taxes; Taxes levied on multinational corporations; Forms of tax breaks availed by companies.

The United States relies on uncompensated family caregivers to provide most of the long-term care required by older adults as they age. But such care comes at a significant financial cost to these caregivers in the form of lower lifetime earnings and diminished (or even no) Social Security retirement benefits, ineligibility for Medicare coverage of their healthcare costs, and minimal retirement savings. To reduce the impact of uncompensated caregiving on the intergenerational transmission of poverty, this paper discusses three possible mechanisms of compensating family caregivers: public payments, deemed wage credits under Social Security, and income tax incentives.