2009-2010 Lane Reports

The late Harold Washington, the "people's mayor," was voted into office in 1983 after cobbling together a coalition of African-Americans and Hispanics yearning for the civil rights they had been denied, white liberals fed up with racially polarizing politics and labor unions incensed over mounting job losses. Mr. Washington's policies of inclusion gave African-Americans and Hispanics-as well as women, Asians and gays-a voice in city government and a shot at the American dream they never had before.

As of this writing the Dow Jones Industrials average is 27% below its October 8, 2007 close of 14,093 and about 8% below its April 19, 2010 close of 11,204. The yield on the Dow stands at 2.7%. It used to be that a dividend yield below 3% signaled an oncoming bear market. The yield has not been that high since the fourth quarter of 1990, almost twenty years.

Pension crises in Chicago, in Illinois and in cities and states throughout the nation threaten the retirement security of public employees, investors' confidence in public securities and, ultimately, the economic recovery on which businesses, consumers, homeowners and workers are counting.

Privacy, the Cost of Innovation?

With the backlash against Facebook for privacy breaches, consumers, lawmakers and the media have made it clear that personal information is the hot new commodity that cannot be sold for free membership to social networking sites.  The numerous news articles on Facebook's breach of its users' privacy have left Facebook backpedaling to address the seemingly growing question of the American public -- how valuable is our personal information?  While, at first glance, the Facebook story may seem innocuous and merely the latest bandwagon of bad publicity, in actuality it could significantly change the way businesses operate on the Internet with respect to their collection, storage and use of its customers' personal information.

Inspector General Has Potential to Crack City's Code of Silence

The city of Chicago's employees, shielded from retaliation by the city's whistle-blower ordinance, are under orders to report suspected misconduct by their fellow workers. Yet, too often, they don't. A recent survey commissioned by the Office of Compliance, created to oversee the city's court-ordered efforts to keep politics out of hiring, revealed that municipal employees report only half the incidents of apparent wrongdoing they witness, while the employees of other large cities report two-thirds of suspicious incidents.

Conversion of a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA:  A Simple Tradeoff of the Time Value of Money Versus an Option?

In 2010, tax laws governing the conversion of Traditional IRAs into Roth IRAs changed, making conversion a viable option for many high net worth individuals.  As a result, many upper-income investors are currently debating whether or not they would benefit from converting some or all of their Traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs. 

Illinois' Fiscal Crisis Demands Reform of Income Tax System

No issue in Illinois' photo-finish primary election separated the Democratic candidates for governor from the Republicans more than the possibility of a state income tax hike. While Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and Comptroller Dan Hynes argued for higher income taxes, every Republican contender vowed to plug the state's massive budget deficit, somewhere north of $12 billion, by relying only on spending cuts and revenue enhancers that would keep the income tax just as it is.

Tax Incentives for Donations Assisting Haiti Earthquake Victim

By now, most of us have seen the horrific images broadcasted over the television and internet portraying the absolute devastation which has been brought upon the tiny island nation of Haiti as a result of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that hit the southern portion country on January 12, 2010.  The earthquake has been reported as the most powerful to hit Haiti in more than century.  Donations have been pouring in from across the globe in an effort to try and help alleviate some of the destruction that this powerful force of nature has caused for the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation.