Word: write-off
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Tighten up interest deductions. America's most venerable tax shelter is the deduction on home-mortgage interest, a provision that was originally created to help families buy their first home. But perhaps that write-off is too generous. Earlier this month the House Ways and Means Committee adopted a $12.3 million tax-increase package that, among other measures, would finally put a cap on the deduction, limiting it to the first $1 million in mortgage debt. But why not lower the boom even further? As Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski pointed out, "With the people I represent, if you talk...
...plane's sole-source contractor, Northrop Corp., has taken a $124 million tax write-off against profits on the plane, signifying concern with the soaring development costs. Last week the Air Force called in officials from the Rand, Northrop and Rockwell corporations to explore the possibilities of subcontracting bigger chunks of the project...
...banks, led by Citicorp, to write off sizable portions of their < Third World loan portfolios. As a result of that move, many economics experts now think the so-called Baker Plan for developing economies is essentially dead. The Treasury Secretary, however, remains sanguine. He lauded Citicorp's debt write-off, for example, as a "positive" step. One reason: the approach reduces the likelihood of wholesale default by debtor nations...
Despite those risks, Wall Street gave Citicorp a vote of confidence. At first, apprehensions about the bank's write-off announcement rekindled the stock market's hair-trigger fear of a banking crisis. Partly as a result, the Dow Jones average of 30 industrial stocks took a nose dive of 37.38 points on Tuesday, just before Chairman Reed made his disclosure. The market quickly stabilized the next day, and Citicorp's stock rose to close the week at 55 3/ 8, up 4. Investors praised Citicorp's openness. Said an approving Lowell Bryan, a director of the Manhattan-based McKinsey...
Someone liable to be just as irked at Citicorp's move is Fed Chairman Volcker. Some stories have it that he called Reed personally to complain about the write-off. Why? If banks rush to follow Citicorp's lead, the industry might be so weakened by losses that the Fed would eventually feel obliged to help out by putting downward pressure on interest rates. But that would run counter to the Fed's efforts to buoy up the weak U.S. dollar. Says Timothy Scala, money-market manager for Buffalo-based Manufacturers and Traders Trust: "This demonstrates just how grave...