State Business Filing Data

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Taxprof:

Larry Ribstein has posted some fascinating state-by-state business filing data from the International Association of Commercial Administrators. Of the 35 states with filing data for the past four years, 32 reported increases in LLC filings and 21 reported decreases in corporation filings. In the six largest states. the growth in LLC filings from 2002 to 2005 ranged from 60.3% to 237.9%, while three of the states experienced declines in the number of corporate filings ranging from (11.4%) to (27.3%) and the three states with growth in the number of corporate filings ranged from 4.6% to 23.7%:

Wisconsin’s data:

  • Business & Professional Corporations: 12/31/2004: 5,571 ($1,8M); 12/31/2005: 5,104
  • Nonprofits: 12/31/2004: 1,927 ($73K)
  • Limited Liability Copmanies (LLC): 12/31/2004: 25,268 ($3,484,515); 12/31/2005: 26,653
  • Limited Partnerships: 12/31/2004: 203 ($20K); 12/31/2005: 203

Minnesota had more than twice as many corporate filings and about 1/3 less LLC formations than Wisconsin. Illinois has a significantly larger annual number of corporate filings than Minnesota or Wisconsin.

It would be interesting to see what the numbers look like over time, attrition rates and the correlation to taxes and jobs.

The First Action Hero

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Bryan Myrkle:

I once read that a person with experience caring for horses knows more about what it meant to be a human in the last thousand years than anyone without. Similarly, anyone who’s driven a Model T knows more about what it felt like to be an American in the first half of the 20th Century than anyone who hasn’t. History records the Model T as a two-fold blessing: it created the American working class and it put them behind the wheel. Again, the map is not the territory. To fully appreciate the Model T’s impact on American psychology, you have to get behind the wheel.

Intuit Chief Marketing Officer Speech in Madison

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Ben McConnell:

The company’s chief marketing officer, Mark Schar, told attendees today at the Brandworks University conference in Madison, Wisconsin, how Intuit recently recognized an employee with a “Swing for the Fence” award for a big idea, even though the idea didn’t work out. The big idea? Partner with hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, who would encourage 18-24-year-olds to file their tax returns early using TurboTax and win some prizes, like tickets to a show featuring rapper Jah Rule. Launched last year, the program flopped.

Life in the Fast Food Lane: Rockwall Texas Culvers

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Frank Bruni:

Flame, or at least a suggestion of grilling or broiling, matters. That’s a principal reason a Whopper bested a Big Mac, cooked on a griddle. It’s why the new roster of one-third-pound charbroiled Thickburgers at Hardee’s tasted better than the steamed slivers at Krystal, a White Castle analogue in the South.

Buns matter. The large, doughy one on the classic Whataburger created ample space for three slices of tomato and a sense of heft that felt good in the hands, good in the mouth. The generously buttered, crisply toasted ones on Culver’s burgers, called butterburgers in honor of those buns, exalted whatever they encased, which included seared, loosely packed patties with more charred edges and, as a result, more flavor.

Bruni last covered the 2004 Bush campaign. Perhaps there’s a lesson in this.

On the Pentagon

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Milt Rosenberg:

Dwight Eisenhower once said, “The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without.” Some argue that the Pentagon (the epicenter of America’s defense) has evolved from a protective to a pernicious influence on the country’s international relations. After tonight’s 6:05 p.m. Cubs game, we will examine the role of the Pentagon in American history and in current American foreign policy—both positive and negative—with two experts: JOHN ALLEN WILLIAMS, professor of political science at Loyola University Chicago and an expert on the American military and national security, and National Book Award-winning author JAMES CARROLL, who tackles this very subject in his new book House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power.

Is There an End Game Plan?

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Ed Wallace:

“During the run-up to the 2004 presidential election, much was made of the fact that 2.4 million new jobs had been created that year. Omitted was the fact that close to 800,000 of those jobs went to Hispanics who had been here less than a year.”

We live in a world of obfuscation.

Yes, there are problems presented to our nation each and every day, but no real answers are provided and every interested party is blaming the other for what is wrong at the moment.

So, instead of offering another in-depth news story on Britney Spears’ latest pregnancy or Michael Jackson’s Bahrain hideaway, it might be more valuable to focus on the many issues that have not been resolved, the kind that impact and worry the average American.