Trump’s no good, very bad week: “Economic genius” revealed as tax scammer who lost $916 million...

[DonViejo]

Donald Trump’s no good, very bad week: “Economic genius” revealed as tax scammer who lost $916 million in a boom market

First he was "smart" for avoiding taxes. Now we find out how he does it -- by losing bazillions on bad investments

HEATHER DIGBY PARTON

According to focus groups, the exchange in last Monday’s campaign debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump that really offended people of all political stripes was not Trump’s revolting attitudes about women, although that was plenty offensive. It was the “taxes comment.” The Washington Post’s report on its focus group of undecided voters in North Carolina had this headline: “When Trump said that not paying taxes ‘makes me smart,’ undecided voters in N.C. gasped”:

“That’s offensive. I pay taxes,” said Townley, 52, a program ­director for a local council of governments.

“Another person would be in jail for that,” said Jamilla Hawkins, 33, who was sitting beside him in the Crescent conference room at the Embassy Suites in this city of 150,000 near Raleigh.

Pollster Frank Luntz’s dial-o-meter focus group also showed a sharp plunge for Trump when the tax discussion came up. After the debate Trump even denied saying it, which was ridiculous since more than 80 million people watched him do it.

Clinton was correct when she said that what little we knew from the few of Trump’s tax returns previously made public for various reasons was that he often pays little or no federal taxes. Over the weekend, the New York Times published a bombshell article featuring Trump’s 1995 tax returns from several states, which had been delivered anonymously to the paper. It not only showed that Trump had paid no federal income tax that year but that he had claimed nearly a billion dollars in losses. Tax experts told the Times that could mean he wrote off $50 million per year ever since. This certainly lends credibility to the speculation that he has refused to release his returns for that reason — because he has rarely or never paid even a nickel in federal income tax. Obviously, if he wants to end that speculation and prove everyone wrong, he could simply release the returns.

-snip-

http://www.salon.com/2016/10/03/trumps-no-good-very-bad-week-economic-genius-revealed-as-tax-scammer-who-lost-916-million-in-a-boom-market/