Manufacturing matters after all: Qualified production credit proves Wisconsin is open for business | submitted by Jeff Hoffman and Jim Brandenburg
In the early part of this century, there was a prevailing thought that if Wisconsin was going to compete in the “Economy of the Future,” we needed to move on from our manufacturing heritage and embrace the new economy. The state should be grateful that our manufacturing community did not heed the advice of the experts, as manufacturing has shown remarkable resilience in an economic recovery that still feels like a recession for millions of people.
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Estate planning: Today’s window of opportunity | submitted by Melissa Selinger
To the dismay of investors in today’s economy, it often seems the only predictable aspect of their holdings is unpredictability. However, there is somewhat of a silver lining in the combination of falling asset values, historically low interest rates, and the unprecedented $5 million gift tax exemption, which is scheduled to expire on Dec. 31, 2012, or possibly sooner, along with other historically unique estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax laws.
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Can I fire an employee for political activity? | submitted by Nilesh P. Patel
As reported in the pages of In Business magazine.
2011 seems to be the year of political unrest. The
Occupy Wall Street protest is gaining support in other major cities, such as Oakland, Seattle, and Madison. Wisconsin has also seen its share of political protests about public employees’ collective bargaining rights (Act 10), litigation over access to the State Capitol, and civil disobedience against a banning of signs and cameras in the legislative galleries.
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