Behind Your Business

AP - Bernard Madoff was apparently convinced that it never even occurred to Securities and Exchange Commission staff he was running a Ponzi scheme, despite the agency's numerous probes of his business.

AP - Grim signals about consumer spending ripped through the markets Friday, sending stocks tumbling as investors raced for safe havens.

Reuters - The Dow industrials suffered its worst slide since July on Friday on concerns that the economic recovery won't be robust enough to sustain the seven-month stock rally, while financials sank on renewed worries about Citigroup's balance sheet.

AP - Grim signals about consumer spending ripped through the markets Friday, sending stocks tumbling as investors raced for safe havens. The Standard & Poor's 500 index and the Nasdaq composite index ended with losses for October, breaking a streak of seven straight months of gains. The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 250 points, erasing a 200-point gain Thursday and ending the month flat.

Bookkeeping is one of the keys to bringing a tax strategy full circle. It's one thing to know what's deductible and how to maximize your deductions, but unless that gets reflected in your bookkeeping, it's as if the tax planning never happened at all.