We're all bracing for the next debate, but the taxosphere is rolling right along. Today brought in still more outraged comments about the bailout/stabilization plan/boondoggle-upon-a-boondoggle-upon-a-boondoggle. There's a lot to catch up on in today's tax blog posts: Karl Okamoto at Conglomerate notes that the new bailout bill ends a tax loophole for hedge fund managers. Could be good news, but since I've never heard a hedge fund manager's fees quoted in terms of after-tax income, this might just mean that investors will learn to pay the two point five and twenty-five.

Today's taxosphere is still busy digesting the new bailout, but there's plenty of other business to discuss. A pair of high-profile tax evasion cases have gotten some attention, the credit crisis is considered in more detail, and the Biden/Palin vice-presidential debate features some gaffes on both sides. A the California Tax Attorney Blog, blogger Mitchell A. Port talks up the IRS's increasing efficiency. Surprisingly, the big gains aren't just in audits -- the IRS has also gotten much better at providing easy online help for average users. James Edward Maule, proprietor of MauledAgain asks who is to blame for the subprime meltdown and the bailout, and argues that the answer is much more complicated than we'd like it to be. It's a decent post, but the anti-greed argument doesn't fly. Fannie and Freddie tried very hard to increase loans to poor people with poor credit, for what may well have been altruistic reasons. And John Paulson, whose financial strategies helped prick the bubble and cushion the crash, was presumably motivated by all the money he could make for himself and his investors. Greed is too versatile to take all the blame, and too ubiquitous to be eradicated. A better answer is to ...