The AP reports on financial disclosure forms released yesterday for top White House aides, headlining the story "White House Gift Disclosures Include a Shotgun for Rove." The account enumerates assets of various prominent names, with totals specified in each case in a numerical spread, ie. "Rove's disclosure for 2005 revealed he is worth between $1.8 million and $6.9 million."
That to me seems like a mighty large margin for guesstimate, but with the fluidity in value of stocks and extra homes, I suppose, it makes sense that a specific number can't be precisely pinned down (even if I think a proper financial disclosure should be a tad less uncertain).
But this I can't figure at all:
"Joel D. Kaplan, the former deputy White House budget director who is now a deputy chief of staff, listed $60,000 to $115,000 in law school loans and reported that he took out a nine-month loan in 2005 to buy an engagement ring worth $15,000 to $50,000."
What exactly was the price tag on the damn ring? Was it $15,000? Or was it $50,000? How much exactly was the loan? Did he pay $15,000 at the jewelry store and then tell his insurance company it's worth $50,000? Is Joel Kaplan such a big celebrity that items he owns have gained an inflated value as the result? How does an engagement ring have a value so imprecise that the margin for asset valuation error is $35,000?
I surely betray my ignorance about such matters, but what's up with that?
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