Computers and finance

Computers have made financial bookkeeping much easier, and people no longer have to spend hours tracking investments or pay someone else to do their taxes. Moreover, the advancement in technology has allowed governments to cut back on the number of big companies and employees hired to process tax returns, resulting in the saving of millions of dollars. Although these advancements are extraordinary, they are not without their shortcomings. The IRS has had increased trouble in tracking fraudulent tax returns, and has had to revamp its detection system.

The most surprising part of Microsoft's current purchase of Intuit, the maker of the Quicken line of personal finance software was not the $1.5 billion price, which was fifty percent over the market value (Schlender 14). It was not even the fact that Bill Gates,

America's richest entrepreneur, is in a position to become America's richest banker (14). The most surprising thing was that it did not happen earlier (14). For years Gates has had a dream of putting "electronic commerce at the core of personal computing," and now he finally has the software to accompany that dream (14). His idea includes a "Wallet PC" that can be carried around with people at all