"It's better for us to spend that capital on database applications and code instead of making sheet metal, " says Mark Hurd, vice president of worldwide marketing for NCR's computer systems group.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's tax troubles--a result, his handlers had said, of tax code complexity--underscore the need to drastically simplify that code with a flat tax, where a return can be filed on a single sheet of paper or even a postcard.