The communist revolution that spanned the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was about concentrating government ownership of capital. Then, in the closing decades of the twentieth century, a counter-revolution swept the world, pushing for just the opposite: disperse capital as widely as possible by getting everybody involved as owners. The new spirit of democratic capitalism: Butlers, Bakers, and Capitalists?
Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Tax Me More
My favorite authority on taxes is David Cay Johnston. Johnston reports: "Through explicit policies, as well as tax laws never reported in the news, Congress now literally takes money from those making $30,000 to $500,000 per year and funnels it in subtle ways to the super-rich -- the top one-one hundredth of one percent of Americans.
• Tax changes that missed the headlines impact your bottom line [This Tax Day, I'm telling Congress to stop giving me tax breaks ; Would you be upset if someone spent millions of dollars to put your future retirement funds into a casino, while taking no risks with their own future? Your Risk, Their Gain]
• · The doubling of child malnutrition in Iraq is baffling Let Them Eat Bombs ; It's Better to be Poor in Norway Than in the US
• · · The Dirty Little Secret of Financial Globalization Profit Laundering and Tax Evasion ; Bushes Paid $207,307 In Federal Income Tax ; As Winston Churchill said "You dont make the poor richer by making the rich poorer:" Though it’s sometimes unfashionable to admit it, most of us are like Lady Bracknell. We prefer the fashionable side of the square. More trees, less noise, better view. Who knows, it might be nearer the river? Taxing position, position, position
• · · · Mr Bob Carr on the battle between the Federal Government and the States; Tax breaks for property investors have delivered a far greater boon to speculators than previously thought, gouging billions from tax revenues with the benefits going overwhelmingly to the rich. Landlords and speculators reap billions from tax rule changes ; The Australian sharemarket continued to tumble at noon, with investors panicked after a sharp fall on Wall Street on Friday night. Smell of panic hits sharemarkets ; If you believe in Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, you’ll believe the claim Dr Nicholas Gruen made this month in a weekly column that Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Graeme Samuel had “just uttered heresy” by saying “some consumer protection hurts consumers” Consumer Protection Hurts Consumer: A Beat Up
• · · · · Lebanese Catholics recruited to the Liberal Party by the Christian right allegedly flashed pistols to intimidate opponents at a meeting to establish a new branch, according to a complaint lodged with NSW Liberal headquarters. Lib anger over guns flashed at meeting ; John Azarias on The EU is currently Australia’s biggest trading partner
• · · · · · Friends say Pat Peritore is a mild-mannered professor of political theory during the day, but at night he’s a dueling sword fighter, even though he can’t even stand the sight of blood. Missouri's Pat Peritore ; Iraq: incredible weapons – incredible weapons. How do you know that? “Uh, well...we looked at the receipts.” Bill Hicks was a stand-up political philosopher ; Pushing Ten Commandments; Forgetting Ten Amendments