Pick Your Poison

And there does seem to be a growing feeling across the land that everyone is somehow entitled to live in a world where nothing offends them — from Halloween costumes to the names of sports stadiums. Hey, if it’s unwanted, it’s harassment, and nobody is in favor of harassment, right?

Washington, D.C. city council plans $1,000 speeding tickets, officials insist it’s Not About the Money [Washington Post]

• Tax fraud trial to lift lid on Wildenstein art-dealing dynasty  

Beware the gratitude gurus and their creed of self-love masquerading as selflessness. "The current hoopla around gratitude is a celebration of onanism" Complexity of Gurus 

What a difference a year makes. In March 2015 Forbes reported on how Puerto Rico had become a tax haven within the United States, offering zero percent taxation on some dividends, income and capital gains. As Mohnish Pabrai, quoted by Forbes put it:

“The way the U.S. tax code is written, I could be on Mars and be taxed on intergalactic income but not if I’m sitting on this island in the Caribbean. It’s kind of in a twilight zone,”.

Puerto Rico hoped to exploit a loophole in the US tax system which allowed them to be part of the US, but to run a separate tax regime from the rest of the country in order to attract people to the island and boost economic activity.

Has it worked? We will let you decide for yourself, the government of Puerto Ricodefaulted on its debts on Jan 1st.

P.S.  For information about another tax haven heading for the financial rocks, read this Guardian long read article about the British Channel Island of Jersey, which for decades has based its development strategy on tax competition.

Green MEP Molly Scott Cato put it eloquently in a letter to The Independent:

“In an economy where money is created in the private sector based on debt, a banking licence represents an extraordinary power granted to a small number of corporations by the state. Strict regulation of their activities, particularly when their risks are guaranteed by the public, is therefore essential.”

 "And there does seem to be a growing feeling across the land that everyone is somehow entitled to live in a world where nothing offends them — from Halloween costumes to the names of sports stadiums. Hey, if it’s unwanted, it’s harassment, and nobody is in favor of harassment, right?"
 Public service posters on the D.C. Metro proclaim the slogan “If it’s unwanted, it’s harassment,” which must have sounded good to someone but is entirely wrong as a legal matter [David Post]

US Corporate Media Amplifies Saudi PR Machine Real News