Aerial photos reveal the stark divide between rich and poor - BBC News
Greece, August 2018: a mid-term report from a Syriza MP
Global corporates shifted $616 billion in profits to 11 tax havens
Locksmith had identity stolen and used to buy Melbourne properties ...
Baker made director of companies he'd never heard of in $100m tax ...
Perth tax adviser facing $35m tax bill
Gregory M. Stein (Tennessee), Will the Sharing Economy Increase Inequality?:
The rise of the sharing economy benefits consumers and providers alike. Consumers can access a wider range of goods and services on an as-needed basis and no longer need to own a smaller number of costly assets that sit unused most of the time. Providers can engage in profitable short-term ventures, working on their own schedule and enjoying many new opportunities to supplement their income. Sharing economy platforms often employ dynamic pricing, which means that the price of a good or service varies in real time as supply and demand change. Under dynamic pricing, the price of a good or service is highest when demand is high or supply is low. Just when a customer most needs a good or service – think bottled water after a hurricane – dynamic pricing may price that customer out of the market. This Article examines the extent to which the rise of the sharing economy may exacerbate existing inequality.
To illustrate the absurdity of the situation, she is fond of quoting Kate Raworth, author of Doughnut Economics. We currently have an economy that “needs to grow, whether or not it makes us thrive”, as Raworth puts it. What we need is a society that “makes us thrive, whether or not the economy grows.”
MATTHEW CONTINETTI: From Reality TV to Reality Politics: What Cohen, Omarosa, and Avenatti know that Democrats don’t.
Trump’s fame, wealth, and marginal position in the worlds of government, news media, and finance exempted him, in the minds of his supporters, from the informal rules that had conditioned the words and actions of candidates and presidents for years. Such freedom allowed him to bring into the political arena methods and practices from the worlds he knew best: tabloid journalism, professional wrestling, and reality television.
Disney Will Give Up Tax Breaks To Avoid Paying Disneyland Workers A Living Wage
"The Walt Disney Company came under heavy fire on Thursday for a decision to walk away from hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks for its southern California theme parks, a move critics are characterizing as an extraordinary last-ditch effort to avoid paying a living wage to thousands of workers." … Read More
More on Immunity Granted by USAO SDNY to Persons in the Trump Orbit
White collar crime lawyers know that the premier white collar crime prosecutors are in USAO SDNY. That is the office that investigated and prosecuted Michael Cohen, Trump's personal lawyer, to a plea and has obtained two immunity agreements -- one for David Pecker, publisher of the National Enquirer, and for Allen Weisselberg, CFO of the Trump organization. Those developments appear to bring great risk to Trump as shown in these articles. The reason I post them here is that they do inform readers who may not be that familiar with USAO SDNY of its role in the federal white collar crime universe.
Making plans for a new world order Handelsblatt. From Germany’s foreign minister; including a payments system that bypasses SWIFT.
Banker pleads guilty to money laundering charges, S. Fla. properties could be seized South Florida Business Journal. “Krull admitted that he helped private clients from Venezuela embezzle about $600 million from Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), a state-owned oil company.” E. Mayer: “Perhaps this sort of insider-looting explains at least part of Venezuela’s financial woes.”
New York Times: 3 Tax Breaks That May Be Better in the Long Run, by Paul Sullivan:
Talk to a tax expert long enough and you’re likely to hear some variant on this phrase: Don’t let the tail wag the dog.
It makes sense. Focus too much on the details, and you may lose sight of the big picture. When it comes to taxes — the tail in this case — a short-term tax benefit may not be the best investment or lifestyle decision.
The tax overhaul that was rushed through the Republican-controlled Congress and enacted last year gave taxpayers little time to grasp its implications. As the new law now becomes understood, accountants and tax advisers say the tail is wagging like an excited Labrador hovering over a T-bone steak. And advisers say their job is to calm the dog before he does something he will regret.
“You have to be careful making permanent decisions based on a temporary law,” said Mitchell Drossman, national director of wealth planning strategies at U.S. Trust. “This tax law is a temporary provision because most of the individual tax provisions sunset at the end of 2025.”
In many cases, once these tax-driven decisions are made, they either cannot be undone or they will cost people more than they saved to undo them. And it is not limited to the very wealthy; middle- and upper-middle-class earners could fall into this trap.
Short-term benefits may look desirable, but here are three tax breaks that may be better in the long run.
Police said Landske was enraged to find the taxes incomplete when he arrived to meet Page. ...
Chicago Tribune, Former Cedar Lake Councilman Charged With Murder of Hobart Attorney Outside His Home: 'I Went Over the Deep End':
As attorney T. Edward Page carried tax documents out of his home Wednesday, William Landske asked Page if they could talk, police said. Page set the bags down. Landske put his left arm around Page, pulled a silver revolver out of his pocket and fired at Page’s stomach, according to police. ...
Landske, 83, a former Cedar Lake town councilman, was charged Friday with the murder of Page, Lake County court records show. Page, 64, was shot four times outside his home around 11:45 a.m. Wednesday. ...
Northwest Indiana Times, 'A Murderous Coward': More Details Emerge as Former Cedar Lake Councilman Faces Murder Charge After Hobart Attorney Shot, Killed:
Landske allegedly told police he shot Page because he was angry with the attorney's work on his late wife's taxes, court records state. State Sen. Sue Landske died in 2015.
Page and Landske had known each other for years, police said. Page prepared the Landskes’ taxes for the last 30 years and was close friends with Landske and his late wife, Sue Landske, a former state senator who died after a battle with lung cancer in 2015, according to police. ...