Tuesday, February 18, 2020

David Crowe & Adele Ferguson - Information Hunters: When Librarians, Soldiers, and Spies Banded Together in WW II Europe

Tax reform architect Ken Henry has warned economically damaging "stealth" tax rises on personal income and companies since his 2010 landmark tax review for the Rudd government have left the nation's revenue stream at breaking point.
A decade of lost tax reform, epitomised by a populist $6 billion ad hoc bank tax, had failed Australians on the tests of fairness, economic efficiency, complexity and managing risk during people's lives, Dr Henry said at the NSW Review of Federal Financial Relations forum.
The tax system has 'gotten very much worse'

David Crowe & Adele Ferguson - On the Record - Tuesday 18th February




Tax Justice Network says UK is nearing top 10 most secretive financial systems


ONE LAW FOR THE VESTED INTEREST AND RICH, LITERALLY: Any middle-class would-be investor knows it’s hard to find somewhere to let your money grow these days. The SEC could be just about to make it even harder. As John Berlau explains at the Washington Times:

If it goes into effect, the regulation would cripple investors’ ability to buy dozens of funds they can now purchase on American stock exchanges for zero-dollar commissions from discount brokerages and investing apps such as Robinhood. Under the regulation, investors could not purchase these funds unless they can answer an extensive questionnaire of highly personal questions about their investing knowledge and household assets to the SEC’s satisfaction. SEC Republican Commissioners Hester Peirce and Elad Roisman have blasted the regulation as a “blunt overly paternalistic approach to investor protection.”


We have found ourself paying more attention to political matters this year than in past years. The reason for this is that we have the distinct sense that the federal government is encroaching too far on our life, on our liberty. C.S. Lewis said, "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive." This is what many people fear today. Nanny State ...

Glebe and other pockets: Storms fell trees and cut power in Sydney as hail and wind


National Archives presentation available via Information Hunters: When Librarians, Soldiers, and Spies Banded Together in WW II Europe - YouTube and C-SPAN – Information Hunters: When Librarians, Soldiers, and Spies Banded Together in World War II Europe, Thursday, January 23, 2020. 



“While armies have seized enemy records and rare texts as booty throughout history, it was only during World War II that an unlikely band of librarians, archivists, and scholars traveled abroad to collect books and documents to aid the military cause. They collected enemy texts, followed advancing armies to capture records, and seized Nazi works from bookstores and schools. When the war ended, they found and helped restitute looted collections hidden in cellars and caves. In Information Hunters, cultural historian Kathy Peiss reveals how book and document collecting became part of the new apparatus of intelligence and national security, military planning, and postwar reconstruction.”

How to shop without Amazon

I’m Hanna Kozlowska, an investigative reporter at Quartz. I like shopping. I love a great new outfit, or a new skincare hack. I have hobbies that require gear (ski socks, knitting needles). I like my home to look nice-ish and have all sorts of useful things in it. I buy way too many books. I de-stress by browsing through review websites like The Strategist, and I listen to podcasts that offer up a gazillion product recommendations per episode. Doing all of these things brings me joy or relief, but I don’t love the consumerism and waste it encourages. And what I particularly don’t appreciate is how Amazon—a company with many questionable business practices—has weaseled itself into my life, by making it so quick, cheap, and easy to do all these things I love, not to mention chores like buying shoelaces or heads for my electric toothbrush. With my guilt about supporting Amazon steadily fed by a stream of media reports about the company’s various sins, I decided over the summer that I’d quit my several-times-a-month Amazon habit, and document what I did instead. It turned out that it wasn’t that difficult to do, so for this Valentine’s Day—a consumerist holiday if there every was one—here are my suggestions for how to get out of a toxic relationship with the world’s biggest online retailer…”