Monday, May 18, 2020

Earning a living is the new civil disobedience


The virus has “torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing,” the former president said. “A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge.”
DECOUPLE NOW: The coronavirus exposed US reliance on India for generic drugs. That supply chain all hinges on China.


MAP: Here are the Chinese ‘propaganda’ centers currently operating in the US. “Colleges continue to ignore these warnings” because money and influence.


Racetrack Memory Will Make Your Computer Smaller, Better, Faster, Stronger Popular Mechanics. Jeff C:

This is supposedly about a new data-storage technique (I suspect an overhyped one, but I’m not qualified to say for sure), but that’s irrelevant. Just look more closely at the circuit board! You’ll see the Pentagon, an airport, multiple office buildings, a railroad yard, an aircraft parking lot, various busy highways, and — my favorite — Angkor Wat!
Some editor was asleep, and some rogue author was out to prove it. Enjoy before it’s taken down.


 Artificial Intelligence is helping economists devise a fairer tax system  ZMEScience 


Jinyan Li, Arjin Choi & Cameron Smith (Osgoode Hall), Automation and Workers: Re-Imagining the Income Tax for the Digital Age, 68 Canadian Tax J. 99 (2020):

In the age of automation, more and more workers lose jobs or become gig workers, and the share of labour income in national income is expected to decline further. These developments threaten the sustainability of Canada's 102-year-old income tax as a major source of government revenue and a key instrument for redistributing social income. The authors make the case for re-imagining the income tax to suit the digital age. They propose that all workers should be taxed the same, regardless of the private-law arrangements or technical means used to carry out the work. They call for a reconceptualization of the source of income as human capital, capital, or business. They suggest ways of amending the Income Tax Act to ensure that income from work is not embedded in capital or disguised as active business income that warrants tax subsidies.




Pro PublicaOn May 12, after a six-week delay caused by the pandemic, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the epic battle by congressional committees and New York prosecutors to pry loose eight years of President Donald Trump’s tax returns.

Much about the case is without precedent. Oral arguments will be publicly broadcast on live audio. The nine justices and opposing lawyers will debate the issues remotely, from their offices and homes. And the central question is extraordinary: Is the president of the United States immune from congressional — and even criminal — investigation?


 NSW Treasury says state and nation in recession

NSW Treasury officials delivered this assessment on Friday at a NSW upper house inquiry, which is scrutinising the Berejiklian government's response to the COVID-19 crisis.



Swamped and Busy FIRB must be fit for purpose

The board is under scrutiny by a Senate inquiry as some members question whether it has the resources to adequately review takeovers and enforce conditions of sale

Since the Morrison government slapped tough restrictions on foreign takeovers to protect local businesses from predators, the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) has been swamped with work.

Jinyan Li, Arjin Choi & Cameron Smith (Osgoode Hall), Automation and Workers: Re-Imagining the Income Tax for the Digital Age, 68 Canadian Tax J. 99 (2020):

In the age of automation, more and more workers lose jobs or become gig workers, and the share of labour income in national income is expected to decline further. These developments threaten the sustainability of Canada's 102-year-old income tax as a major source of government revenue and a key instrument for redistributing social income. The authors make the case for re-imagining the income tax to suit the digital age. They propose that all workers should be taxed the same, regardless of the private-law arrangements or technical means used to carry out the work. They call for a reconceptualization of the source of income as human capital, capital, or business. They suggest ways of amending the Income Tax Act to ensure that income from work is not embedded in capital or disguised as active business income that warrants tax subsidies.





 A northern suburbs woman has been charged after allegedly using the identities of dozens of people to fraudulently obtain more than half a million dollars.
On October 31, 2018 police raided a home in Heathridge, where they found a box with a notebook containing handwritten details of a large number of people, along with bankcards and other identification material. 
The arrest came after an extensive 19-month investigation and it will be alleged the details of more than 60 people had been recorded.

Woman charged over 'Australian first' cybercrime after allegedly illegally exchanging Bitcoin
The investigation began in November 2018, when detectives from the State Crime Command's Cybercrime Squad established Strike Force Kerriwah to investigate an online money laundering syndicate operating across NSW, unlawfully exchanging cash for cryptocurrency.
Bitcoins

KC Fed Economic Bulletin –  and  |“In March, the global coronavirus pandemic led to a period of financial stress in which credit conditions tightened at an unprecedented pace. Elements of this stress period can be explained as a classic run on “shadow banks”—nonbank financial institutions that fund long-term assets with short-term debt. Although timely Federal Reserve interventions restored some calm to markets, shadow banks remain vulnerable to future runs because they lack the safeguards available to regulated depository institutions.””


Wired – At 22, he single-handedly put a stop to the worst cyberattack the world had ever seen. Then he was arrested by the FBI. This is his untold story. This is a long read and well worth the time


The American Dream is created via an elusive mixture of insanely hard work, intelligence and colossal personal risk. Jennifer and her husband took on that challenge to start their dream. They mortgaged their home, emptied their savings and pulled money from their retirement funds to create Water’s Edge Winery and Bistro located at 2102 E Arapahoe Road in Centennial.
After five grueling years their business was a success, employing many people, allowing those folks to pay their own rents and the taxes to support others without work.
When her restaurant was shut down Jennifer re-organized to provide pick-up food service. She found that while people were waiting for their meal orders to be cooked, they wanted to have a glass of wine. The place is a winery after all.
Who would have guessed this would become the beginning of a law-breaking demonstration of resistance? Forget the Tea Party of 1773. This is the Wine Party of 2020.



 PEGGY NOONAN, The Lockdown Class War.
There is a class divide between those who are hard-line on lockdowns and those who are pushing back. We see the professionals on one side—those James Burnham called the managerial elite, and Michael Lind, in “The New Class War,” calls “the overclass”—and regular people on the other. The overclass are highly educated and exert outsize influence as managers and leaders of important institutions—hospitals, companies, statehouses. The normal people aren’t connected through professional or social lines to power structures, and they have regular jobs—service worker, small-business owner.
Related: Protests show two Americas — those who lost their jobs and those still getting paid.