Taxes

By Scott Klinger | – ( Inequality.org ) – Shortly after emerging from his 10-minute space flight last week, Jeff Bezos thanked Amazon customers and employees for their primary role in paying for his Blue Origin joyride to the edge of space. The Amazon founder’s comments quickly elicited scorn from many employees who toil in […]

Debt

Why we need a Debt Jubilee for Renters as the Covid eviction Moratorium expires

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – What is going to happen when the eviction protections now scheduled to expire at the end of July finally do so? The rental deficits hanging over some tenants’ heads are so extreme that default is virtually inevitable, and the numbers affected so many that rental debt is […]

Inequality

The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax

ProPublica

By Jesse Eisinger, Jeff Ernsthausen and Paul Kiel | – The Secret IRS Files ( ProPublica) – Inside the Tax Records of the .001% In 2007, Jeff Bezos, then a multibillionaire and now the world’s richest man, did not pay a penny in federal income taxes. He achieved the feat again in 2011. In 2018, […]

Inequality

Biden’s modest corporate tax increases to fund public infrastructure projects are wildly popular — except among CEOs

Jim Hightower

By Jim Hightower ( Otherwords.org) – “Outrageous,” screeched the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “It doesn’t feel fair,” whimpered a top corporate executive. The wailing by those who run corporate America is not for the plight of the workaday families who’ve seen their incomes stagnate and even plummet to zero during the pandemic. Rather, this chorus […]

Plutocracy

How global tax dodging costs lives: new research shows a direct link to increased death rates

The Conversation

By Bernadette O’Hare and Stephen Hall | – Tax abuse is an expensive business. According to a recent report by the Tax Justice Network, avoiding or evading tax deprives governments across the world of around US$427 billion (£302 billion) every year. This is money that could otherwise be spent on things like clean water, sanitation, […]

Democratic Party

The Real Morning in America: ~2/3s are Optimistic under Biden: majorities want Gov’t to fix the Economy and blame GOP for Obstruction

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new ABC News/ Ipsos poll finds that 64% of Americans are optimistic about the next twelve months. It is the first time we have felt that way about ourselves since before George W. Bush crashed the economy by deregulating everything. “Morning in America” was the slogan of the minor […]

Inequality

Just how Bold is Biden’s Plan to Pay for Infrastructure by Making Rich Pay their Fair Share?

Sam Pizzigati

( Inequality.org) – President Joe Biden has made no secret of his admiration for Franklin D. Roosevelt. He’s even given a painted portrait of FDR the most prominent place of honor in the White House Oval Office. A bit more significantly, Biden has just announced the most ambitious gameplan — since FDR’s New Deal — […]

Employment

Making America more Equal . . . by Rebuilding the Country

Nomi Prins

(Tomdispatch.com ) – During the Trump years, the phrase “Infrastructure Week” rang out as a sort of Groundhog Day-style punchline. What began in June 2017 as a failed effort by The Donald’s White House and a Republican Senate to focus on the desperately needed rebuilding of American infrastructure morphed into a meme and a running […]

Inequality

If We Want to Renew Democracy, We Need to Tax the Ultra-Wealthy

Inequality.org

By Madeleine Johnsson | – ( Inequality.org ) – Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act of 2021, introduced March 1, could not be a more timely reminder that the United States needs serious policy changes to address massive wealth and income inequality. While eight million Americans slipped into poverty and half […]