Chief Tax-Dodging Officers

Chief Tax-Dodging Officers

Republican and Democratic leaders don’t often see eye to eye on taxes. But surprisingly, corporate tax reform looks like one area where there might actually be some potential for bipartisan action in Washington. This should be good news, since our corporate tax system...
High-Status Sad Sacks

High-Status Sad Sacks

Here’s something that might not have occurred to you: It’s not easy being rich. Well, yes, there are all those things that money can buy to alleviate the burden of fabulous wealth — things like servants, summers in Provence, private jets, and such. But as...
Leave No Generation Behind

Leave No Generation Behind

Over a decade ago, I got a call from Bill Gates. Not the Bill Gates you’re probably thinking of. It was Bill Gates Sr., the Microsoft founder’s dad. He was eager to speak out in support of the federal estate tax, our nation’s only levy on inherited wealth....
Silicon Valley Shakedown

Silicon Valley Shakedown

The demigods of Silicon Valley like to present themselves as miracle workers, able to create electronic wonders (and wondrous profits) from nothing but their vaunted imaginations and entrepreneurial prowess. Well, yes. But there’s another part to that program: their...
Your Server Isn’t on the Menu

Your Server Isn’t on the Menu

At a popular sit-down restaurant in Independence, Missouri, Allison waits tables for $3.60 an hour — the going rate for servers at her restaurant. Advocates of raising the federal hourly tipped minimum wage of $2.13 up to the standard minimum wage — currently pegged...
The 0.01 Percent’s ‘I Reap All’ Accounts

The 0.01 Percent’s ‘I Reap All’ Accounts

Do you remember when Mitt Romney’s IRA made headlines during his failed 2012 presidential campaign? That outsized retirement stash estimated at between $20 and $102 million probably led President Barack Obama to propose limiting the buildup of IRA values. It...