Economy and Business
Wall Street’s MIA Ethics
Let's review the rap sheet of Wall Street banks: defrauding investors, cheating homeowners, money laundering, rigging markets, tax evasion, credit card ripoffs… and so sickeningly much more. At last, though, some of the cops on the bank beat seem to be having...
Want to See Where Your Taxes Go?
Millions of Americans file their federal income tax returns by April 15 each year with no idea what the government actually does with all that money. This is surprising, considering that individuals are our nation’s primary bill payers. Income taxes paid by...
This Week in OtherWords: April 9, 2014
This week, we're running our annual OtherWords Tax Day special edition. Chuck Collins and Bob Lord explain how billionaires are bypassing the estate tax and what's wrong with that. Jim Hightower and cartoonist Khalil Bendib skewer Caterpillar Inc. for an offshore tax...
A Better Path to Prosperity
Washington politicos aren't quite right when they say that federal budget proposals are "dead on arrival." Even if they don't become law, budgets stand as living, breathing testimonies of the values and priorities of the people who write them. And it may surprise you...
WhatsApp with the Estate Tax?
What does Facebook's recent purchase of WhatsApp have to do with the estate tax? Actually, a good bit, if you're concerned about America's concentration of wealth. Why? Because an economy needs effective checks and balances. A tax on inherited fortunes essentially...
Close the Paris Hilton Loophole
If our leaders want to balance the budget, here's a suggestion: Congress can scrap a new "Paris Hilton" giveaway that's draining billions of federal tax dollars. This giveaway takes the form of a complex tax loophole designed to circumvent the federal estate tax, one...
Hiding Profits in Slimy Offshore Wormholes
The dictionary defines the caterpillar as a "wormlike larva" and a "crawler." Also, that "pillar" part of the word is derived from a French verb that means to "pillage, abuse, mistreat." Good to know. Now, meet Caterpillar Inc., the world's largest maker of...
Tax-Cheating Butterfly
3 Freaky April Fools’ Day Stories
On a recent morning, after checking news reports, I thought: What a freaky news day. Freaky Story No. 1: The Governor of Texas rarely has any ideas. But apparently one unexpectedly erupted from the usually dormant cluster of low-voltage brain cells in Rick Perry's...
Lobbying to Sustain Inequality
Congress will soon vote on a measure that would raise the national minimum wage to $10.10 and bring the tipped wage to 70 percent of the full minimum. The Fair Minimum Wage Act would give millions of American workers a long-overdue raise. Today's $7.25-per-hour...
