Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
CNN Despite a last ditch effort by protesters to appeal to any vestige of shame or dignity from within the GOP, House Republicans on Tuesday voted in favor of a tax overhaul that will give a giant boost to the ultra-rich while dramatically screwing over most ordinary citizens. The final vote was 227-203, with 12…
On Sunday, March 29, 2015, two days after my 54th birthday, I came very close to dying. I was sitting in an armchair in my Paris apartment, reading a newspaper, when I became dizzy. The next thing I knew, my heart was beating violently. When the paramedics arrived, it was racing at 240 beats per…
This week, the speculation over Trump’s financial status and slippery tax history may have finally been corroborated with the release of several pages of the Republican nominee’s 1995 tax returns to the New York Times. So far, the documents appear to be genuine, and they’ve led to exactly the unsavory implications we’ve been waiting for,…
Peter Thiel offers a case study in the way America’s top tax rate is much, much too low. This week, we learned that Thiel — a Silicon Valley techno-libertarian billionaire who co-founded PayPal, sits on the board of Facebook and is estimated to be worth $2.7 billion — is trying to sue Gawker Media out…
FROM THE START of the reporting based on Edward Snowden’s leaked document archive, government defenders insisted that no illegal behavior was revealed. That was always false: Multiple courts have now found the domestic metadata spying program in violation of the Constitution and relevant statutes and have issued similar rulings for other mass surveillance programs; numerous articles on NSA and GCHQ documented…
France has said goodbye to its infamous 75% income tax on individuals earning more than 1 million euros this past weekend, returning to a top marginal income tax rate of 45%. The change, effective February 1, is a blow to the French Socialist party’s signature redistribution measure, the same remedy supported by popular French economist Thomas Piketty…
People across the country will pop bottles of champagne at midnight tonight to celebrate the new year. The question is, how much is the government raining on your New Year’s parade with champagne taxes? The Wine Institute has a list of the excise taxes on sparkling wines in each state. If you’re celebrating New Year’s…
The rules that govern cross border profits enable systemic tax avoidance, because they allow profits to be shifted away from where they are generated to another country with a lower (or zero) tax rate – all as a matter of accounting rather than real economic activities. These rules frequently serve the economic interests of the…
Planning to retire? Not long ago, many of us would have automatically answered “yes” to that question, and with good reason. In the 20th century, retirement became the norm—something most people did. Thanks to generous programs like Social Security (enacted in 1935) and Medicare (1965), millions of people who once might have worked till they…
« Previous | Next » David Wessel | April 9, 2015 9:50am How much does the tax code reduce inequality? There is, for good reason, a lot of focus these days on the widening gap between the top and the bottom in the U.S. economy. Since it’s (almost) Tax Day, that April 15 deadline for…