Feb
2013 19
2013 19
Armageddon Cometh? Bernie Sanders and a Reagan/Bush Policy Guy Agree on the Urgent Need for Corporate Tax Code Reform
A lawsuit against Apple by investor David Einhorn has brought the topic of corporate America’s cash hoard back into the national conversation. At the heart of the lawsuit is Apple’s $137 billion pile of cash and the question of whether hoarding cash bests rewards shareholders. For many companies in the same situation the stockpiles of ...
Jan
2013 28
2013 28
Yahoo!, Dell Join List of Co.’s Whose Staggering European Tax Havens Have Been Brought to Light
As we relayed in December, large multinational companies such as Google are abusing European tax havens in order to legally avoid paying taxes, a practice which costs the EU 1 trillion euros (or $1.3 trillion USD) each year. Facing a 519.5 billion euro budget deficit as of the second quarter of 2012, member countries of the ...
Jan
2013 24
2013 24
“The hollowing out of the middle class means that they are unable to invest in their future.”
In a recent Op-Ed for The New York Times, Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz argues that inequality is holding back the recovery and that the growing gap between the 99 and 1 percents is setting up an unsustainable future for the United States. As Stiglitz notes, nearly one fifth of American children currently live in ...
Jan
2013 22
2013 22
Los Angeles Could be Months from Becoming Largest City to Beat Back Citizens United
The grassroots effort to overturn Citizens United — the infamous Right-wing driven law enshrining “corporate personhood” as an actual, laughable thing — is making its way through Los Angeles where voters may get to tackle a ballot initiative that could overturn the 2010 Supreme Court ruling. The L.A. City Council voted last...
Jan
2013 11
2013 11
$8.5 Billion Foreclosure Settlement May Be Too Small to Aid the More than 3 Million Mistreated Homeowners
A settlement brokered by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve requires 10 banks to pay $8.5 billion to compensate homeowners who had their homes wrongly foreclosed upon in 2009 and 2010. $3.3 billion will be used to make direct payment to eligible borrowers with the other $5.2 billion being ...
Jan
2013 8
2013 8
Attorneys General in NY, CA, ID, ME, MT Take Aim at Campaign Finance Disclosure (Since the Federal Government Won’t)
With federal regulators refusing to take notice and the DISCLOSE Act stalled in Congress, the honus is on state Attorneys General to take up the fight to force the tax-exempt groups that spent hundreds of millions in the 2012 election to disclose their donors. Campaign finance reform has been anathema to the federal government, ostensibly ...
Jan
2013 7
2013 7
Corporate Lobby-Driven “Active Financing Tax Exception” to Cost Taxpayers $11 Billion Over Two Years
For the past fifteen years, Americans have been losing big dollars to lobbyists who have forced the extension of tax policies that allege to defend against double taxation. Opponents of such credits argue that they are nothing but tax shelters for Ethanol producers, NASCAR racetracks and the like. Among the techniques used is “active...
Dec
2012 19
2012 19
Awesome Anti-ALEC Cartoon Featuring a Very Average East Coast Accent
I hadn’t seen this anti-ALEC cartoon until this morning. It’s quite good in terms of explaining the treachery that is the American Legislative Exchange Council (notice the cartoon dollar bill’s suspicious pause when calling the organization a “charity”) and at providing a touch of comedy on an otherwise dark, dark...
Dec
2012 11
2012 11
Google Stashing $9.8Billion in Bermuda Tax Haven Resulting in $2B of Lost U.S. Tax Revenue
Tech giant Google has seen the revenues it stashes in the tax haven of Bermuda soar to nearly $10 billion according to a revelatory piece yesterday by Bloomberg’s Jesse Drucker. By shifting tax revenues to a shell company based in a Bermuda law office, the company has avoided paying roughly $2 billion in taxes, Drucker ...
Dec
2012 5
2012 5
IT’S THE ATROCITY, STUPID: At 43.5% of GDP, Wages Hit Their Lowest in the History of the U.S.
Third quarter numbers show that U.S. corporate profits have hit a record high while workers’ wages are now at their lowest share of GDP (again). Why again? See, corporate profits are like Batman movie ticket sales. Every time the new numbers come out they’re bigger than the last ones. Just four years after the great ...
Nov
2012 1
2012 1
Eat Your Spinach or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Vote for Romney
Imagine getting a letter from your boss telling you that you could personally face dire consequences if a certain political candidate were elected President. Would your behavior be affected? If a co-worker lived in your neighborhood, would you take down their yard sign supporting the guy who might allegedly threaten your well-being? Would you stop...
Oct
2012 9
2012 9
BCTD Prez: “Our productivity and workmanship allow us to achieve ‘on time and on budget’ results, while also providing family-sustaining wages that benefit the workers and their communities.”
It’s rare that the Wall Street Journal puts the pro-labor perspective in plain view in their pages, so we figure “hey, why not give them some extra shine for it” when they do. Below find an op-ed from Building and Construction Trades Department (AFL-CIO) President Sean McGarvey titled “Construction Trades do Add...
