peter + plutocracy   119

Economic Downturn Took a Detour at Capitol Hill - NYTimes.com
Moneyquote: "What is clear is that members of Congress are getting richer compared not only with the average American worker, but also with other very rich Americans.

While the median net worth of members of Congress jumped 15 percent from 2004 to 2010, the net worth of the richest 10 percent of Americans remained essentially flat. For all Americans, median net worth dropped 8 percent, based on inflation-adjusted data from Moody’s Analytics.

Going back further, the median wealth of House members grew some two and a half times between 1984 and 2009 in inflation-adjusted dollars, while the wealth of the average American family has actually declined slightly in that same time period, according to data cited by The Washington Post in an article published Monday on its Web site."
plutocracy 
december 2011 by peter
The 57,000 Page Tax Return — Marginal Revolution
Moneyquote: "Consider the resources that GE spends to lowers its tax bill, not just the many millions spent on clever accounting and accountants and the many millions spent on lobbying but also the many inefficient ways that GE structures its businesses just to avoid paying taxes and the many millions it invests in socially wasteful projects just in order to produce privately valuable tax credits. Now add to that the allocational inefficiencies of taxing some firms at different rates than others and you have a corporate tax system which wastes a lot of resources and raises relatively little revenue. Indeed, a corporate tax system with a tax rate of zero could well be preferable as it would waste fewer resources and raise not much less revenue."
taxation  plutocracy 
november 2011 by peter
Groupon's Red Flags Were Missed -- Sorkin - NYTimes.com
A great example of "take the profit, ask questions later" capitalism that's being practiced today.
plutocracy 
october 2011 by peter
Occupy protests around the world: full list visualised | News | guardian.co.uk
Moneyquote: ""951 cities in 82 countries" has become the standard definition of the scale of the Occupy protests around the world this weekend, following on from the Occupy Wall Street and Madrid demonstrations that have shaped public debate in the past month."
plutocracy  occupywallstreet  datasets 
october 2011 by peter
Bank of Canada head calls Occupy protests 'entirely constructive' - The Globe and Mail
Moneyquote: "The Occupy Wall Street demonstrations and other expressions of frustration with the global economic and financial system highlight the need for policy makers to show they are serious about forcing change, Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney says.

In a television interview, Mr. Carney acknowledged that the movement is an understandable product of the ``increase in inequality’’ – particularly in the United States – that started with globalization and was thrust into sharp relief by the worst downturn since the Great Depression, which hit the less well-educated and blue-collar segments of the population hardest."
occupywallstreet  plutocracy 
october 2011 by peter
'Occupy Wall Street': Drawing the Battle Lines | Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone
Moneyquote: "There is a huge number of Americans who simply don't realize that they've been victimized by Wall Street – that they've paid inflated commodity prices due to irresponsible speculation and manipulation, seen their home values depressed thanks to corruption in the mortgage markets, subsidized banker bonuses with their tax dollars and/or been forced to pay usurious interest rates for consumer credit, among other things."
occupywallstreet  plutocracy 
october 2011 by peter
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