Make the Payroll Tax Cut Permanent
A basic principle of modern tax theory is that rich people should pay more as a percent of their income than poor people. The more income you have, the less...
Research & Commentary
From academics to activists, thoughtful people worldwide are focusing their attention on economic inequality as never before.
America’s Greediest: The 2011 Top Ten Edition
One puts on football pageants. Another makes mega millions on a virtual farm. They all remind us how much needs to change, economically and politically, in 2012 and beyond. By...
Making the Payroll Tax Cut Revenue-Neutral
President Obama and Republican leaders are currently debating whether or not to extend the 2011 Social Security tax reductions for one more year. The usual Social Security payroll tax is...
United We Fall: Inequality on the Rise
The incomes of the richest have now grown so large that even the think tank of the developed world's governments is calling for tax hikes. By Salvatore Babones On Monday...
British and Greek Workers Strike for All of Us
Government workers went out on strike in Greece and the United Kingdom last week. The two strikes are unrelated, but they share the same root causes. In both countries the...
The Other 99 Percent: How the U.S. Compares
The other 99 percent do far worse in the United States than in any other developed country. By Salvatore Babones In September 2011 the Occupy Wall Street movement grabbed the...
On Wall Street, Still Tis the Season to Be Jolly?
Financial industry insiders are grousing about a big downturn in annual bonuses. They should be thanking the rest of us — bombshell new research shows — for their continuing awesome...
The Alchemy of Our Awesomely Affluent
Today's super rich can't turn tin into gold. But they can get Uncle Sam to loan them free money. At the expense, of course, of America's bottom 99 percent. How...
The Best Case Yet for Ending CEO Pay Excess
An independent British commission has just demolished the defenses that overpaid executives and their flacks have advanced to justify why executives today merit so much more than their counterparts a...
After the Deficit Reduction Supercommittee, Back to School
Now that the Deficit Reduction Supercommittee has apparently failed to reach a consensus on how to cut the trillion-dollar federal budget deficit, the field is open for new ideas. Locking...