"Adam Smith's 1776 warning needs updating. He said: "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."
If you have an unromantic understanding of government, you know it is composed not of disinterested altruists but of people as interested in maximizing their power as private-sector actors are interested in maximizing their profits. So, be wary when governments form cartels for enlarging their capture of society's resources.
The United States and 131 other nations and jurisdictions recently agreed to impose a global tax on a few (mostly American) large corporations.
The agreement would impose a 15% minimum tax (the Biden administration wanted 21% and still plans to impose the higher rate on U.S. companies) on the foreign profits of multinational companies.
It also would tax some of the largest corporations' profits where the corporations' customers are rather than where their output (factories, etc.) is..."

Graphic of opinions

This article brings the sociological theory of governmentality to bear on a longitudinal analysis of American presidential speeches to theorize the formation of the citizen-consumer subject. This 40-year historical analysis—which extends through four economic recessions and the presidential terms of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama—illustrates the ways in which the national mythology of the American Dream has been linked to the political ideology of the state to create the citizen-consumer subject in the United States. The quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data demonstrates 1) the consistent emphasis on responsibility as a key moral value, albeit meshed with ideals of liberalism and libertarianism at different presidential periods; 2) that the presidents iteratively link the neoliberal political ideology and the national mythology of the American Dream through a sophisticated morality play myth, wherein they cast the citizen-consumer as a responsible moral hero on a journey to achieve the American Dream; and 3) that the presidents use three main dispositives—disciplinary, legal, and security—to craft the citizen-consumer subject in their response to economic recessions. These findings extend prior consumer research on consumer subjectivity, consumer moralism, marketplace mythology, and politics of consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why has the Republican Party centered its domestic agenda around tax cuts for three decades? Monica Prasad presents a thorough, complicated, and convincing story of the political motivations and impact of Ronald Reagan's Economic Recovery Tax Act (ERTA) of 1981. Starving the Beast argues that the ERTA marked the transformation of the Republican Party from a party of fiscal responsibility to one of tax cuts. Reagan showed his fellow Republicans that running on tax cuts was not only electorally popular but came with no economic or political costs. Republicans could now distribute government benefits through the tax code as a counter to Democratic expansions of the welfare state. This strategy united disparate factions within the party and is still one of the GOP's only popular policy positions.

This article explores the institutional conditions of possibility for the political articulation of fiscal crisis. Drawing on an ethnographic case study of the 2012 Kansas tax cuts, I argue that the political articulation of fiscal crisis is conditioned largely on the institutional capacity to run deficits. The ability to run deficits at the federal level delays the structural reckoning of fiscal crisis, but also delays the subjective dimensions of crisis. In contrast, the absence of deficit financing at the state and local level amplifies the subjective dimensions of the crisis, constraining Republican's ability to articulate alternative causes for austerity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I begin with the question, what should be the agenda of political economy and of law and economics? I argue that the agenda should include humanistic economic questions, such as how to protect weak workers and how to minimize suffering. Humanistic economics is especially important when we discuss legal questions. Then, I discuss this article's central question: How should power gaps be handled in the labour market? I examine the various answers to this question and discuss the fundamental controversies in political economy. In particular, I examine the solution of a free market vis-à-vis the social-democratic solutions of labour legislation--especially the minimum wage law, encouragement of organized labour, and transfer of wealth through tax laws. Hunger allows no choice To the citizen or the police; W. H. Auden In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets, and steal their loaves of bread. Anatole France. People are competing with each other for jobs. Some of them do not have special skills. People may find themselves forced to choose between a starvation-wage job, i.e., wages insufficient to provide the ordinary necessities of life (but still keeps them from starvation), and real starvation. They may find themselves subject to abuse and degrading treatment at work while facing the alternative of sleeping on the street. How should the state law handle this? How should we approach this problem? What do the different bodies of knowledge have to say about this, and which of them should be consulted? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Appeals to greed in support of various tax proposals are often seen in response to populist moods in politics. Such appeals may be used to garner political support for a policy or proposal. However, there has been little academic consideration of the role of greed (or attitudes towards greed) in the law, and in tax law in particular. This Article seeks to fill that gap by taking a close look at the concept of greed. In doing so, the Article first surveys the history of greed and its meaning, and draws on political philosophy and economic literature to provide a working definition of greed. The Article then investigates the role of greed in tax law, focusing on the issue of executive compensation, in order to consider whether "greed" is merely political rhetoric, or if it can provide a framework or analytical tool that is useful for crafting tax rules aimed at correcting or remedying excess. The Article ultimately concludes that, while "greed" is indeed a powerful rhetorical tool, its application in tax law and policy should be limited to situations where greed manifests as the appropriation of money, wealth or goods for personal gain, accompanied by illegality, a breach of fiduciary duty or contract, or indicators of market failure or manipulation. In such scenarios, carefully considering the meaning of greed and thinking about our reactions to it in crafting tax law and policy may help tailor rules to target the negative aspects of the behavior in question. The goal of this "taxing greed" paradigm is thus to reduce unfairness and correct distortions created by greedy behavior. In the realm of executive compensation, the analytical framework around greed developed in this Article indicates that executive compensation may be a proper target for higher rates of tax. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Article encouraging less taxes for wealth

"In Los Angeles, for better and worse, the rich we shall always have with us. The obituary tributes to Eli Broad have rightly noted the singularity of his achievements. At various points in the past three decades, he didn't so much personify the city's business-civic elite as actually comprise it in its entirety."

The article reports on the implication of the charitable giving offered by billionaires which reduce or eliminate their tax obligations with the behest of their wealth defense advisers who are responsible for maximizing client's wealth while minimizing taxes.

In the resurgence of interest in inheritance flows following the publication of Piketty's work, little attention has been paid to the affective practices that ensure the success of inheritance processes as wealth moves down generations of dynastic families. This article explores these practices, drawing on research among wealth managers, philanthropy advisors, family offices and their clients, to show how philanthropy is promoted by advisors to the wealthy as a tool to support inheritance and family business succession planning. In this process, advisors draw on the philanthropic imagination to style wealthy families as custodians of both private capital and the common good, thus mirroring the narratives used by philanthrocapitalists to legitimise their wealth in the public sphere. Here, however, the discourse of philanthrocapitalism is turned inwards to the private realm of the family, to persuade younger generations to rally around the collective project of the custodianship of wealth. By bringing together research on philanthropy and inheritance, this article contributes to the growing sociological literature on elites and the global inequalities driven by their accumulation of wealth. It shows how wealth accumulation is increasingly dependent not only on the mechanics of financial markets and inheritance flows, but also on affective wealth management strategies framed around ethical notions of kinship and social responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first quarter of 2021, the top one percent in the U.S. owned 53.5 percent of all stocks and mutual funds, while the bottom 90 percent owned 11.4 percent. However, 74.8 percent of total debt was owed by the bottom 90 percent, compared to the five percent of debt owed by the top one percent.

As of October 2021, a combined value of 5.02 trillion U.S. dollars was held by billionaires living in the United States. This is a substantial increase from the same month of the previous year when the combined wealth of all billionaires in the country came to 3.88 trillion U.S. dollars.

The OC Equity Map spotlights social and health disparities in Orange County neighborhoods. This interactive map visualizes 580 census tracts across the county and displays scores from the Social Progress Index (SPI), Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Health Indicators, and population demographic data. This tool allows our communities to identify what health inequities exist and where they are most felt, so we can work together to eliminate them.

Fullerton College Professor Jodi Balma invites Katie Kalvoda, Founder of Advance OC, to showcase OC Advance's incredible data mapping tool the Orange County Equity Map.