Category Archives: Business

Climate Solutions, Earth and Ecology, Economics, Esoteric, Observation, Sustainable Energy

The Earthly Frontier: Building a Sustainable Future at Home

Solar Power: Harnessing Our Local Star

The pioneering spirit driving Elon Musk’s SpaceX to prepare for life on Mars is captivating, but a compelling alternative suggests we should use this same spirit to heal and nurture our home planet.

The sun, our local star, is central to this Earth-centric vision. According to NASA, Earth receives approximately 174 petawatts of incoming solar radiation in the upper atmosphere.

By efficiently harnessing just a fraction of this energy, we could significantly reduce our dependence on environmentally harmful fossil fuels.

Over the past decade, the cost of solar power has dramatically decreased and, with improvements in energy storage, (like Tesla’s Powerwall units, for example), solar energy is becoming a reliable, 24/7 power source.

Ephemeralization: Doing More with Less

However, the shift towards sustainable living extends beyond changing our energy source. This is where the principles of R. Buckminster Fuller, a visionary architect, systems theorist, author, designer, and inventor, come into play.

Fuller proposed the concept of “doing more with less,” forecasting a future where technological advancements lead to “ephemeralization,” a scenario in which we could fulfill everyone’s needs using fewer resources. This notion could help pave the way for a more environmentally sustainable world that also addresses issues of scarcity and inequality.

Building Efficiency: Embracing Integrative Design

Our journey towards a sustainable future is complemented by the principles of “integrative design,” a concept championed by Amory Lovins, co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute.

Lovins’ approach focuses on a holistic systems design where individual components work together in synergy, maximizing energy and resource efficiency.

This concept applies prominently to building efficiency, an area where Lovins has made significant contributions. By considering elements such as orientation, insulation, window placement, and ventilation, buildings can be designed to maintain comfortable temperatures with minimal active heating or cooling.

This “passive house” approach dramatically reduces energy consumption, making buildings part of the climate solution rather than a source of the problem.

Lovins’ approach also applies to manufacturing and industry, which, together, account for over 40% of total U.S. energy consumption.

By redesigning industrial processes to minimize waste, utilize waste heat, and prioritize energy-efficient equipment, Lovins argues that industries can dramatically reduce their energy use without sacrificing output or quality.

Taken to the furthest logical conclusion, the principles of integrative design could revolutionize how we conceive of energy use across all sectors.

Circular Economy and Soil Regeneration: Emulating Nature’s Cycle

To create a genuinely sustainable society, we need to redefine our economic systems and our relationship with the land. Our shift must be from a linear economic model—where we extract, use, and discard resources—to a circular one that mimics nature’s endless cycles of growth, decay, and renewal.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has been instrumental in leading efforts to establish an economy that is restorative and regenerative by design.

A key part of this shift involves regenerating our agricultural systems. Soil health is vital for maintaining biodiversity, water quality, and carbon sequestration.

Regenerative agriculture, including practices like cover cropping, no-till farming, and composting, can restore soil health and enhance its capacity to absorb carbon from the atmosphere.

According to the Rodale Institute, if current farmlands globally shifted to regenerative organic practices, it could sequester more than 100% of current annual CO2 emissions. Transitioning towards such practices could significantly mitigate climate change and rejuvenate our food systems.

Economic Justice: Power to All

An Earth-centric future also calls for economic justice. In a world powered by the sun, where resources are used wisely, waste is minimized, and the soil is restored, basic needs—such as healthcare, education, and equal opportunity—could be universally provided.

Establishing these rights is not just about altruism—it’s about creating a society where every individual can fully contribute to the collective good.

Mars Can Wait, But Can Earth?

The dream of a city on Mars is undoubtedly inspiring, but we must not overlook the opportunities beneath our feet. Our planet is not merely a stepping stone to the stars; it is a star in its own right.

Mars can wait, but can the Earth? With the elements for a sustainable revolution already within our grasp, it’s up to us to weave them together, creating a future that embraces both sustainability and economic justice.

The Long Road to an Earthly Future

The real odyssey, the true journey that demands our audacity and pioneering spirit, lies not in the red sands of a distant planet or under the shadows of unfamiliar stars. Instead, it unravels here, beneath the azure sky and upon the rich, verdant expanses of our home, Earth.

This journey may be long and fraught with challenges. The road toward a sustainable, just, and abundant future will require us to reassess our values, reinvent our systems, and redefine our relationship with the environment.

It calls for us to weave together principles of ephemeralization, integrative design, circular economy, soil regeneration, and economic justice into the fabric of our societies.

Yet, even as we embark on this formidable quest, we should remember that the destination is not merely a point in the future. It is a process, a continuous evolution that offers us countless opportunities for growth, learning, and reinvention.

Every step we take towards this envisioned future—whether it’s a solar panel installed, a passive house built, or a plot of land regenerated—brings us closer to realizing our potential as a species.

Unlike the cold, alien landscapes of Mars, the Earth provides us with a setting that is intimately familiar yet brimming with untapped potential.

We have the knowledge, the technology, and the means. All we need now is the collective will to channel our exploratory spirit inward, to heal, nurture, and transform the world we already have.

So let the red planet wait. For now, we have an extraordinary world under our feet, a world that we are yet to fully comprehend and appreciate.

Our gaze should not be fixed on distant celestial bodies, but on the potential lying dormant in our societies and within ourselves. The future of humanity is not just out there in the cosmos, but also right here, on the third rock from the Sun. The Earth and its promise of a sustainable and equitable future, is real, and attainable.

Crypto, Entertainment, Finance

Apple near deal to produce film of Michael Lewis Book on Sam Bankman-Fried & FTX Collapse

In an incredible coincidence, Lewis had access before and during the drama

Michael Lewis book on Sam Bankman-Fried & FTX is near a deal with Apple. With competition from Amazon and Netflix – the film of the book on the fiasco is likely to be an Apple Feature film exclusive.

The fast moving story of the collapse of the one-time crypto billionaire wunderkind is about to go into overdrive. Apparently, as per a story in Deadline, Michael Lewis, of “The Big Short” and “MoneyBall” fame spent nearly six months with Bankman-Fried, ostensibly writing a very different story, one that has morphed into the scoop of the century as he watched the collapse of FTX and its founder’s world up close, pen in hand.

Rumors have it that Adam McKay, director of “The Big Short” and “Don’t Look Up” will eventually be attached, but for now, it appears that Apple has outbid both Amazon and Netflix for the feature film rights to the story.

A shocking and riveting story takes yet another twist

The story is of Sam Bankman-Fried & FTX’s rise and fall, with his personal estimated net worth crashing from a short lived peak at over twenty billion, to his current situation with zero and facing possible charges after resigning as CEO as FTX filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The unfolding drama has been hot and the details spewing out in the media and TikTok with a ferocious fervor, and now, with the author who has shown himself to be particularly adept at telling complicated financial stories and making them human and understandable on board, whew, it just got bigger.

The incredibly fortuitous coincidence that the book was six Months in the writing already as the historic collapse unfolded is likely to make for a once in a lifetime cinematic event.

Many have already called the FTX collapse “bigger than Madoff” or the greatest company collapse in history, and now the larger than life rise and fall will be chronicled both in an upcoming guaranteed bestseller, and in the, likely to be, Apple branded feature film.

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Books, Crypto, Entertainment, Etherum, Movies

Ridley Scott to Produce ‘The Infinite Machine’ ETH Origin Story from Camila Russo’s Book

The future of Ethereum, DAOs, Defi and Web3 set to become mainstream with movie tracing its history

Ridley Scott’s production company, Scott Free Productions, is slated to produce a feature film based the book, which tells the story of Ethereum, ‘The Infinite Machine‘ written by cryptocurrency crusader and journalist Camila Russo, and has Shyam Madiraju attached as director. Tom Moran, Vera Meyer, and Alejandro Miranda are also onboard, according to Deadline.

With Ridley Stott’s credits running the gamut from ‘Blade Runner‘, to ‘The Last Duel’, to Alien, to Gladiator, and too many more to count, plus production credits for Scott Free that are no less impressive, the upcoming films appears set to be big.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin will play prominently in the story, showing the early and incredible initial launch, inspired by the self-taught 19 year-old, into what is now the world’s second largest cryptocurrency (Ether) and, according to Ethereum.org is a technology that’s home to digital money, global payments, and applications. The current ‘market cap’ for Ethereum is nearly $400 billion.

The story up to the present day is fascinating enough, with the meteoric rise of Ethereum from the founding in 2015 to the announcement of this project. Particularly noteworthy is the connection between the Ethereum blockchain technology and the invention of NFTs (Non-fungible tokens), DeFi (decentralized finance), D.A.O.s (Decentralized autonomous organizations) and more.

Camila Russo, author of “The Infinite Machine”, also founded TheDefiant( thedefiant.io ) which “curates, digests, and analyzes all the major developments in decentralized finance, so that you can stay informed and smart about the most cutting-edge and fastest-changing corner of crypto and finance” according to the site itself.

The film project has already started to make waves and accomplish meaningful buzz in a deep layered, totally coherent approach to its creation. Namely, the fact that part of the fundraising for the film is taking place via NFT collections. This bold move has been incredibly well timed and successful, with the first @ETHMovie collection selling out completely within 28 hours and raising $670,000 in the process.

This funding, along with subsequent NFT collections offered are being managed via The Infinite Machine DAO community treasury, along with traditional film financing techniques. The DAO is, itself, the executive producer of the movie.

According to the official site for the film, the NFT collection sales will be equally distributed amongst the 36 intervening artist which will receive 22.5% of the budget. 10% will be sent to a community treasury pool to fund the DAO, and the 67.5% will be used for the movie.

‘It’s incredibly exciting to have Ridley Scott and the crew at Scott Free produce the movie of The Infinite Machine alongside us. I can’t imagine a better team to turn the riveting story about the people behind the most revolutionary technology since the internet into a feature film that will capture the hearts of our generation.‘

Camila Russo as per ‘DeaDline’

This groundbreaking funding mechanism, in this case for a movie that is intended to “become a blockbuster movie for the mainstream”, is part and parcel of the radical yet optimistic and hopeful changes that DAOs, NFTs, DeFi all were created to achieve, within the greater context of Web3 and the Ethereum blockchain itself. In other words, making this film is itself proof that the subject matter is alive, kicking and becoming more real (and dangerous, to some) in real time.

Traditional funding and monetary distribution channels, from the creative genesis of an idea (in this case the book) to a fully formed commercially released product and its proceeds, are by comparison, woefully inadequate and generally corrupt and unfair, according to many artists and creators super-pumped for the transition to these new methods made possible by Ethereum, blockchain, and soon, Web3.

So from the story, in both book and movie, to the NFT collections, the the DAO created to executive produce and partially fund the film, there is a thread of real-life proof-of-concept running throughout.

That proof is that, far from being a far flung, possible flash-in-the-pan, the entire saga, beginning with 19-year-old Vitalik Buterin’s idea to expand the potential of block chain, is destined to come to spectacular fruition, and sooner than you might believe.

Culminating the relatively short history of the last 7 years, all the way to the present day explosion of work, massive capital investments and development of Ethereum, along with its various applications and use-cases, we could be inexorably headed toward a moment in the near-future when the film will crash head-on into the realization of the very dream scenario it depicts. Oh boy howdy.

Below, the breakdown of the The Infinite Machine DAO funding plan:

Before the Movie Budget is Covered

Distribution of primary and secondary sales:

  • 22.5% in an equal basis amongst the 36 intervening artists
  • 10.0% to a community treasury pool used to seed The Infinite Machine DAO
  • 67.5% to cover the movie budget up to $16M. That number may be reduced depending on the amount of funds raised via traditional means.

After the Movie budget is covered

Distribution of secondary trading fees and any other revenues from all collections:

  • 22.5% will be received by the artists in this collection 
  • 25.0% will be received by the NFT Collection core team and contributors 
  • 52.5% will be used to fund a community pool to seed The Infinite Machine DAO

Camila Russo spent eight years at Bloomberg covering the Argentine market (bonds, stocks, FX) for 4+ years based in Buenos Aires; she wrote about European stocks with a focus on Southern Europe in Madrid; analyzed macro emerging markets moves for the Markets Live blog in New York; and was one of the most prolific and dedicated cryptocurrency reporters.

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Crypto, Elon Musk, Twitter

Bitcoin’s Origins get Well-timed Mention in Elon Musk Tweet

The ‘why’ of Bitcoin is back in the news

Bitcoin’s history and origination is an important factor for more than just true believers and maximalists. Created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, and with evidence that it was intended, by its founder, known only as Satoshi Nakamoto, as remedy for the failed system that had nearly collapsed the world economic system at that time.

In a recent CoinDesk post, Nathan Thompson wrote: Bitcoin’s genesis block is historic, not just because it contained the first 50 bitcoins, but because it had a message coded in the hash code: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.”

The bank bailouts and various financial system failures were integral, then, in the creation and purpose of bitcoin, and one could even say, coins and systems that followed, starting with Ethereum in 2015.

After a few weeks of tweets revolving around the Twitter buyout brouhaha, Elon Musk, in a reply, added, in a more introspective tone than has been seen of late, some of his thoughts on the subject;

Interesting timing and a nice shift from the obsession with prices

The recent “crash” and panicked voices over the drop of the bitcoin price below $30k is the unspoken background addressed in this exchange, it appears.

Decrying the erroneous belief that “prices only go up” held by the public at large during the doomed run up to the 2008-2009 crisis could be seen as a hint that, perhaps, prices of assets like Bitcoin, and Tesla shares, for that matter, can not “only go up” and anyone who seeks such a preposterous nirvana is digging their own graves, having failed to learn from all the times in history that fools took the path of peak greed and self-delusion.

Worse, and worth being singled out specifically, are those that profited from the delusion of others in “predatory lending” practices, which Elon Musk “doesn’t support”.

Ultimately for this tweet thread, it was Elon Musk’s Twitter buddy @BillyM2k that nailed it with a series of tweets explicitly spelling out the divergence between the founders and believers in the original, positive, intent of bitcoin and the massive bubble of speculators and scammers that has, in his view unfortunately, grown up around it.

The Best Books on Cryptocurrency

Pointing out that DogeCoin, as an example, was created to highlight the stupidity of speculation and excess greed that came with the avalanche of meme-coins and “shitcoins” etc, that flooded the market and, to a great degree, obscured the original, positive force that bitcoin and decentralized finance was invented to be.

https://twitter.com/BillyM2k/status/1525274042592202752?s=20&t=yenGWhR_EZDBYDoUwOhnZg

Maybe, some of the various challenges and stumbles that Elon Musk is experiencing lately, seemingly for the first time, after a string of incredible triumphs, culminating with the Person of the Year designation and the buyout launch that is now in limbo, will inspire him to be more reflective and use his powerful position as a “Twitter-sage” to draw more attention to the need for a voice of “reason”, rather than as a cheerleader for the bonfires of vanity and speculation.

https://twitter.com/BillyM2k/status/1525277905319628801?s=20&t=yenGWhR_EZDBYDoUwOhnZg

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Books, Crypto, Entertainment, Finance, Observation

The Best Books on Cryptocurrency

Above:Photo Credit / Krzysztof Kowalik on Unsplash

So much is going on in the area of Crypto-currencies, Blockchain, Alt Coins, and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) that it can make your head spin. And that is not to even mention Crypto Mining, Farming, Baking and Trading, all of which have had skyrocketing activity recently.

How much interest there is runs the gamut from the curious onlooker to the serious professional. And then there are predictions regarding the future of the world financial system, the political and legal ramifications of the rise of crypto and all the opinions going every which way, and more.

Based on all of the above it only makes sense to put together a list of fundamental ground floor guidebooks to help anyone who wants and needs to really understand what all the fuss is about. Bitcoin and the whole area of blockchain technology has come so far already, and is so established and entrenched that it is unlikely to disappear completely anytime soon, no matter which way the political winds may blow.

So if you are a beginner an intermediate or even advanced learner that wants to know more, these are the best books to really dig into the phenomena and explosion of information and viewpoints. To make it easier they are featured front and center, below, along with descriptions, provided courtesy of the Bookshop (and the various publishers), and with some links for a variety of options of where to purchase.

Mastering Blockchain – Third Edition: A deep dive into distributed ledgers, consensus protocols, smart contracts, DApps, cryptocurrencies

Buy at Bookshop

Blockchain technology is the backbone of cryptocurrencies, and it has applications in finance, government, media, and many other industries. With a legacy of providing technologists with executable insights, the third edition of Mastering Blockchain is thoroughly revised and updated with the latest blockchain research, including four new chapters on consensus algorithms, Serenity (Ethereum 2.0), tokenization, and enterprise blockchains.

Apart from covering the basics, including blockchain’s technical underpinnings, cryptography, and consensus protocols, this book provides you with expert knowledge on decentralization, decentralized application development on Ethereum, Bitcoin, alternative coins, smart contracts, alternative blockchains, and Hyperledger.

Furthermore, you will explore how to implement blockchain solutions beyond cryptocurrencies, such as the Internet of Things with blockchain, blockchain scalability, enterprise blockchains, and tokenization using blockchain, and the future scope of this fascinating and disruptive technology.

By the end of this book, you will have gained a thorough understanding of the various facets of blockchain technology and be comfortable applying them to diverse real-world scenarios.

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Key Features

  • Updated with four new chapters on consensus algorithms, Ethereum 2.0, tokenization, and enterprise blockchains
  • Dive deep into foundational pillars of blockchain technology such as decentralization, cryptography, and consensus protocols
  • Get to grips with Solidity, Web3, cryptocurrencies, smart contract development and solve scalability, security, and privacy issues
  • Discover the architecture of different distributed ledger platforms including Ethereum, Bitcoin, Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Sawtooth, Corda, and Quorum

Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Blockchain Technology& Altcoins For Beginners: Explore The Decentralized World, Investing in Crypto Blueprint, Mining Basics+

Buy at Bookshop

Do you want to understand what Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency actually is? Do you want to understand how it could change the world & finance industry FOREVER? Do you want to discover how you can get started investing in Crypto TODAY?

By now we’ve all heard of it, yet few of us understand it, and without understanding it how could you even dream of investing in it?

You hear all the tech ‘bros’ talking about it, you hear the media slandering it, you can see the bankers are scared by it’s potential, but you still don’t quite get the fuss.

Don’t worry, we’ve all been there.

But, luckily, this book has been written for people just like you.

The purpose of it is to demystify the world of Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Decentralization & The Blockchain.

And, if those 4 words currently sound like a foreign language to you, you’re not alone. But, after this book, you’ll be the one explaining about the ‘Crypto Craze’ to everyone you see!

Inside, we will go over the origins & history of Bitcoin, it’s potential to change the world, as well as how it could all go wrong.

And, of course, we will go over how you can invest in potentially the greatest wealth transfer the world has ever seen.

Here’s a tiny Example of what’s inside..

  • Exactly What Bitcoin Actually Is And How It Is Drastically Disrupting The Global Economy 
  • Everything You Need To Know About The ‘Bitcoin Halving’ Cycles & How To Maximize Your Gains From Them
  • What Is A ‘Blockchain’ And How It Could Quite Literally Revolutionize EVERY Aspect Of Your Life In The Coming Decades
  • What Are ‘Altcoins’ And How They Are Different To Bitcoin & What Their Purpose In All Of This Is…
  • Why We Are Still In The VERY Early Days Of The Crypto ‘Boom’

And SO Much More!

So, If You Want To FINALLY Understand The World Of Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency So You Can Actually Understand What All The Fuss Is About And Whether You Want To Get Involved, Then Scroll Up And Click

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Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe

buy at Bookshop

From preeminent math personality and author of The Joy of x, a brilliant and endlessly appealing explanation of calculus–how it works and why it makes our lives immeasurably better.

Without calculus, we wouldn’t have cell phones, TV, GPS, or ultrasound. We wouldn’t have unraveled DNA or discovered Neptune or figured out how to put 5,000 songs in your pocket.

Though many of us were scared away from this essential, engrossing subject in high school and college, Steven Strogatz’s brilliantly creative, down-to-earth history shows that calculus is not about complexity; it’s about simplicity. It harnesses an unreal number–infinity–to tackle real-world problems, breaking them down into easier ones and then reassembling the answers into solutions that feel miraculous.

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Infinite Powers recounts how calculus tantalized and thrilled its inventors, starting with its first glimmers in ancient Greece and bringing us right up to the discovery of gravitational waves (a phenomenon predicted by calculus). Strogatz reveals how this form of math rose to the challenges of each age: how to determine the area of a circle with only sand and a stick; how to explain why Mars goes “backwards” sometimes; how to make electricity with magnets; how to ensure your rocket doesn’t miss the moon; how to turn the tide in the fight against AIDS.

As Strogatz proves, calculus is truly the language of the universe. By unveiling the principles of that language, Infinite Powers makes us marvel at the world anew.

The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking

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When a pseudonymous programmer introduced “a new electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party” to a small online mailing list in 2008, very few paid attention. Ten years later, and against all odds, this upstart autonomous decentralized software offers an unstoppable and globally-accessible hard money alternative to modern central banks. The Bitcoin Standard analyzes the historical context to the rise of Bitcoin, the economic properties that have allowed it to grow quickly, and its likely economic, political, and social implications.

While Bitcoin is a new invention of the digital age, the problem it purports to solve is as old as human society itself: transferring value across time and space. Ammous takes the reader on an engaging journey through the history of technologies performing the functions of money, from primitive systems of trading limestones and seashells, to metals, coins, the gold standard, and modern government debt. Exploring what gave these technologies their monetary role, and how most lost it, provides the reader with a good idea of what makes for sound money, and sets the stage for an economic discussion of its consequences for individual and societal future-orientation, capital accumulation, trade, peace, culture, and art. Compellingly, Ammous shows that it is no coincidence that the loftiest achievements of humanity have come in societies enjoying the benefits of sound monetary regimes, nor is it coincidental that monetary collapse has usually accompanied civilizational collapse.

With this background in place, the book moves on to explain the operation of Bitcoin in a functional and intuitive way. Bitcoin is a decentralized, distributed piece of software that converts electricity and processing power into indisputably accurate records, thus allowing its users to utilize the Internet to perform the traditional functions of money without having to rely on, or trust, any authorities or infrastructure in the physical world. Bitcoin is thus best understood as the first successfully implemented form of digital cash and digital hard money. With an automated and perfectly predictable monetary policy, and the ability to perform final settlement of large sums across the world in a matter of minutes, Bitcoin’s real competitive edge might just be as a store of value and network for final settlement of large payments–a digital form of gold with a built-in settlement infrastructure.

Ammous’ firm grasp of the technological possibilities as well as the historical realities of monetary evolution provides for a fascinating exploration of the ramifications of voluntary free market money. As it challenges the most sacred of government monopolies, Bitcoin shifts the pendulum of sovereignty away from governments in favor of individuals, offering us the tantalizing possibility of a world where money is fully extricated from politics and unrestrained by borders.

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Crypto, Etherum, News, Observation, Politics

‘Ethereum is Neutral, I Am Not’ Vitalik Buterin Calls Out Vladimir Putin: Glory to Ukraine

Video

Above: Photo collage / Lynxotic / Pexels

The Russian-Canadian citizen and co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain, Vitalik Buterin took to this social media minutes after Putin’s announced a “special military operation” and effectively go to war with Ukraine. Buterin condemned the Russian President on his Twitter, see the below translated post.

Translation of the post from Russian: Very upset by Putin’s decision to abandon the possibility of a peaceful solution to the dispute with Ukraine and go to war instead. This is a crime against the Ukrainian and Russian people. I want to wish everyone security, although I know that there will be no security. Glory to Ukraine.

Vitalik also included that although his company remains neutral politically, however as a human being, Vitalik has taken a personal stance on the matter. This is another example of Russian born international citizens speaking out loud and clear against Putin and his attack. (Buterin was born in Kolomna, a city near Moscow, in 1994. When he was just six years old, he moved with his family to Canada)

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Business, Sustainable Energy

How Electric Trucking Options are Coming to Freight Businesses 

There’s been a lot of talk lately about transitioning to sustainable energy sources, and for good reason. With the threat of climate change looming, it’s more important than ever that we work to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

Transportation options that are more sustainable than gas-powered vehicles and also much cheaper are out there. Believe it or not, sustainable energy transport is not only possible; it’s becoming increasingly popular as companies and consumers alike move towards greener options.

In this post, we’ll explore how transport companies can transition to sustainable energy transportation. We’ll also look at some of the challenges and benefits associated with making this switch. So if you’re interested in learning more about sustainable energy transportation the information below may be useful.

What Is Sustainable Energy Transportation and Why Is It Important?

At its core, sustainable energy transportation refers to any form of transport that relies on renewable energy sources or non-polluting fuels. Sustainable energy sources include electric or solar power plus things like wind farms and biofuels.

Many freight companies are looking into sustainable energy transportation because it helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. In fact, the transportation sector is responsible for a significant portion of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States—nearly 30 percent, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Furthermore, changing regulations and consumer preferences may significantly impact the future of sustainable energy transportation. For example, many cities are now starting to implement strict emissions standards for taxis and buses, which could result in more companies shifting towards electric or hybrid vehicles.

For transportation businesses to remain competitive in the future, it’s important to start exploring sustainable energy transportation options now. Not only will this help reduce their impact on the environment, but it will also help them stay ahead of the curve.

Challenges of Transitioning to Sustainable Energy Transportation

Of course, making the switch to sustainable energy transportation isn’t without its challenges. Perhaps one of the biggest obstacles for transport companies is investing in the new technologies and infrastructure required for these types of vehicles. For example, electric vehicles need charging stations, and solar-powered vehicles may need special equipment to harness the sun’s energy.

Another challenge that transport companies face is changing consumer behavior. While there is a growing interest in sustainable energy transportation options, many consumers are still unfamiliar with these technologies or are hesitant to switch from traditional methods like gas-powered vehicles.

This means that transport companies need to find ways to educate consumers about the benefits of sustainable energy transportation and convince them to make the switch. This can be a costly and challenging process, but it’s essential if we want to see widespread adoption of these technologies.

The final challenge to consider when transitioning to sustainable energy transportation is the availability of resources. Currently, sustainable energy sources like solar and wind power are still not as widely available as fossil fuels. This means that transport companies need to be strategic about where they source their energy and how they use it.

However, despite these challenges, more and more transport companies are making the switch to sustainable energy transportation. And as more businesses and consumers become educated about the benefits of this technology, we’ll likely see even broader implementation in the future.

Benefits of Transitioning to Sustainable Energy Transportation

Despite the challenges that come with transitioning to sustainable energy transportation, there are also a number of benefits that make the change worth it.

For one thing, sustainable energy sources like wind and solar power are becoming much cheaper than traditional fossil fuels. Using sustainable energy can help companies save money on fuel costs, as renewable energy is more affordable, in aggregate, compared to conventional fossil fuels.

As an example, at Cross Country Car Shipping detailed examples are shown breaking down the cost of shipping vehicles across the country. In the future, this cost could be greatly reduced as more transport companies start using sustainable energy.

Additionally, sustainable energy transportation options are becoming increasingly available as more companies invest in this area. This means that transport companies have more choices when it comes to finding vehicles and technologies to meet their needs. Plus, these types of vehicles produce fewer emissions, which can help improve air quality and reduce health problems like asthma.

The benefits of transitioning to sustainable energy transportation are clear. And not only will they help transport companies save money and reduce their environmental impact, but they’ll also help these businesses remain competitive in an ever-changing marketplace.

How Can Transport Companies Make the Switch to Sustainable Energy Sources?

Making the switch to sustainable energy transportation can be challenging, but it’s essential work that must be done if we want to see a more sustainable future for transportation. 

There are many ways transportation and shipping companies can transition to sustainable energy sources. Some possible strategies include investing in electric or hybrid vehicles, using solar power, and utilizing renewable fuels like biofuels. Additionally, companies may need to make changes to their infrastructure and educate consumers about the benefits of sustainable energy transportation to facilitate this transition. 

Transitioning to sustainable energy transportation is an important step many companies are taking to be more environmentally friendly and cost-effective. And while the challenges involved in this process should not be underestimated, the potential benefits make the switch well worth it.

The Takeaway on Transport and Sustainable Energy

As the world looks for ways to become more environmentally friendly, many transport and shipping companies are making the switch to sustainable energy transportation. This transition can be challenging, but it comes with many benefits that can help businesses save money. It’s also an important step in protecting our planet for future generations.

There are a few key things that companies need to think about when it comes to making the switch to sustainable energy, including harnessing the right technologies and communicating the benefits of this transition to consumers. And with some forethought and planning, companies can make the switch successfully while helping to protect our planet for years to come.​

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Business, Elon Musk

Do poison pills work? A finance expert explains the anti-takeover tool that Twitter hopes will keep Elon Musk at bay

Poison pills usually work, but Elon Musk appears undeterred. screenshot from china launch video

Tuugi Chuluun, Loyola University Maryland

Takeovers are usually friendly affairs. Corporate executives engage in top-secret talks, with one company or group of investors making a bid for another business. After some negotiating, the companies engaged in the merger or acquisition announce a deal has been struck.

But other takeovers are more hostile in nature. Not every company wants to be taken over. This is the case with Elon Musk’s US$43 billion bid to buy Twitter.

Companies have various measures in their arsenal to ward off such unwanted advances. One of the most effective anti-takeover measures is the shareholder rights plan, also more aptly known as a “poison pill.” It is designed to block an investor from accumulating a majority stake in a company.

Twitter adopted a poison pill plan on April 15, 2022, shortly after Musk unveiled his takeover offer in a Securities and Exchange filing.

I’m a scholar of corporate finance. Let me explain why poison pills have been effective at warding off unsolicited offers, at least until now.

What’s a poison pill?

Poison pills were developed in the early 1980s as a defense tactic against corporate raiders to effectively poison their takeover efforts – sort of reminiscent of the suicide pills that spies supposedly swallow if captured.

There are many variants of poison pills, but they generally increase the number of shares, which then dilutes the bidder’s stake and causes them a significant financial loss.

Let’s say a company has 1,000 shares outstanding valued at $10 each, which means the company has a market value of $10,000. An activist investor purchases 100 shares at the cost of $1,000 and accumulates a significant 10% stake in the company. But if the company has a poison pill that is triggered once any hostile bidder owns 10% of its stock, all other shareholders would suddenly have the opportunity to buy additional shares at a discounted price – say, half the market price. This has the effect of quickly diluting the activist investor’s original stake and also making it worth a lot less than it was before.

Twitter adopted a similar measure. If any shareholder accumulates a 15% stake in the company in a purchase not approved by the board of directors, other shareholders would get the right to buy additional shares at a discount, diluting the 9.2% stake Musk recently purchased.

Poison pills are useful in part because they can be adopted quickly, but they usually have expiration dates. The poison pill adopted by Twitter, for example, expires in one year.

A successful tactic

Many well-known companies such as Papa John’s, Netflix, JCPenney and Avis Budget Group have used poison pills to successfully fend off hostile takeovers. And nearly 100 companies adopted poison pills in 2020 because they were worried that their careening stock prices, caused by the pandemic market swoon, would make them vulnerable to hostile takeovers.

No one has ever triggered – or swallowed – a poison pill that was designed to fend off an unsolicited takeover offer, showing how effective such measures are at fending off takeover attempts.

These types of anti-takeover measures are generally frowned upon as a poor corporate governance practice that can hurt a company’s value and performance. They can be seen as impediments to the ability of shareholders and outsiders to monitor management, and more about protecting the board and management than attracting more generous offers from potential buyers.

However, shareholders may benefit from poison pills if they lead to a higher bid for the company, for example. This may be already happening with Twitter as another bidder – a $103 billion private equity firm – may have surfaced.

A poison pill isn’t foolproof, however. A bidder facing a poison pill could try to argue that the board is not acting in the best interests of shareholders and appeal directly to them through either a tender offer – buying shares directly from other shareholders at a premium in a public bid – or a proxy contest, which involves convincing enough fellow shareholders to join a vote to oust some or all of the existing board.

And judging by his tweets to his 82 million Twitter followers, that seems to be what Musk is doing.

[Like what you’ve read? Want more? Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter.]

Tuugi Chuluun, Associate Professor of Finance, Loyola University Maryland

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Apps, Business, Crypto, Tech

New Block Cash App Feature called ‘Paid in Bitcoin’ announced at Miami Bitcoin 2022

During the 2022 Bitcoin conference in Miami the mobile payment service Cash App (developed by Block, Inc.) announced they would allow its customers to receive their paycheck earnings in bitcoin.  The feature is called “Paid in Bitcoin”.

‘Paid in Bitcoin’ would allow customers with Cash Cards to customize an amount, a percentage (1% to 100%) of their direct deposits which would then automatically be invested into the cryptocurrency, effective starting April 7. Cash App integrated with Lightning Network, the decentralized blockchain payment portal in January with plans to further expand to make it even easier for customers to make instant bitcoin transfer via QR codes.

Jack Dorsey, founder of Block (formerly named Square) and a Bitcoin Maximalist spoke at the 2021 conference and said he was committed to making the crypto “the native currency for the internet”. 

In addition to the Cash App feature that will convert your paycheck to bitcoin, the company has more features they plan to roll out in the following weeks including ‘Round Ups’.  Round Ups would enable customers to automatically invest in either bitcoin, stocks or exchange traded funds with the change (rounded to the nearest dollar) from a debit transaction. 

These new roll outs also come on the heels of a major data breach, where more than 8 million Cash App customers may have had their personal information compromised, possibly as a result of a former employee that downloaded internal reports without permission.

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Crypto

Elon Musk Pumps Dogecoin Video in Tweet: ‘Explains Everything’

Video

Department of Doge HQ Urgent Missive

Elon Musk’s been on a roll meme tweeting again and took the opportunity to reply to the tweet below with a link to a YouTube video that “explains everything” about DogeCoin and presumably crypto mining and bitcoin and, yea.

Naturally the meme filled classic Doge video has nearly 4 million views, likely many of which came on the wave of clicks from this otherwise innocuous exchange from the Techno King and @wintonARK

In other recent tweets and replies this hilariously spot on leak of the new ‘Boba Fett Trailer’ was launched and is racking up thousands of retweets as this article is being written.

Perhaps the timing is good for this video – the lighthearted and adorable doggie style showing the pure joy of crypto freedom is a welcome oasis of love and laughter. If you join the 4 million that’ve already viewed this clip and you agree, let us know – or just go ahead and be yourself. Either way.

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Crypto, Politics

Behind the Crypto Hype is an Ideology of Social Change

For some, promoting cryptocurrencies is political activism.Photo collage – // Lynxotic / Adobe

Rick Wash, Michigan State University

Ads for blockchain, NFTs and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin seem to be everywhere. Crypto technologies are being promoted as a replacement for banks; a new way to buy art; the next big investment opportunity, and an essential part of the metaverse.

To many, these technologies are confusing or risky. But enthusiasts ardently promote them.

As a cybersecurity and social media researcher, I’ve found that behind the hype is an ideology about social change: Hardcore enthusiasts argue that crypto will get people to trust in technology rather than government, which they see as inherently untrustworthy. This ideology leads people to encourage its use while downplaying its risks.

The true believers

My colleagues and I studied almost three months of discussions on Reddit forums about cryptocurrencies to try to understand how people talk about crypto and Bitcoin. The loudest voices on the forum were a group of crypto enthusiasts who called themselves “True Bitcoiners.” Unlike technology enthusiasts or crypto marketers, “true bitcoiners” didn’t talk about technology, or about their own use of crypto. Instead, they talked about trust and corruption.

These crypto enthusiasts often cite examples of what they see as government corruption and corporate corruption. They recognize that society depends on governments and corporations setting and enforcing rules, and they complain that people are stuck with these “corrupt” institutions. Corruption, they say, is an inevitable flaw in humanity and leads to trying to control and mistreat others.

The enthusiasts see Bitcoin, blockchain and other crypto technologies as providing an alternative to the corruption. They argue that these new technologies are “trustless” and don’t depend on institutions. You can buy and sell things using bitcoin without checking with a bank or using government-issued cash. https://www.youtube.com/embed/3xGLc-zz9cA?wmode=transparent&start=0 Blockchain, the technology underlying cryptocurrencies, keeps records of ownership and transactions without requiring trust in anyone or any institution.

These two beliefs – that governments are corrupt and that crypto avoids that corruption – are common among the crypto enthusiasts we studied. But enthusiasts go one step further. They seek change. They want to change who has power and who doesn’t.

They argue that crypto is how that change will happen. For crypto enthusiasts, using crypto isn’t just a way to buy and sell things. By using crypto technologies, they argue, society will become less dependent on governments and corporations. That is, using crypto – and getting as many people as possible to use it as much as possible – is a way to change the world and take power away from governments.

Pushing an ideology

These beliefs about who should and should not have power in society embody an ideology. An important part of the crypto ideology is that this change can’t happen unless people use crypto. The technology and the ideology are tied together.

For many of these enthusiasts, recommending crypto to other people is not just a technology recommendation. To them, buying and selling crypto is a form of political and social activism. They argue that buying crypto will remove corruption and change society to trust technology over government.

This ideology is a more extreme version of technolibertarianism, which seeks to replace government with technology. Like technolibertarians, true bitcoiners want technology to control society. But they focus on financial and economic control more than civil liberties. And because promoting crypto is part of this ideology, crypto has often been compared with a religion.

Crypto dangers

An important aspect of any ideology is the way it emphasizes some dangers and downplays others. True bitcoiners emphasize the problems with government corruption. But they downplay the financial risks of crypto. The price of Bitcoin fluctuates wildly, and many people have lost money buying crypto. Crypto wallets are difficult to understand and use, and fraudulent transactions are difficult to reverse.

Crypto enthusiasts frequently downplay the technology’s risks to people and society. They also dismiss the valuable role that governments and corporations play in protecting people’s money, providing insurance for bank accounts and returning money that’s been stolen.

Beliefs in crypto’s ability to create social change are also overstated. Crypto technologies don’t necessarily eliminate corporations or avoid government control. There are private, corporate blockchains and many government regulations about cryptocurrencies. As I see it, simply using the technology doesn’t necessarily lead to the social change these enthusiasts seek.

[Science, politics, religion or just plain interesting articles: Check out The Conversation’s weekly newsletters.]

Rick Wash, Associate Professor of Information Science and Cybersecurity, Michigan State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Business, News, Observation, Politics

Workers in New York Vote to Form Amazon’s First-Ever Union in US

“We want to thank Jeff Bezos for going to space, because while he was up there, we were organizing a union,” said Christian Smalls, president of the Amazon Labor Union.

Above: Photo Collage / Lynxotic / Pixels / Adobe Stock

Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island, New York won their election Friday to form the retail giant’s first-ever union in the United States, a landmark victory for the labor movement in the face of aggressive union-busting efforts from one of the world’s most powerful companies.

According to an initial tally released by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), there were 2,654 votes in favor of recognizing a union and 2,131 against. The number of disputed ballots, 67, is not nearly enough to change the outcome.

The historic unionization drive was spearheaded by the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), a worker-led group not affiliated with any established union. Christian Smalls, the president of ALU, was fired by Amazon in 2020 after he led a protest against the company’s poor workplace safety standards in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.

“When Covid-19 came into play, Amazon failed us,” Smalls said during a press conference after the union victory was announced. “We want to thank Jeff Bezos for going to space, because while he was up there, we were organizing a union.”

Long-time labor journalist Steven Greenhouse wrote Friday that “the unionization victory at the Amazon warehouse in Staten Island is by far the biggest, beating-the-odds, David-versus-Goliath unionization win I’ve seen.”

“America’s wealthiest, most powerful, most seemingly indispensable company has lost to a pop-up coalition of workers,” Greenhouse added. “A generation, the younger generation, is stirring.”

Amazon, which spent $4.3 million on anti-union consultants in 2021 alone, worked hard to crush the unionization effort, forcing employees to attend hundreds of captive-audience meetings and threatening workers with pay cuts and other potential consequences.

But the company’s union-busting campaign wasn’t enough to overcome the upstart revolt led by ALU, which was founded just months ago.

Derrick Palmer, a co-founder of ALU and an employee at the Staten Island warehouse, said he expects Friday’s victory to be one of many.

“This will be the first union,” said Palmer, “but moving forward, that will motivate other workers to get on board with us.”

Widespread celebration followed the official announcement of the union’s election win, with progressive lawmakers and activists hailing the victory as a potential watershed moment for the U.S. labor movement, which has struggled for decades in the face of corporate America’s relentless assault. Union membership in the U.S. declined by 241,000 workers in 2021, according to Labor Department figures.

“The organizing victory at Amazon on Staten Island is a signal that American workers will no longer accept exploitation,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tweeted Friday. “They’re tired of working longer hours for lower wages. They want an economy that works for all, not just Jeff Bezos.”

The union has much work ahead of it. As HuffPost labor reporter Dave Jamieson noted, the union must now negotiate “a first collective bargaining agreement with one of the most powerful companies in the world.”

“It can take years for a union to secure a first contract, and some never manage to,” Jamieson wrote. “Amazon would have a strong incentive not to offer the union a decent deal, for fear it would only encourage more unionization elsewhere.”

 Originally published on Common Dreams by JAKE JOHNSON and republished under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

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Business, Climate Solutions, News, Politics

As Consumers Pay, Oil CEO’s Refuse to Testify to Congress About Soaring Prices

“While Americans struggle with high gas prices, these companies are doing victory laps, showering their already wealthy executives and shareholders with billions in stock buybacks and bonus compensation,” said one watchdog group. “They should be ashamed.”

As people across the United States face record-high gas prices—compounded by rising grocery bills and prices for other essentials—executives at three major oil companies are refusing to testify before Congress about what their firms could do to lessen the burden on U.S. households, leaving Democratic lawmakers and consumer advocates to condemn the companies for profiting amid lower and middle-class people’s financial pain.

Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, had invited the CEOs of EOG Resources Inc., Devon Energy Corp. and Occidental Petroleum Corp. to testify next week, only to be rebuffedTuesday by the executives, who have personally profited off gas prices which averaged $4.24 per gallon on Monday.

“I invited these companies to come before the committee and make their case, but apparently they don’t think it’s worth defending,” Grijalva said in a statement Tuesday. “Their silence tells us all we need to know—that cries for more drilling and looser regulations are nothing more than another age-old attempt to line their own pockets.

Since oil and gas prices began rising earlier this year as traveling and commuting increased, and went up further following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, the fossil fuel industry has claimed the Biden administration should release more permits for drilling on public lands and accelerate approval of permits for building energy infrastructure, with the American Petroleum Institute pushing for what Grijalva called “a domestic drilling free-for-all” earlier this month.

Lawmakers including Grijalva have argued that the companies could easily stabilize gas prices immediately, considering the billions of dollars in profits EOG Resources, Devon Energy, and Occidental Petroleum raked in last year.

Instead, watchdog group Accountable.US said Tuesday, Occidental Petroleum planned to use $3 billion for stock buybacks in 2022, while Devon Energy gave nearly $2 billion in share buybacks and dividends to shareholders last year. EOG Resources gave CEO William R. Thomas a $150,000 raise in 2021, making his total compensation $9.8 million.

“We want to work with them to reduce gas prices, but it seems as though they’re too busy taking in record profits while refusing to pass savings on to consumers,” said Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.), a member of the Natural Resources Committee.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) sarcastically expressed empathy for the “spineless” executives who refused to testify before Grijalva’s committee.

“It is hardly surprising that EOG Resources, Devon Energy, and Occidental Petroleum are dodging accountability by refusing to testify in Congress,” said Kyle Herrig, president of watchdog group Accountable.US. “While Americans struggle with high gas prices, these companies are doing victory laps, showering their already wealthy executives and shareholders with billions in stock buybacks and bonus compensation. They should be ashamed.”

Grijalva noted that while the industry has used the Russian invasion of Ukraine to call for even more freedom to drill for oil and gas, fossil fuel companies hold leases on 26 million acres of land.

“These same companies already have over 9,000 approved permits they can use whenever they want,” Grijalva told Public News Service on Tuesday. “And the very companies with thousands of acres of existing leases and hundreds of unused permits are the same ones shouting that they need more land for drilling.”

According to Accountable.US, the three companies refusing to speak to Grijalva’s committee “are among the top leaseholders of public lands oil and gas leases with 4,114 leases covering nearly 1.5 million acres.”

Companies including BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and Shell have also been invited to testify at upcoming hearings on their business practices and impacts on consumers. In February, board members from the four companies refused to testify about the firms’ climate pledges.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) noted last week that oil prices dropped in recent days, but no savings were passed onto consumers.

“The bewildering incongruity between falling oil prices and rising gas prices smacks of price gouging and is deeply damaging to working Americans,” Schumer said last week. “The Senate is going to get answers.”

Originally published on Common Dreams by JULIA CONLEY  and republished under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

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Business, Elon Musk, Observation

WtF is a Centibillionaire? New Video from Robert Reich

Video

A very real problem vividly illustrated for the rest of us

In a new video from Robert Reich, former secretary of labor and accomplished author, an extremely timely, entertaining and absolutely crazy subject is front and center.

The need to create an actual word for a human being with more than $100 billion is a strange problem to have in a world where so many struggle merely to survive.

Just as is the case, but even more, so with trillion dollar market cap big tech firms, that happened to be the source of this insanely huge amount of money being attributed to a single individual.

There is a very human inability to comprehend such massive numbers that is at the heart of our struggles to understand the meaning of this phenomenon.

An example would be a company such as Amazon which is hundreds, if not thousands, of times larger in terms of market cap then what used to be considered massive international corporations.

And being thousands of times larger than what is already considered to be an unwieldy massive behemoth can create problems not so much for the company but for the rest of us.

How do you control if you are the government or the people something so massive that it is virtually untouchable. too big to fail? Too big to reign in, absolutely.

Although attempts are being made, such as the many antitrust actions in the US, or the recent new regulations in Europe, but somehow they always seem like a tiny pittance, or annoying mosquito on a battleship.

In the video below there are some fantastic examples of how the massive wealth of these individuals can be measured in terms that actual humans can understand.

“Are they really 100 times smarter than the typical billionaire?”

Perhaps, more accurately, it enables us to understand how absolutely unbelievable and insane this level of wealth and power actually is.

Although the subject may be too large and complicated, it would be great to see a follow on video illustrating the size of the companies that bestowed such massive amounts of cash on these ridiculously overvalued individuals.

And, of course, how those companies grew through the same kinds of favoritism and maneuvering in the public realm that the centi-billionaires themselves directly benefit from.


How Much is $100 Billion, Really?

The word “‘billionaire” didn’t even exist until 1844. Fifty years later, we got “multibillionaire.” And for the next 127 years, that was enough. 

But in 2020, while the working class faced near-record unemployment during the pandemic, the wealthiest Americans faced a different problem.

Some of them had gotten so rich, there was no longer a word to describe just how rich they were. 


That’s why today I want to bring you one of the newest additions to the English language: “centibillionaires,” people with $100 billion or more.  

What’s it like being one of history’s first centibillionaires? It’s hard to even imagine, but let’s try it by comparing them to the less fortunate.

By which I mean just … regular … billionaires. 
If you’re a regular billionaire, you can afford a private jet. If you’re a centibillionaire, you can afford a brand-new Gulfstream jet every single day for more than ten years.


Not sure what you’d do with a new Gulfstream every day — maybe give one to each of your closest 4,000 friends?

A regular billionaire would struggle to buy their own professional baseball team. Sad, I know. But a centibillionaire could easily buy every team in the entire major league. 

If you’re a regular billionaire, you can donate to your alma mater and get your name on a building. If you’re a centibillionaire, you could single-handedly give every teacher in America an $8,000 raise for 5 straight years. 


Of course, that’s not all you could do. $100 billion is enough to wipe out all the medical debt in the United States.

Or provide permanent shelter for every homeless person in America. Or buy Covid-19 vaccines for the entire world.


Basically what I’m saying is, $100 billion is a lot of money. More than two and a half million times what the average American worker makes in a year.


So here’s the big question. Are these centibillionaires so rich because they work two and half million times harder than the average American?

Are they really 100 times smarter than the typical billionaire?


I don’t think so.

The reason for the rise of centibillionaires is that for decades, wealth hasn’t trickled down, it’s gushed up, all the way to the very top. That’s not an accident. As it turns out, the system that the super-rich themselves carefully crafted and lobbied for, benefits… the rich!

And while you may not own more private jets than your average centibillionaire, you probably do pay a higher tax rate. And thanks to legal loopholes and the Trump tax cuts, when the wealthiest Americans die, they get to pass on most of their centibillions to their kids tax-free. 


We’ve got two choices as a country. We can tax the richest Americans fairly, and invest that money in ways that benefit all of us.


Or we can keep doing what we’re doing, and watch as centibillionaires get even richer while the rest of us get left behind.

If you think wealth and power are too concentrated in the hands of a privileged few now, just imagine what a few more years of trickle-down nonsense will bring.


Of course, it won’t be all bad. At least “trillionaire” is easy to say.

Finance, News, Politics

Taking Aim at Billionaire Tax Avoiders, Biden Proposes Minimum Tax for Ultrarich

by Paul Kiel, Jesse Eisinger and Jeff Ernsthausen

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.Series: The Secret IRS Files Inside the Tax Records of the .001%

Last year ProPublica, drawing on a trove of IRS data, gave the public its most extensive view ever of the taxes of the wealthiest Americans. The first article in the Secret IRS Files series put real numbers to a core truth about the U.S. tax system: Billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett can easily shield their fortunes from taxation by avoiding the sorts of income captured on a tax return.

A proposal released today by the Biden administration takes direct aim at this issue. The policy, if enacted, would, for a sliver of the very wealthiest, close that escape hatch. Vast increases in wealth would result in owing taxes.

Generally, the IRS does not tax gains unless they are “realized,” typically when a person sells a stock that has gained in value. Billionaires who hold on to assets that have appreciated get the benefit of those unrealized gains — they often borrow against them — without owing any tax.

This is by no means a new bug in the U.S. system. But as ProPublica explained last year, the explosion of wealth inequality in recent decades, coupled with the particular nature of how these new fortunes have been built, has made unrealized gains particularly important at this point in our history.

Past U.S. presidents have, on occasion, pushed for higher taxes on the rich, but usually by hiking traditional income tax rates. Biden’s proposal calls for a paradigm shift: It would change what gets counted as income. “Although the taxation of unrealized gain is still far from enactment, and even if enacted would await an uncertain fate in the Supreme Court, presidential endorsement of the concept is a milestone in the history of the income tax,” said Lawrence Zelenak, a Duke University School of Law professor whose expertise includes income and corporate tax and tax policy.

As outlined by the White House, the new tax would apply only to households worth over $100 million. They would owe a tax of at least 20% on their “full income,” as a White House document terms it, a definition that includes unrealized gains. News of the proposal, which was included as part of Biden’s 2023 budget plan, was first reported by The Washington Post.

Under the current system, the wealthiest Americans pay nowhere close to that tax rate on gains in their wealth. The 25 richest Americans, as measured by Forbes, got $401 billion richer from 2014 to 2018. ProPublica’s analysis of the IRS data found that the group paid a total of $13.6 billion in federal income taxes during that time, a rate of only 3.4%.

In an analysis posted on Twitter, University of California Berkeley economist Gabriel Zucman estimated that the 10 richest Americans alone would owe at least $215 billion under the plan.

In all, the Biden Administration estimates, the new tax would generate $360 billion in extra revenue over 10 years.

The plan would allow those hit by the tax a period of nine years to pay their “initial” obligations: In other words, someone whose fortune has increased by $10 billion as of when the bill became law would have that time to pay the $2 billion they owe. Going forward, further increases of wealth would result in taxes owed over a five-year period.

Although Biden’s Billionaire Minimum Income Tax, as it’s called, is a major departure from past presidential proposals, it would deploy features that are already part of current tax law.

For instance, there is the Alternative Minimum Tax, a measure first enacted decades ago in response to revelations that the richest were easily avoiding paying income taxes. The AMT is supposed to work as a kind of fail-safe, imposing taxes on rich people who have used huge deductions to wipe out income for tax purposes and thus avoid taxes. But it often fails. For instance, we found multiple examples of billionaires paying not a penny in income taxes, sometimes for years at a time.

Like the AMT, Biden’s minimum tax would work alongside the current tax code. If a billionaire happened to already be paying 20% of their full income, the Biden plan would result in no extra tax.

The existing tax code also has provisions that tax unrealized gains in certain situations. For instance, professionals who trade in securities, such as hedge fund managers, often elect to have their portfolios “marked to market” and owe tax based on their gains or losses relative to the previous year. Similarly, another provision hits wealthy Americans who choose to renounce their citizenship: All their property is valued and taxed as if it had been sold.

Versions of a tax on mark-to-market gains have been proposed before, going back several years, most notably last year by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chair of the Senate Finance Committee. The idea, however, has its share of critics, both Republicans and tax experts who worry it would be too complicated to administer and would risk being struck down by the Supreme Court.

John Brooks of Georgetown University Law Center is among the supporters. He argued the idea is squarely constitutional, given “the many examples of taxing unrealized gain already in the tax code.” And as for complaints about its complexity, the wealthy already value their assets for their own financial purposes, he told ProPublica: “In the end, it would be a simple, formulaic approach that would require minimal work in addition to what wealthy taxpayers are already doing.”

republished under Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

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Business, News, Observation, Tech

Congressional Chair Asks Google and Apple to Help Stop Fraud Against U.S. Taxpayers on Telegram

Above: Photo Collage / Lynxotic / Apple / Telegram

The chairman of a congressional subcommittee has asked Apple and Google to help stop fraud against U.S. taxpayers on Telegram, a fast-growing messaging service distributed via their smartphone app stores. The request from the head of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis came after ProPublica reports last July and in January revealed how cybercriminals were using Telegram to sell and trade stolen identities and methods for filing fake unemployment insurance claims.

Rep. James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., who chairs the subcommittee (which is part of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform), cited ProPublica’s reporting in March 23 letters to the CEOs of Apple and Alphabet, Google’s parent company. The letters pointed out that enabling fraud against American taxpayers is inconsistent with Apple’s and Google’s policies for their respective app stores, which forbid apps that facilitate or promote illegal activities.

“There is substantial evidence that Telegram has not complied with these requirements by allowing its application to be used as a central platform for the facilitation of fraud against vital pandemic relief programs,” Clyburn wrote. He asked whether Apple and Alphabet “may be able to play a constructive role in combating this Telegram-facilitated fraud against the American public.”

Clyburn also requested that Apple and Google provide “all communications” between the companies and Telegram “related to fraud or other unlawful conduct on the Telegram platform, including fraud against pandemic relief programs” as well as what “policies and practices” the companies have implemented to monitor whether applications disseminated through their app stores are being used to “facilitate fraud” and “disseminate coronavirus misinformation.” He gave the companies until April 7 to provide the records.

Apple, which runs the iOS app store for its iPhones, did not reply to a request for comment. Google, which runs the Google Play app store for its Android devices, also did not respond.

The two companies’ app stores are vital distribution channels for messaging services such as Telegram, which markets itself as one of the world’s 10 most downloaded apps.The company has previously acknowledged theimportance of complying with Apple’s and Google’s app store policies. “Telegram — like all mobile apps — has to follow rules set by Apple and Google in order to remain available to users on iOS and Android,” Telegram CEO Pavel Durov wrote in a September blog post. He noted that, should Apple’s and Google’s app stores stop supporting Telegram in a given locale, the move would prevent software updates to the messaging service and ultimately neuter it.

By appealing to the two smartphone makers directly, Clyburn is increasing pressure on Telegram to take his concerns seriously. His letter noted that “Telegram’s very brief terms of service only prohibit users from ‘scam[ming]’ other Telegram users, appearing to permit the use of the platform to conspire to commit fraud against others.” He faulted Telegram for letting its users disseminate playbooks for defrauding state unemployment insurance systems on its platform and said its failure to stop that activity may have enabled large-scale fraud.

Clyburn wrote to Durov in December asking whether Telegram has “undertaken any serious efforts to prevent its platform from being used to enable large-scale fraud” against pandemic relief programs. Telegram “refused to engage” with the subcommittee, a spokesperson for Clyburn told ProPublica in January. (Since then, the app was briefly banned in Brazil for failing to respond to judicial orders to freeze accounts spreading disinformation. Brazil’s Supreme Court reversed the ban after Telegram finally responded to the requests.)

Telegram said in a statement to ProPublica that it’s working to expand its terms of service and moderation efforts to “explicitly restrict and more effectively combat” misuse of its messaging platform, “such as encouraging fraud.” Telegram also said that it has always “actively moderated harmful content” and banned millions of chats and accounts for violating its terms of service, which prohibit users from scamming each other, promoting violence or posting illegal pornographic content.

But ProPublica found that the company’s moderation efforts can amount to little more than a game of whack-a-mole. After a ProPublica inquiry last July, Telegram shut some public channels on its app in which users advertised methods for filing fake unemployment insurance claims using stolen identities. But various fraud tutorials are still openly advertised on the platform. Accounts that sell stolen identities can also pop back up after they’re shut down; the users behind them simply recycle their old account names with a small variation and are back in business within days.

The limited interventions are a reflection of Telegram’s hands-off approach to policing content on its messenger app, which is central to its business model. Durov asserted in his September blog post that “Telegram gives its users more freedom of speech than any other popular mobile application.” He reiterated that commitment in March, saying that Telegram users’ “right to privacy is sacred. Now — more than ever.”

The approach has helped Telegram grow and become a crucial communication tool in authoritarian regimes. Russia banned Telegram in 2018 for refusing to hand over encryption keys that would allow authorities to access user data, only to withdraw the ban two years later at least in part because users were able to get around it. More recently, Telegram has been credited as a rare place where Russians can find uncensored news about the invasion of Ukraine.

But the company’s iron-clad commitment to privacy also attracts cybercriminals looking to make money. After the COVID-19 pandemic prompted Congress to authorize hundreds of billions of small-business loans and extra aid to workers who lost their jobs, Telegram lit up with channels offering methods to defraud the programs. The scale of the fraud is yet unknown, but it could stretch into tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars. Its sheer size prompted the Department of Justice to announce, on March 10, the appointment of a chief prosecutor to focus on the most egregious cases of pandemic fraud, including identity theft by criminal syndicates.

Article first published on ProPublica by Cezary Podkul and republished under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

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Business, News, Observation

How MacKenzie Scott’s $12 billion in gifts to charity reflect an uncommon trust in the groups she supports

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MacKenzie Scott disclosed on March 23, 2022, that she had given US$3.9 billion to 465 nonprofits in the previous nine months. These no-strings-attached donations bring the total she has given away in the past two years to at least $12 billion. We asked philanthropy historian Tyrone Freeman to weigh in on Scott’s approach to donating large sums of money and her emphasis on other forms of generosity.

Is Scott’s philanthropic philosophy unique?

After her 2019 divorce from Jeff Bezos, Scott signed the Giving Pledge, a commitment that extremely affluent people make to give away at least half their wealth.

The pledge’s signatories may write a letter summing up why they are giving so much to charity and what their priorities are, which gets posted to the internet. Scott did that and amended the letter when she remarried. What makes her stand out from others who have signed the Giving Pledge is that she continues to write about her donations and what she’s learning about giving in general. As a historian of philanthropy, I study the philosophies and motivations of donors, which I call their “gospels of giving.”

Her approach is clearly unique among her peers – other billionaire donors – because of how she relates to the organizations she supports and the diversity of those causes. She says her overarching goal is “to support the needs of underrepresented people from groups of all kinds.”

Scott values the expertise of the groups she supports and their leadership. She says she doesn’t adhere to the conventional concept of philanthropy, and she questions the way many of us think about generosity. To her it is not just a numbers game. It’s more about the spirit of giving, the sacrifice in the gift.

One major difference is that very wealthy donors tend to drill down in a single focused area, such as higher education, or a few causes – perhaps the arts or medical research. There are advisers who often recommend this approach to have the most impact.

But the nonprofits she has funded cover pretty much everything charitable donors support, from education to health, from social justice to the arts. Her latest donations even include global organizations like CARE and HIAS that are serving the needs of Ukrainians whose lives have been turned upside down.

Which other gifts stand out?

Some of the largest gifts among the most recently announced are for Girls & Boys Clubs of America, Communities in Schools, Habitat for Humanity and Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

I think it’s important that she didn’t give to only their affiliates in major cities. Foundations have been underinvesting in rural America for years. Scott’s supporting dozens of local and regional affiliates in suburban and rural counties.

As I have explained before, her support for historically Black colleges and universities is important. Two recent gifts that she made, to Meharry Medical College and Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, $20 million apiece, were very significant in light of how elite white donors undercut Black higher ed institutions in the early 20th century.

Does it matter when she publicly discloses information?

Scott posted an update in December 2021 without any details about her latest donations.

Instead, she praised other forms of giving by people without billions to their name. One thing she has drawn attention to is how there’s a lot of informal giving, and that it’s not valued. This puts Scott where the average person is, especially in communities of color, where people look after neighbors and family members regularly in their giving.

Since these are charitable activities you can’t deduct from your taxes, you might not think of these helping behaviors and many forms of civic engagement as philanthropy.

Unlike nearly all donors operating on a big scale, she has no offices and, so far, no website. She’s been criticized for a lack of transparency, especially after she didn’t divulge details in December. This sentiment has to do with the widespread belief that the public has a right to know when private interests spread their resources around for public benefit.

Her blog posts draw attention to trends people might miss regarding the groups she supports. She states the percentage of these organizations that are led by women, people of color or people she says have “lived experience in the regions they support and the issues they seek to address.”

When somebody shows you how they’re thinking about their giving and what they support, that could have an impact on others. It may change whether they donate only to their alma mater, for example. Colleges and museums are used to getting these big gifts, but many of the organizations Scott is giving tens of millions of dollars to say these are the largest donations they’ve ever received. She’s shattering the notion of who is a worthy recipient – the unspoken idea that only the elite institutions and the most well-known are worthy of big gifts.

How does Scott talk about giving that isn’t purely monetary?

For her it’s about generosity, not just dollars. She’s definitely thinking beyond the tax breaks she’ll get for charitable gifts.

Her December 2021 post alludes to volunteering and other activities she calls the “work of practical beneficence” practiced by millions of people, estimating that it’s worth about $1 trillion. Researchers have reached similar conclusions.

She also highlighted the estimated $68 billion in annual global remittances in that post. When people come to this country, begin working and send money to their homelands, that is a form of philanthropy. They may not use the word, but it’s the same idea, because it’s giving back to your family and your country of origin, and it responds to the same motivation as a donation to an established charity.

I agree that there’s much more to American philanthropy than the roughly half a trillion dollars donated annually. There are other kinds of giving that fly below the radar screen that are important for survival, community-building, meeting basic needs and even for democracy.

She also addresses the role and value of using your voice as an important part of social change. The history of the abolition, women’s suffrage, civil rights movements and various movements today bear this out. That is something I focus on in my research. https://www.youtube.com/embed/KS2n7VUBOa0?wmode=transparent&start=0 Historian Tyrone McKinley Freeman joined Bridgid Coulter Cheadle and Kimberly Jeffries Leonard to discuss how Black leaders are following in the footsteps of history’s trailblazers by devoting their time, talent and voice to many causes.

What do you hope the public takes away from Scott’s approach to giving?

Scott has emerged as the most notable practitioner of what’s called trust-based philanthropy. That refers to the notion that there should be fewer strings attached to donations and that reporting requirements and other expectations that often come with grants from foundations can be excessive.

In December 2020, Scott mentioned that she has a team of advisers to help her with screening, although she hasn’t shared what that process looks like. But after that, she is not asking anything else of the organizations she funds. Instead, she has chosen to step back and let them exercise responsibility, giving them space and flexibility.

I hope the public hears her answers to what I like to ask: Who counts as a philanthropist and what counts as philanthropy? I agree with Scott that it’s about more than money and that philanthropy is not only the domain of the wealthy.

Tyrone McKinley Freeman, Associate Professor of Philanthropic Studies, IUPUI

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Economics, Finance, News, Politics

Why the Fed can’t stop prices from going up anytime soon – but may have more luck over the long term

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The Federal Reserve has begun its most challenging inflation-fighting campaign in four decades. And a lot is at stake for consumers, companies and the U.S. economy.

On March 16, 2022, the Fed raised its target interest rate by a quarter point – to a range of 0.25% to 0.5% – the first of many increases the U.S. central bank is expected to make over the coming months. The aim is to tamp down inflation that has been running at a year-over-year pace of 7.9%, the fastest since February 1982.

The challenge for the Fed is to do this without sending the economy into recession. Some economists and observers are already raising the specter of stagflation, which means high inflation coupled with a stagnating economy.

As an expert on financial markets, I believe there’s good news and bad when it comes to the Fed’s upcoming battle against inflation. Let’s start with the bad.

Inflation is worse than you think

Inflation began accelerating in fall 2021 when a stimulus-fueled demand for goods met a COVID-19-induced drop in supply.

In all, Congress spent US$4.6 trillion trying to counter the economic effects of COVID-19 and the lockdowns. While that may have been necessary to support struggling businesses and people, it unleashed an unprecedented bump in the U.S. money supply.

At the same time, supply chains have been in disarray since early in the pandemic. Lockdowns and layoffs led to closures of factories, warehouses and shipping ports, and shortages of key components like microchips have made it harder to finish a wide range of goods, from cars to fridges. These factors have contributed to a worldwide shortage of goods and services.

Any economist will tell you that when demand exceeds supply, prices will rise too. And to make matters worse, businesses around the world have been struggling to hire more workers, which has further exacerbated supply chain problems. The labor shortage also worsens inflation because workers are able to demand higher wages, which is typically paid for with higher prices on the goods they make and the services they provide.

This clearly caught the Fed off guard, which as recently as November 2021 was calling the rise in inflation “transitory.”

And now Russia’s war in Ukraine is compounding the problems. This is mostly because of the conflict’s impact on the supply of gas and oil, but also because of the sanctions placed on Russia’s economy and the ancillary effects that will ripple throughout the global economy.

The latest inflation data, released on March 10, 2022, is for the month of February and therefore doesn’t account for the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which sent U.S. gas prices soaring. The prices of other commodities, such as wheat, also spiked. Russia and Ukraine produce a quarter of the world’s wheat supply.

Inflation won’t be slowing anytime soon

And so the Fed has little choice but to raise interest rates – one of its few tools available to curb inflation.

But now it’s in a very tough situation. After arguably coming late to the inflation-fighting party, the Fed is now tasked with a job that seems to get harder by the day. That’s because the main drivers of today’s inflation – the war in Ukraine, the global shortage of goods and workers – are outside of its control.

So even dramatic rate hikes over the coming months, perhaps increasing rates from about zero now to 1%, will be unlikely to make an appreciable impact on inflation. This will remain true at least until supply chains begin to return to normal, which is still a ways off.

Cars and condos

There are a few areas of the U.S. economy where the Fed could have more of an impact on inflation – eventually.

For example, demand for goods that are typically purchased with a loan, such as a house or car, is more closely tied to interest rates. The Fed’s policy of ultra-low interest rates is one key factor that has driven inflation in those sectors in recent months. As such, an increase in borrowing costs through higher interest rates should prompt a drop in demand, thus reducing inflation.

But changing consumer behavior can take time, and it’ll require more than a quarter-point increase in rates at the Fed. So consumers should expect prices to continue to climb at an above-normal pace for some time.

Higher interest rates also tend to reduce stock prices, as other investments like bonds may become more attractive to investors. This in turn may lead people invested in stock markets to reduce their spending because they feel less wealthy, which may help reduce overall demand and inflation. The effect is minimal, however, and would take time before you see the impact in prices.

The good news

That is the bad news. The good news is that the U.S. economy has been roaring at the fastest pace in decades, and unemployment is just about down to its pre-pandemic level, which was the lowest since the 1960s.

That’s why I think it’s unlikely the U.S. will experience stagflation – as it did in the 1970s and early 1980s. A very aggressive increase in interest rates could possibly induce a recession, and lead to stagflation, but by sapping economic activity it could also bring down inflation. At the moment, a recession seems unlikely.

In my view, what the Fed is beginning to do now is less taking a big bite out of inflation and more about signaling its intent to begin the inflation battle for real. So don’t expect overall prices to come down for quite a while.

Jeffery S. Bredthauer, Associate Professor Of Finance, Banking and Real Estate,, University of Nebraska Omaha

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Economics, News, Observation, Politics

The Real Reason Congress Gets Nothing Done

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How do things really get done (or more often not) in Washington D.C.?

In a new video from Robert Reich, former secretary of labor and accomplished author, the sad subject of so-called ’gridlock’ in government is addressed. This perspective is particularly useful and helpful to consider since this year is an election year.

There’s an unfortunate lack of understanding regarding how things actually work and, more importantly what can be done about it.

Inequality Media, the Org, led by Robert Reich, that is responsible for this content, is putting out clear and incisive messages on topics like this on a weekly, sometimes daily basis. Getting these kinds of valuable messages out to places like YouTube, TikTok and social media is important at anytime. Now, in such a critical moment in our history, it’s essential.

Why doesn’t Congress get anything done?

Well, one chamber actually does. Hundreds of bills have been passed by the House of Representatives, but have been blocked from even getting a vote in the Senate. Bills like The Freedom to Vote Act, The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, The Equality Act, Background checks for gun sales, Reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, The Protecting the Right to Organize Act, The Build Back Better Act. The list goes on.

So why aren’t these crucial bills getting a vote in the Senate? Because the filibuster makes it impossible.

All told, the House passed over 200 bills in 2021 that have not been taken up in the Senate. Everything from investing in rural education to preventing discrimination against pregnant workers to protecting seniors from scams – bills that have real, tangible benefits for the public; bills that have widespread public support.

So don’t believe the media narrative that Congress is trapped in hopeless gridlock and both sides are to blame. One chamber of Congress, led by Democrats, is passing important legislation and delivering for the people. But Republicans in the Senate, and a handful of corporate Democrats, are hell-bent on grinding the gears of government to a halt.

Why are Senate Republicans doing this? Because their midterm strategy depends on it. Republicans are blocking crucial legislation so they can point to Democrats’ supposed inability to get anything done, and claim they’ll be able to deliver if you give them majorities.

Don’t fall for it.

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Business, News, Observation, Politics

82% of US Voters Believe Inflation Is Fueled by Corporations ‘Jacking Up Prices’

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New survey data shows that voters “want elected officials to challenge corporate greed to lower prices,” said one advocate.

On the heels of fresh data showing that the U.S. inflation rate jumped to a new 40-year high last month, a new survey found that more than 80% of American voters believe costs are rising in part because “big corporations are jacking up prices” while raking in record profits.

Released Friday by the advocacy group Fight Corporate Monopolies, the poll showed that 82% of registered U.S. voters blame big companies for at least some of the recent inflation spike and want elected officials to “take on powerful CEOs and rein in corporate greed to lower prices.”

“Rising prices is the top economic issue for most voters, and they want elected officials to challenge corporate greed to lower prices,” Helen Brosnan, executive director of Fight Corporate Monopolies, said in a statement. “Political leaders should directly address rising prices, release plans to combat corporate greed’s role in driving prices higher, and put forth arguments that center CEOs and big corporations.”

The new survey, based on a sample size of 1,000 respondents, comes as progressives in Congress continue spotlighting corporate price-gouging as a key culprit behind rising prices nationwide even as the White House abandons that narrative, despite data indicating it resonates with voters.

With gas prices surging amid Russia’s onslaught against Ukraine, Democrats in the House and Senate introduced legislation on Thursday that would impose a “windfall tax” on oil companies in an effort to “curb profiteering.”

“Last year, oil and gas companies made $174 billion in profits,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a co-sponsor of the legislation, wrote in a Twitter post. “This year they’re on track to make more. We cannot allow Big Oil to use Ukraine and ‘inflation’ as an excuse to rip off Americans.”

Originally published on Common Dreams by JAKE JOHNSON and republished under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

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Business, Economics, News, Observation, Politics

700 US Billionaires Got $1.7 Trillion Richer During Two Years of Pandemic

A new analysis finds that the 704 billionaires in the U.S. now own more wealth than the bottom half of Americans—roughly 165 million people.

During the first two years of the coronavirus pandemic, the collective wealth of billionaires in the United States grew by a staggering $1.7 trillion as Covid-19 killed millions of people across the globe and threw entire nations into turmoil, worsening extreme poverty, hunger, and other preexisting crises.

“We can’t accept an economy and tax code that allows billionaires to hoard trillions while working families struggle.”

Released Friday to coincide with the second anniversary of the World Health Organization’s official pandemic declaration for Covid-19, the latest billionaire fortune analysis by Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) finds that the 704 billionaires in the U.S. now own more combined wealth than the 165 million people in the bottom half of the country’s wealth distribution.

“For billionaires, it’s been two years of raking in the riches, while for most families it’s been two years of fear, frustration, and financial worry,” ATF executive director Frank Clemente said in a statement.

The new analysis stresses that billionaires’ pandemic windfall “may never be taxed” because it consists of unrealized capital gains, which are not subject to taxation under current U.S. law. As one possible solution, ATF voices support for Sen. Ron Wyden’s (D-Ore.) proposed Billionaires Income Tax, legislation that would impose an annual levy on ultra-wealthy Americans’ unrealized gains from tradable assets such as stocks.

“The rising asset values billionaires have enjoyed over the past two years are not taxable unless the assets are sold,” ATF explains. “But billionaires don’t need to sell assets to benefit from their increased value: they can live off money borrowed at cheap rates secured against their rising fortunes. And when all those wealth gains are passed along to the next generation, they entirely disappear for tax purposes.”

While Democrats in Congress considered a tax on billionaires as part of their Build Back Better package, that legislation was tanked by a handful of corporate Democrats—including Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)—and a unified Republican caucus.

“Why should our economic system allow billionaires to hoard wealth unchecked, letting almost all of it go tax-free?”

Earlier this month, Manchin floated a further watered-down version of the Build Back Better proposal that calls for tax reforms targeting the wealthy and corporations, but it’s unclear whether the West Virginia Democrat would accept a tax on billionaires.

“Working families pay what they owe in taxes each paycheck. Billionaires generally pay little or nothing in taxes on these extraordinary gains in wealth,” Clemente said Friday. “Congress should enact a Billionaires Income Tax to directly tax these wealth gains as income each year, so that billionaires begin to pay their fair share of taxes. Such a reform is not yet part of President Biden’s investment and tax legislation now being revised by Congress, but it should be.”

According to ATF’s new analysis, the biggest billionaire winners during the coronavirus pandemic’s first two years were:

  • Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who saw his net worth skyrocket by $209 billion;
  • Google co-founder Larry Page, whose fortune grew by $63 billion; and
  • Google co-founder Sergey Brin, whose wealth increased by $60 billion.

“Not one of the 15 richest U.S. billionaires gained less than $10 billion,” ATF noted on Twitter, pointing out that during the same two-year period 80 million Americans were infected by Covid-19 and nearly a million were killed by the virus.

“We can’t accept an economy and tax code that allows billionaires to hoard trillions while working families struggle to afford healthcare, childcare, education, and housing,” the group added. “It’s wrong, and we can do better.”

Originally published on Common Dreams by JAKE JOHNSON and republished under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

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Business, News, Observation, Politics, Tech

House Panel Calls for DOJ Probe of Amazon Over Alleged Obstruction of Congress

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“Amazon repeatedly endeavored to thwart the committee’s efforts to uncover the truth about Amazon’s business practices,” the House Judiciary Committee wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland. “For this, it must be held accountable.”

A U.S. House committee on Wednesday asked the Department of Justice to investigate Amazon and some of its executives for possible criminal obstruction of Congress, accusing the e-commerce giant of lying under oath and refusing to provide certain information requested by lawmakers during an antitrust probe.

That’s according to The Wall Street Journal, which first obtained a letter sent to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland by Democratic and Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee. Signatories said they are alerting the DOJ to “potentially criminal conduct” by Amazon and some of its executives, though the letter doesn’t name specific individuals.

As the Journal reported:

The letter accuses the Seattle-based tech giant of refusing to provide information that lawmakers sought as part of an investigation by the body’s Antitrust Subcommittee into Amazon’s competitive practices. The letter alleges that the refusal was an attempt to cover up what it calls a lie that the company told lawmakers about its treatment of outside sellers on its platform.

The alleged lie came, according to the Washington Post, during “sworn testimony to the committee in 2019 about whether it uses data that it collects from third-party sellers to compete with them.”

The newspaper, which is owned by Amazon founder and ex-CEO Jeff Bezos, continued:

“[C]redible investigative reporting” and the committee’s investigation showed the company was engaging in the practice despite its denial, the letter said.

Subsequently, as the investigation continued, Amazon tried to “cover up its lie by offering ever-shifting explanations” of its policies, the letter said.

Furthermore, “after Amazon was caught in a lie and repeated misrepresentations, it stonewalled the committee’s efforts to uncover the truth,” according to the letter.

Throughout the investigation, “Amazon repeatedly endeavored to thwart the committee’s efforts to uncover the truth about Amazon’s business practices,” states the panel’s letter. “For this, it must be held accountable.”

The Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), conducted a 16-month antitrust investigation into Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook. The probe resulted in an October 2020 report that criticized all four tech giants and stimulated legislative proposals designed to limit their power.

However, the Journal noted that “lawmakers’ interaction with Amazon has been particularly contentious, according to people involved, and the new letter makes it the only one of the four companies that Judiciary Committee members have accused of illegal obstruction.”

Reuters reported that Wednesday’s “referral to the DOJ follows a previous warning from members of the U.S. committee in October in which they accused Amazon’s top executives, including founder Jeff Bezos, of either misleading Congress or possibly lying to it about Amazon’s business practices.”

According to the Journal, committee members at the time “sent a letter to Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy urging the company to provide ‘exculpatory evidence’ surrounding its private-label business practices. Lawyers representing Amazon met with legal counsel for the committee following the letter but didn’t produce the requested evidence, saying the investigation Amazon had conducted was privileged information between attorney and client, according to people familiar with the matter.”

Wednesday’s letter, the newspaper reported, says that Amazon “has refused to turn over business documents or communications that would either corroborate its claims or correct the record.”

“It appears to have done so to conceal the truth about its use of third-party sellers’ data to advantage its private-label business and its preferencing of private-label products in search results—subjects of the committee’s investigation,” the letter continues.

“As a result, we have no choice but to refer this matter to the Department of Justice to investigate whether Amazon and its executives obstructed Congress in violation of applicable federal law,” adds the letter.

It was signed by Nadler; Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), chair of the panel’s subcommittee on antitrust, commercial, and administrative law; and subcommittee members Reps. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), Pramilia Jayapal (D-Wash.), and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

Originally published on Common Dreams by KENNY STANCIL and republished under  a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

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