Media

Credit: stephenmasker Flickr

I wrote last week about how we can shift our tax model to taxing things that are harmful, like pollution, and away from taxing things that are productive, like work and wealth creation. But, there has been little discussion in the mainstream on this issue, even though tax reform is almost certainly set to become a top issue in Washington in the next year or two, with both parties agreeing that the tax system is due for an overhaul.

A comfortable formula has emerged in the past decade for dealing with corporate crime, and it goes like this: Government authorities amass evidence of wrongdoing, confront malefactors with this evidence, and then the two sides agree to a "settlement" to resolve the charges.

Citizens United, the misbegotten Supreme Court case granting corporations the right to spend unlimited money to influence elections, has entered its terrible twos.

It was reported Wednesday that Mitt Romney holds millions of dollars in the Cayman Islands. Some of the media and political cognoscenti have wondered out loud if Romney is too rich, or too elite to truly represent regular Americans.

Credit: Tarsandsaction FlickrYesterday, in a rare win against dirty fossil fuels, the Obama Admini

“Every week I would work different hours, and budgeting to make rent and cover my expenses became difficult because I didn’t know how much I would earn each month,” explains Janet, a former Tommy Hilfiger salesperson. 

Citizens United, the misbegotten Supreme Court case granting corporations the right to spend unlimited money to influence elections, has entered its terrible twos.

Already, we've seen the first results of this Wild West approach to money in politics and it's not pretty. Everyone is using the biggest gun they can buy now that the Supreme Court shot the sheriff. And, as many of the guns are unregistered, anonymous character assassination abounds. The scandal of money in politics today is not what little remains illegal, but what is done legally.