Happy new year! We hope that you had a wonderful holiday season and that your new year has begun with notes of hope and joy. Like everyone else, the Patriotic Millionaires are using the start of a new year to take stock of our priorities and map out the challenges – and opportunities – we anticipate in the year ahead. For this week’s Closer Look, … Continue reading The Year Ahead
‘Tis the season for holiday sticker shock! As Americans finish the last bits of their holiday shopping, they are feeling the heat of higher prices. Thankfully, inflation has certainly cooled down since last year: the Consumer Price Index rose 3.1% over the year ending in November 2023, compared to a 7.1% rise over the year before. But unfortunately, while prices for groceries, gas, rent, and other essentials aren’t rising … Continue reading ‘Tis the Season for Sticker Shock
Last week, President Biden’s son Hunter was indicted on nine counts of tax evasion by David Weiss, the special counsel leading an investigation into Hunter’s business dealings. The 56-page indictment alleges that, between 2016 and 2019, Hunter failed to pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes, and instead used the millions he received in income over that period to fund an “extravagant lifestyle.” Republicans who see the Biden … Continue reading Republicans’ Track Record on Tax Evasion is Abysmal
Oh, to be a billionaire in 2023 – but particularly one born with a silver spoon in their mouth. You’ve heard the Patriotic Millionaires talk about how billionaires took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to dramatically enrich themselves while workers got slammed. To sum it up quickly, the global billionaire class increased their collective wealth by a whopping $2.6 trillion between 2020 and 2022. But what has … Continue reading Meet America’s New Aristocracy
The labor movement roared back to life this year, and everyone from factory floors to C-suite offices has taken notice. Yesterday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee conducted a hearing about the resurgence of unions in America. In his opening remarks as Chairman, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) highlighted the 450,000 union workers that have gone on strike this year for better wages, benefits, and working conditions – a … Continue reading Unions are on a roll
The Patriotic Millionaires have a very simple message for the world: “Je suis riche, taxez-moi!” Our organization was recently profiled in a feature-length piece in Le Monde, the most circulated newspaper in France and one of the top newspapers in all of Europe. This is a pretty big deal, and will undoubtedly attract more public interest in our mission across the world. Our Chair, Morris Pearl, and Vice-Chair, Stephen … Continue reading Je suis riche, taxez-moi!
As of this writing, the U.S. House of Representatives still has no official Speaker after Rep. Kevin McCarthy was ousted by his own party two weeks ago. While the House’s inability to govern itself is a sad reflection of the current state of our democracy, there is a silver lining in Republicans’ embarrassingly tumultuous infighting: they are telling on themselves and making it painfully clear to the rest … Continue reading Republicans’ Chaos with the National Debt
“It’s the economy, stupid” is an oft-repeated truism in politics, quoted by politicos and Beltway journalists alike, after James Carville minted the phrase during the 1992 Presidential election. While the triangulating politics of the 1990s have not aged well, this phrase remains embedded in our lexicon because it was straightforward and carried with it generally helpful guidance for how candidates should run their campaigns. But the simplicity … Continue reading The Economics of Social Issues
Corporate monopolies have been receiving get-out-of-jail-free cards for too long in America. The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission are finally stepping up to challenge this wildly rigged economic board game. Over the last month, the Biden administration has lodged suits against two corporate behemoths, Google and Amazon, over accusations of illegal monopolistic practices. The suits failed to attract a level of media attention befitting the scale … Continue reading Monopolies are for board games
Former President Donald Trump and seven other Republican presidential hopefuls will take to the stage tonight, albeit separate ones, to make the case to the American people that they can save the working class. But if past is prologue, we can be confident this collection of wanna-be-presidents won’t have much in the way of substance to offer. For this week’s Closer Look, we want to … Continue reading Republicans’ Rap Sheet on Workers
The strike has begun. The United Auto Workers union has walked off the job amid their dispute with the Big Three automakers. Among their demands is a 36% pay increase across the life of their new four-year contract. At first glance, that might seem like a big jump, but in context, it’s actually a modest request for their wages to match the growth in productivity UAW workers … Continue reading The Gap Between 36% and 1,460%
Engines are revving for the United Auto Workers union as they line up to strike against the Big Three automakers. The UAW’s current contract with the Big Three – Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis – expires tomorrow, September 14, at 11:59PM ET. If the parties can’t reach an agreement on a new contract before then – and it’s looking very unlikely that they will – the 150,000 members of … Continue reading The UAW is revving up to strike
This weekend, heads of state of G20 member countries will travel to New Delhi, India for the 18th annual G20 summit. Attendees will discuss the most pressing issues related to the global economy, and the meeting will culminate in the adoption of a new G20 Leaders’ Declaration. Ahead of the summit, the Patriotic Millionaires led the charge with several of our allies – Oxfam, Millionaires for … Continue reading Dear G20 Leaders: Tax Extreme Wealth!
For huge swaths of the country, it’s Back to School week. But as schools open their doors and welcome students back, massive labor shortages are making it difficult to put teachers in classrooms, or even get students to school in the first place. And it’s no secret why: low pay has made it notoriously difficult for administrators to find educators and bus drivers. So it’s baffling that The New York … Continue reading Back to School for The New York Times
If you need more proof that America is slipping further and further into oligarchy, look no further than recent revelations about the Supreme Court. Oligarchy is a form of government in which a small group of typically wealthy and corrupt people wield power. It derives from the Greek words oligoi (“few”) and arkhein (“to rule”). Over at the Patriotic Millionaires, we regularly describe how oligarchs use their wealth to sway … Continue reading Oligarchy Comes for the Supreme Court
“We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of the few, but we can’t have both.” Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941) Last week, former President Donald Trump was indicted on charges related to his efforts to overturn the legitimate democratic results of the 2020 election. The announcement comes on the heels of Trump’s other two indictments: one … Continue reading We need to choose democracy
The average American spends $140 each year to prepare their tax returns. Tax Day is over for most of us, but the headache of being required to pay a private, for-profit company to fulfill a civil obligation never goes away. Thankfully, the IRS is developing and deploying a long-overdue solution. After conducting a successful cost and feasibility study, the agency announced that it will launch a pilot program for its own … Continue reading Intuit(ive) Solutions to UnBlock Free File
Last Friday, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) – a union representing nearly 160,000 Hollywood actors – went on strike. They joined members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) – a union representing 11,000 Hollywood writers – who have been on strike since May. This is historic. Hollywood writers and actors haven’t been on strike together since 1960, when none other than Ronald Reagan led the SAG as its … Continue reading Lights, camera, strike!
The Supreme Court has been on a roll lately, but, unfortunately, not in the right direction. On June 29, the conservative majority on the Court voted to strike down affirmative action admissions policies at our nation’s colleges and universities. (Click HERE to read the Patriotic Millionaires’ response to the decision.) The next day, June 30, the same majority then voted to block the implementation of President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program. … Continue reading Get ready for Moore trouble with the Supreme Court
Our group has made quite a splash across the pond! Last Friday, The Guardian published an article – Super-rich warned of ‘pitchforks and torches’ unless they tackle inequality – about what went down at a recent investment conference put on by Spear’s Magazine in London. One of our UK members, Julia Davies, warned the attendees, over 500 members of the global rich and their financial advisors, that if they … Continue reading We made quite a splash across the pond!