In case you missed it, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its April jobs report last week. For today’s Closer Look, we’d like to highlight both the good news and the bad news from the report and offer our take as to what can be done about the bad news. The good news is that the economy continues to rebound from the pandemic. Last month, no … Continue reading Want to keep workers around? Pay them more
Rising inflation continues to dominate headlines at home and around the world. There is simply no getting around the fact that prices for rent, groceries, gas, and other everyday essentials continue to rise and break records. As our wallets feel the squeeze at the grocery store and the gas pump, it’s easy to be misled by pundits providing convenient scapegoats like a “red-hot labor market” and … Continue reading Corporations are bragging about inflation price-gouging
Yesterday, Twitter accepted a $44 billion buyout offer from Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and richest man in the world. The buyout will take one of the world’s largest and most popular social media platforms private. The news has dominated headlines around the world since it broke. While politicians and media pundits have largely been discussing how the move will impact the future of Twitter itself … Continue reading Musk’s Twitter buyout is all about billionaire power
In case you missed it (and we hope you didn’t), yesterday was Tax Day in America. It was the last day for millions of Americans to file their federal, state, and local tax returns for the 2021 fiscal year. Most Americans dutifully pay their fair share in taxes by the tax filing deadline every year but, unfortunately, there is one group of people that notoriously … Continue reading This Tax Day, It’s All About Billionaires
In case you missed it, Forbes released their 2022 World’s Billionaire List last week. According to their research, there are now 2,668 billionaires around the world who boast a collective wealth of $12.7 trillion. The United States is home to 735 of them, with a combined worth of $4.7 trillion. It’s obvious that America’s billionaires are really wealthy, but it can sometimes be difficult to appreciate just … Continue reading So who are the wealthy in America, anyway?
Yesterday, President Biden and the White House unveiled their $5.8 trillion budget request for the 2023 fiscal year. There are many parts of the budget that are garnering headlines, but the most exciting is clearly Biden’s “Billionaire Minimum Income Tax” proposal. The Billionaire Minimum Income Tax would institute a 20% minimum tax rate on incomes for households worth $100 million or more. It would only affect the top 1% … Continue reading Manchin needs to get behind the Billionaire Minimum Income Tax
Confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Biden’s pick to replace Justice Stephen Breyer on the US Supreme Court, began yesterday in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The hearings will continue the rest of the week, after which the Committee will vote on whether to send her nomination to the full Senate for consideration. To the surprise of absolutely no one, most Republican Senators are … Continue reading Get dark money out of our democracy
Bob Lord, a tax policy Senior Advisor for the Patriotic Millionaires, recently published a piece in inequality.org titled “How to Fix America’s Roundabout, Badly Broken System for Taxing our Richest.” In this piece, Bob contends that the reason the richest in America have never been richer is because the American tax system has failed to place a check on the ultra-rich’s wealth growth. Over the … Continue reading How to Fix America’s Roundabout, Badly Broken System for Taxing our Richest
With negotiations over President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda completely stalled, there unfortunately haven’t been many developments on the tax front on Capitol Hill these days. There have, however, been significant developments in tax policy on the state level, and not for the better. Many states have found themselves flush with cash as the economy rebounds from the pandemic; jobs have grown and consumers are … Continue reading State Income Tax Cuts are Handouts to the Rich
This year’s tax season is upon us. Americans everywhere are printing out their W2s or firing up their tax software to make this year’s April 18 filing deadline. It’s an annual tradition that, while not the most enjoyable, is at least a universally shared pain. Except it’s not. There’s an important group of people who don’t have to pay their taxes every year (much less … Continue reading You pay taxes every year – why don’t billionaires?
Over the weekend, in response to Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine under the direction of President Vladimir Putin, the US has joined Western allies in imposing economic sanctions on the Russian government and Russian oligarchs. These oligarchs, a small group of extremely wealthy (and infamously corrupt) individuals that have strong ties to Putin and the Russian government, are the target of a new task force … Continue reading Oligarchs aren’t just in Russia
Rising inflation continues to dominate headlines in the US and around the world. There is simply no getting around the fact that prices for rent, groceries, gas, and other everyday items are rising quickly. This has put most American households at a financial loss, especially since their wages have not risen fast enough to keep up. President Biden will undoubtedly discuss the inflation situation in his … Continue reading The White House needs to get serious about corporate greed
Billionaires just can’t seem to stay out of the headlines. This time, however, it’s not their space trips or superyacht squabbles that are making the news: it’s their tax avoidance strategies. We recently learned that Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and the world’s richest man, donated billions in Tesla shares to charity this past November and is set to pay roughly $11 billion in income tax. While this might seem like good news, … Continue reading We must end billionaire tax avoidance
Last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that inflation over the last year reached a 40-year high. The Consumer Price Index, a key measure for inflation, rose 7.5% between this year and last, which is the highest rate increase since 1982. This news probably doesn’t come as a surprise to most Americans: there is no escaping the fact that prices for rent, groceries, gas, … Continue reading We can’t talk about inflation without corporate greed
Over the last two years of the pandemic, billionaires had a financial field day. As we previously reported, the world’s ten richest men doubled their collective fortunes – from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion – at the same time that incomes for 99% of humanity fell. America’s 740 billionaires also increased their combined wealth by no less than $2 trillion over the same period. This week, the ultra-rich are … Continue reading We Have A Billionaire Problem
On Friday, a group of Congressional staffers announced that they are organizing a union for employees that work for members and committees on Capitol Hill. This push for unionization comes on the heels of the rise of an Instagram account, Dear White Staffers, that exposes the extremely low pay and poor working conditions that junior employees experience in legislative chambers. Every worker deserves to be paid fairly and … Continue reading Congressional Staffers Deserve A Union
It’s no secret that the rich and powerful are able to avoid paying their fair share in taxes, but it’s still occasionally stunning to see just how much tax avoidance they get away with. This week, we saw two bombshell reports released by tax justice organizations laying out how both major corporations and ultra-wealthy families are able to pay basically nothing in taxes. On Tuesday, … Continue reading Netflix paid 1.1% in taxes last year
Last week, the Commerce Department announced that the American economy had a strong showing in 2021. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 1.7% in the last quarter of 2021. bringing total annual growth for last year to 5.7%, the largest change that the US has seen since 1984. The Labor Department also shared some positive news. According to the agency, unemployment is very low in the US, with … Continue reading The economy could be worse, but it could absolutely be better
Today, our organization announced our endorsement of nine Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives, a group that includes seven previously endorsed incumbents, and, for the first time ever, two candidates facing off against Democratic incumbents in a primary challenge. The seven champions of our economic justice mission that our group is re-endorsing are Representative Colin Allred (TX-32), Representative Cindy Axne (IA-3), Representative Josh Harder … Continue reading Patriotic Millionaires Endorse Democratic Primary Challengers
Yesterday, The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales, a documentary-style film co-directed and co-produced by one of our very own members, Abigail E. Disney, premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. While the film isn’t available for public consumption (yet!), we wanted to take some time to discuss its contents along with the broader worker empowerment movement that is taking place in America today. The … Continue reading Economic justice starts with workers’ rights