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When I began Schwartzreport my purpose was to produce an entirely fact-based daily publication in favor of the earth, the inter-connectedness and interdependence of all life, democracy, equality for all, liberty, and things that are life-affirming. Also, to warn my readers about actions, events, and trends that threaten those values. Our country now stands at a crossroads, indeed, the world stands at a crossroads where those values are very much at risk and it is up to each of us who care about wellbeing to do what we can to defend those principles. I want to thank all of you who have contributed to SR, particularly those of you who have scheduled an ongoing monthly contribution. It makes a big difference and is much appreciated. It is one thing to put in the hours each day and to do the work for free, but another to have to cover the rising out-of-pocket costs. For those of you who haven’t done so, but read SR regularly, I ask that you consider supporting it.
As this report describes the ultra-rich in eight developed democracies have managed to rig the tax system in their country saving them hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes, and costing their societies those hundreds of blllions they could have used to foster wellbeing. My own view is part of why this is happening is that the ultra-rich increasingly are international in their views. They don’t have allegiance to the country where they live because their wealth is essentially globally sourced and the tax system of their country isn’t properly structured for that.
A crowd of demonstrators marches in Saint-Brieuc, France on May 1, 2024. Credit: Emmanuelle Pays / Hans Lucas/ AFP / Getty
A study published Tuesday estimates that tax dodging enabled by the United States, the United Kingdom, and other wealthy nations is costing countries around the world nearly half a trillion dollars in revenue each year, underscoring the urgent need for global reforms to prevent rich individuals and large corporations from shirking their obligations.
The new study, conducted by the Tax Justice Network (TJN), finds that “the combined costs of cross-border tax abuse by multinational companies and by individuals with undeclared assets offshore stands at an estimated $492 billion.” Of that total in lost revenue, corporate tax dodging is responsible for more than $347 billion, according to TJN’s calculations.
“For people everywhere, the losses translate into foregone public services, and weakened states at greater risk of falling prey to political extremism,” the study reads. “And in the same way, there is scope for all to benefit from moving […]
You are going to hear, perhaps are already hearing, blather about how we can’t afford the costs of dealing with climate change. How we have to keep drilling for oil and gas to protect our economy. That sort of nonsense. Putting aside the stupidity of such talk, it isn’t factually accurate, as this article clearly describes. At the most fundamental level, this is a report about how we are not fostering wellbeing as we should and must if we want human civilizations to survive.
Climate activists at Cop29 in Baku demonstrate in favour of expanding green energy investment in Africa and elsewhere. Credit: Anatoly Maltsev/EPA
The sums needed – approximately $1tn a year by 2030 – are achievable without disruption to the global economy, and would help to generate greener economic growth for the future.
Amar Bhattacharya, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a visiting professor at the London School of Economics, who is the executive secretary of the UN’s independent high-level expert group (IHLEG) on climate finance, said: “Is it feasible? The answer is absolutely yes. Is it politically challenging? The answer is also yes. But I do believe it can be done.”
Without such investment, the world faces a future of economic damage, rampant inflation and the reversal of gains made in recent decades to pull poor countries out of destitution, the UN has warned.
Simon Stiell, the UN’s climate chief, said: “When nations can’t climate-proof their links in global supply chains, every nation in […]
It seems to just be beginning to dawn on rural farming Republican voters that Trump’s plan to built concentration camps, and deport millions is going to devastate U.S.farmers and the food industry that processes much of their food. You would have thought it would have been obvious to American farmers but, apparently, it wasn’t, based on the way they voted. As for the rest of us it is also going to become a crisis as food prices, instead of going down as Trump promised, are going to go up 20% or more.
A migrant farm worker from Mexico harvests organic zucchini in Wellington, Colorado. President-elect Donald Trump’s deportation plan is causing “panic” among farmers at risk of losing staff and business. Credit: John Moore / Getty
President-elect Donald Trump‘s deportation plan is causing widespread “panic” among farmers at risk of losing staff and business.
Agricultural output will fall between $30 and $60 billion if Trump’s flagship policy is carried out, according to the American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC).
One of the most prominent features of Trump’s immigration policy was the removal of millions of undocumented immigrants. Trump advocated for the immediate deportation of individuals who were in the U.S. illegally, particularly those who had committed crimes.
As the nation braces for massive policy changes, industries reliant on immigrant labor are urging policymakers to consider the far-reaching consequences of mass deportations.
Business leaders, backed by the ABIC—a lobbying group focused on immigration policies […]
Assessment after assessment is coming out from specialist experts showing how damaging all the Project 2025 Trump policies are going to be to the American economy and the United States’ stature in the world. If it turns out as these experts project I wonder if all the Trump Republican voters are going to acknowledge that they personally are responsible for creating what has happened to the country and to themselves?
Workers produce solar panels for export at the 5G smart workshop of Jiangsu Dongci New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. in the Sihong Economic Development Zone in Suqian, Jiangsu province, China on Sept. 11, 2024. Credit: Costfoto / NurPhoto / Getty
A new report by the Net Zero Industrial Policy Lab at Johns Hopkins University explains the high cost that would come to the U.S. if the incoming Trump administration repeals existing climate policies.
According to the report, Donald Trump’s plans to undo climate policies would cost the U.S. billions of dollars. Rolling back policies such as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) would create lost opportunities for U.S. manufacturing and trade, leading to job losses, tax revenue declines and losses in exports, the report authors said.
“Our scenario analysis shows that U.S. repeal of the IRA would, in the most likely scenario, harm U.S. manufacturing and trade and create up to $80 billion in investment opportunities for other countries, including major U.S. competitors like China,” the authors wrote. “U.S. harm would come […]
Damian Carrington , Environmental Editor - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan:
The Trump administration is committed to blocking alternative energy technologies and fostering a higher use of carbon energy. “Drill, Baby, drill,” is the way Trump puts it. That’s what the United States is going to do about climate change. Nothing. Many other countries, as this article describes, are also not doing enough. So it follows that hundreds of millions of people throughout the world are going to be affected by what climate change is going to do, and most of them will become migrants. The world you and I have known and lived in is disappearing before our eyes.
There is “no sign” of the transition away from burning fossil fuels that was pledged by the world’s nations a year ago, with 2024 on track to set another new record for global carbon emissions.
The new data, released at the UN’s Cop29 climate conference in Azerbaijan, indicates that the planet-heating emissions from coal, oil and gas will rise by 0.8% in 2024. In stark contrast, emissions have to fall by 43% by 2030 for the world to have any chance of keeping to the 1.5C temperature target and limiting “increasingly dramatic” climate impacts on people around the globe.
he world’s nations agreed at Cop28 in Dubai in 2023 to “transition away” from fossil fuels, a decision hailed as a landmark given that none of the previous 27 summits had called for restrictions on the primary cause of global heating. On Monday, the Cop28 president, Sultan Al Jaber, told the summit in Baku: “History will judge us by our actions, not by our words.”
The rate of increase of carbon emissions has slowed over the last decade or so, as the rollout of renewable […]
LAUREN EGAN and PHELIM KINE, Staff Writers - Politico
Stephan:
Here is what I assess as some good news about the U.S. China relationship. I have been increasingly concerned that one of the nuclear powers would give AI some control over nuclear weapons. Biden and XI seem to have recognized the problem and have made an agreement that it will not happen in the U.S. and China. Whether it will survive during the coming Trump administration, however, is not at all clear. It appears that what Trump wants is a dangerous confrontation with China. One that will have a massive effect on our economy.
U.S. President Joe Biden, seen here shaking hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping, is looking for ways to emergency-proof the U.S.-China relationship before President-elect Donald Trump takes over the White House. Credit: Leah Millis
LIMA, PERU — President Joe Biden and China’s leader Xi Jinping met for just under two hours on the sidelines of the APEC summit Saturday, marking the end to their 15-year diplomatic relationship and ushering in a new era of uncertainty as Donald Trump prepares to return to office.
The two leaders agreed to avoid giving artificial intelligence control of nuclear weapons systems, and they made progress toward the release of the two U.S. citizens behind bars in China that the State Department considers “wrongfully detained.” Biden also pressured Xi to rein in North Korea’s support of Russia in its conflict with Ukraine.
Biden is looking for ways to emergency-proof the U.S.-China relationship before Trump takes over the White House. And Saturday’s substantive meeting was a sign that both leaders were trying to make the most […]
This is the best-researched profile of religion in the United States that I have found, and it is quite interesting. Decreasing White Christian religious affiliation but, amongst those Whites who are religiously affiliated, increasing fanaticism about what has become a kind of pseudo-Christianity. Pseudo because while it endlessly quotes the Bible (interestingly particularly the Old Testament) it advocates almost nothing that Jesus actually taught.
Two-thirds of Americans (66%) identify as Christian, including 41% who identify as white Christians and 25% who identify as Christians of color. Over one-quarter of Americans (27%) are religiously unaffiliated, and 6% belong to a non-Christian religion.[1]
Among the 41% of Americans who identify as white Christians, 13% are white evangelical Protestants, 13% are white mainline/non-evangelical Protestants, 12% are white Catholics, and small percentages identify as Latter-day Saints (1%), Jehovah’s Witnesses (<0.5%), or Orthodox Christians (<0.5%).[2] Among the one-quarter of Americans who identify as Christians of color (25%), one in ten are Black Protestants (8%) and Hispanic Catholics (8%), 4% are Hispanic Protestants, 2% are other Protestants of color, 2% are other Catholics of color, and just 1% are Jehovah’s Witnesses, Latter-day Saints, or Orthodox Christians.[3] Just 6% of Americans are non-Christians, including Jewish Americans (2%), Muslims (1%), Buddhists (1%), Hindus (1%), and Unitarian Universalists (0.5%). More than one in four Americans (27%) are religiously unaffiliated; 5% of Americans identify as atheists, 5% identify as agnostic, and 17% claim they are “nothing in particular.”
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. The appointment of Project 2025 author Brendan Carr to head the FCC I see as a first step in using federal media licensing power to scare and threaten media that if they criticize Trump it may result in a loss of their license to operate.
Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump attends a campaign town hall event at Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan, U.S., September 27, 2024. Credit: Rebecca Cook / Reuters
Donald Trump on Sunday announced that he has nominated a Project 2025 author to be the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
“Commissioner Carr is a warrior for Free Speech, and has fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans’ Freedoms, and held back our economy,” Trump said. “He will end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America’s Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America.”
Trump’s statement does not mention Carr’s connection to Project 2025, the governance plan from which the former and incoming president has tried to distance himself since polls showed […]
