The Alchemy of Our Awesomely Affluent

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from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:




The Alchemy of Our Awesomely Affluent
November 27, 2011

Today’s super rich can’t turn tin into gold. But they can get Uncle Sam to loan them free money. At the expense, of course, of America’s bottom 99 percent.

By Sam Pizzigati


How much money is pouring into the pockets of America’s richest 1 percent? How much of this income are America’s richest paying in taxes?

Major media outlets have been asking questions like these ever since the Occupy Wall Street movement first started gaining traction earlier this fall. But the numbers in their answers, suggests a groundbreaking new analysis from Bloomberg reporter Jesse Drucker, aren’t telling the full story.

America’s mega rich are actually taking in much more in income, Drucker shows, than their tax returns indicate. Hundreds of millions more. And this hidden income has reduced their effective tax rate — a figure already lower than the rate average Americans pay — even lower.

We’re not talking patently illegal tax evasion here. We’re talking complex financial transactions that would do medieval alchemists proud. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://toomuchonline.org/prepaid-forward-agreements-alchemy/

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