EU and IMF 'to monitor Italian reforms' - Europe
Italy, under fierce pressure from financial markets, has agreed to be put under surveillance by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the EU as part of a plan to restore market trust in the eurozone's third-largest economy, senior EU sources have said. The agreement was reached after late-night talks on Thursday with eurozone leaders on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Cannes, France. Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, agreed to have the IMF check every three months the way pension and labour market reforms are implemented and privatisations are carried out, the sources said. "We need to make sure there is credibility with Italy's targets - that it is going to meet them," one EU source told the Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity. "We decided to have the IMF involved on the monitoring, using their own methodology, and the Italians say they can live with that. 'Singled out'
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Welcome to the official Truth and Reconciliation Commission Website The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was set up by the Government of National Unity to help deal with what happened under apartheid. The conflict during this period resulted in violence and human rights abuses from all sides. No section of society escaped these abuses. The TRC was based on the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, No 34 of 1995 (pdf) "... a commission is a necessary exercise to enable South Africans to come to terms with their past on a morally accepted basis and to advance the cause of reconciliation." The TRC effected its mandate through 3 committees: the Amnesty Committee, Reparation and Rehabilitation (R&R) Committee and Human Rights Violations (HRV) Committee....more The Register of Reconciliation gave members of the public a chance to express their regret at failing to prevent human rights violations and to demonstrate their commitment to reconciliation...more
How many people pay the estate tax?
Because of a series of increases in the estate tax exemption, few estates pay the tax. The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA) raised the estate tax exemption from $675,000 in 2001 to $1 million in 2002 and to $3.5 million in a series of steps through 2009, sharply reducing the number of estates that paid estate taxes. EGTRRA repealed the estate tax for 2010 but after that, the estate tax was scheduled to revert to pre-EGTRRA rules. The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 reinstated the estate tax and generation-skipping transfer tax and extended them through 2012, with a $5 million estate tax exemption (indexed for inflation after 2011) and a top rate of 35 percent. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act doubled the exemption to $11.18 million in 2018 (indexed for inflation after 2018), but the estate tax cut is scheduled to expire after 2025 (along with most other provisions of the new law).
Goldman Sachs elevator gossip tweets – inside job or wind-up? | Joris Luyendijk
#1: "If a girl doesn't respond to my texts immediately, I lose interest." #2: "I don't even have time to meet girls." #1: "People that post photos of a 1st class seat or an empty bottle of Petrus on Facebook should die." And: #1: "Getting laid off from Goldman is like being traded by the Yankees. You'll probably still make millions, but it's just not the same." Meet the Twitter account GS Elevator Gossip. If anything it's a good laugh. It's not exactly PC, witness this one: #1: "The only reason I have a home phone is so I can find my cell phone." #2: "Our maid does that." Or: Skirt #1: "It really hurts my feelings when an ugly guy hits on me." And some could be office banter anywhere: #1: "Every disaster movie has a black guy as President to save the day." #2: "And now when we get a real disaster, look what happens." Or: #1: "It's sweet how my wife thinks the silent treatment is a punishment for me." So could GS Elevator Gossip be authentic? #2: "Pathetic. Or: #1: "Alarm at 7.00.
Comparing The United States to Honduras.
The GINI index measures the degree of inequality in the distribution of family income. In Honduras is 53.80 while in The United States it is 45.00. This index measures the degree of inequality in the distribution of family income in a country. The index is calculated from the Lorenz curve, in which cumulative family income is plotted against the number of families arranged from the poorest to the richest. The index is the ratio of (a) the area between a country's Lorenz curve and the 45 degree helping line to (b) the entire triangular area under the 45 degree line.
Ten Facts You Should Know About the Federal Estate Tax | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
The federal estate tax is a tax on property (cash, real estate, stock, or other assets) transferred from deceased persons to their heirs. Only the wealthiest estates pay the tax because it is levied only on the portion of an estate’s value that exceeds a specified exemption level — $5.49 million per person (effectively $10.98 million per married couple) in 2017.[2]The estate tax limits the large tax breaks that extremely wealthy households get on their wealth as it grows, which can otherwise go untaxed. The estate tax thus limits, to a modest degree, the large tax breaks that extremely wealthy households get on their wealth as it grows, which can otherwise go untaxed. The estate tax has been an important source of federal revenue for a century, yet a number of misconceptions continue to surround it. (While this paper focuses on the federal estate tax, taxes on inherited wealth are also a traditional and common revenue source for states.[3])
Market Report - Nov. 4, 2011
Click chart for more markets data. NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- U.S. stocks stayed under pressure with all major U.S. indexes falling about 2% for the week. Investors remained wary over whether Greece could default on its debt and what that might mean for the global financial system. Greece once again dominated as the world awaits a vote on its prime minister's future, scheduled for Friday night. Future leadership of Greece is likely to decide whether the nation will take the necessary steps to avoid a default on its sovereign debt. "We still don't have any clue about what the Greek government actually looks like," said Mark McCormick, a currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman. And investors don't like uncertainty. After another week of wild swings, the Dow Jones industrial average (DJI) ended the week down 2%. Stocks rebounded from sharper losses during the day by Friday's close. Bank stocks were the among the day's biggest laggards. World markets: European stocks closed lower.
Income Inequality Worse Under Obama Than George W. Bush
President Obama may talk a big game about economic fairness, but his record on the issue doesn't quite match up. There are lots of reasons to think so -- and we'll touch on several in just a minute -- but the most recent comes from Matt Stoller, blogging at Naked Capitalism, who points us toward a recent bit of number-crunching from Emmanuel Saez, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Saez, who's known for his work on the income gap, has highlighted a surprising and discouraging fact: during the post-recession period of 2009 and 2010, the rich snagged a greater share of total income growth than they did during the boom years of 2002 to 2007. In other words, inequality has been even more pronounced under Obama than it was under George W. This news may not come as a shock if you're one of the many Americans who lost their job during the recession and couldn't find another that paid as well. But that report used data that was only complete through 2007. Got that?
