Pirate party is the fastest growing in Europe

While there is little chance of success in the US due to our (primarily) two party system, it's a different story in Europe. Even over here, the Pirate party would probably benefit by linking up with another party such as the Greens, but for now they're on their own and growing. Is it the rise of the geeks or is it the 99% rising up against the 1% or is it something else? It's a good read about this fast growing party that's not just a bunch of young punks looking for free downloads. The smear campaign by the mainstream is not unlike what we used to hear about bloggers. Remember when it was popular to talk about bloggers as 25 year old kids living in the basement of their parents house? The Pirate party people are serious people raising serious issues. The Observer:

"It's not theft. It's an infringement on a monopoly. If it was theft and it was property, we wouldn't need a copyright law, ordinary property laws would suffice." Nor does he have any truck with the argument that file-sharing hurts art and artists. "It's just not true. Musicians earn 114% more since the advent of Napster. The average income per artist has risen 66%, with 28% more artists being able to make a living off their hobby. What is true is that there's an obsolete middle market of managers. And in a functioning market, they would just disappear." But in any case, he says, it's not about the economy or creativity. "What it boils down to is a privileged elite who've had a monopoly on dictating the narrative. And suddenly they're losing it. We're at a point where this old corporate industry thinks that, in order to survive, it has to dismantle freedom of speech."

The recording industry is suffering from a generation gap. The old model no longer applies and younger people today view music differently than it was viewed a decade or two ago. The industry hates the fact that they can't control what is published so they're using (and abusing) their power to turn back the clock and put the genie back in the bottle. That is not going to happen. Read the rest of this post...

NY Times spotlights hospitals of the 0.01%

All I wanted the last time I spent time in a US hospital was to not be shoved out the door at 2PM after surgery in the morning that left me with a four inch scar. Not that I didn't enjoy the wheelchair carting me to the front door to get me out of there, but that was a far cry from tea and crumpets with a decorated chef serving risotto with heirloom tomatoes. Just guessing as well that new mothers wouldn't mind more than a night or two in the hospital after giving birth. Well, as long as the 0.01% are comfortable and thriving, that's all that matters. Right? NY Times:

A waterfall, a grand piano and the image of a giant orchid grace the soaring ninth floor atrium of McKeen, leading to refurbished rooms that, like those in the hospital’s East 68th Street penthouse, cost patients $1,000 to $1,500 a day, and can be combined. That fee is on top of whatever base rate insurance pays to the hospital, or the roughly $4,500 a day that foreigners are charged, according to the hospital’s international services department. But in the age of Occupy Wall Street, catering to the rich can be trickier than ever, noted Avani Parikh, who worked for NewYork-Presbyterian as in-house project leader when the 14th floor was undertaken. She pointed to the recent ruckus at Lenox Hill Hospital, where parents with newborns in the intensive-care unit complained that security guards had restricted their movements and papered over hospital security cameras in their zeal to please Jay-Z (real name Shawn Carter) and Beyoncé Knowles, whose daughter was born on Jan. 7 in a new “executive suite.” Many American hospitals offer a V.I.P. amenities floor with a dedicated chef and lavish services, from Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, which promises “the ultimate in pampering” in its $3,784 maternity suites. The rise of medical tourism to glittering hospitals in places like Singapore and Thailand has turned coddling and elegance into marketing necessities, designers say.

The article is a real eye opener in terms of what's wrong with the health care system. Of course there are hospitals like this around the world but in this era where as a country, we're still struggling to provide proper and cost effective health care, these luxurious hospitals stand out like a sore thumb. Leaving patients in the emergency room while the Saudi visitor and his entourage take over an entire floor is a bit much. If money is no object there's plenty of great health care in the US. Great health care is not the issue. Access to great health care is. It would be nice is someone in the political class would call out the oblivious buffoons who like bragging about the US health care system being the best in the world. If you're Dick Cheney or Saudi royalty, it is. If you're part of the 99%, it's average at best. The WHO report on health care systems around the world show this and from my own personal experience using health care systems around the world, I can confirm it. Read the rest of this post...

SOPA/PIPA is dead, will OPEN replace it?

I have been on the Web since 1992. SOPA/PIPA is not the first time Congress threatened to legislate 'death of the Internet' but it is the first time that the Internet flexed its muscles in such a conspicuous fashion and the first time we won.

Unlike most, I didn't really expect SOPA/PIPA to pass. Not this time round. It took Congress over a decade to deregulate financial services despite or rather because of the huge amounts of cash flowing to buy the legislation. Each time the measure was set to pass there would be some last minute issue and the bill would have to be put off until the next campaign cycle and Congress would collect a fresh round of contributions.

The battle is far from over, the SOPA/PIPA backers will be back with a new proposal after they collect their rent for the current election cycle. One possible vehicle is the OPEN act introduced by Daryl Issa.

The best that can be said for OPEN is that it is not as spectacularly corrupt as its provenance would suggest. Instead of handing enforcement power to Rupert Murdoch and cronies, OPEN would at least have a federal agency (the ITC) acting in a judicial role. Eric Goldman wrote a good analysis of OPEN in Ars Technical last month. Read the rest of this post...

Romney to release only one year of his tax returns on Tuesday

After months of stalling, Romney has finally bowed to the inevitable and pledged to release his returns this Tuesday but only for 2010 and an estimate for 2011.

Much of the initial media attention is going to be centered on the likely confirmation that the 0.01%-er was a 15%-er. But that is just the start. Releasing the returns for the two years he has been campaigning is not going to end the calls for him to come clean about his taxes while he was Governor of Massachusetts and since.

Putting Mitt Romney's face on the Bush tax cuts for the 0.01% may be the most significant long term consequence of this campaign. Read the rest of this post...

David Cay Johnston: To calm the storm, Romney should release returns for 1984–1999 (the Bain years)

In an earlier post I focused on Mike Papantonio's concerns about Mitt Romney involvement in Cayman Island offshore banks (actually secret investment trusts).

There I also alluded (incorrectly as it turns out) to David Cay Johnston's issues, which are not the same as Papantonio's. Those issues deserve examination on their own, especially given Johnston's widely-admitted expertise on the U.S. tax code and its implications.

In a recent article Johnston wrote (my emphasis throughout):

If Mitt Romney makes good on his promise during Thursday night’s Republican candidates’ debate to release “multiple years” of his returns, it will likely stir up rather than calm the political storm unless he makes public all of his returns from 1984 through 1999. Those are the years when he built a fortune of more than $200 million while running Bain Capital Management.

While Johnston is sure that Romney has done nothing illegal, his concerns fall into three categories:

       ▪ The "carried interest" loophole that allows his income to be earned now and taxed later (I may start calling this the Wimpy Loophole)

       ▪ His Cayman Island accounts

       ▪ The $100 million trust fund for his sons

Here's Johnston on the "carried interest" loophole and the Cayman Island accounts:

[I]nvestment partnership managers like Romney, who cofounded Bain Capital Management and ran it for 15 years ... can earn compensation now and pay taxes later, decades later if they want. It’s called “carried interest.” ...

Unless he releases the tax returns from his Bain Capital years he will surely be pressed about how much, if any, of his fortune has yet to be taxed and how long he deferred paying on the portion that has been taxed. He will be asked about Bain accounts in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and other tax havens. While perfectly legal, these offshore accounts convey an unsavory political whiff to many people, including some of his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination.

About the $100 million trust fund, Johnston would like to know how that money was taxed.

The article is clear and to the point, with several "inside the tax code" observations. (There's even a nice Nixon revelation, lost to memory, that Johnston unearths; I'll leave you to find and enjoy that for yourself.)

My own view is that if people like Krugman and Johnston are right and Papantonio is wrong (see here), we may well see more than one Romney return (though likely not enough to allay Johnston's concerns). When will we see them? How about at the last minute possible, and only with the presidency on the line.

But if Papantonio is right and those Cayman Island investment partners are beneficiaries of political favors — Papantonio is a very successful mass torts lawyer and thinks like one — I don't think those earlier returns will ever be revealed. We'll only see scrubbed ones, and only from scrubbable years.

A real high-wire act Mr. Romney is putting on. I would not want his stomach acid right about now.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Megaupload owner lifestyle a big issue, so let's see Wall Street lifestyles

If this doesn't look like an orchestrated campaign to win over support for the Megaupload raid, nothing does. I could care less what Megaupload did or didn't do according to the Feds, nor do I care about the lifestyle of the owner. As I said earlier, Megaupload did not cause the global recession. Wall Street caused it. If anyone wants to get cute about the lifestyle of the Megaupload owner, how about they're a little more honest about the process and show us the daily lifestyle of those in the music and movie industry along with the lifestyle of Wall Street. They won't though because that would only make their international raid look even more ridiculous. Rapper 50 Cent seems to be doing OK despite Megaupload even with the mansion going down in price. Dr Dre? Not too shabby either. Music/movie celebrity Jennifer Lopez on a $28 million yacht. Tom Cruise seems to be living a pretty comfortable life. Do you think he worries much about making his next house payment or what happens if he loses his job during the recession? How about Lloyd Blankfein's estate? Looks pretty much like how your average middle class American home, doesn't it? Sort of like former Clinton official and Citi board member Robert Rubin's house. Blankfein also has to have a simple little flat (a walk up, no doubt) for his work weeks in New York. How about JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon's house in Chicago that he had to sell? Yeah, pretty simple and average but hey, the poor guy had to be bailed out by taxpayers after all. So whoever is coordinating the Megaupload smear campaign, how about some honesty about the other side, including the freeloading weasels on Wall Street who had to be bailed out. With Wall Street, we don't even need to just look at the CEO's, because it's just as easy to look at It seems a little too easy to jump on this supposed scandal but ignore the real scandal that still impacts us all and will continue to impact us for years to come. Read the rest of this post...

What Romney could be hiding in his tax returns (Hint: An offshore bank is not a bank)

There are several speculations about Mitt Romney's refusal to release his tax returns.

Paul Krugman thinks he pays so little in taxes that he'll be branded as the poster boy for what's wrong with the whole tax code.

David Cay Johnston thinks that the tax code manipulation during the Bain years could turn up quite a bit of chicanery. (Sorry, group interview, no link.) CORR: Mr. Johnston's position is correctly stated as:

I am sure Romney scrupulously followed the rules. ... What I have raised questions about in my columns at Reuters.com are the gift tax issues involving the $100 million trust fund for his sons.

More here.

I find this the most intriguing possibility of all. I've been saying on Twittter that Mitt's tax problem has a name — "Cayman Islands."

Most think that the Cayman Islands problem is that Mitt will be painted (branded) as an serious tax avoider.

But there's more, and it's much more serious. Offshore "banks" aren't banks, they're investment funds, very secret ones. And investment funds have partners. According to lawyer Mike Papantonio (of Ring of Fire radio), these "banks" were originally created to launder and invest criminal money.

The following brief interview with Ed Schultz explains it all. The first two minutes provide the context. After that, Papantonio makes his point. Listen:



The history of offshore "banking" starts at 2:50. Fascinating. 150 current grand jury investigations of offshore banking?

Papantonio asks the right questions. Who are his partners in these funds? Has he already done favors for them, using political office? If we don't know who is partners are, how will we know if (when) he does favors for them in the future, using the highest office in the land.

Notice that, at the end, Papantonio also thinks Romney is paying 0% taxes. How's that for icing on the cake?

This could be very big, very explosive. If so, we'll never see those returns. Ever. They will stay buried forever.

Interesting game that Romney's gotten himself into. How do you walk away from your last shot at the presidency? How do you release your Cayman Island dealings?

I think he's doing the only thing he can — shut up and press forward. (Can't wait to see No-on-Mitt's next move.)

[UPDATED to correctly reflect David Cay Johnston's position.]

GP Read the rest of this post...

Blondie - Heart of Glass

I'm still without my bike for the last weekend in Paris for a few weeks. She's hopefully on her way back from Italy but speedy service is not something that Kuota does so it's anyone's guess. My shift to winter jogging is going well though in all honesty, jogging something that I do because I see the benefits but it really doesn't compare to cycling. I knocked off another inch from my waist just in two months so it's hard object too much. Read the rest of this post...

Religious parties dominate Egyptian elections for parliament

This is what everyone has been expecting, so no surprise. Egypt still receives billions of dollars per year from the US, so how much will that relationship really change? It's possible, but someone will need to cough up a few billion per year to fill that gap or else Egypt's problems will be much worse. The Guardian:

The final results in Egypt's first parliamentary elections since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak have confirmed an overwhelming victory for Islamist parties. The Muslim Brotherhood, which was banned under Mubarak's regime, won the biggest share of parliamentary seats (38%), according to the High Elections Committee. Its Freedom and Justice party (FJP) has named Saad al-Katatni, a leading Brotherhood official who sat in the old parliament as an independent, as speaker of the assembly. The hardline Islamist Al-Nour party came second with 29% of the seats. The liberal New Wafd and Egyptian Bloc coalition came third and fourth respectively.

Read the rest of this post...