Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #steveballmer
Most recents (3)
Washington State enacted a 7% capital gains tax levied on annual profits in excess of $250,000, and made a *fortune*, $600m more than projected in the first year, despite a 25% drop in the stock market and blistering #InterestRate hikes:
theurbanist.org/2023/06/01/les…
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theurbanist.org/2023/06/01/les…
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2023/06/03/whe…
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pluralistic.net/2023/06/03/whe…
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Capital gains taxes are levied on "passive income" - money you get for owning stuff. The capital gains rate is *much* lower than the income tax rate - the rate you pay for *doing stuff*.
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In blocking @Microsoft's acquisition of @ATVI_AB, the @CMAgovUK made history: they stepped in to prevent a convicted monopolist from seizing control over a nascent, important market (cloud gaming), ignoring MS's transparent, self-serving lies:
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/644939aa…
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assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/644939aa…
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2023/04/27/con…
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pluralistic.net/2023/04/27/con…
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Cloud gaming isn't really a thing right now, but it *might* be. That was Microsoft's bet, anyway, as it plonked down $69b for Activision-Blizzard - a company that shouldn't exist, having been formed out of a string of grossly anticompetitive mergers that were waved through.
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With the #IRSFiles, @propublica ripped away the veil of performative complexity disguising the scams that the ultra-rich use to amass billions and billions (and billions and billions) of dollars, paying next to no tax, or even no tax at all.
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2023/04/24/tax…
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pluralistic.net/2023/04/24/tax…
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Each scam is its own little shell game, a set of semantic and accounting tricks used to gussy up otherwise banal rip-offs. The finance sector has a cute name for this kind of complexity: #MEGO, which stands for "#MyEyesGlazeOver."
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