In the past ten years, global billionaire wealth has skyrocketed by 99.6%, a gain of over $5.9 trillion.
@Chuck99to1: "The concentration of wealth in the hands of the ultra-wealthy is endangering our democracy, economic stability, and social cohesion." ips-dc.org/release-new-re…
In the U.S., households with more than $50 million have seen their wealth increase 53.9% since 2012.
As the world's billionaires gather in #Davos, Switzerland, they likely won't spend much time on the global crisis of extreme concentration of wealth and power.
Omar Ocampo: "A progressive wealth tax is a key policy tool needed to confront inequality." ips-dc.org/release-new-re…
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This week, it was exposed that members of the Getty family have used Nevada trusts to dodge $300 million in taxes owed to California over the last decade.
The oil & gas and uranium mining industries have poisoned communities in New Mexico while residents don't see the benefits.
While New Mexico ranks second in the country for oil and gas production, it’s the third poorest state. ips-dc.org/report-new-mex…
Monopoly investor-owned electric utilities often charge high rates to poorer New Mexicans, a pattern that risks being repeated even if cleaner energy sources are adopted.
In 2003, we awarded Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award for his historic organizing of poorer Latin American countries against unjust economic rules imposed by the Global North.
Yesterday, he was elected to be president of Brazil.
This is huge. 🧵
Lula's victory amazingly marks the third winner of our Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards to become president this year, with Gustavo Petro in #Colombia & Gabriel Boric in #Chile.
The message is clear: People in Latin America and around the world want a progressive future. 🌎
In his victory speech, Lula emphasized that he will continue to prioritize cutting poverty, ensuring access to food and housing, ending deforestation, and protecting Indigenous communities.
These are human-centered priorities that leaders everywhere can, and should, hold.
💰 NEW: The shadow system of trust companies in the U.S. is growing rapidly, inviting tax avoidance and illicit wealth hiding by elites around the world.
As the @ICIJorg#PandoraPapers investigation revealed, some U.S. states have allowed international kleptocrats to avoid accountability at home and hide their ill-gotten wealth abroad.
These states also enable wealthy Americans to avoid federal taxation.
Three key ingredients — low or no taxes, secrecy, and trust longevity — make certain U.S. states particularly attractive to wealth defenders.
These states pass laws to cut or abolish taxes or hide trust records from prying eyes.
The killing of beloved @AlJazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh was likely a war crime by Israeli military.
The U.S. sends $3.8 BILLION of our tax money directly to the Israeli military every year.
Was the bullet or the gun used to kill Shireen paid for with our money? (🧵)
The Leahy Law requires ending U.S. aid to any military unit that has committed a grave human rights violation.
We need serious U.S. & int'l investigations—Israeli "investigations" virtually always result in impunity from accountability for human rights violations & war crimes.
Militarism in general is on the rise at home and around the world.
The U.S. military budget is exploding, approaching $800 BILLION. We send billions in military aid to Israel—almost 20% of its entire military budget—every year.
After its latest assault on #Gaza, Israel is requesting another $1 billion from the U.S.
Here’s what you need to know. (1/7) 🧵
This week, Israeli Minister of Defense Benny Gantz is coming to Washington to request $1 billion in emergency aid after Israel’s recent assault on Gaza.
The purpose of the request is to replenish missiles for Israel’s Iron Dome weapons system. (2/7)
As Gantz comes to the U.S. to lobby for the money, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is in Israel lobbying from there.
He’s touring Israel with the IDF to ‘see what kind of things we can do to help Israel defend herself.’ (3/7)