Chuck Collins

The people aren't powerless in the face of extreme inequality.

In the coming weeks, millions of Americans will take to the streets as part of the "99 Percent Spring," echoing last year's "Arab Spring."

At the root of this discontent are the extreme inequalities of...

After five weeks, Harvard students just evacuated the tents they had pitched on campus as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Their protest helped persuade the university to raise wages and benefits for the college custodians. The students intend to continue their activism by other means, focusing on issues...

Uncle Sam Should Support Built-to-Last Companies, not Built-to-Loot Enterprises

A powerful coalition of U.S.-based global companies is lobbying hard for a "tax holiday" on offshore profits.

Companies like Google, Apple, Pfizer, and General Electric have parked huge amounts of profits -- a stash totaling more than $1.4 trillion --in offshore...

If you care about the future of the republic, the health of our communities, and the prospects for a transition to a new green economy -- the fight over taxation and concentrated wealth is your fight.

If you care about children -- and the kind of society we are going...

As the Super Congress eyes trillions in budget cuts that will undermine the quality of life for most Americans, here's a stunning fact to contemplate: Twenty-five hugely profitable U.S. companies paid their CEOs last year more than they paid Uncle Sam in taxes.

In other words, the more CEOs...

Warren Buffett is calling. We need more wealthy folks like him to speak up for taxing the wealthy.

Billionaire super-investor Warren Buffett has done it again. The Oracle of Omaha has made a bold and revealing statement about "taxing the wealthy." In his op-ed in Monday's The...

10 years on, the Bush tax cuts are a disaster -- and we're contemplating more tax breaks for the wealthy. How can we stop the madness?

GOP candidate Tim Pawlenty observed the 10th anniversary of the Bush-era tax cuts by proposing $2 trillion in additional tax cuts, primarily...

Government must stop doling out ever-larger tax breaks to the superrich and vast corporations.

Have you heard? America is broke, according to many governors and lawmakers.

They're calling for deep cuts in teacher pay, firing cops, slashing medical services for working-class kids, and scrapping other essential services to narrow state...

Congressional Republicans are about to cut the Tsunami Warning System from the National Weather Service budget. But if General Electric paid their fair share of taxes, we could reverse this and billions in additional budget cuts.

General Electric Company -- known for its light bulbs, refrigerators -- and lately, for...

We're chumps unless we force Congress to stop tax haven abuse.

Instead of cutting state and federal budgets, the United States should crack down on the corporate tax dodgers thumbing their noses at us.

Across the nation, states are making deep cuts that will wreck the quality of life for...

In 2010, an essential moral test of a public policy choice is, does it further concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a few?

Or does it disperse concentrated wealth and power -- and strengthen possibilities for a democratic society with greater equality, improved health and well-being, shared...

Originally published by Other Words

A Mighty Mobilization to Prevent a Democratic Cave-in is Underway

After the mid-term elections, the Obama Administration and some Democratic leaders signaled that they might compromise on extending the Bush-era tax breaks for wealthy households. Compromises include extending them for several years -- or raising the income threshold higher to...

"Expecting high-end tax cuts to trickle down as job creation is about as reasonable as pouring gasoline on your hood and expecting it to fuel your car."
-- Lew Prince, owner, Vintage Vinyl, an independent music store.

Congress left town in early October without addressing the future of the...

Congress is actively debating whether to retain President Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for the wealthy that are due to expire at the end of this year. President Obama supports extending tax cuts for households with incomes under $250,000, but ending the tax breaks for higher income households.

Here...

Co-authored by Sami Pizzigati.

August 31st marks the 100th anniversary of the most "radical speech" an American ex-president has ever delivered.

Ex-presidents almost always follow a small number of well-worn scripts. Some rush to cash in on their celebrity. Some do charitable good deeds. Some just lay low.

Exactly one...

The Sherrods Have Given Their Lives to Economic Justice

Lost in the chatter about the firing of Shirley Sherrod and subsequent USDA apology is the unquestionable fact that she had devoted her entire life to economic justice.

In my view, she is a moral giant compared to shameful media...

Kate's Cafe and AAA Appliance probably pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than profitable Fortune 500 companies.

In the U.S., thanks in part to overseas tax havens, we have one tax system for multinational companies and wealthy individuals -- and another for small businesses and ordinary taxpayers....

Would you trust Sens. Max Baucus and Blanche Lincoln to design the next estate tax, our country's only levy on inherited wealth?

Unless progressives stand up, Baucus and Lincoln will team with the GOP's anti-tax point person, Senator John Kyl, to push through a bad estate tax reform. The Kyl-Lincoln...

Angry about the greedy financial speculation that wrecked the economy? Got a deficit headache? Anxious about where the money will come from for long overdue investments in energy independence that will create good jobs in the new economy?

How do we spell relief? Try F.S.T., which stands for Financial Speculation...