Harvard Admission Process: Discrimination?

The 99% have no chance. When a bulwark of the Establisment shies away from transparency the 1% have an open goal in their endeavour to preserve their priviledges. The ONLY objective admission process is via competition. No special favours to donors and former students.
Harvard University is fighting to keep its secretive admissions process under wraps

Who will stop Google and other Oligopolists?

USA certainly will not, they are an extended arm to preserve control over the other economies and states. Google reaps huge benefits from being able to exploit its near-monopoly on search, use of personal data. EU completely passive, as are individual member states. Only way to stop Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon is Direct Democracy.
How Google's parent company is paving the way to become a transportation giant

$450 Mio Leonardo Painting - who pays any tax?

Let people believe what they want, I would always be very suspicious of paintings that do not have an iron-clad 'provenence'. But given the (rising) outrage over inequality one wonders what the tax implications of such a wondrous rise in value are. Surely the painting has been 'domiciled' in some tax haven, but in a better regulated world the seller would be charged capital gains tax. So why are our (idiot) politicians not able to close the loopholes and allow the footloose rich to run rings around our tax laws?
Marketwatch

Tax Havens: Drain the Swamp!

Given that politicians try to suck the last bit of blood out of taxpayer's working income it is repellent that the rich who can afford to relocate to tax havens get treated so leniently. It is high time that all payments to tax havens are charged a substantial (30%?) withholding tax that these tax tourists can then apply against any tax charge in their domicile.
Sunday Times (Paywall)

Charity Donation: the ultimate tax loophole

No wonder that inequality is rising - the rich, and even more so the super rich, can in effect 'privatise' their tax dollars by squirrelling their fortunes into 'foundations' and 'trusts' that prevent proper inheritance taxes to be applied. Can Soros' institute really be called a charity? Who decides what the money is spent on? Who manages the foundation/charity? Why can ordinary workers not apply the same to their pay-cheques? Maybe a foundation to care for the elderly (their ailing parents) or their pets? And then call themselves 'philantropists' as well?
CNBC

Direct Democray will hold Lobbies at bay

Plutocrats control the Government in the United States, separation of powers goes not far enough, the history since independence is scandal-ridden despite the near-religious status of the Constitution. Direct Democracy on all levels, esp the top, will improve matters.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/08/28/carl-icahns-failed-raid-on-washington

Concentration of Wealth leads to Concentration of Power

"The rapid concentration of wealth has also concentrated political power in the hands of a few who seamlessly combine public and private modes of power"
The Elites Have Destroyed The Status Quo's Ability To Self-Correct | Zero Hedge

Top Philanthropists Wield Power Through Their Donations

While the abuse of tax subsidies for "charitable" donations is most extreme in the USA this pernicious favoring of the wealthy is slowly finding its way into other 'Pseudo' Democracies. Let the 0.1% be charitable, by all means, but do not give them favorable tax treatment in return. And posing as benefactors also gives them special access to politicians and allows them undue influence on political decisions.
Wealth Matters: How Top Philanthropists Wield Power Through Their Donations

Rich and Well-connected not accountable

"The perception of a system run and managed by a political establishment that serves the rich and connected and fails to hold these elites accountable for the damage they cause to the rest of society" (Mohamed El-Erian, Bloomberg)
We could not have said it better! While Direct Democracy would not be the perfect solution to this problem it would go a long way towards a more equitable economic and political system.

Davos: Destructive Elites ruling our Lives

Much attention is now focused on grass economic inequality. But while universal suffrage in the 'Western' democracies gives the impression of political equality this does not reflect reality. A narrow and interrelated caste of political, bureaucratic and business functionaries controls the levers of political and economic power under the fig leaf of democratic procedures. The only effective antidote is the introduction of Direct Democracy on all levels of government.
Davos's Destructive Elites (National Review)