Secret News
2011
The following items are what we might call secret news. They
are happenings which have not been widely reported in the traditional
media outlets.
Overtaxed Corporations?
The Harper's Index recently noted that in 1961 US corporations
paid an average of almost 41% of their profits in taxes, and
currently pay an average of 10.5 %. As I recall (from reading
history--I wasn't born until 1964), the early sixties were a
pretty good time economically. Apparently low tax rates are not
as crucial to economic growth as some people claim. I think 41%
is way too high, and logic says that at some rate further increases
would have to be counterproductive, but I am willing to look
at the evidence for the actual effects.
Tracking Cash
The newsletter Independent Living reports in its December
2011 issue that agents of the TSA (Transportation Security Administration)
are running "checkpoints" to look for people carrying
large amounts of cash. They are doing this at train stations,
football stadiums and even on highways. There are reports that
they question and even threaten people who have large amounts
of cash, even when that amount is below the $10,000 limit set
for customers reporting.
Social Media Spying
In November, Forbes Magazine carried an article about
spying being done by way of social media sites. They started
with a true story of a financial director of a New York company,
who was approached through Facebook by an attractive blonde.
They soon were friends )online) and he eventually mentioned that
his company's revenue was $6.5 million annually. She was a he
as it turned out, and was also a spy working for a company called
Cyberoam in Bangalore, India. According to the article;
The loose-lipped director’s New York firm was one
of 20 companies that Cyberoam targeted over a six-month period,
stalking ­employees on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook to
find leaks of sensitive information. The Cyberoam spies were
able to predict a bankruptcy filing for a Singapore company,
based on employees’ tweets about the company’s belt-tightening
measures and its vice president of operations announcing on LinkedIn
that he was job-searching.
They also also quoted a "market intelligence analyst"
at another firm who says he follows the Facebook, Twitter and
LinkedIn accounts of key executives and employees at competing
companies.
Secret News: A Few More Items
Here are a couple more notes from the Harper's Index;
More than 70% percentage of the current US government debt
was accumulated while Republicans were in office, and since 1960
two thirds of raises in the debt-ceiling were signed into law
by Republican presidents.
More than 20,000 minors were sent back to Mexico by immigration
authorities in 2010, and 57% of those were sent back without
an adult to accompany them.
Harper's Index estimates that oil companies will get more
than $78 billion in subsidies from the government in the next
three years.
While only 10% of students go to for-profit colleges, those
schools get 25% of all federal aid.
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