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What Do Jon Stewart, Elizabeth Warren, and Barack Obama Have In Common?

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Senior Analyst for Tax & Budget Policy

All three of them spoke out this week against corporate tax dodging.

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama called for an economy where “everyone plays by the same set of rules” and where companies can’t avoid taxes by shifting profits overseas. That same night, Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren went on the Daily Show and called out 30 corporations that a recent Florida PIRG and Citizens for Tax Justice study found paid more to lobby Congress than they did in federal income taxes. When Warren told this to John Stewart on the Daily Show, it made the usually unflappable comedian’s jaw drop. Check out the video!

Zappos' customers may have been zapped by identity theft; meanwhile big Internet sellers zap small Internet guys, just like the big boxes do to local, independent stores

Monday, January 16, 2012

By | Ed Mierzwinski

Consumer Program Director

Over at his Red Tape Chronicles, MS-NBC's Bob Sullivan warns that Internet marketer "Zappos says hacker may have accessed info on 24 million customers."

Consumer Protection

Problems With Privatized Law Enforcement's New Frontier

Thursday, October 27, 2011

By | Phineas Baxandall

Senior Analyst for Tax & Budget Policy

One in five Americans lives in a jurisdiction that outsources traffic ticketing this way, according to a newly released report from the Florida Public Interest Research Group, titled "Caution: Red Light Cameras Ahead; The Risks of Privatizing Traffic Law Enforcement and How to Protect the Public." And a report released by the Justice Department suggests this trend may accelerate under the twin pressures of budget pressure and intense lobbying.