You may have seen the headlines about corporate inversions.  I think The New York Times article, White House Weighs Actions to Deter Overseas Tax Flight, clarifies what this is all about.

The Obama administration is weighing plans to circumvent Congress and act on its own to curtail tax benefits for United States companies that relocate overseas to lower their tax bills, seeking to stanch a recent wave of so-called corporate inversions, Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said on Tuesday.

Thanks to Elizabeth Warren for urging President Obama to take action and for highlighting this issue on her Facebook page.

It is very important to get this issue before the public in a way that is easy to understand.  I think this article does it for me.  I hope people understand that the countries that are making these deals are stealing our tax money.  All these companies will have to do is to establish a mail drop in the receiving country.  The companies pay a substantial fee to the receiving country and the receiving country has to provide absolutely no costly benefits in return.  Of course it is a good deal for everyone except the true home country that provides the infrastructure, legal system, and security that these companies depend on, but would rather not pay for.  What are they going to do when they suck their home country dry? They’ll probably do the same thing that bankers do who suck their companies dry with bad loans while feathering their own nests with fat bonuses.  They’ either retire quite comfortably, thank you very much, or they will go on to pull the same stunt at a new company or country.

Once guys like Mitt Romney figured out how to use debt to strip assets out of a company, it was probably only a matter of time until someone figured out how to use debt to avoid taxes in the way mentioned in the article.

By the way, corporations don’t only use money from their customers and employees to pay corporate taxes.  Competition for business, if anti-trust laws were enforced, would put limits on this behavior with respect to cutomers.  Corporations can get money from their stock holders by reducing dividends and using the money saved to pay the corporate taxes.  As far as getting money from their employees, they could get it from the excessive executive pay rather than from the minimum wage workers if only our personal and corporate income tax structure was fairer.

The Intercept has the article Cash, Weapons and Surveillance: the U.S. is a Key Party to Every Israeli Attack.

Over the last decade, the NSA has significantly increased the surveillance assistance it provides to its Israeli counterpart, the Israeli SIGINT National Unit (ISNU; also known as Unit 8200), including data used to monitor and target Palestinians. In many cases, the NSA and ISNU work cooperatively with the British and Canadian spy agencies, the GCHQ and CSEC.

Make of this what you will.  One thing I do wonder is whether the President has control over NSA or the NSA has control over our President.

The Maura Healy campaign asked me to share this with you.

I am a sucker for this kind of politician who wants the people to participate and knows how to use modern technology to make it happen.

Then of course there are all those good things her interns say about her.

The Examiner has the story Report: Kennedy family urging Elizabeth Warren to run for president.

The family seems split because Warren is the one who most resembles the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, a staunch liberal, who stands apart from Clinton, who often appears too close to Wall Street and the Washington establishment.

“Joe thinks Hillary has too many ties with Wall Street,” this source added. “He loves Liz because she’s a full-throated liberal like his Uncle Ted. She has Ted’s voice — loud and angry and triumphant.”

Thanks to Rebecca Deans-Rowe for posting this on her Facebook page.

See my previous post Run, Warren, Run! Draft Elizabeth Warren for President in 2016 for a link to the petition you might want to sign.

Naked Capitalism has the article Krugman v. Morgenson on Too Big to Fail by David Dayen.

The bottom line is that this exhibits pure party-based tribalism. Take whatever half-truth you can turn into a talking point and parade it. And because it comes from an anointed spokesman of the Left in the mainstream circles, the hedged conclusions get spun into iron laws. The Reuters daily roundup Counterparties puts Krugman atop a summary they call “Farewell to Too Big to Fail.” (On the other hand, I was glad to see Bob Kuttner call Krugman out for this, however gently.)

If Krugman wants to become the President’s mouthpiece in the second term, that’s his business. But doing so by fudging the data is pretty weak.

This is the first I have read about this topic.  I have a feeling that when I read more news, I am going to hear about Krugman and the GAO report in highly favorable terms.  I thought I would post this article on my blog so I would have a record of it as a counterpoint to what is in the MSM.