EXPLAINING OUR RACE TO THE BOTTOM ... WHY OUR PUBLIC TREASURIES ARE DRAINED

OK, let's start with this: Corporations are the only reason taxes are so complex and skewed that only corporations and a few of America's ubber rich can take advantage of the tax havens, hidden exemptions, write-offs, and write-downs that you and I can't access.

Corporate lobbyists who secure tax gifts through favorable legislation have generated a real profit center for corporate America and the top 1 percent of wage earners. The fact that America's middle-class can't access these legal tax gifts and off-shore tax havens is a slap in the face to the American family and every worker.

These legislative gifts have not only shifted the burden of paying taxes to the middle class - while transferring more wealth to the ubber rich - but it's also created a unique wealth creating culture built around tax avoidance (hate the state, and let someone else pay), white collar crime (can you say 'ponzi scheme'?), and wealth extraction (hidden fees, front-loaded interest rates, bailouts, the commodification of debt, etc).

Corporate loopholes that allow a select few to avoid paying taxes have drained the public treasury, and go a long way to explain why local, state, and federal agencies are cash-strapped. More specifically, loopholes and legislative tax favors go a long way to explain why corporate taxes as both a percentage of federal revenue (what we take in) and GDP (what we produce) has collapsed since the 1950s ...

The fact that public services have been cut back while the rich have gotten richer during this period should not be a surprise to anyone ... and America's on-going race to the bottom continues.

Next up: Explaining Our Race to the Bottom ... How Our Shadow Banking System Helps Undermine Financial Stability.

- Mark