Robert B. Reich's Blog, page 12

The Truth Behind “Self-Made” BillionairesWhy do we glorify...

The Truth Behind “Self-Made” Billionaires

Why do we glorify “self-made” billionaires?

Well, being “self-made” is a seductive idea —it suggests that anybody can get to the top if they’re willing to work hard enough. It’s what the American Dream is all about.

If Kylie Jenner can become a “self-made” billionaire at age 21, so can you and I!

Even as wages stay stagnant and wealth inequality grows, it’s a comfort to think that we’re all simply one cosmetics company and some elbow grease away from fortune.

Unfortunately, a nice idea is all it is. Self-made billionaires are a myth. Just like unicorns.

The origins of self-made billionaires are often depicted as a “rags-to-riches” rise to the top fueled by nothing but personal grit and the courage to take risks — like dropping out of college, or starting a business in a garage.

But in reality, the origins of many billionaires aren’t so humble. They’re more “riches-to-even-more-riches” stories, rooted in upper-middle class upbringings.

How much risk did Bill Gates take on when his mother used her business connections to help Microsoft land a deal-making software for IBM?

Elon Musk came from a family that owned an emerald mine in Apartheid South Africa.

Jeff Bezos’ garage-based start was funded by a quarter-million dollar investment from his parents.

If your safety net to joining the billionaire class is remaining upper class – that’s not pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.

Nor is failing to pay your fair share of taxes along the way.

Along with Musk and Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, George Soros, and Carl Icahn have all gotten away with paying ZERO federal income taxes some years. That’s a big helping hand, courtesy of legal loopholes and American taxpayers who pick up the tab, all while our tax dollars subsidize the corporations owned by these so-called “self-reliant” entrepreneurs.

Did you get a thank you card from any of them? I sure as hell didn’t.

Other common ways that billionaires build their coffers off the backs of others include paying garbage wages and subjecting workers to abusive labor conditions.

But portraying themselves as rugged individuals who overcame poverty or “did it on their own” remains an effective propaganda tool for the ultrawealthy. One that keeps workers from rising up collectively to demand fairer wages – and one that ultimately distracts from the role that billionaires play in fostering poverty in the first place.

Billionaires say their success proves they can spend money more wisely and efficiently than the government. Well they have no problem with government spending when it comes to corporate subsidies.

When arguing for even more tax breaks, they claim each “dollar the government takes from [them] is a dollar less” for their “critical” role in expanding prosperity for all Americans, through job creation and philanthropy. Well that’s rubbish.

50 years of tax cuts for the wealthy have failed to trickle down. As a result of Trump’s tax cuts, 2018 saw the 400 richest American families pay a lower tax rate than the middle class. And U.S. billionaire wealth grew by $2 trillion during the first two years of a pandemic that was economically catastrophic for just about everyone else. They want to have their cake, everyone else’s cake, and eat it, too.

Behind every ten-figure net worth is systemic inequality. Inherited wealth. Labor exploitation. Tax loopholes. And government subsidies.

To claim these fortunes are “self-made” is to perpetuate a myth that blames the wealth gap on the choices of everyday Americans.

Billionaires are not made by rugged individuals. They’re made by policy failures. And a system that rewards wealth over work.

Know the truth.

The Republican War On TeachersThere’s a war being waged on...

The Republican War On Teachers

There’s a war being waged on America’s teachers,  and we must stand up for them before it’s too late.

Teachers watch over America’s most precious asset — our children.

They dedicate their lives to caring for our youth, serving as role models, and making sure that future generations are set up for success.

So why on Earth are we treating them so badly?

Our nation’s teachers are not only working long, demanding hours inside and outside of the classroom — but they’re blamed these days for almost everything imaginable.

They are yelled at by parents over masks, reprimanded by school boards about books they assign or let their students read, vilified by politicians for teaching honest lessons about America’s history of racism and genocide, even told to arm themselves against the possibility that their classrooms might be invaded by murderous young men with semi-automatics.

Teachers are also making less money than they were ten years ago. Their average salary today is around $66,000, but when adjusted for inflation, that’s a $2,000 pay cut compared to 2012. As recently as 2018, nearly 600,000 public school teachers had to work a second job.

We’re also saddling our nation’s educators with huge debt. Nearly half of teachers, 45%, have taken out student loans to pay for the advanced degrees often required of them — with an average debt load of $55,800.

On top of all this, 94% of teachers have had to dip into their own pockets to buy school supplies. This, in the richest country in the history of the world! And at a time when the average Wall Street employee bonus for 2021 hit a record high of $257,500. It would take the typical teacher almost four years to make that much — and that’s just a bonus for Wall Street traders — a massive golden cherry on top of their ever-sweeter salaries.  

I’m guessing Wall Street firms don’t make traders pay for their own pencils.

Are Wall Street bankers really worth so much more than the people we ask to care for and teach our children? P-l-e-a-s-e.

Yet none of this has stopped Republicans from accelerating their war on teachers, and turning educators into political pawns in their battle to advance a radical agenda.

Since January 2021, 35 states have introduced 137 bills limiting what educators are allowed to talk with their students about – with regard to race, American history, politics, sexual orientation and gender identity.

Governors Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida are poster boys for this campaign, even supporting legislation that intrudes on a teacher’s ability to craft lesson plans.

Republicans are quick to lob the terms “critical race theory” or “wokeism” against any curriculum that allows our youth to express their identities, advances critical thinking skills, and is honest about our nation’s tragic racial history — calling it “indoctrination” or “brainwashing.”

Why?

Because the biggest threat facing the Republican Party is a new multi-racial generation of young people unafraid to speak truth to power.

Ultimately, if we don’t learn from our history — which often means learning from our mistakes — there’s no way we can tackle our nation’s most pressing problems while building a better, more inclusive future. The foundation for this future begins in the classroom.

So how can we fight back against this war on America’s teachers?

First, pay them twice as much as they’re earning. Bare minimum.

Second, fight for their freedom to teach. Many of the decisions that affect teachers’ day-to-day work — as well as the lives of students — are made at local school board meetings. So, go to one. Better yet, run for a position on your local school board.

Third, listen to our teachers. Do you know what’s been lost in the cultural and political war against education in this country? The voices of ACTUAL teachers. If we’re going to truly support them and repair the harm done to our education system, they need to be heard.

Defend our teachers. Pay our teachers. Value our teachers. The work they do determines our future.

Sick of Manchin and Sinema’s Power Trip? Watch ThisJoe...

Sick of Manchin and Sinema’s Power Trip? Watch This

Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are on a power trip, but we can make them irrelevant after this year’s election.

Right now,  we have only 48 REAL Democrats in the Senate. Manchin and Sinema are Democrats in name only — and are allowing the filibuster to block the Democrats’ agenda.

They’re acting more like the king and queen of the Democrat’s agenda, deciding on their own to prevent critical measures from being enacted.

Well, it’s time to de-throne them, and get a Democratic Senate that actually delivers — doing what it takes to get 50 votes to carve out the filibuster. Only then can we protect voting rights, codify Roe v Wade, pass universal background checks for gun sales, and protect the planet.

So the question for the midterms is how to get to 50 Real Democrats.

The math isn’t complicated, friends.

We already have 36 Democratic senators or Independents who vote with Democrats — who are NOT up for reelection. Add to that 7 who are in safely Democratic seats. That gives us 43.

We also need to defend these 5 who have a good chance of winning if we do what we can to help them.

We also have fair odds of gaining 2 to 3 new real Democratic senators:

John Fetterman, in Pennsylvania, supports abolishing the filibuster entirely and has pledged to “be that 51st vote” to pass voting rights, codify Roe v Wade, legalize marijuana, raise the minimum wage, and much more. He is running against celebrity snake oil salesman Dr. Oz, who is endorsed by Trump.

Tim Ryan in Ohio, also supports abolishing the filibuster, citing the need to pass labor protections, raise the minimum wage, protect voting rights, and act on the climate. His opponent is author and venture capitalist JD Vance, who is promoting Trump’s Big Lie and is, once again, endorsed by Trump.

In Wisconsin, Mandela Barnes supports abolishing the filibuster to fight voter suppression and protect democracy. He will face Republican incumbent Ron Johnson — another proponent of Trump’s Big Lie – who, when democracy was under attack on January 6, was busy trying to hand-deliver fake electors to the Vice President.

If we win 7 of these crucial races, we get a Real Democratic Senate that won’t depend on King Joe or Queen Kyrsten.

With just a couple more Democrats in the Senate, Manchin and Sinema will be irrelevant — and Democrats can finally deliver — without being blocked by the filibuster.

Friends, this is do-able. Focus on these 9 critical Senate races, and let’s make it happen!

The Real Reason Teachers Are QuittingThere’s a war being ...

The Real Reason Teachers Are QuittingThere’s a war being waged on America’s teachers,  and we must...

How Republicans Could Steal The Next Presidential Election The...

How Republicans Could Steal The Next Presidential Election

The latest Republican plot to sabotage our elections could remove American voters from the process of selecting their president. 

You heard that right. A case headed to the Supreme Court could let Republican controlled state legislatures overrule the will of the people and pick the next president without you.

This all hinges on a radical idea called the “independent state legislature theory.” It’s at the heart of a case the Supreme Court will decide called Moore v. Harper.

The decision in this case could give state legislatures the power to disregard the popular vote and substitute their own slate of electors pledged to whomever they wish.

We’ve already had a preview of what this could mean for our democracy. The independent state legislature theory underpinned a major legal strategy in Trump’s attempted coup.

Trump: “Just look at one thing: The legislatures of the states did not approve all the things that were done for those elections. Under the constitution of the United States they have to do that.”

Trump was wrong, of course, but the current Supreme Court could make him right.  

Here’s background on the case: In February 2022, the North Carolina Supreme Court blocked the state’s Republican controlled general assembly from instituting a newly drawn congressional district map, holding that the map violated the state constitutional ban on partisan gerrymandering.

The Republican Speaker of the North Carolina House appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, advancing the independent state legislature theory — a theory that’s circulated for years in right-wing circles, which argues that the U.S. Constitution gives state legislatures alone the power to regulate federal elections in their states.

The Constitution does grant state legislatures the authority to prescribe “the Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives”

But the U.S. Constitution does not give state legislatures total power over our democracy. In fact, for the last century, the Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected the independent state legislature theory.

Yet if we know anything about the conservative majority that now controls the Supreme Court, it’s that they will rule on just about anything that suits the far-right’s agenda.

The independent state legislature theory would also make it easier for states to pull all sorts of election trickery — like pass even more voter suppression laws, enact even more radically gerrymandered maps, and eliminate the power of election commissions and secretaries of state to make decisions. It’s bad enough without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. The last thing we need is for voter suppression to be made even easier for extremist state legislatures.

If the Supreme Court adopts the independent state legislature theory, it wouldn’t just be throwing out a century of its own precedent. It would be rejecting the lessons that inspired the Framers to write the Constitution in the first place – that it’s dangerous to give state legislatures unchecked power.

But the Republican Party and the conservative majority on the Supreme Court don’t really give a damn what the Framers thought — no matter their rhetoric. They care even less about what you think.

It’s a recipe for despotism.

But we can fight back.

First, expand the Supreme Court to add balance to a branch of government that has been stolen by radicalized Republicans. This is not a far-fetched idea. The Constitution doesn’t specify how many justices there should be — and we’ve already changed the size of the Court seven times in American history.

Second, impose term limits on Supreme Court justices, and have them rotate with judges on the U.S. courts of appeals.

Third, Congress must restore federal voting rights protections and expand access to the ballot box. We need national minimum standards for voting in our democracy.

But these congressional reforms can only happen if Democrats retain control of the House in the midterm elections and add at least two more senators willing to reform or abolish the filibuster.

Your vote is important, and not just in federal elections. Make sure you also vote for state legislators who understand what’s at stake and will preserve our democracy.

Because, as this Supreme Court case shows, the future of our democracy is not guaranteed.

Is Crypto Really Going To Crash? (Yes) Crypto is going to crash...

Is Crypto Really Going To Crash? (Yes)

Crypto is going to crash and could take your savings with it.

In June 2022, Bitcoin dropped over 30 percent to its lowest values since December 2020, and Ethereum, the second-most valuable cryptocurrency, fell about 35 percent. TerraUSD, a so-called “stablecoin,” also collapsed when its underlying cryptocurrency LUNA lost 97 percent of its value in just 24 hours, apparently destroying some investors’ life savings. The implosion helped trigger a crypto meltdown that erased $300 billion in value across the market.

As cryptocurrency prices plummeted, Celsius Network — an experimental cryptocurrency lender — announced it was freezing withdrawals “due to extreme market conditions.”

These crypto crashes and freezes have fueled worries that the complex crypto banking and lending system is on the brink of ruin.

But this crash shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with the industry – or anyone who remembers the financial crashes of 1929 and 2008.

Let me explain.

In the murky world of crypto decentralized finance, known as DeFi, it’s hard to understand who provides money for loans, where the money flows, or how easy it is to trigger currency meltdowns. 

There are no standards for issues of custody, risk management, or capital reserves. There are no transparency requirements. Investors often don’t know how their money is being handled. Deposits are not insured.

It’s a Ponzi scheme. Like all Ponzi schemes, getting rich depends on how many other investors follow you into it – until somebody’s left holding the worthless crypto coin.

Why isn’t this market regulated? Follow the money.

The crypto industry is pouring huge amounts into political campaigns. It has hired scores of former government officials and regulators to lobby on its behalf — including three former chairs of the Securities and Exchange Commission, three former chairs of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, three former U.S. senators, and even former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

In the past, cryptocurrencies kept rising by attracting new investors and big Wall Street money, along with celebrity endorsements. But all Ponzi schemes topple eventually – just like the Wild West finances of the 1920s did.

Back then, Americans had been getting rich by speculating on shares of stock, as other investors followed them into these risky assets — pushing their values ever upwards. When the toppling occurred in 1929, it plunged the nation and the world into the Great Depression.

That crash resulted in the Glass-Steagall Act, signed into law by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. Glass-Steagall separated commercial banking from investment banking, putting an end to the giant Ponzi scheme that had overtaken the American economy and led to the Great Crash of 1929.

It took a full generation to forget that crash and allow the forces that caused it to repeat their havoc.

By the mid-1980s, as the stock market soared, speculators noticed they could make even more money if they gambled with other people’s money, as speculators did in the 1920s. They pushed Congress to deregulate Wall Street, arguing that the United States financial sector would otherwise lose its competitive standing internationally.

The final blow was in 1999, when the Clinton administration succumbed to intensive lobbying and ditched what remained of Glass-Steagall. With its repeal, American finance once again became a betting parlor.

Inevitably, Wall Street suffered another near-death experience when its Ponzi schemes began toppling in 2008, just as they had in 1929. While the U.S. government bailed out the biggest banks and financial institutions, millions of Americans lost their jobs, their savings, and their homes – but only a single banking executive went to jail. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, a new but watered-down version of Glass-Steagall was enacted — the Dodd-Frank Act.

Which brings us — nearly a century after Glass-Steagall — to today’s crypto crash.

If we should have learned anything from the crashes of 1929 and 2008, it’s that regulation of financial markets is essential. Otherwise they turn into Ponzi schemes — leaving small investors with nothing and endangering the entire economy.

It’s time for the Biden administration and Congress to end the crypto Ponzi scheme.

In the meantime, share this video so your friends and family don’t fall for it.

You Are Being Lied to About the IRSThe IRS is set to receive its...

You Are Being Lied to About the IRS

The IRS is set to receive its largest funding increase in years thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act.

You know who should be worried about this?

Wealthy Americans who dodge taxes.

Recent figures estimate that the richest 1 percent are hiding more than 20 percent of their earnings from the IRS, accounting for more than a third of all unpaid federal taxes. 

Some estimates show that collecting all unpaid federal income taxes from the wealthiest Americans could generate anywhere from $200 billion to $1.75 trillion over the decade.

So why hasn’t our government been able to collect all that untaxed money from the richest of the rich? Because the IRS has been underfunded and severely understaffed – thanks in large part to a decades-long campaign from Republicans to transfer wealth to the top.

Over the past 10 years, the IRS budget has been reduced by roughly 20%. Its staffing is at a level not seen since 1973 although the American population is about a third larger now.

On top of that, the tax returns of the wealthy are very difficult, time consuming, and incredibly costly to audit – and rich taxpayers often have platoons of lawyers and accountants that shield them from tax liabilities.

Without proper resources, it’s harder for the IRS to go after the wealthiest Americans who avoid paying their fair share.

As a result, just 2% of the richest Americans had their taxes audited in 2019, down from 16% in 2010.

Meanwhile, the poorest Americans – who often claim a tax break known as the earned income tax credit – are five times more likely to get audited because their tax returns are less complex, and because of pressure from congressional Republicans to root out incorrect payments of the credit.

When the IRS can’t function properly, all taxpayers aren’t off the hook evenly – and the result is a tax system stuck in a cycle where the working class bears the brunt while the rich hoard wealth that could be used to invest in America.

So, don’t believe the lies coming from the oligarchs and their propaganda machine– it’s all fear mongering. The 1% have an incentive to keep the IRS hobbled and unable to excavate their hidden wealth.

They also know the public is against them – boosting the IRS budget to strengthen tax enforcement on high-income taxpayers is a popular policy supported by more than two-thirds of registered voters.

IRS funding is a good thing. It means the agency can finally go after the real freeloaders in America: The super-rich.

The Real Motive Behind the GOP’s “Culture War”Why do Putin...

The Real Motive Behind the GOP’s “Culture War”

Why do Putin and the Republican Party sound so much alike? Simple: Their culture wars have similar agendas.

Both are trying to distract attention from the economic looting by their respective oligarchies.

Vladimir Putin has been blasting so-called "cancel culture.”

This was his third “cancel culture” rant in recent months. It’s the same imaginary crisis that Trump and the GOP have been ranting about for several years.

Tucker Carlson, one of Fox News’s most infamous personalities, accuses liberals of trying to cancel all sorts of things. 

Last fall, Putin argued that teaching children about different gender identities was, quote, “on the verge of a crime against humanity.” Putin’s fixation on LGBTQ people is also echoed on the American right.

Republican state legislators are attacking trans people and restricting discussion of gender and sexual orientation in schools. And in Texas…"state attorney general Ken Paxton likened kids getting gender-affirming medical care to child abuse.” 

While Putin’s MO has been to fuel Russian ethnic pride and nationalism, America’s right wing has been fueling white nationalism.

To conclude from all of this that authoritarians think alike misses a deeper truth. 

Putin, Trump, Carlson, and America’s right wing have been promoting the same narrative for the same reason: Manufacturing fears of “the other” to distract from where all the wealth and power have gone…all the way to the top.

Remember, Putin was put into power by a Russian oligarchy made fabulously rich by siphoning off and privatizing the wealth of the former Soviet Union.
Likewise, Trump and the radical right in America have been bankrolled by an American oligarchy — Rupert Murdoch, Charles Koch, Rebekah Mercer, Peter Thiel, and other billionaires.

Sowing racism, homophobia, and transphobia creates life-or-death dangers for many people in our society. For both Putin and the American right, it serves to divert attention from the economic plunder by the ultra-rich.

They want people to fear one another rather than unite behind higher wages, better working conditions, and a fairer economy — and against authoritarianism.

To fight back, we must fight widening inequality while defending marginalized communities from these demagogues’ attacks. The real threat is not diverse identities – it’s corporate greed and political corruption.

We have to see the culture wars waged by Putin and America’s right for the cynical strategies they are, and build a future in which prosperity is widely shared.

How Corporations are Using Inflation to Take Your MoneyInflation...

How Corporations are Using Inflation to Take Your Money

Inflation is a cover corporations are using to squeeze more money out of you. But as I’ll explain, there are five things we can do to fight back.

Corporations are using inflation as an excuse to raise their prices, hurting workers and consumers while they enjoy record profits. 

Prices are surging – but let’s be clear: corporations are not raising prices simply because of the increasing costs of supplies and labor. They could easily absorb these higher costs, but instead they are passing them on to consumers and even raising prices higher than those cost increases.

Corporations are getting away with this because they face little or no competition. 

If markets were competitive, companies would keep their prices down to prevent competitors from grabbing away customers. But in a market with only a few competitors able to coordinate prices, consumers have no real choice. 

As a result, corporations are raking in their highest profits in 70 years.Are they using these record profits to raise their workers’ real wages? No. They’re handing out meager wage increases to attract or keep workers with one hand, but effectively eliminating those wage increases by raising prices with the other.

Wages grew 5.6 percent over the past year — but prices rose 8.5 percent. That means, adjusted for inflation, workers actually got a 2.9 percent pay cut.

So what are corporations doing with their record profits? Using them to boost share prices by buying back a record amount of their own shares of stock. Goldman Sachs expects buybacks to reach $1 trillion this year – an all-time high.

This amounts to a direct upward transfer of wealth from average working people’s wallets into CEOs’ and shareholders’ pockets. 

Just look: billionaires have become at least $1.7 trillion richer during the pandemic, while CEO pay (based largely on stock values) is now at a record 350 times the typical worker’s pay.

The Federal Reserve wants to curb inflation by continuing to raise interest rates. That would be a grave mistake, because it doesn’t address corporate concentration and it will slow job and wage growth. The labor market isn’t “unhealthily tight,” as Fed Chair Jerome Powell claims. Corporations are unhealthily fat.

So what’s the real solution?

First, tougher antitrust enforcement to address the growing concentration of the economy into the hands of a few giant corporations. Since the 1980s, over two-thirds of American industries have become more concentrated, enabling corporations to coordinate price increases.

Next, a temporary windfall profits tax that takes corporation’s record profits and redistributes them as direct payments to everyday Americans struggling to cover soaring prices.

Third, a ban on corporate stock buybacks. Buybacks were illegal before Ronald Reagan’s SEC legalized them in 1982 – and they should be made illegal again.

Fourth, higher taxes on the wealthy and on corporations. Corporate tax rates are at near-record lows, even as corporate profits are at a near-record highs. And much of billionaires’ pandemic gains have escaped taxes altogether.

Lastly, stronger unions. As corporate power has grown, union membership has declined, and economic inequality has risen – the reason most workers haven’t seen a real raise in 40 years. All workers deserve the right to collectively bargain for higher wages and better benefits.

In short, the real problem is not inflation.The real problem is the increase in corporate power and the decline in worker power over the past 40 years. 

Unless we address this growing imbalance, corporations will continue siphoning off the economy’s gains into their CEOs’ and shareholders’ pockets — while everyday Americans get shafted.

How America Can Lower Gas Prices Like Other CountriesGas prices...

How America Can Lower Gas Prices Like Other Countries

Gas prices are going down, but they’re still way too high. While you pay through the nose at the gas pump, Big Oil is lining its pockets.

I’ll get to how to funnel some of these profits back to you in a moment, but first let me explain why and how gas prices got so high.

The major drivers of price increases are pent-up demand after two years of the pandemic, coupled with supply shocks and shortages.

But let’s be clear about another major cause of rising prices: American corporations enjoying their highest profits in 70 years, and using inflation as a cover to push up prices even further.

Recently, the average price of gas gushed to over $5 a gallon across the country — a near record high. It’s now down somewhat, but it’s still way higher than it should be. And this is not just because the cost of crude oil has gone up. It’s because Big Oil’s profit margins have surged above that cost.

The annual U.S. inflation rate was 8.6% in May. Meanwhile, gas prices rose a whopping 47%.

Last year, when Americans were already struggling to pay their heating bills and fill up their gas tanks, the biggest oil companies posted profits totaling $75 billion. This year, Big Oil is on the way to an even bigger bonanza.

In the first quarter of 2022, the five biggest oil companies siphoned off over 200 percent more in profits than the year before. That’s more than $35 billion in profits in just three months. They’re on track to make a record $140 billion this year.

Big Oil could easily absorb the higher costs of crude without raising prices at the pump. But they’re raising prices more than their costs are rising – because they have so much market power. So they’re passing on higher costs to consumers in the form of higher prices and pocketing record profits on top of that.

Lower-income people are bearing the brunt of these higher gas prices. Not only are they less likely to work from home, but they’re more likely to commute longer distances in order to afford housing.

Meanwhile, the profits flow to Big Oil investors and executives. In 2021, oil giants spent over $35 billion on stock buybacks in order to pump up share prices. This year, ExxonMobil alone is planning on buying back $30 billion of its own shares of stock – triple what it had originally planned on.

Make no mistake: this is a direct upward redistribution from consumers like you to Big Oil and its investors.

What can we do about all this? Hit Big Oil with a windfall profits tax.

A windfall tax is aimed at profits that come from taking advantage of a crisis, such as were imposed in World War II.

Britain’s Conservative government just enacted a 25 percent windfall profits tax on oil and gas giants. The revenue from that tax will go to lower-income households to help them weather the energy crisis.

If Britain’s Conservatives can do this, so can the United States. This should be a no-brainer.

There’s currently a bill in Congress to do just this. This windfall profits tax is estimated to recoup $45 billion per year, which would be rebated directly to consumers.

The windfall tax is exactly what we need to stop the gush of money flowing from consumers to Big Oil and its investors.

It’s good policy, good politics, and it’s the right thing to do.