I should pay more tax, says US billionaire Warren Buffett

Andrew Clark in New York
Wednesday October 31, 2007
The Guardian

Warren Buffett counts the money from his wallet after an employee asked how much money he had in it, during a meeting with workers of TaeguTec, in Daegu, South Korea.
Warren Buffett counts the money from his wallet after an employee asked how much money he had in it, during a meeting with workers of TaeguTec, in Daegu, South Korea. Photograph: Jo Yong-Hak/Reuters

The United States' second-richest man has delivered a blunt message to the Bush administration: he wants to pay more tax.

Warren Buffett, the famous investor known as the "Sage of Omaha", has complained that he pays a lower rate of tax than any of his staff - including his receptionist. Mr Buffett, who is worth an estimated $52bn (�25bn), said: "The taxation system has tilted towards the rich and away from the middle class in the last 10 years. It's dramatic; I don't think it's appreciated and I think it should be addressed."

Article continues
During an interview with NBC television, Mr Buffett brandished an informal survey of 15 of his 18 office staff at his Berkshire Hathaway empire. The billionaire said he was paying 17.7% payroll and income tax, compared with an average in the office of 32.9%.

I should pay more tax, says US billionaire Warren Buffett | | Guardian Unlimited Business

Recently, however, Jessica Wolpaw Reyes at Amherst has put together what appears to me to be the most persuasive evidence to date in favor of a relationship between lead and crime. Rather than looking at a national time-series, she tries to exploit differences in the rates at which lead was removed from gasoline across states. I haven’t read her paper with the care that a referee would at an academic journal; but, at least superficially, what she is doing looks pretty sensible. She finds that lead has big effects (and, for what it’s worth, she also confirms that, when controlling for lead, the link between abortion and crime is as strong or stronger as in our initial study, which did not control for lead.)

Did Banning Lead Lower Crime? - Freakonomics - Opinion - New York Times Blog

Imbituba, Brazil Pro
HANG LOOSE SANTA CATARINA PRO
October 30-November 7, 2007
Imbituba, Brazil

TIME DIFFERENCE: GMT - 2

COORDINATES: 27º25’ S, 48º30’ W

BAGGAGE CLAIM: TBD

TRANSPORTATION: TBD

ATTITUDE: The Brazilians are rabid surfing fanatics. Everyone from capoeira instructors to frothing junior champions prowl the line-ups. The punchy beachbreaks boasted by the region offer opportune playgrounds for the light-footed aerial specialists on tour.

THE WAVE: Brazil’s best beachbreaks, Joaquina and Imbituba, are generally smaller and shorter waves, but they can get powerful and hollow when it pumps.

PERKS: Brazilian-cut bathing suit bottoms and caipirinha cocktailos – need we say more?

PERILS: Again, Brazilian-cut bathing suit bottoms and caipirinhas cocktailos – need we say more?

APRES SURF: Brazilians are renowned for their nightlife, spend some time in Brazil and you’ll know why. Things don’t get well and truly underway until the early hours of the morning though, pre-party with energy drinks.

WCT HISTORY:Brazil has played host to many an ASP tour event over the past 30 years. Former contest sites include Rio de Janeiro, Barra de Tijuca and Saquarema, but the past four years have seen the tour set up shop in Florianopolis.

NOTABLE: Falling towards the end of the tour, the past few years have seen several ASP world champions crowned in Brazil. In 2004 it was Andy Irons, in 2005 is was Kelly Slater (who had his 2006 ASP World Title already stitched up by Brazil). Will the famed venue play host to another showdown in 2007?

Wow. I'm here for this.

Going to try surfing for the first time today. I pray I'm able to catch one wave.

ASP World Tour - Florainopolis

Without drawing any kind of moral equivalency, let's just say that December 1, 2007, is a date that will live in business-travel infamy. That's when one of the Big Six will complete a sneak attack that will destroy the frequent-flier programs as we have known them.

If you're a player in Delta SkyMiles, I suggest you cash out by November 30 because your miles will essentially be worthless the next day. Playing in other frequent-flier plans? Start considering your options because, if Delta succeeds, your carrier of choice is sure to do the same thing.

Delta is devaluating its SkyMiles program. Sky Saver awards are increasingly impossible to find, and now Sky Choice awards are going to become scarce too.

What good are the miles if you can't redeem them?

The end of frequent-flier programs - USATODAY.com

GROUP_CONCAT(expr)

This function returns a string result with the concatenated non-NULL values from a group. It returns NULL if there are no non-NULL values. The full syntax is as follows:

Very useful MySQL function.

MySQL AB :: MySQL 5.0 Reference Manual :: 11.11.1 GROUP BY (Aggregate) Functions

WASHINGTON — Security screeners at two of the nation's busiest airports failed to find fake bombs hidden on undercover agents posing as passengers in more than 60% of tests last year, according to a classified report obtained by USA TODAY.

Screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed about 75% of simulated explosives and bomb parts that Transportation Security Administration testers hid under their clothes or in carry-on bags at checkpoints, the TSA report shows.

We knew it was a useless circus, but did any of us imagine it was this bad?

Dismantle the TSA.

Most fake bombs missed by screeners

xkcd - photoshops

We were out early on election morning and were amazed at the incredibly large turnout, with thousands of people waiting in line an hour before polls were scheduled to open. Venezuela has a system of electronic voting (with a paper ballot backup) and voters' thumbprints are recorded electronically, transmitted by satellite, and compared almost instantaneously to prevent multiple voting. A "No" vote supported Chavez, and a "Yes" vote called for his removal from office. Starting was somewhat slow, but 99.5 percent of the voting machines were on the line by 10:30 a.m. Some of the fingerprint operators did not report for duty, but this was not permitted to interfere with voting. The great waiting crowds were in fine spirits, cheering loudly everywhere we showed up.

During the day, the opposition leaders presented to us and their supporters what turned out to be erroneous exit polling data that showed Chavez losing the vote by 20 points or more, and they also sent this information to their own people and to foreign news media. However, the news media honored the CNE ruling against broadcasting any kind of alleged voting results domestically. In the meantime, long voter lines remained intact past the 4 p.m. closing time, past an extended 8 p.m. closing time, and until midnight, when they finally closed. A few people voted as late as 3 a.m.

At about 12:30 a.m., we and OAS leaders were invited to witness the disclosure of the first electronic tabulation, which showed "No" votes at 57 percent and "Yes" votes at 43 percent among the 6.6 million votes counted at that time (of 10.5 million expected to vote). Gaviria and I decided to invite the private media owners and opposition leaders to my hotel suite to let them know about this and to tell them that this was compatible with our own quick count results. The media owners and some of the opposition said they would accept our judgment while others were angry. We urged them to check their own sample voting results and stated that we would obtain updated figures next morning before making a public declaration of our judgment. We were in Venezuela to remain neutral, to observe the electoral system, and to make a careful and sound final assessment regarding whether the will of the people is expressed. Chavez called me, and I urged him to wait on any claim of victory until after a CNE public announcement and to be generous and positive in his victory statement. He promised to do so.

Finally, after three hours, we offered to the still irate opposition leaders our services in resolving any of their remaining doubts before we had to leave (after two more days). Having insisted all during election day on a 20 point defeat for Chavez, their pollster (S�mate) admitted before leaving that their data now showed only a five point defeat and that quick count data were still being received. Early the next morning, they reported that these results were reversed, with 55 percent supporting Chavez, but opposition leaders still were claiming massive fraud and a victory for their side. Final voting results, including the centers with manual ballots, showed 59-41 in favor of Chavez, with his victory in 22 of the 24 states.

Gaviria and I had another press conference early in the afternoon on Monday to confirm the legitimacy of the CNE returns. I called Secretary of State Colin Powell to report our authentication of results, and he promised to issue a statement from Washington endorsing our findings.

Kind of amazing the Venezuela's voting system is technically better than our own.

President Jimmy Carter: Venezuela Election Trip Report, Aug 13-18, 2004

Roland Fryer and I have done some research on this topic which we think is potentially quite interesting and important — although we seem to be the only ones with this opinion at present. (The paper was rejected yesterday by the American Economic Review on the second round of review, and a search of Google Scholar reveals only two citations to the working paper version released in early 2006.)

Controvesial.

James Watson, Black Intelligence, and New Research by Fryer and Levitt - Freakonomics - Opinion - 1552x959 [1552x826]

Product Number: YSC-HA2401RTGXI-1000

Includes:

* 802.11g (b/g) Amplifier with RP-TNC Connectors
* Power Supply

Features:

* 802.11g (b/g) Compatible
* Active Power Control
* Cast Aluminum Construction
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* Transmit and Receive LEDs
* Amplifiers feature RP-TNC connectors (eliminating the requirement for professional installation)

Availability:

In the US these amplifiers are FCC certified with and offered for sale only for use with XI325 PC Card. You can find this card under radios on our site. Part number H-PC325-GX

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Thinking of getting one.

1W Wifi Amplifier