This morning Drudge contained a link to a story on the NY Post, which reported that Ways and Means Chairman Rangel was not about to go along with Speaker Pelosi on the matter of raising taxes on those earning more than $500K. Thus, we may have sufficient independence from this committee chairman to resist attempts by the speaker to achieve her goals.
That could be a sign that the Democrats are waking up to the possibility that being the high tax party is not the path to victory. Another sign of growing sensitivity: Sen. Baucus ensuring that tax credits accompany any minimum wage increase, as a means of addressing the needs of small businesses. (See my previous post on this topic in the archives: http://economictrends.blogspot.com/2006/11/post-election-issue-will-minimum-wage.html) (Note: this link contains some of my personal observations, which some readers might characterize as resembling a schoolgirl diary. So don't say I didn't warn you.)
In another interesting story on Drudge today, a Swedish file sharing site has a plan to purchase a naval platform off the coast of the UK for the purpose of avoiding international copyright enforcement. It appears that this platform, previously claimed to be an independent state known as "Sealand" is up for auction by the current owners. The file sharing site, which has the audacity to call itself "The Pirate Bay", offers to give citizenship to anyone who contributes money to help it buy Sealand. The possibilities for nefarious deeds are endless - but this shows that legal enforcement of IP rights may face new challenges. Query whether domestic laws will shift to more clearly address legal responsibility for connecting to sites like Pirate Bay. That full story can be found here: http://www.thelocal.se/6076/20070112/ (Note: I am not advocating or facilitating contributions for the purpose of buying Sealand!)
EAM
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