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5 days agoOpinion: How to convince voters to raise taxes? Cry wolf
Bay Area leaders are using fear tactics to push for a half-cent sales tax increase for mass transit, framing it as a citizen initiative.
Low- and middle-income families and small businesses accounted for well over half of the U.S. population, yet they paid a disproportionate share of their incomes to the government due to IEEPA tariffs.
The tax provides more than $23 billion per year in revenue for federal highway and public transit programs. The federal gas tax has been in place, in one way or another, since 1919 and was last raised in 1993.
When routes are well organized, there are clear directional signs, and speed limits become reasonable. The early installation of warning signs allows transport companies to plan deliveries more accurately and avoid delays. For businesses, time is money. When a truck carrying goods does not spend hours detouring due to an unclear traffic scheme or stuck in traffic where it could have been avoided thanks to competent traffic management, fuel costs, driver wages, and vehicle maintenance costs are reduced.
This is not an argument against continuing to line things up just so, of course. It just means that the very orderly person will over time become a very familiar face to the people at The Container Store, to the point where they might remark to each other during their breaks about having seen him, again, purchasing more of those stackable, breakable containers that he's always getting.
A business model heavily focused on growth at the expense of nature is not only unsustainable, but threatens extinction if not reversed. That's according to a landmark "Business and Biodiversity Assessment Report" published by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), a global independent research body comprising more than 150 member states' governments. Setting out to reframe the often-destructive relationship between nature and commerce, the first-time assessment shows how business both impacts and depends on biodiversity,
Food policy across much of the world is changing. But not in Britain. That may be a costly mistake as the prices of essentials rise because of the climate emergency, geopolitical tensions and the fragility of just-in-time supply chains. Many capitals are now reviving their strategic food reserves. European nations such as Sweden, Finland, Norway and Germany are rebuilding stocks dismantled after the cold war.
Understanding the difference in purpose Unlike private businesses, which exist to make a profit, public institutions are designed to create impact - especially social and economic outcomes that benefit everyone, not just paying customers. A public agency doesn't measure its success in revenue or margins, but in how much it improves lives, builds equity and maintains public trust. This doesn't mean budgets and spending don't matter - they absolutely do - but money is not the goal. It's the tool.
The International Monetary Fund has warned mounting geopolitical tensions and an escalation of Donald Trump's tariff war could hit global economic growth and trigger a backlash in financial markets. In an update as Trump threatens to impose tariffs on Nato allies opposed to his ambitions in Greenland, the Washington-based fund said a renewed eruption in trade tensions was among the biggest risks to global growth in 2026.
US businesses and consumers paid nearly 90 percent of the cost of Donald Trump's tariffs last year, according to new Federal Reserve research that undercuts the president's claim that foreign companies would bear the burden. The study by the New York Fed found that the majority of tariff costs were passed through to Americans in the first 11 months of 2025, although exporters shouldered an increasing amount as the year progressed.
The government is probably not going to voluntarily pay back the money it unlawfully took. Rather, the government is going to make everyone request a refund through different procedures by filing formal protests. They're going to delay things procedurally as long as they can. Hiring lawyers and going through these procedures costs money and time, Greg Shaffer, a law professor at Georgetown University, told Al Jazeera.
Last summer, the Dalai Lama was having a party in Dharamshala for his 90th birthday, and Bethany Morrison, a newly appointed State Department official, was eager to meet with him there. Inconveniently, the United States had recently canceled about $12 million worth of annual foreign aid benefiting Tibetan-exile communities as part of the implosion of USAID. This, Morrison and other State officials thought, would not make a particularly good impression on His Holiness, according to a former State and a former USAID official.