It is essential not just to fund the public goods the nation needs, it is indispensable to restore a sense of fairness

Money doesn’t buy happiness, we’re told. Even some economists agree. The Nobel prize-winning economists Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton once proposed that rising income increased people’s emotional wellbeing only up to a ceiling of about $115,000 in today’s money.

They probably hadn’t met many billionaires. The ultra-rich may not pursue happiness in the joyful sense of the word. But they will try every trick in the book to hang on to their stash and woe betide the tax authority that tries to lay a finger on their treasure.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Jae C Hong/AP

© Photograph: Jae C Hong/AP

© Photograph: Jae C Hong/AP

Looters ravaged a storied commercial avenue in France’s second-largest city. Its merchants fear that more unrest could follow.

© Thibaud Moritz/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

An electoral supercycle over the next year may redefine the continent’s future. But what’s happening on the streets is shaping it, too

France sneezed, and Europe has again caught the cold. The wave of unrest which began with teenagers at a high school soon drew in hundreds of thousands of people nationwide and then spread across the continent. Protests have filled the streets in Lisbon and Madrid, and have ignited into violence in Milan, Brussels and Tirana as well as in French cities.

French authorities say they are deploying 70,000 officers on Saturday and are allowing only marches organised by unions. They blame hard-left militants as well as opportunistic young perpetrators for last weekend’s destruction and looting, when a minority hijacked largely peaceful protests. But with fuel prices set to rise further over the winter, the demands and participants broadening, and President Macron utterly failing to meet the moment, there is no sign of an end to the wider discontent and no speedy resolution in sight.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Mohammed Badra/EPA

© Photograph: Mohammed Badra/EPA

© Photograph: Mohammed Badra/EPA

In a year when the wealth of the rich soared while workers lost ground to inflation, class has become political, especially in the Nebraska Senate race.

© David Robert Elliott for The New York Times

With the A.I. boom driving up prices, the city is subsidizing child care for households with high incomes. Even with the help, families say they are struggling.

© Christie Hemm Klok for The New York Times

Will California stand with the working class or the oligarchs in the vote this November?

The Democratic party has a choice to make. Are we going to be New Deal Democrats or corporate Democrats? Are we standing with the working class or the tech oligarchs?

Proposition 40, California’s billionaire tax, is the most important ballot initiative in America and a fight for the soul of our party.

Rohit Khanna is aUS congressman and attorney serving as the US representative from California’s 17th congressional district

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

Tom Cruise’s latest film could lose $250m (£190m) – could one reason be that audiences are tired of Hollywood telling them what they already know about the super-rich?

It seems as if nobody can decide who should shoulder most of the blame for the recent box office flop of Digger.

Was it the ousted Warner Bros film executives Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, whose love of big-budget auteur cinema usually came with a hefty price tag? Or was it the marketing team, who were responsible for hiding the movie’s biggest swing from all trailers, ensuring many viewers would be left alienated from its early meta-reveal onwards?

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Keizo Mori/UPI/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Keizo Mori/UPI/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Keizo Mori/UPI/Shutterstock

For decades, dozens of people lived rent-free on a bay just north of San Francisco. A few holdouts remained as a deadline loomed to leave the water.

© Ian C. Bates for The New York Times