Financial Transparency Coalition

The U.S. Federal government is in some dark times. Unable to find a political compromise to raise the debt ceiling, the U.S. faces a potential economic catastrophe. Negotiations are stalling. Tempers are flaring on both sides of the aisle. The key point of contention? Tax increases. President Obama has reportedly endorsed reducing the debt by $2 trillion with 83% of the reduction coming from spending cuts and 17% coming from new revenues. Those proposed new revenues (or “tax increases” as some have called them) would have come from closing tax loopholes for things like corporate jet ownership. But House...

If Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling before August 2nd, there will be an economic Armageddon. In the overwhelming majority of cases, I’m opposed to this sort of sensationalist statement. American politics has become far too wrapped up in overstating the consequences of a particular moment, occurrence, or action. Even economists, who as a general rule are a pretty levelheaded bunch, have exhibited a strong tendency to sound sensational over the last few years. The reason for this, partly, is that the Great Recession has brought with it a series of critical economic moments that really have required swift and...

Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple is a Hindu temple that sits near the Laccadive Sea, near the extreme south of the mainland. It is housed in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of the Indian state Kerala. Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple is one of the 108 principal centers of worship of Lord Vishnu, the Supreme god in the Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Every six years, devotees descend on the temple to celebrate laksha deepam or the festival of one hundred thousand lamps. For 51 days leading up to the celebration, devotees chant prayers and recite three vedas. When the festival commences, the temple lights...

Most people know America is unequal. Many of us have heard the statistic that the richest 1% of Americans receives 24% of the nation’s income. This number looks big. It might even look huge. But if it doesn’t utterly shock you, you don’t really understand it. This graph illustrates inequality by lining up the incomes of the U.S. population along a football field with $100 bills.* The median U.S. family earns a stack of bills approximately 1.7 inches high—that’s $42,327 (this exercise assumes there are 250 bills in a 1 inch stack, which of course depends on whether or not...