Just a heads up

There's a new book out called Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign To Rig Our Tax System To Benefit the Super Rich - And Cheat Everybody Else. I haven't read it, so I can't make any personal recommendation, but check out the opening paragraph of each of two reviews in Business Week. Here's one.

Once upon a time, Washington collected the taxes it needed to pay for the services it provided. Not anymore. Today, the feds gather $400 billion a year less than they spend. And pols have turned revenue bills into endless opportunities for the well-connected to dodge their obligation to support government programs.

And here's the other.

If you have any doubt that the U.S. is being run by louts and hypocrites, I suggest you page through the new book Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everyone Else. In it, David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times, makes a powerful case that since 1980, Congress and successive Presidents - politicians of every stripe - have deliberately undermined the fairness of the tax system. It is biased to favor big companies and a few superrich individuals, Johnston claims.

Sounds like it's worth reading. And getting into your library if you can.