Monday Links
- Today marks 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Full round-up of commentary on that historic day, here.
- The heroes who helped bring down the Wall.
- One size does not fit all: How the federal health care overhaul will disrupt progress in states that are already addressing problems at home.
- Move over Fox News: The Obama administration takes aim at climate scientists.
- Podcast: “ObamaCare: A Bad Deal for Young Adults“
Wednesday Links
- How Washington’s plans may result in even higher executive pay.
“In 1993, Congress intervened in corporate compensation and messed things up. Now it’s the White House’s turn.”
- The case for allowing insider trading: “Want to keep companies honest, make the markets work more efficiently and encourage investors to diversify? Let insiders buy and sell.”
- Cato v. Heritage on the Patriot Act, Round III: “In hindsight, did Congress and the president react too hastily in 2001 by passing the Patriot Act just weeks after the 9/11 attacks?”
- Instead of fixing the Patriot Act, President Obama is protecting it.
- Twenty years later: Why the Berlin Wall fell.
- Podcast: “Financial Privacy and Freedom” featuring Prince Michael of Liechtenstein.
Tax Bureaucrats Take the Fun out of Everything
The Daily Mail reports that a Romanian student who sold her virginity to the highest bidder as part of an online auction may wind up keeping less than half of her earnings thanks to Germany’s oppressive tax system:
Tax authorities in Germany are poised to claim 50 per cent of the money that a teenage student earned for ‘auctioning’ her virginity… Romanian-born Alina Percea, who is a student in Germany, was paid £8,800 in cash for a weekend of sex with the Italian businessman after she auctioned her virginity online. But tax officials in Berlin regard the 18-year-old’s act as ‘nothing more than prostitution’. Prostitution is legal in Germany — but it is heavily taxed. …It also emerged that, because Alina earned so much in such a short time, she may even be liable for a hefty VAT bill too. VAT in Germany works out to 19 per cent, meaning the sale of her virginity could land her with just over £3,000 in the end.
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