Tag Archives: USA

News

Japan to cut corporate tax rate to spur job growth

12/14/2010 Wintery Knight Leave a comment

Excerpt:

Japan’s government announced it would cut the country’s hefty corporate tax rate by 5 percentage points, in a bid to stimulate the economy and help Japanese businesses stay competitive.

The step announced late Monday is aimed at promoting investment, employment and salary increases at home so that Japan can exit deflation, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said.

“I decided to take a bold step,” he told reporters.

Kan acknowledged more Japanese companies were moving abroad where corporate taxes are lower, causing job losses in Japan, Kyodo News agency reported. “That is not a plus for the Japanese economy,” he said, according to Kyodo.

The Japanese corporate tax rate was the highest in the world, at 40%. According to the Wall Street Journal, the US corporate tax rate is just under 40%, so now we will be the highest corporate tax rate in the world. Our neighbor to the north should reap the rewards as they have been lowering their corporate tax rate for years, and it’s going even lower in the future.

Commentary

Dinesh D’Souza gives an immigrant’s view of what’s great about America

07/04/2010 Wintery Knight 1 Comment

Here is the essay, which provides an immigrant’s perspective on America (Dinesh is the son of East Indian immigrants).

Excerpt:

Is America worthy of a reflective patriotism that doesn’t mindlessly assert, “My country, right or wrong,” but rather examines the criticisms of America and finds them wanting? As an immigrant who has chosen to become an American citizen, I believe that it is. Having studied the criticisms of America with care, my conclusion is that the critics have a narrow and distorted understanding of America. They exaggerate American faults, and they ignore what is good and even great about America.

The immigrant is in a good position to evaluate American society because he is able to apply a comparative perspective. Having grown up in a different society-in my case, Mumbai, India-I am able to identify aspects of America that are invisible to people who have always lived here. As a “person of color,” I am competent to address such questions as what it is like to be a nonwhite person in America, what this country owes its minority citizens, and whether immigrants can expect to be granted full membership in this society. While I take seriously the issues raised by the critics of America, I have also developed an understanding of what makes America great, and I have seen the greatness of America reflected in my life. Unlike many of America’s homegrown dissidents, I am also acutely conscious of the daily blessings that I enjoy in America.

Here, then, is my list of what makes America great.

He focuses on the following areas: