What's the point of a revolution without general copulation?

White people were whipped too.

There has been little fundamental change in the compensation structures at the largest institutions. The integrity of our financial system remains at risk, with many former TARP recipients now designated as systemically important financial institutions (“SIFIs”) that continue with compensation structures that may encourage risk taking. The implicit guarantee that came from the Government’s unprecedented intervention resulted in moral hazard, and companies continue to engage in risky behavior. SIFIs have a responsibility to discipline risk taking that could potentially trigger systemic consequences, including as it relates to compensation. Because companies generally have shown little or no appetite for reforming executive compensation practices, the economy remains at risk that compensation could play a material role in the event of a future crisis.

Romney has said he was unemployed. He's right. He actually does nothing to earn most of his income. He's just in possession of a giant pile of cash. He pays some people to do stuff with that giant pile of cash so it earns a rate of return. And because we are ruled by horrible people who think the lives of the 1% are more important than everyone else, the tax rate on any money that pile of cash earns is much lower than it is on the money earned by people who actually work.

As irritating as it was to learn Tuesday that megamillionaire Mitt Romney's effective tax rate in 2010 was less than 14 percent, he's a tax-avoidance amateur compared to the General Electric Corporation. In an amazing bit of investigative reporting last March, the New York Times revealed that G.E. claimed to owe no U.S. taxes in 2010, despite worldwide profits of $14.2 billion. (GE disputes this account, and says it paid a 29 percent rate in 2011). Even among corporations adept at avoiding the top corporate tax rate of 35 percent, the Times reported, GE stands out for "an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore."

That innovative accounting was a little too cute for a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In a 25-page opinion Tuesday, the appeals court said GE Capital couldn't get out of paying taxes via a subsidiary's purported partnership with two Dutch banks. The Second Circuit held that GE not only owes the shortfall the Internal Revenue Service claims on a GE Capital subsidiary's untaxed income from 1993 to 1998, but also must pay a penalty for "substantial understatement" of taxable income."

GE Capital's tax machinations were breathtakingly complex. According to the Second Circuit opinion, ... the company found itself in the early 1990s with a fleet of airplanes on which it had exhausted tax depreciations. Two GE Capital subsidiaries eventually formed another subsidiary called Castle Harbour and transferred $590 million in assets to it, including the aircraft. Two Dutch banks kicked in $117.5 million to join Castle Harbour, which was called a partnership. According to the Second Circuit, "a maze of contractual provisions in the partnership agreement dictated how the revenues, losses, and assets of Castle Harbour would be allocated among its ostensible partners."

It has taken the government 10 years of hard-fought litigation to unravel GE's contraption and get a final Second Circuit ruling. [Ed. note - this was the second appeal in this case.]

It's been almost two decades since the tax wizards of GE came up with the Castle Harbour vehicle, which dates back to 1993. They've surely come up with all kinds of clever alternatives in the meantime.

When it comes to taxes, we wage-slaves just don't stand a chance.