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Monday, May 17

The New Normal

The New Tax Collectors
Audits? We don't do no stinkin audits!

Crime syndicates and terrorists in Mexico, India, Pakistan, Brazil, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and other parts of the world are doing a better job of collecting taxes than the governments. Of course the penalties for back taxes are a little stiffer but at least they don't involve paperwork.

Nils Gilman explains it all quite wonderfully in his latest talk on black ('deviant') globalization. See his 2008 post for a primer on the topic. And no, I'm not joking about criminal gangs and terrorists collecting taxes. Anywhere the state is weak nowadays, the bad guys set up a sort of parallel government, which of course requires a steady revenue stream.

The New Criminals

Zenpundit explains the brave new world of data aggregation. The new Big Brother: sort of George Orwell and Edgar Allen Poe's imaginations rolled into one.

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