German journalist Philip Plickert writes about his country’s energy mistakes:
Simultaneously abandoning nuclear power and phasing out coal has left Germany more dependent on Russian natural gas than ever before. More than half of its natural-gas imports come from Gazprom and other Russian companies. This was the natural, if regrettable, outcome of the energy policies championed by Chancellor Angela Merkel and her predecessor Gerhard Schröder.
Germany finds itself now in a situation where it can be taken hostage by Putin. In response to Western sanctions, Moscow has demanded this week that EU countries pay for their energy imports from Russia in rubles — otherwise they would stop by Friday. The EU will not bow to that demand. Brussels claims to have emergency plans if Russian supplies of natural gas stop, but a sudden stop would hurt immensely. German industries claim that several hundred thousand jobs are at stake.
Suddenly, Germans are awakening to the brutal consequences of energy dependency. . . .
Jack Salmon argues that taxing unrealized capital gains simply makes no sense:
Earlier this week, the president proposed a minimum 20 percent tax rate that would hit both the income and unrealized capital gains of U.S. households worth more than $100 million as part of his budget proposal to be released on Monday. But don’t let those seemingly simple parameters fool you — this tax would hurt everybody.
If the president’s “Billionaire Minimum Income Tax” were to be implemented, employment opportunities and wages for the average American would decline. What’s more, the plan to tax unrealized gains may face potential legal obstacles — most notably, the U.S. Constitution.