90.9 WBUR - Boston's NPR news station
Top Stories:
PLEDGE NOW
The 'Fortunate 400'
photo

Here’s a little something to chew on while you get your income tax files together this season. Median income in the USA is $48,000. Average annual income of the top four hundred taxpayers? Two hundred and fourteen million dollars. Yep. Two hundred and fourteen million.

Their share of the nation’s income has doubled since 1995. And the tax bill of our happy gazillionaires? Well, it’s fallen by almost half in that same period, from 30 to 18 percent.

Compare that against yours, and the national deficit.

This hour, On Point: billionaires around the world, and who makes what — and pays what — at home.

Guests:

Robert Frank, wealth reporter for the Wall Street Journal and author of “Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich.”

Michael J. Graetz, professor of law at Yale Law School, former Treasury Department official and author of “100 Million Unnecessary Returns: A Simple, Fair, and Competitive Tax Plan for the United States.”

Matthew Miller, associate editor of Forbes magazine and editor of the Forbes World’s Billionaires list and the Forbes 400 Richest Americans list.

 
ONPOINT
TODAY
May 17, 2013
Attorney General Eric Holder gestures as he testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, May 15, 2013, before the House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on the Justice Department. (AP)

IRS and AP scandals. White House damage control. More military sex abuse. Angelina Jolie. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

May 17, 2013
0823_churchill_crop-500x302[1]

Great quotations. What makes them? And how they shape our language and our view of the world

RECENT
SHOWS
May 16, 2013
U.S. pianist , composer and music producer Burt Bacharach performs during a concert at the Arena Civica in Milan, Italy, Wedneday, July 6, 2011. (AP)

The wizard of pop. From “Raindrops” to “Walk On By.” Burt Bacharach joins us with his new memoir of a life in music.

 
May 16, 2013
Graduates from various institutions take part in the Toss Your Caps: Philly Graduates College photo opportunity on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art Friday, May 20, 2011, in Philadelphia. (AP)

Nobel-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz on how student debt is crushing the American dream, and what to do about it.

On Point Blog
On Point Blog
Switching Shows For Our Second Hour Today
Friday, May 17, 2013

Adventures in live radio. Richard Snow, our guest for our show on Henry Ford, was held up — possibly by a faulty Model T? — so we’re running a terrific archive show on great quotations.

More »
3 Comments
 
Floyd Abrams On Obama Vs. Nixon
Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Floyd Abrams — one of the country’s leading authorities on the First Amendment — joined us today to talk about revelations that the Justice Department seized two months of phone records from the Associated Press.

More »
Comment
 
Dr. Judy Garber On Angelina Jolie’s Cancer Decision
Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Dr. Judy Garber — director of the Center for Cancer Genetics and Prevention at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute — joined us for the final segment of our show today to talk about star Angelina Jolie’s decision to undergo a preventative double mastectomy.

More »
Comment