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U.S. Senate Finance Committee chair Ron Wyden is planning to introduce legislation setting a 21% surtax on oil company profits considered excessive, an aide for the senator told Reuters. The bill applies a 21% additional tax on the excess profits of oil and gas companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenue, the aide said. The 21% tax would be in addition to any regular income tax due. Profits over 10% would be considered excessive under the bill, according to the aide. Unlike other proposed windfall profit taxes, the aide said, Wyden's bill would apply the tax based on...

A plan by Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) would redirect excess profits from multinational corporations allowed to remain open during the Chinese coronavirus crisis to small businesses that have been forced to close due to economic shutdowns. Gabbard released legislation on Friday, known as the Pandemic Crisis Excess Profits Tax, to ensure that corporations such as Amazon, Facebook, Walmart, and Google are not profiting off economic shutdowns that have helped clear the market of their competition. “Big tech corporations and big-box retailers are among those who have made excessive profits during the COVID-19 pandemic, while mom and pop shops are being forced...

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Oil prices surged to a record above $70 a barrel on Monday as one of the biggest storms in the United States churned through the Gulf of Mexico, forcing major oil producers and refiners to shut down operations. U.S. crude oil futures jumped nearly $5 a barrel in opening trade to touch a peak of $70.80 a barrel, surpassing last week's $68 high to the highest frontmonth price since the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) began trading contracts in It later traded up $3.94 a barrel, or 6 percent, to $70.07, more than recouping losses on Friday,...

Congress did it in World War I. And in World War II. Again in the Korean War. Why not now? The United States is at war in Iraq, in Afghanistan and globally against terrorism. President Bush confirms the ventures' seriousness by asking Congress for an extra $87 billion of military- and reconstruction-related funding plus $41.3 billion for the Department of Homeland Security. Daily counts of our casualties tell us that the costs are not only economic. The expense will rise because, the president says, U.S. resolve is firm, and we won't quit until the job is done. It is deeply...