links for 2009-10-25

• BBC NEWS | Europe | Rich Germans demand higher taxes
  "A group of rich Germans has launched a petition calling for the government to make wealthy people pay higher taxes.

  The group say they have more money than they need, and the extra revenue could fund economic and social programmes to aid Germany's economic recovery.

  Germany could raise 100bn euros (£91bn) if the richest people paid a 5% wealth tax for two years, they say.
  [..]
  The man behind the petition, Dieter Lehmkuhl, told Berlin's Tagesspiegel that there were 2.2 million people in Germany with a fortune of more than 500,000 euros.

  If they all paid the tax for two years, Germany could raise 100bn euros to fund ecological programmes, education and social projects, said the retired doctor and heir to a brewery. "

  (tags: germany economics politics culture economic-crisis environment development economy)