A Tycoon Linked to Haitian Gangs Has Died

Tycoon Linked to Haitian Gangs Has Died
Reportedly the wealthiest man in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Gilbert Bigio was sanctioned for ties to criminal gangs. He was 91.

A photo of Gilbert Bigio, holding a Torah scroll.
Gilbert Bigio in 2003 holding a Torah scroll. A scion of immigrant Sephardic Jews from Syria, he was Israel’s honorary consul in Haiti for 25 years.Credit...Larry Luxner

By Adam Nossiter
Oct. 19, 2026

Gilbert Bigio, a Haitian industrialist widely described as the country’s first billionaire, and who was sanctioned by Canada for ties to criminal gangs in his homeland, died on Sept. 29 in Florida. He was 91.

His death was reported in the Haitian press.

With interests in steel, energy, logistics, consumer goods, construction and banking, Mr. Bigio’s holding company, long known as the GB Group and eventually renamed BGO, touched the impoverished island nation’s economy in every corner.

Mr. Bigio’s family remain major players in what the International Monetary Fund and others have described as Haiti’s tiny economic elite. BGO supplies cooking oils and soap to Haitian households, steel from Haiti’s only steel mill to its builders and deepwater port facilities to its shippers. BGO became a regional economic force as well, owning gas stations in Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.

The elite plays an outsize role in Haiti’s chaotic politics, and Mr. Bigio appears not to have been an exception, though he stayed largely out of public view and rarely granted interviews. In December 2022, Canada sanctioned him, along with two other Haitian businessmen.

“Canada has reason to believe these individuals are using their status as high-profile members of the economic elite in Haiti to protect and enable the illegal activities of armed criminal gangs, including through money laundering and other acts of corruption,” a foreign ministry statement said.

“The sanctions Canada has imposed are intended to put pressure on those responsible for the ongoing violence and instability in Haiti,” the statement continued. “These people must stop providing funds and weapons to criminal gangs in Haiti.”

According to Reuters, the GB Group did not immediately reply to the sanctions; one Haiti expert, Jake Johnston, of the Center for Economic Policy and Research in Washington, said in an interview that Canada’s decision was a largely “symbolic” move with little practical impact. Members of Mr. Bigio’s family did not respond in recent days to queries for this obituary.

Mr. Johnston said Mr. Bigio’s immense wealth — he bought an ultraluxury $132,000 Mercedes Maybach from the estate of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, The Miami Herald reported — was important to contrast with the brutal poverty of his native land.

Musk pledges to give a share of his SpaceX company to 'every kid in America'

Musk pledges to give a share of his SpaceX company to 'every kid in America'

Billionaire Elon Musk on Monday pledged to give one share of his company SpaceX to “every kid in America” next year

October 19, 2026 at 8:58 a.m. EDT

Yesterday at 8:58 a.m. EDT



FILE - Elon Musk listens as President Donald Trump speaks during an event at the U.S. Institute of Peace, Oct. 8, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

By Michelle Chapman | AP


Elon Musk on Monday pledged to give one share of his company SpaceX to “every kid in America” next year.

The offer arrived a day after artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced in a social media post that it will commit 5% of its shares to a new “public benefit” fund.

In a response to that Sunday post, Musk wrote, “I recommend giving the shares directly to the public.”

Shares of SpaceX, which will report its quarterly earnings on Tuesday, closed at $146.03 on Friday.

With approximately 73 million children under the age of 18 in the United States, that would put the value of Musk’s pledge at about $10.66 billion.

Anthropic said Sunday that the shares it is committing will go to the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, a new entity within the company. The fund’s worth will potentially increase as the shares grow in value.

Musk did not provide further details on how his share pledge will be carried out, but did add in his post that “This will be the first of many.”

Bill Maher DESTROYS Robert De Niro and George Clooney for Bashing America From $10M Mansions

 

Peter Thiel's Antichrist Obsession Explained

 

Billionaires and financial leaders meet at G20 in North Carolina

 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzer...

Trump's FBI DESTROYS Zelensky's Top Aide While WAR PARTY STEALS BILLIONS

At Labor Day rallies, speakers decry Trump

Members of United Teachers Los Angeles cheer during a Labor Day rally in Wilmington on Monday.
(William Liang / For The Times)

By Julia Wick and Howard Blume

Sept. 1, 2025 2:23 PM PT

• Thousands of union members participated in marches, rallies and picnics on Labor Day throughout the Los Angeles region and across the country.
• They criticized Trump administration moves that have weakened labor unions.
• A White House proclamation Monday said President Trump’s actions are ‘reversing decades of neglect and finally putting American Workers first.’

Thousands of union members and others participated in marches, rallies and picnics on Labor Day throughout the Los Angeles region and across the country on Monday, decrying actions by the Trump administration that they say weaken unions and harm workers while strengthening and emboldening major corporations and the wealthy.

A White House proclamation Monday said President Trump’s actions are “reversing decades of neglect and finally putting American Workers first” by rewriting tax laws and creating a better economic climate for businesses.

His critics say he is undermining, in historic ways, the government and labor-union infrastructure established to protect workers — and therefore hurting individual workers.

Participants at a massive Wilmington rally and parade — organized by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor — united over a common foe: Trump.

“Donald Trump has gone too far,” said state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles), as she and others linked typical Labor Day rhetoric directly to immigration raids. “On this Labor Day, we have an American president who takes parents from their children and workers from their jobs.”

The raids are no longer about border security, Durazo said, but “about breaking the backbone of our economy and terrorizing families.”

”Fighting for workers’ rights means fighting for immigrant rights,” said Angelica Salas, the executive director of the immigrant advocacy group CHIRLA.

Vivek Ramaswamy is worth $950 million. Here’s how he became rich

By
Ariel Zilber

August 24, 2023 12:39pm

 
Updated

Roseanne Barr teams

Vivek Ramaswamy, the 38-year-old Republican presidential candidate who emerged from nowhere to challenge Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for second place in the GOP primary race, is one of the wealthiest Americans under the age of 40.

Ramaswamy, the son of Indian immigrants who studied biology at Harvard before obtaining a law degree from Yale, was briefly a billionaire before a downturn in the stock market shrunk his wealth to just over $950 million, according to Forbes.

MORE ON:VIVEK RAMASWAMY

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He derives most of his fortune from the 10% ownership stake in Roivant Sciences, the biotechnology firm that he founded in 2014.

Ramaswamy, who was raised in the Hindu faith by his parents but went to a Catholic high school, was a hedge fund analyst at QVT before he started Roivant at the age of 29.

He conceived of Roivant as a company that would create subsidiaries that would develop drugs that were overlooked and abandoned by larger pharmaceutical makers.

One of his first major business moves was to acquire the rights to an Alzheimer’s medication that was developed by GlaxoSmithKline and make the drug the centerpiece of a Roivant subsidiary, Axovant.

GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy has amassed a fortune worth $950 million at the age of 38.AP

The drug, intepirdine, showed promising results in early clinical trials, enabling Roivant to take Axovant public in a 2015 IPO that raised $360 million.

In 2017, Roivant raised $1.1 billion in equity from several venture capital firms, including SoftBank.

Ramaswamy took Roivant public in 2021 through a merger with a blank-check firm that valued the company at $7.3 billion.

Ramaswamy earned a biology degree from Harvard before going on to Yale Law School.Getty Images

Since founding Roivant, Ramaswamy has taken in more than $260 million in salary, bonuses, and capital gains.

Ramaswamy’s 10% stake in the company, which had a market capitalization of $8.87 billion as of Thursday morning, translates into $887 million on paper.

So far this year, Roivant’s stock price is up by more than 82%.

Ramaswamy derives most of his wealth from the 10% ownership stake in biotech firm Roivant.AP

Ramaswamy has also diversified his investments to include cryptocurrency as well as stakes in YouTube upstart rival Rumble and digital payments firm MoonPay, according to Forbes.

He also founded an “anti-woke” index fund, Strive Asset Manager, which was recently valued at $300 million.

He conceived of Roivant as a company that would create subsidiaries that would develop drugs that were overlooked and abandoned by larger pharmaceutical makers.roivant.com

Ramaswamy’s stake in Strive is said to be worth $100 million.

In recent years Ramaswamy has become a fierce conservative.

In his 2021 bestseller “Woke, Inc.,” Ramaswamy decries decisions by some big companies to base business strategy around social justice and climate change concerns and lambastes “wokeism” as an insidious influence on hard work, capitalism, religious faith, and patriotism.

The book raised Ramaswamy’s profile among conservatives, and he began his rapid ascension as a right-wing star.

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Something Strange Is Happening to Crypto Billionaires

Biden Appoints Dem Operative John Podesta To Hand Out $370 Billion In Climate Funds

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

TREVOR SCHAKOHL

LEGAL REPORTER

September 02, 20224:21 PM ET


President Joe Biden has appointed former Clinton advisor and Democratic operative John Podesta to manage nearly $370 billion in green energy funding authorized by the recently passed climate bill, the White House announced Friday.

Podesta, who has close ties with climate activist groups, will supervise the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) climate and clean energy initiatives as chair of the President’s National Climate Task Force, the White House said. The new law contributes $60 billion toward maintaining clean energy manufacturing and $1 billion toward increasing energy efficiency in affordable housing and $27 billion in funding to back emission reduction technologies.

The IRA hands the Environmental Protection Agency $40 billion in funding and establishes electric vehicle and appliance efficiency tax credits. It also supports “climate-smart” agriculture practices in rural communities to the tune of over $20 billion and funds more than $60 billion in “environmental justice” efforts.

Breaking my Twitter Boycott to celebrate Senate passage of IRA and its massive investments in clean energy and climate. TY activists;TY Dems; yes even TY @Sen_JoeManchin. Lots more to do. Onward. #ActOnClimate

— John Podesta (@johnpodesta) August 7, 2022


Podesta has close ties with the Democratic establishment and climate activist groups; he was former President Bill Clinton’s White House Chief of Staff and former President Barack Obama’s counselor before chairing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. He is the left-leaning think tank the Center for American Progress‘ founder and chair.

“His deep roots in climate and clean energy policy and his experience at senior levels of government mean we can truly hit the ground running to take advantage of the massive clean energy opportunity in front of us,” Biden said. A current ClimateWorks Foundation board chair and Climate Jobs National Resource Center board member, Podesta coordinated the Obama administration’s climate policy.

Biden also announced Friday that Ali Zaidi would succeed outgoing National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy. Zaidi was previously an Obama administration climate and energy leader and New York’s Climate Policy and Finance Chairman and Energy and Environment Deputy Secretary.

The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

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The Obamas are ‘Becoming’ a billion-dollar brand

By Isabel Vincent

November 17, 2018 | 4:07pm

Michelle and Barack Obama

Getty Images

The Obamas are “Becoming” — billionaires.


SEE ALSO

The Barack Obama Foundation has seen its contributions soar

The launch of Michelle Obama’s cross-country book tour for her new memoir, “Becoming,” last week is just the latest marker on the road to fabulous wealth for the former first couple, who are on their way to becoming a billion-dollar brand.

In addition to a $65 million book advance and an estimated $50 million deal with Netflix, both of which she shares with husband Barack Obama, the former first lady is poised to rake in millions from appearances on her 10-city US tour and sales of merchandise connected to her autobiography.

And like her husband, Michelle Obama is currently in demand as a speaker for corporations and non-profits, commanding $225,000 per appearance, The Post has learned.

Forbes estimated the couple made $20.5 million in salaries and book royalties between 2005 — when Obama became a federal senator and they first arrived in Washington — and 2016. They are now worth more than $135 million.

And that figure does not include the cash they are raking in for public speaking.

In October 2017, Michelle Obama was a keynote speaker at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women, a non-profit that promotes education and networking.

Obama did an on-stage interview with Hollywood producer and writer Shonda Rhimes in Philadelphia for an audience of 12,000.

Carlos Slim's telecom, 9 more stocks to watch

7/25/2014 3:30 AM ET


America Movil, the Mexican billionaire's massive phone empire, appears on StockScouter's latest list of 10 recommended stocks.




Compiled from StockScouter ratings by Verus Analytics

Throughout 2013 and the first half of this year, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim watched his company’s stock – and with it, much of his personal fortune – languish in a state of uncertainty. Slim’s America Movil (AMX +0.55%, news) -- the largest telecom in the Americas, with 272 mobile subscribers – was a target of new antitrust regulations brewing in Mexico, where the company controls 70 percent of the mobile market and 80 percent of landlines. Investors feared harsh new restrictions would crush the company’s profitability.

Earlier this month, the saga came to a head as Mexico passed new telecom antitrust legislation punishing companies with over 50 percent market share. But rather than endure the penalties, Slim made an unexpected move: He announced plans to break up his company’s Mexican operations, spinning off several parts of the business and its wireless towers, to comply with the new rules.

Even more surprising, shares have leapt 14 percent since his decision to shrink the company. Some investors expect Slim to use the cash generated in such a sale – potentially around $4 billion -- to fund expansion into faster-growing markets such as Brazil, or to reward shareholders through dividends and share buybacks.

The recent rally in America Movil shares has helped Slim reclaim the title of world’s richest person, according to Forbes. 

Also on MSN Money: Billionaire Carlos Slim pushes for 3-day workweek

America Movil gets a '9' from the StockScouter rating system on MSN Money, where 10 is the highest score possible. Based on StockScouter’s analysis, shares of AMX are expected to significantly outperform the market over the next six months with less than average risk.

Read the full Scouter reports on America Movil here.

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The First Family of Fundraising

HowHillaryandBillClintonRaised$1.4Billion

Together, the Clintons have become two of the most impressive fundraisers in American history. Use the interactive graphic to see the many ways their supporters' money has been collected over the years.

 

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The First Family of Fundraising

Alexander Ho @alexandermanho
Pratheek Rebala @pratheekrebala
Michael Scherer @michaelscherer 

5:45 AM ET


There are great American political fundraisers. And then there are Hillary and Bill Clinton, the first couple of American political fundraising. Few in American history have collected and benefited from so much money in so many ways over such a long period of time. Since they arrived on the national political scene 32 years ago, the Clintons have attracted at least $1.4 billion in contributions, according to a review of public records by TIME and the Center for Responsive Politics.

That sum helps illustrate Hillary Clinton’s enormous advantage should she decide to run for President in 2016. Much of the money, raised through two Senate and three Presidential campaigns, was gathered together in small checks by an extensive network of donors and fundraisers. Other donations came in the form of six-figure “soft money” donations from wealthy individuals during Bill Clinton’s presidency. A third category includes money the couple has raised for the Clinton Foundation, the family’s global non-profit, through speaking engagements for Bill Clinton, and through outside political spending that benefitted the Clinton efforts.

The records also show a select group of top donors who have given in multiple ways to the Clintons over the years. Many of these same donors, including people like S. Daniel Abraham, founder of diet supplement company Slim Fast, and Susie Tompkins Buell, founding of the clothing company Espirit, have formed personal friendships with the Clintons, even as they have continued to pursue public policy campaigns around issues like U.S. relations with Israel and the Keystone XL pipeline.

Through the years, the Clintons have adjusted over time to the changing rules that govern political contributions. Craig Smith, a longtime adviser to the Clintons who is now helping to organize the Ready for Hillary PAC, estimates that a Hillary 2016 candidacy could cost as much as $1.7 billion, including the money raised and spent on her behalf by outside groups. That would make the effort about 150% more expensive than the 2012 Obama effort, an increase in line with historical norms.

The data for this analysis is drawn from three broad categories.

Campaign contributions: Direct giving to Hillary and Bill Clinton’s campaigns for the Senate and the Presidency going back to 1992, as reported to the Federal Election Commission. It includes both individual contributions and money from other PACs given to either the leadership committees or joint fundraising committees of the Clintons. These figures also include “soft money” contributions to the Democratic National Committee during Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign and his presidency. Those donations were later eliminated by the 2002 campaign finance reform law.

Non-political contributions: Speaking fees collected by Bill Clinton up to 2008, and contributions to the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. Figures for Bill Clinton’s speaking fees are based on filings from Hillary Clinton’s tenure in the Senate. The foundation has only released a list of donors grouped by the contribution ranges, so in all cases the interactive assumes that each donor gave the smallest amount possible in that category. The range of contribution, from all foundation donors, as reported by the foundation, could go as high as $1.3 billion.

Outside spending: Independent expenditures on behalf of the Clintons, as well as contributions to Ready for Hillary PAC, an independent super PAC created to support Clinton in 2016, which she has told friends she grateful to have organized on her behalf.


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Bill Gates reclaims top of Forbes billionaire list from Slim

By Jonathan Stempel

Mon Mar 3, 2014 4:40pm EST



Microsoft founder Bill Gates attends a session at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos in this file photo from January 24, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Denis Balibouse/Files



(Reuters) - Bill Gates has returned to the top of Forbes magazine's annual list of the world's richest people, as rising stock markets swelled the ranks of billionaires, which included a record number of women.

With a net worth of $76 billion, the Microsoft Corp co-founder reclaimed the top spot after a four-year hiatus, toppling Mexico's telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim Helu, who placed second at $72 billion, Forbes said in announcing the list on Monday.

Amancio Ortega, the Spanish founder of clothing conglomerate Inditex SA, which includes the Zara fashion chain, ranked third at $64 billion.

Investing icon Warren Buffett, who runs Berkshire Hathaway Inc and is a frequent bridge partner for Gates, was fourth at $58.2 billion. Oracle Corp chief Larry Ellison came in fifth at $48 billion.

Gates has topped the list in 15 of the last 20 years.

A record 1,645 billionaires with a total net worth of $6.4 trillion made Forbes' list, up from 1,426 last year.

Just over 10 percent were female, with 172 women compared with 138 a year earlier.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc heiress Christy Walton was the highest-ranking woman, in ninth place, at $36.7 billion. France's Liliane Bettencourt, who got much of her wealth from cosmetics company L'Oreal SA, was next among women at $34.5 billion, and ranked 11th overall.

The Internet was well-represented. Google Inc founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin ranked 17th and 19th, worth a respective $32.3 billion and $31.8 billion, while Amazon.com Inc's Jeff Bezos was between them at $32 billion.

Facebook Inc founder Mark Zuckerberg, 29, more than doubled his net worth to $28.5 billion, and ranked 21st.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who left office two months ago, was 16th at $33 billion, built mainly through his eponymous media company.

Forbes said the year's biggest loser was Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista, whose net worth fell below $300 million from $10.6 billion as his oil and natural resources empire collapsed amid too much debt and falling output.

Roughly two-thirds of the world's billionaires, or 1,080, were self-made. The United States had the most billionaires, with 492, followed by China at 152 and Russia at 111. Algeria, Lithuania, Tanzania and Uganda joined the list with one each.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Jan Paschal)


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Meet John Kerry, Skull and Bones Ambassador

corbettreport


Published on May 24, 2013


SHOW NOTES AND MP3: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=7405

This week on The Corbett Report we look beyond the mainstream narrative of John Kerry and his background to find the real connections that have catapulted him into the corridors of power. From his billionaire wife to his Ivy League education to his Skull and Bones membership, we examine the real agenda of the new Secretary of State.

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Billions in Hidden Riches for Family of Chinese Leader

By DAVID BARBOZA 8:26 AM ET

BEIJING — It is unclear how much Wen Jiabao, the prime minister of China, who has staked a position as a populist and a reformer, knows about the $2.7 billion in assets that his family has amassed.

Video: The People’s Premier

The Lede Blog: Ask About the Wealth of Chinese Officials

Read This Article in Chinese

 Download a PDF Version

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What is Carlos Slim up to?

June 15, 2012 1:09 pm by John Paul Rathbone

Most other investors might be selling assets and hoarding cash, but not Carlos Slim. The Mexican telecoms tycoon and world’s richest man is on a shopping spree. This week alone he has bought a 21 per cent stake in Telekom Austria, while simultaneously pursuing a bigger stake in Dutch telecoms operator KPN. He’s also emerged as the surprise acquirer of an 8.4 per cent stake in Argentine oil company YPF. Using market prices, those two deals alone are worth around $1.3bn. What’s going on?

The Mexican billionaire has always been an astute buyer of distressed assets: good timing is one of the trademarks of his value-based investment philosophy. It drew him to invest in Brazil in 2002, when fears of a socialist government under Lúiz Inacio Lula da Silva crushed market prices. It also led him to invest in Argentine telecoms in 2001, shortly after the country defaulted. Now he’s doing exactly the same again – only in different arenas.

In Europe, the eurozone crisis has trashed asset prices – so that’s a chance for Slim to swoop. In Argentina, meanwhile, an eccentric approach to economic policy-making has trashed YPF’s share price. Furthermore, Slim has apparently picked up his YPF stake from banks that had been pledged the shares as collateral on now defaulted loans. Banks, generally, don’t like hanging onto such stakes for longer than they possibly can – which also makes them more-than-willing sellers, and often at good prices too.

Although these are risky bets, which may or may not provide a return, the fact they are hard assets, available at a good price and in areas he already understands, provides the margin of safety that every value investor likes to have. Warren Buffet, another billionaire value investor, would surely approve.

In Europe, there is also the prospect of growth – from the emerging market operations of Telekom Austraia. And as for Argentina, there may be political synergies to take into account. Slim’s Argentine mobile telecoms operation, Claro, a unit of América Móvil, accounts for the third of the national market, with sales of $2.6bn last year. That’s a position worth protecting – even if it means stumping up for YPF to keep Buenos Aires sweet.

Should others take Slim’s moves as a buy signal? Not necessarily. With a personal net worth of $67bn, Slim can ride out the ups and downs these investments will likely experience over the next few years, in a way most other investors cannot. Slim is also suffering at home. Competition is ratcheting up on both his mobile and fixed line telecom companies. As an asset allocator par excellence, it therefore makes strategic sense for Slim to switch into assets elsewhere that have a chance of a better return.

Two hundred years ago, the financier Nathan Rothschild, who made a fortune by trading ahead of the competition on early news of Wellington’s victory at Waterloo, coined the investment adage: “buy on the canon, sell on the trumpets”. As there are a lot of metaphorical financial canons firing at the moment, that also means the possibility for a lot of deals – at least for Slim, if not for everyone else.

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John Corzine: Before and After

Before:
 
More before: http://youtu.be/ipWjeIozYjM





After:

 

Obama Calls For 'Buffett Tax' On Millionaires

11:13am UK, Sunday September 18, 2011

Barack Obama is to propose a "Buffett Tax" on people earning over $1m (£630,000) a year as part of his deficit recommendations to Congress on Monday.

The President is hoping the millionaires tax will connect with voters

The move is seen as a populist vote winner ahead of the 2012 elections and critics say it will not have much impact on the $3trn (£1.9trn) deficit savings being sought over the next ten years.

The proposal is called the "Buffett Tax" after US billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who wrote earlier this year that rich people like him often pay less in tax than those who work for them due to loopholes in the tax code, and can afford to pay more.

The US President has repeatedly called on Congress to close tax loopholes for "millionaires and billionaires" as he seeks to differentiate himself from the Republicans before next year's election.


Warren Buffett (L) is given the 2010 Medal of Freedom by President Obama

The "Buffett Tax" could help energise President Obama's supporter base by highlighting a feature of the US tax code that allows the rich to pay lower rates of tax than less wealthy Americans because much of their income comes from investments.

The president is expected to outline steps to raise tax revenue as well as cuts in government spending in Monday's proposals.

These could include reforms of the government's healthcare programs aimed at the elderly and those on low incomes.

Mr Obama is not expected to make any changes to the social security retirement plan.

The president's opinion poll ratings have fallen over his perceived handling of the economy and he will want to counter Republican claims he is a 'tax-and-spend' liberal as he campaigns for re-election next year.

Republicans, who control the US House of Representatives, have said that they will not agree to tax hikes.

Mr Obama's millionaire tax proposal comes as British Chancellor George Osborne headed in the opposite direction ordering a review of the controversial higher band 50p tax, saying "inefficient" taxes are pointless

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