Another big uncertainty is the rate at which phthalates escape from toys into the mouths of children who chew them.

ECONOMIST: The environment

Although I was devastated at the time, it was a bit of a close call and a lucky escape, with a 30% morbidity rate and several days before help could have picked me up.

BBC: Explorer set for historic Arctic adventure

Back in 1976, amid a flurry of concern over millionaires who used shelters and loopholes to escape any tax, Congress raised the alternative minimum tax rate and ordered the IRS to report how many wealthy folks pay nothing each year.

FORBES: Twice As Many Rich Escape U.S. Tax

Mr Obama can reasonably point out that he was elected in the wake of a financial meltdown that had threatened to bring about another Great Depression, with an unemployment rate that would make the current one look like a lucky escape.

ECONOMIST: The great mismatch

The assumptions that lead to this being the optimal tax rate are based on the US experience: that people cannot simply leave the country to escape high income tax.

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You can't escape tax on the dividends altogether, but you can defer it and later pay a lower capital gains rate.

FORBES: Buying shelter