A version of the "Buffett Rule" was introduced today by Senate Democrats after a call by President Obama for the super-rich to start paying their fair share in the State of the Union Address last week. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, formally introduced what he's calling the "Paying a Fair Share Act of 2012." Under the law, millionaires would pay a minimum 30 percent effective tax rate, or more than double what millionaire Mitt Romney has been paying. According to the Congressional Research Center, approximately 94,500 taxpayers, a quarter of all U.S. millionaires, pay a lower tax rate than the vast majority of middle-income taxpayers. While potential revenue has yet to be formally calculated, Whitehouse estimates that the law could generate $40-50 billion annually. more ›

A little after 3 a.m. this morning, representatives for NBA players and owners came to a "handshake agreement" to end the 149-day lockout and play a 66-game season, beginning with three already-scheduled games on Christmas Day. Call it a Christmas Miracle, or whatever happens when people realize that sticking to their principles costs billions of dollars. more ›

When New York's last link to the Gilded Age, reclusive heiress Huguette Clark, died in May at the age of 104, she left her trusted nurse of nearly 20 years, Hadassah Peri, $34 million. Today, the Post delves into Peri's pending inheritance and the gifts that Clark showered on her and her family, such as the five homes she owns, a $204K Bentley, and doll collection worth millions of dollars. At least Clark didn't collect urine. more ›

A Philadelphia man is using Atlantic City not as a pleasant vacation destination, what with their pristine beaches and friendly locals, but as a lucrative money making scheme. The Post reports that 49-year-old Don Johnson has netted $15 million from Caesars, The Borgata, and The Tropicana, by playing blackjack. Johnson told the paper "I'll take luck over any other skill." We assume he's referring to the "luck" involved in counting how many cards there are in an auto-shuffle. more ›

Well Bloomberg can rest easy now, because according to the 2010 U.S. Wealth Metro Index, the city has more High Net Worth Individuals than the next top three cities (Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C.) combined. New York had 667,200 millionaires in 2009, up 18.7% from 2008. They also predict the HNWIs will get even richer next year. So now it's just a matter of days until their taxes plug up all the budget gaps, right? We'll be waiting patiently for the MTA to put back all of those bus lines. more ›

A former Bear Stearns banker is suing his former firm and its new owners, JP Morgan Chase, for a bonus he feels is owed to him despite the firm's collapse last year. Now that the storm has settled over bonuses going out to employees of failed Wall Street giants, Gary Reback is suing for $2 million in bonus money and in additional $1.1 million for a severance offer he says was inexplicably pulled off the table in the eleventh hour. The Scarsdale man was one of the top twenty highest paid employees at Bear in 2007, when he earned a bonus of $4 million. His lawyer told the Post, "Gary had nothing to do with losses. He traded different products completely outside the subprime-mortgage mess. They offered him a severance and now they're reneging—it's shocking, bad faith behavior." more ›