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Sunday, November 08, 2009
Gordon Brown's international tax
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown wants an international tax on the financial transactions. His argument is that it is bad that the rewards are given to so few and the costs of failure is borne by so many. That is perhaps a fair argument, but here is a novel idea, let's not bail out people who mess up.
Seriously, I agree with Gordon Brown that socialized risk and privatized rewards suck. But the solution is not to socialize rewards but to privatize risk. That way bankers actually have an incentive not to do something so risky that it would put them out of business. This "too big to fail" concept is ultimately going to destroy our economy. The mind set that a company that is big enough can do whatever it wants and if it screws up the government will come to their rescue is going to bring down the capitalist system.
I'm glad that Jim Flaherty was among those that gave Mr. Brown's proposal a flat no.
Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on November 8, 2009 | Permalink
Comments
Let them fail. Fear of failure is a great motivator. There is also talk of something like an insurance fund waiting for them as they fail. Will that not incentivise greater risk taking? Let the behemoths fail and let the small banks pick them over.
Posted by: Don'tTaxOnMe | 2009-11-08 5:54:29 AM
When people start talking about wealth transfer to solve global problems, I break out my fife and drum and stand on Concord bridge like the American patriots in the Revolution. Hell no. Find another way.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2009-11-08 6:42:15 AM
Why should they listen to a proven useless ex Chancellor and useless Prime Minister with no successful credentials to his name?
Excessive Taxation is killing off all thoughts of major new investments into Bankrupt Britain.
All countries need to consider reducing all Taxes to encourage Investment and growth.
Signed Carl Barron Chairman of agpcuk
Posted by: Carl Barron | 2009-11-08 10:58:41 AM
Gordo must be insane.
Posted by: Philanthropist | 2009-11-08 11:06:06 AM
Then there would be a "regulatory assessment" on your account every time you do a transaction… just like the taxes that telecom passes on to the consumer. We're paying for it either way, except one way we're paying for sure, into a fun that will get raped by the politicians to pay for wars and shore up other programs, the other we get to pay for with debt money… yeah no Brown go soak your head…
Posted by: Pete | 2009-11-08 11:52:11 AM
Don't worry we are now in "recovery."
The “Recovery” after the Robbery?
By Stephen J. Gray
Was it the biggest robbery in the history of the planet? Many of the inhabitants had seen their pension funds and investments lose some, or nearly all their value, some had seen their jobs destroyed, their homes repossessed, all blamed in the name of the “recession.”
How did the robbery, oops, I mean “recession” happen? It happened, when the money changers and the financial “experts” packaged and sold “assets” which were really debt. They sold this debt under nice sounding names to various financial institutions and each other. Then these financial “experts” proceeded to sell this debt to the workers pension funds, local governments and other funds that people had invested in. Other investors were also persuaded to accept these toxic assets, oops, I mean “troubled assets.” After all, these were the finest minds in the financial system selling them, and who would not trust the money changers?
The money changers charged fees for selling this debt and the financial system was swamped with this worthless paper. The toxic paper manipulators, the movers and shakers of the financial system of the planet; many of them have subsidiaries offshore in tax free havens. Therefore, the question must be asked: Did some of them transfer their monetary gains from these “troubled assets” to their offshore banking accounts? After all, would they really put their money in banks that they knew would soon need taxpayer bailouts. Some had even received huge bonuses for presiding over this financial debacle. And the citizens of the world were left holding the empty bags of their looted economies in these times of change.
There was no spare change left in the money system. So, what could be done? Some governments were now being advised by those who had broke the system, no pun intended, and so it was decided that the tax dollars of the people would be used to bail out, oops, I mean “stimulate” the system. After all, stimulate sounds better than bail out. But, I digress.
Bailout packages, I mean “stimulus packages” of taxpayers trillions were given to some of the elite money changers. Cynics were thinking, was this robbery, without violence, of taxpayers dollars? The same people who had caused the “recession” were now being rewarded. But hey, who better to fix the system than those who had robbed it, I mean, broke it?
But, good news had now arrived. The word was out that the “recession” was now over. It would be a “jobless recovery.” And how true that statement was. Unemployment was rising and was reportedly the highest in years in some of the world’s countries. But it was not all gloom and doom. The money changers were back in “business.” Some of the bailed out, oops, I mean stimulated financial institutions were now handing out huge bonuses, after being stimulated by taxpayers dollars. The only losers were the taxpayers, but hey, somebody has to pay to keep the money changers afloat in this sea of financial toilet paper.
Now there was talk of flushing out the system by the peoples’ governments. Of course, this was just talk to appease the masses. After all, what could governments do? The same financial elites who crashed the system were now advising these same governments. The financial foxes were in the political henhouse, and the chickens might be plucked once again, at the appropriate time.
Anyway, at this point in time, the good news is, the greatest robbery, oops I mean greatest “recession” in the history of mankind is now in “recovery” mode. But, be cautious, don’t bank on it.
Stephen J. Gray
October 18, 2009.
Posted by: Stephen J. Gray | 2009-11-08 4:35:56 PM
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