Cyprus's wealth tax makes perfect sense – its rich won't escape unscathed | Phillip Inman. There are several principles at stake in the row over Cyprus and its bailout. But one we should ignore is the hysterical reaction to a tax on bank deposits. It is a wealth tax – and about time too. Vladimir Putin is outraged and so are all Europe's banks. Writing in the Financial Times, Mohamed El-Erian (paywall), the chief executive bond fund manager of Pimco, represents the widely held view that it is the thin end of the wedge. What next? But Cyprus is a special case. Giving loans to Cyprus presumes that the country has the capacity to repay. Yet there is a suspicion that much of the funds in the country are only there if this tax haven remains just that.
So any long-term effort to repay EU loans will be left to ordinary people while the rich take flight. A wealth tax on bank deposits, where most wealth is held, is consequently a practical solution that also fulfils a basic economic need, which is to shift taxes away from income to wealth. There was a route to avoid this debacle.
"Ireland’s Moment of Fiscal Decision" by Lucinda Creighton. Exit from comment view mode. Click to hide this space DUBLIN – “The construction of Europe is an art,” former French President Jacques Chirac once said. “It is the art of the possible.” If so, then Europe’s deconstruction – or, worse, its collapse – would be a shockingly fearful and painful business.
That was the situation faced by European leaders last autumn. Finally, in December, decisive action was taken. These two measures were both timely and vital, creating a much-needed period of calm. In Ireland, our attorney-general advised on the need to hold a referendum on the fiscal treaty, and we are now in the midst of the campaign. The reasons we are backing the fiscal treaty are simple. The ESM is Ireland’s insurance policy as we work our way out of the bailout program with the “troika” (the European Commission, the ECB, and the International Monetary Fund) and return to the markets. International investors are increasingly looking at Ireland as a smart place to do business.
Danmark kan være Europas ledestjerne ud af krisen. Kuren hed ’hold igen med statsfinanserne og skær ned på velfærden’, selvom al økonomisk fornuft tilskrev, at den burde have heddet ’skru op og invester’. Sydeuropa blev som resultat fanget i en gældsfælde, der i dag synes helt uoverskuelig, mens resten af Europa skrider stadig tættere på samme fælde.
Han bliver helt vred, Sony Kapoor, britisk økonom, tidligere finansmand og nu formand for tænketanken Re-Define, når han taler om, hvad, han mener, er en historisk stor fejlslutning i Europa. »Vi har ikke ændret kurs i tide, og det er gået voldsomt ud over den vækst, som, vi alle ved, skal få Europa på fode igen. Måske kunne man i 2010 skære ned i de offentlige udgifter, fordi privatforbrug og investeringer til dels kompenserede. Sony Kapoor aner heldigvis tegn på forandring: »Der er ikke mange med respekt for sig selv, der i dag tror, at vi kan spare os ud af krisen. »Hør lige engang; Danmark har på flere parametre en bedre økonomi end den tyske. Fordele »Til dels. Bevægelse Listen. "The French Cul de Sac" by Brigitte Granville.
Exit from comment view mode. Click to hide this space PARIS – As France’s presidential election looms, the country is approaching a breaking point. For three decades, under both the right and the left, the country has pursued the same incompatible, if not contradictory, goals. With the sovereign-debt crisis pushing French banks – and thus the French economy – to the wall, something will have to give, and soon. When the crunch comes – almost certainly in the year or two following the election – it will cause radical, wrenching change, perhaps even more far-reaching than Charles de Gaulle’s coup d’état, which led to the establishment of the Fifth Republic in 1958.
Most French politicians and bureaucrats call such notions scaremongering. While the euro has not caused France’s economic problems, its politicians’ commitment to the single currency represents an insurmountable barrier to solving them. The current election campaign is accordingly centered on France’s fiscal position. "France and the Netherlands Strike Back" by Jean Pisani-Ferry.
Exit from comment view mode. Click to hide this space BRUSSELS – In 2005, France and the Netherlands both voted no to a constitutional treaty for the European Union, derailing years of integration efforts. They seem to be poised to disrupt Europe once again. On April 21, the Dutch coalition government collapsed, after right-wing populist Geert Wilders refused to endorse the spending cuts needed to limit the budget deficit to 3% of GDP.
These are the first skirmishes in a highly significant debate for Europe. Start with austerity. Indeed, it is revealing that, as eurozone countries with severe external imbalances at the onset of the crisis have benefited from the European Central Bank’s wholesale liquidity provision, they have reduced their current-account deficits much less than non-euro countries in a similar situation. The problem is that austerity has perverse effects. So there is a need to approach austerity and rebalancing strategically. Italy Is Biggest Risk to Euro, Says Fitch. Euro Lies and Italy's Crisis. Tax Evasion, Italian Style. On Sunday, as part of a strategy to show the rest of Europe how fiscally responsible the third most important nation in the eurozone (and the world’s seventh largest economy) is becoming, Italy sanctioned a T-man blitz over Milan.
Members of the little-feared Guardia di Finanza, 580 of them in fact, descended on merchants of that prosperous city, and—amazingly—found that one third of all the places checked out were indeed hiding revenue from the taxman. News of the raid was blasted all over TV; it was the front-page headline of every newspaper. And in all that coverage, as is all too customary in that country, not one cheat was either named or shamed. Or indeed punished.
You can imagine just how terrorized all these tax evaders were: No sales slips get you a 159 euro fine, or a scolding. It depends. Mostly it depends on just how connected you are to those in power. Well, yes. Italy’s debt these days is around $2.2 trillion, or 120 percent of GDP.
BULGARIA.