12.11: Reuters is reporting some rather provocative comments from Antonis Samaras, the leader of the Greek opposition: Reuters: The leader of Greeceâs main conservative group Antonis Samaras said on Monday his New Democracy party would not vote for any new austerity measures and said the mix of policies demanded by international lenders should be changed. âWe will not vote for any new measures,â Samaras told a meeting of his own MPs. He added that he would not sign any letter pledging a commitment to austerity measures, as has been demanded by EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, and that a verbal pledge should be sufficient. http://blogs.ft.com/the-world/2011/11/eurozone-crisis-live-blog-13/#axzz1dgOWuLZc Greek drama, 2nd act, scene 3. And action, please!
Seriously. IF they had actual credibility in fighting the EU before, we might listen. But we all know they'll cave (again). I'm reminded of the scene in Braveheart where the king is told the nobles are holding out, only so he can offer them more land and title.
All we've heard is "some form of austerity"... no details. At best won't it come down to running smaller deficits... but deficits nonetheless? That doesn't really do anything about the problem. To fix Europe (USA, too) they'd need to run balanced budgets and have part of the tax take be used to start paying down the current debt. Anyone think there is a chance of that? In other words... regardless of how relieved we feel about any current so-called "progress"... we'll be doing this all over again soon... and bigger.
One of the measures immediately having a "bombastic" effect would be to increase the "effective" corporate tax rate of US multi national compaines. I don´t get it how companies like Google have an effective tax rate of 3%. From: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/business/economy/25tax.html?_r=1 Such strategies, as well as changes in tax laws that encouraged some businesses and professionals to file as individuals, have pushed down the corporate share of the nationâs tax receipts â from 30 percent of all federal revenue in the mid-1950s to 6.6 percent in 2009. A Government Accountability Office study released in 2008 found that 55 percent of United States companies paid no federal income taxes during at least one year in a seven-year period it studied. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/business/economy/03rates.html The paradox of the United States tax code â high rates with a bounty of subsidies, shelters and special breaks â has made American multinationals âworld leaders in tax avoidance,â according to Edward D. Kleinbard, a professor at the University of Southern California who was head of the Congressional joint committee on taxes. This has profound implications for businesses, the economy and the federal budget.
Nobody cares about Europe for now (or any other bad news for that matter) It's time for Santa Clause rally! BUY!BUY!BUY! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE