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Where Washington Should Go for Money: Havens
As the US government shutdown enters its 7th day today it looks as if we shouldn’t be holding our breath unless we want to go blue in the face in the hope that there might be a compromise or somebody might actually cave in. Talk about sticking to your guns. The Republicans won’t come out of it any better than Obama will in standing their ground and refusing to negotiate over all of this as hundreds of thousands get laid off. So, they might have voted back pay. But, will they also be voting that the rent and the mortgage payments and the utility bills and the groceries also be paid at the end of the month? Very doubtful. No point closing the gate after the horse has bolted at all, is it Washington? If only they stopped wasting the people’s money in their stand-off that is holding the US economy to hostage. Getting rid of them all and starting afresh wouldn’t be a bad idea after all. To those that might retort that the ones that follow will be just as bad, should have faith that new brooms might be big enough to sweep away the debris and make a thorough clear out in politics these days.
Alternatively, if Washington is looking for money, then they could start looking where the real greenbacks are going, apart from being thrown out of the helicopter to the people down below at the banks, it should be added with haste.
Top 20 US Companies
The real money is in the havens, but none of the lawmakers or the politicians would ever dare mention that word for fear of alienating the few bucks that are left here in the USA.
The top 20 US companies listed in Fortune 50 have set aside some $743 billion in profits in accounts located in offshore tax havens. According to Nerdwallet Taxes that would bring in about$119 billion extra for the Treasury if the money were in the US in accounts.
Tax-haven talk only gets little more than a few Twitter comments that fall into oblivion or a televised debate at 3 a.m. in the morning that nobody watches. The companies with the offshore accounts have the politicians tied to them, since they are the ones that will make and break their political careers. Hardly going to bite the hand that feeds you, are you?
The US budget deficit stands at $642 billion. That could be reduced if the guys in Washington had the gumption to stand up and be counted and get the companies to pay taxes here in the US.
- 88% of the companies listed on the Fortune-50 list use tax havens to avoid paying taxes in their home country.
- 68% of offshore profits are generated by the top 10 companies on Fortune 50.
- General Electric for example has $108 billion in foreign earnings.
- Coming back to the US would bring in at least $3 billion in income tax for the US.
- Microsoft earns $76.4 offshore.
- Estimates show that it might pay anything around $24 billion in income tax to the Internal Revenue Service in the USA.
- Pfizer would end up paying $14.1 billion in tax to the IRS on its $73 billion in offshore profits.
- IBM pays $3 billion to foreign governments in taxation.
- It earns $44 billion in offshore profits and would end up paying an estimated $5 billion in the US.
Only 6 of the companies that were contacted out of the 20 in the ranking (in the analysis carried out by Nerdwallet Taxes) actually bothered to reply to the information regarding how much tax they would have paid in the USA, had they decided to bring their accounts back to the country. Needless to point out that the other companies in the top 20 stated that it was impracticable to suggest such a figure.
That money is offshore today and not in the USA. It is of no benefit to the country whatsoever being overseas, improving just the financial status of the companies and not the US economy. Certainly, the US budget deficit is far from their worries. But it amounts to 10% of Gross Domestic Product of the USA that is sitting somewhere in offshore profits for companies. That’s more than there should be at a time like this. In economic times of prosperity maybe it’s acceptable to do this sort of thing (but even that’s debatable).
- It’s not just the companies either; it’s private individuals and the world’s rich that have an estimated stash of $21 trillion hidden away in offshore accounts.
- By comparison, this is by far the greatest worry concerning the flight of capital from our home economies towards tax havens.
- That’s the conservative figure, since some estimate that it could be worth up to $32 trillion.
- That’s obviously more than the GDP of the USA and Japan added together.
- It’s only some 10 million people that have that money hidden away too.
- It’s not the shady banks and the wheeler-dealers of the finance world that have that money in their accounts either.
- It’s the bone fide banks of the world.
- The top banks such as Crédit Suisse and Goldman Sachs.
But, then what would Washington end up doing with that extra money? Would it put it to good use, or would it do as Washington seems to do all too often these days and hoard or hand it over to the banks to play gin-rummy with on the stock markets rather than getting it where it should be needed in the economy creating jobs and bringing down unemployment? Getting companies to hand over the dough is hardly going to be easy, but at the moment both the companies and the politicians are just weaseling out of it all for fear of losing their privileged places, while it’s the people that are suffering from their convoluted agreements that seem to be renewed tacitly for successive periods so long as the CEOs stay in power and the politicians keep their seats.
How long will those in Washington allow companies to sit on their stash of greenbacks while the country is running a deficit thus is in the trillions and they act as if it’s just a few bucks?
Originally posted: Where Washington Should Go for Money: Havens
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For those of us in our "middle years" who are old enough to remember when the front pages of every newspaper 30 years ago talked about job creation daily or weekly and building incentives for new businesses to grow...
You can't even hear a chorus of lone voices in the House and Senate anymore with the mouthpiece media in tow debating on how they intend to bring jobs back to this Nation that have steadily been offshored since the early 90's to increase tax revenue. Why?
Answer:This was the plan all along and it was always meant to be permanent in the form of downsizing. The American worker is just too damned expensive so now we're going to have to take the house and anything else you own of value because there are no more jobs! Get over It!
And of course if "you" not the "corporation" leaves the Country everything including the fillings in your mouth will be confiscated by a TSA agent before you set foot in your new home abroad.
This is what America has become and will remain if it is incapable or unwilling to hold it's legislators and justice system accountable.
Starve the Beast.
Never mind the froth and BUBBLES, try this on for size: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mKWYqzEwoM
I don't see the big problem. Everybody is afraid of haircuts and your deposits not being safe after Cyprus. Where is the USA going to get its money from to pay back it's debts?
Well the way I see it let's actually DO the haircuts.. let's take from the 1% of the 1% of the 1% , in other words, the richest people in the world. Who are they? Ah yes the Rothschields. Last time I read about them they had about 500 Trillion USD. Even if they were to pay for the entire debts & debts outstanding of the USA the haircut will STILL have been LESS than for some people in Cyprus!
Let them pay back all the debts and let's all get back with our lives. After all most of the money they own is actually "ours" to begin with. And besides, they basicaly own this country anyway, so let the owner have some responsibility.
*wakes up to real life*
The author of this piece makes two logical errors. The first is the assumption that because the nation is deep in debt, it will use new revenue sources to pay down that debt. In fact, it will leverage any revenue it gets from taxing havens into new debt. We collect $2.8 Trillion in revenue each year against an almost $17 Trillion national debt. For whatever reason the World feels comfortable lending us seven dollars for every dollar of taxes we collect annually. We are destined to walk the razor's edge, borrowing whatever money our national income can support, and the more taxes we pay the more debt we'll get.
Second, our nation's existence TODAY is based on slavery - the legal taking of one person's production for the benefit of another without compensation. Five-eighths of federal spending is wealth transfer from Jane Doe to John Smith. Much of that is through ponzi programs that promise to take money from someone for your benefit when you need it later on of you allow your money to be taken for someone else's benefit today. Hiding wealth is a way to give our peculiar institution of nationalized slavery the finger. So this talk of destroying safe havens for capital is equivalent to cheering the return of a runaway slave that his sweat yet again benefits his master.
In other words...taxes are for suckers!
Screw the proles!
Also, the USA is a huge asset havens for many foreign countries and their people. What about undertaxed profits?? The wealthy have been undertaxed pretty much forever since the days of the robber barons and the likes of Jay Gould, Rockefellers, Carnegie and the other money mavens more Corleone than Sainsbury. Tax Wall Street and other investment transactions proportional to the social damage incurred by their manipulations of the system. Have the leading experts at criminal or nearly criminal "investment" activity set up a tax system that cannot be eluded with similar penalties as the drug kingpins. The money is there, go get it IRS, FINCEN, Congress!!! How is it that the tax evasion or avoidance of "conservatives" like the Koch bros. and the Walmart family are always the scapegoats and not the Kennedys, the Rockefellers, and other industry beneficiaries of tax shelters???
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You have a point when it comes to hidden income, but of the taxable income claimed by the top 1%, they earn 20% of income but pay 38% of income taxes. Obviously, disproportionate in favor of poorer taxpayers. Or, so it appears. But is the top 1% paying 38% of income taxes really a good thing?
Let's say the police in your area are in cahoots with the top two or three local crime bosses. They collect 38% of all the crime bosses' booty as payment for protecting them. The protected bosses make billions while their criminal competitors are arrested and jailed so to maintain the illusion of law enforcement. If you found out that this was happening, would you demand that the police charge the crime bosses 50% or 75% or 90% in order to punish the criminals? Of course not; that would be insane. Instead, you would come to the immediate realization that by paying the cops 38% of their ill-gotten gains, the criminals own the cops. Worse, by demanding from the criminals a greater share (say north of 50%), the cops are further disincentivised to stop any crime that benefits the crime bosses.
The progressive tax scheme is the very thing that delivers our government into the hands of the 1%. The bottom 50% of taxpayers can't pay 3% of the income tax burden and expect to run anything.
Stop stupid spending and you won't need to keep raiding people's wallets....
Oprah and Warren Buffet don't need Social Security!
They aren't companies, they're corporations, and all that that entails.
It will come back and taxes will be paid - at 5% corp rate to "entice" companies to "repatriate" earnings. Pay attention
That's an easy answer: to China
New Deal vs Obamacare: one reality and one desperate try
http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2013/10/new-deal-vs-obamacare-one-rea...
PivotFram has apparently never read Greshham's Law ... "Bad money drives out good". Of course initally the idiom was relevant to fiat versus bimetallic currencies, but in the electronic, modern day financial landscape with the 30,000 page (Obama Admin corrupted) IRS jabberwocky, Gresham's Law is as applicable now as it was then.
Bravo for any company that has successfully protected its assets from government!
And...after they seize the offshore money, what next? Bank accounts? Pensions? For sure. And higher taxes as they head for insolvency? Sure...
That is too hard, just let Daddy Bernanke....
Dear Daddy:
The Treasury must roll about $440 billion in debt that will mature during the Oct 18 – Nov 15, 2013 period. Congress and Executive Branches refuse to talk and negotiate over budget and debt ceiling. This is creating significant risk in the market that runs counter to The Fed's "Do Whatever it takes" policy.
The big banks--your boss--beg you to add more and more liquidity to the market. The Bernanke Put has reduced downside risk to almost zero. Therefore, The Fed should purchase the $440 billion maturing Treasury securities and eliminate the default risk. If you did this, The Fed would NOT be expanding their balance sheet, debt has already matured, while adding about $400 billion borrowing capacity to the USA treasury. Mr. Bernanke should announce this strategy tomorrow and you may add 250 points to the S&P 500. This is a win-win-win strategy.
Please do this ASAP so the S&P technical do not go negative. I know the stock market is a metric The Fed uses to analyze its success, so please digitize more money for the good of the country.
This falls under the classic fallacy, "If the government could just steal a little more money, everything would be fine." Of course, they would just spend it, and then go looking for the next victim.
Thanks,
Long ago it was said "All elections are just advance auction of stolen goods", ... HL MENCKEN
So now we have folks advocating that more theft will get us out of the problem,... Stockman got shit back in the 1980's for saying, ... "You want to solve our problem?", ... "go after gold plated Federal Pensions, ... cop, mil, ... " That got Stockman FIRED!
Then and now the problem is that most of stolen LOOT goes to the PRAETORIAN class that protects the LORD's from the Serf's, ... funny to have so many OP's here and commenter's support the Lord's, ... cuz at the end of the day NO LORD will be robbed, as by definintion they can afford the lawyers to find the loop-holes, ...
The current debate is really about 'cancelling USA debt', a 'reset', and its about nullifying Social-Security and Medicare, ... but the biggest welfare of all $10k/year for guys in the cop shop or mil who retire in their 30's that will NEVER be touched, as we saw last week US Congress voted 407 to zero to NOT TOUCH the PRAETORIANS.
Are you fucking kidding me?
Destroy offshore and you kill the few productive people who've escaped predation.
The corps will simply pay off more politicians and waltz along to the next loophole.
don't quite agree to your premise.
i will admit it will not be pleasent, that part is true...
but it is the ONLY way to stop the ongoing (for quite a few years now) insanity of limitless
debt, (which favors the corrupt, for the most part)....
i realize the result will be quite chaotic, but hopefully, we would all learn and for starters,
keynsian idiocy would be banned by: (at the very minimum)
1.- instituting BALANCED BUDGETS in ALL forms of government.
2.- enforcing with minimum jail sentences to any and all public workers who are caught defrauding tax payers
3.- eliminate unecessary bureaucratic bodies, (i.e. department, agencies, and all other mirror foggers who are total nuicenses amongs gov. workers) STARTING WITH THE IRS.
4.- get rid of ALL government worker UNIONS
5.- replace ALL TAXES (state, excise, sales, etc, etc, etc) with a flat 10% tax (at most) no loopholes.
that would be a start.... i realize the abive is simplistic, and open to other opinions that may improve above suggestion....
but the basic idea is.... END THE CURRENT MONSTROSITY instituting newly found discipline
Umm most offshore money was not gained through productive activities. The most productive are the least likely to use offshore accounts, as they don't have a sense of entitlement to what they're not ordinarily entitled to. Or they're just hanging on for dear life as their businesses are failing due to all of the cronyism of the unproductive.
And you know this precisely how? From guv stats?
Productive and courageous people take their money offshore - it's the smart move.
For dishonest people, IT DOESN"T MATTER - becuase they'll hire other dishonest people (politicians, that is) to write better laws for them.
Trashing offshore only hurts decent people. (More or less.)
"Trashing offshore only hurts decent people. (More or less.)"
Nothing could be further from the truth. Decent people don't generally use offshore accounts and attempt to evade taxes.
Correction. The operative word is "avoidance", not evasion. Many international companies already paid taxes in the countries where the income was earned. Why should they voluntarily return the net profit to the USA so it cam be taxed again at 36%? There is nothing indecent about legally avoiding a double hammer. The USA is one of the few countries that taxes international profits.
You are right. I will not use offshore accounts anymore. I am renouncing my US citizenship. One can only take so much, after all. Good luck to ya all, suckers...
Productive people don't generally have money these days. Onshore or offshore. Its the unproductive that have been given heaps of money through Fed or government policy.
Go look at who's gotten rich over the past few decades. Its generally not the producer class. Producers have been mostly taken out back and shot.
oh my dog.....
another keynesian [idiotic] argument....
in other words..... you do not see the problem being SPENDING AND WASTE....
nor it occurs to you ask the question..... WHY these funds are off shore.... ?
no, like the rest of the "distribute the wealth" (as opposed creating it) IDIOT brigade....
you propose what ? change laws to give more fuel to these fuckers, the thieves, goons, and tyrannical commies continuing with their insanity.....
incredible.. just completely incredible.... on the level of the absurdity of having elected (and re-elected) the muslim at the WH....
i say... it is time to DEFAULT and destroy this monster once and for all....
THE ONLY SENSIBLE AND LOGICAL CONCLUSION
fuck the consequences, it is better than the on going (and probably, never ending) idiocy
>But, then what would Washington end up doing with that extra money?<
Do you really have to ask???? Those worthless cock suckers in DC would dream up new entitlement programs, that's what they would do. They will NEVER work on debt reduction, or to pare back programs, they only know how to piss away your money!! They could take 100% of what you have, and it wouldn't be enough! They would take it all, and then try and shame you because you didn't have more to "give".
The budget deficit would immediately double, and in two or three years, the national debt would be right back where it is now.
These so-called "offshore funds" are actually on deposit in U.S. banks, New York primarily. They belong to offshore entities, but the money is not prohibited from entering the U.S. financial system. Do you think a trillion dollars is just sitting in a bank vault in some Cayman Islands bank? Or being lent using loan instruments and the "common law" system of some offshore government? All the money gets lent. And the lenders demand the legal protections afforded by the U.S. legal system. So it ends up you know where.
Yep. "Goes right back to the Treasury." I agree with this. It's an ugly form of credit creation but it is credit creation nonetheless. I find nothing unusual or to be mocked at vis a vis DC (other than those who think this is a joke.) This is what we do in the USA...fight amongst ourselves. And we should be fighting amongst ourselves. What's the point of elections if everything was agreed upon in advance? These folks were sent their to fight...I say get it on. It's not just the USA that wants change...Egypt wants change, Cyprus wants change, Brazil wants change. Are we even bothering to move beyond jingoism? We are when we're fighting. I mean Assad is claiming victory here? Sure...no problem. Putin's mighty ruble ready to rock the world? Get some then. China wants to party in Bali like its 1965? Everyone's got problems. Perhaps we should just be surprised that actual solutions do exist...they are being executed upon...and very few actually ever do want to be part of that. For the record I've never found anything of worth or value in atheism or atheists. Those clowns really do believe they have all the answers in advance. But hey...don't ask me. Take a walk around Bali or just plop yourself down on the beach and talk to the folks there. Ask them what they think. I know what I'd say: "nice sunset. See ya next year!" President would rather be in DC? Okay. We were suppose to be getting things done over there instead? Sorry. "This month we decided to be stupid instead." They call Alabama the Crimson Tide...
Speaking of offshore havens and their history.......
Why They Killed Kennedy
Although I entered the military some years after Lee Oswald, there were still several lifers, or career military types, who remembered him.
One such fellow had gone through Russian language school at the DLI at Monterey with Oswald (training Oswald officially never received, according to the Warren Commission Report), while another knew a fellow who went through USMC boot camp with him and recalled how useless Lee was at marksmanship.
Prior to entering the service, I had accepted the official story of the "lone gunman," but upon meeting those fellows, and several others (a USAF comm. tech and a Navy comm. tech, both who had read the JFK memo over their teletypes, directing the complete withdrawal of all US military advisors from South Vietnam, to begin in late November of 1963), my views began to radically change!
While there existed a litany of reasons for the motives behind the super-rich's murder of President Kennedy*** (please see list at end), as his activities were positive for the majority of Americans and cut into the profit margins of the super-rich, I suspect there was one gigantic reason for their horrendous action, and that can be easily explained by one simple question:
Do you know who owns JPMorgan Chase, ExxonMobil, AT&T or GE?
No, of course not, although once upon a time many did know the answer to this question.
The simpleminded and ardent supporters of predatory capitalism believe that we live in a socialist paradise, as "we the people" --- through "our" pension funds and 401(k)s (which only the select few are fortunate to possess today) --- own those banks and corporations!
Such nonsense boggles the rational mind!
At one time during the Kennedy Administration, Wright Patman, the incredibly honorable populist from Texas, got together with President Kennedy and they formulated a plan to expose the machinations of the super-rich: the way they hid their ownership and wealth via a system of foundations and trusts.
“Now the multibillion-dollar foundations have replaced the trusts which were broken up during the Theodore Roosevelt administration . . .” --- Wright Patman, US Congressman
Rep. Patman would later publish a study of this, but after the assassination of President Kennedy, Patman's supporting powerbase was no more, and his study was almost completely negated with the appointment of a commission, stemming from said study, headed by Rockefeller lackey, Peter G. Peterson (called the Commission on Foundations, or the Peterson Commission).
This commission would effectively block and trivialize the Patman study, who had awhile prior been removed from the banking and finance committee when Nixon was elected to the presidency.
During this same decade of the 1960s, during the Wright Patman study on foundations and trusts, there was an exponential increase in offshore tax havens, or offshore finance centers, definitely not a coincidence as this would be the new process by which the super-rich would shelter and hide their wealth and ownership.
An attorney whose career perfectly mirrors this incredible increase in offshoring wealth and ownership was Marshall Langer, the original architect of the offshore tax havens of the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands.
A recently published book by Richard James DeSocio titled, Rockefellerocracy: Kennedy Assassinations, Watergate, and Monopoly of the "Philanthropic" Foundations, is a sterling example of outstanding research along a similar route.
While I dispute nothing of what Mr. DeSocio writes, and I am in no way being critical of him when I state that I differ with his basic premise (i.e., Kennedy appeared to be moving to break up the oil company, Aramco [today called BP, with the majority ownership with Rockefeller, and the minority owners, Mellon and Rothschild], and Nelson Rockefeller was obsessed with being elected to the presidency, and Nelson would later become Ford's VP), and he may very well be correct, I believe the overarching reason was the interference from President Kennedy and Wright Patman with their master plan of hiding their identities as the actual owners and the richest of the rich!
In 1960, the estimated worth of the Rockefeller holdings was $30 billion. Today, a paltry $2.3 billion?
Simon Johnson, MIT economics professor and former IMF stooge, would have us believe that David Rockefeller gave away all their money, as Johnson has mentioned this in numerous talks he has given --- Simon Johnson also enjoys occupying a well-paid position as a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute, founded by Rockefeller lackey, Peter G. Peterson, and David Rockefeller!
In 1970, the Mellon family was estimated to be the third richest family on the planet --- today they are supposed to be also-rans? (Of course, relocating one's wealth and ownership to offshore private sources precludes them from being listed in the public records the Forbes Magazine researchers access to compile their annual list of the world's richest people.)
In the movie, The Usual Suspects, the character, Keyser Sose (played by Kevin Spacey), states the following:
The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
So the next time you hear the news of financial fraud perpetrated by JPMorgan Chase, or Goldman Sachs, or GE, or BP, or ExxonMobil, or AT&T, just reflect upon the fact that nobody knows who their owners are!
***The litany of anti-Wall Street activities by the Kennedy Administration:
(As mentioned in Mr. DeSocio's book) The move towards breaking up Aramco.
The move towards ending the oil depletion allowance, and the repatriation of offshored monies by the major corporations.
A radical budget proposal which would have favored the working Americans, and to the detriment of the super-rich (this proposed budget never implemented due to murder of JFK).
$4.3 billion directly injected into the American economy by the Kennedy administration, doing an end-run around the Federal Reserve, and going through the Treasury.
The use of foreign aid as real aid, not benefitting the American-based multinationals (Nelson Rockefeller, in his appointed positions during the Eisenhower administration, had severely altered and compromised the Ex-Im Bank and other aid programs, directing such aid to build foreign factories and facilities for the offshoring of American jobs).
Proposed withdrawal of all US military advisors from South Vietnam.
Alliance For Progress, a program promoting real land reform through Central and South America, which was completely corrupted after the death of President Kennedy.
Rapprochement with Cuba, and President Kennedy's standing up to both US Steel (Morgan), and GE (Morgan, Rockefeller and Vanderbilt) on the major labor issues back then.
(Two great quotes from Mr. DeSocio's book.)
“For the safety of the republic we now decree that this dangerous conspiracy must be ended by November 15 [1911].” --- Supreme Court decree to break up the Standard Trust
“In particular, he [JFK] was little acquainted with the New York financial and legal community --- that arsenal of talent which had so long furnished a steady supply of always orthodox and often able people to Democratic as well as Republican administrations. This community was the heart of the American Establishment. Its household deities were Henry Stimson and Elihu Root; its present leaders, Robert Lovett and John J. McCloy; its front organizations, the Rockefeller, Ford and Carnegie Foundations and the Council on Foreign Relations; its organs, the New York Times and Foreign Affairs.” --- Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Sources
Barber, Hoyt. Secrets of Swiss Banking
Brittain-Catlin. Offshore, The Dark Side of the Global Economy
Deneault, Alain. Offshore, Tax Havens and The Rule of Global Crime
DeSocio, Richard James. Rockefellerocracy: Kennedy Assassinations, Watergate, and Monopoly of the "Philanthropic" Foundations
Gibson, Donald. Battling Wall Street: the Kennedy presidency
Wealth, Power and the Crisis in Laissez Faire Capitalism
Lundberg, Ferdinand. The Rich and the Super-Rich
Parmar, Inderjeet. Foundations of the American Century
Perelman, Michael. The Invention of Capitalism
Shaxson, Nicholas. Treasure Islands
http://www.privacysos.org/node/1172
http://wikileaks.org/spyfiles3.html
Foreigners will confiscate those offshore funds anyways when the US dollar is devalued / the US government's debt defaulted on.
This is why I think Apple stock isn't worth very much. None of their apparent "cash" money is ever coming back. I don't know where its stored, or even if it exists, but the likelyhood of it being confiscated if held overseas, or hyperinflated away is high.
I agree with this too. Holding US CEO's hostage in their own production facility? Okay. I would have gone to Bali. It's sunny and warm and they have wonderful people there. I would have taken it to Assad not because it was right but because I couldn't help it. I would not have said "this is all about paying down the deficit" either. "That's capitalism's job and I'm the President. Now watch me jet off in this HUGE plane" if it were me. But that's not me...he's POTUS and this is what we're doing instead. We're down 500 billion from last years trillion dollar mistake. That sounds pretty good. We can't afford to have this debate? I didn't think we could afford 2008 and boy was I wrong.
The shutdown is the best thing thats ever happened in Washington - everyone has agreed to disagree, at last. Congress should stay shutdown until Obummer gives up on his health care monopoly idea.
Default is also a good idea for the US - its basically going to happen anyway, at least they can give the bond markets a bit of a taste before the main course event.
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The CEOs and politicians have nothing to worry about. All they need to do is whip up a fake Iranian threat to take everyone's mind off of the economy.
Be afraid of teh terra!!! The sand devils are out to get you!!1!
Incidentally, what kind of a douchebag upvotes his own articles every fucking time?
If all the off shore currency came home we would have hyperinflation in the morning. (Not just corporate funds).
If the government decreases it's spending we get a recession.
If the price of oil goes up we get recession.
If the price of oil falls we lose incentive to develop our shale.
There seems to be a tightening of the noose.
So you're proposal is for the US gov to steal more? How about role back government to 2000 levels and pretend the past 12-13 years didn't happen? As far as government is concerned. I mean, if your proposal is more stealing I would suggest the unproductive aspects of society should shrink and not grow.
They'd have to deport a few million people imported on various work visas as well (H-1B, L-1, etc.). And brainwash any proprietary secrets out of their minds so they couldn't start up foreign competition.
Mark Blyth said it best.. off the top of my head.. “ $27T sheltered in tax havens….. How many Divisions does the Caymans have?.. let’s go get it.”.
Jamie and Lloyd might want to move their stash further away .
Why is it always somebody else who is to blame for the United States' issues?
Has the US not yet worked out that the biggest 'offshore' haven is in fact very much onshore. Delaware is YOUR problem, let everybody else deal with their OWN issues before demanding they clean up ahead of YOU.
America, take a good hard look at yourself in the mirror. It might be hard to do, mirrors might not stretch that wide, but you certainly are getting close to your coronary come October 17th. You had better hope you find a good surgeon that doesn't come from one of the countless countries that you have pillaged. Saying that, you probably never bothered to buy health insurance because you thought you would never need it. Ironic eh?
The world might actually be a better place with an introspective United States.
I am confused..
What's not to like about corporations and billionaires paying at least the same rate on their taxes that most of us do?
You're dreaming. Corporations will just relocate to tax haven countries, leaving behind a US subsidiary which would generate little if any profit in the US because all the profits would be transfer-priced out of the US subsidiary into the tax haven. This would generate even less tax revenue in the US and result in further job losses.
In any case, this will never happen because in a fascist State, Government and Corporations (Who are just peole according to SCOTUS) are one and the same.
Corporations are people, too.