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Introducing "Trickle-Out Oligarch Economics" - How Over $21 Trillion In Wealth Fled Offshore

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

Before I get into the meat of this post, I want to make it clear that just because I point out the following doesn’t mean I like tax and think we need more of it. Rather, there are two main points I want to get across.

1) Oligarchs create tax loopholes for themselves. Oligarchs control the politicians who write legislation to suit oligarch needs. Whenever you hear politicians talk about taxing the wealthy they mean the suckers in the top 10% who are not politically-connected oligarchs. The super rich will never be touched by such legislation. They will always have loopholes available to them. This is why the statement “we need higher taxes on the rich” is basically a bullshit political talking point.

2) You’ll notice much of the wealth that has been moved offshore originated from dictators who bled their home countries dry of resources as their populations starved. Many of these dictators had the full support of the U.S. government throughout their decades in power, during which time they plundered and destroyed entire nations.

Just remember that the next time you hear a super rich person call for more taxes. They never mean on themselves. Second, understand that the root of the problem is systemic. There are no easy fixes, the entire system needs a total reboot.

From the Guardian:

The world’s super-rich have taken advantage of lax tax rules to siphon off at least $21 trillion, and possibly as much as $32tn, from their home countries and hide it abroad – a sum larger than the entire American economy.

 

James Henry, a former chief economist at consultancy McKinsey and an expert on tax havens, has conducted groundbreaking new research for the Tax Justice Network campaign group – sifting through data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and private sector analysts to construct an alarming picture that shows capital flooding out of countries across the world and disappearing into the cracks in the financial system.

 

Using the BIS’s measure of “offshore deposits” – cash held outside the depositor’s home country – and scaling it up according to the proportion of their portfolio large investors usually hold in cash, he estimates that between $21tn (£13tn) and $32tn (£20tn) in financial assets has been hidden from the world’s tax authorities.

 

“These estimates reveal a staggering failure,” says John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network. “Inequality is much, much worse than official statistics show, but politicians are still relying on trickle-down to transfer wealth to poorer people.

 

“This new data shows the exact opposite has happened: for three decades extraordinary wealth has been cascading into the offshore accounts of a tiny number of super-rich.”

 

In total, 10 million individuals around the world hold assets offshore, according to Henry’s analysis; but almost half of the minimum estimate of $21tn – $9.8tn – is owned by just 92,000 people. And that does not include the non-financial assets – art, yachts, mansions in Kensington – that many of the world’s movers and shakers like to use as homes for their immense riches.

Since this doesn’t include non-financial assets, you can be sure the actual number is multiples higher. We have all seen how oligarchs worldwide are using houses and other tangible assets as overseas bank accounts. Recall:

Welcome to Arcadia – The California Suburb Where Wealthy Chinese Criminals are Building Mansions to Stash Cash

Introducing “Freeports” the Latest Way for Oligarchs to Store Their Assets

Introducing Ghost Skyscrapers – NYC Real Estate Goes Full Retard

In many cases, the total worth of these assets far exceeds the value of the overseas debts of the countries they came from.

 

The struggles of the authorities in Egypt to recover the vast sums hidden abroad by Hosni Mubarak, his family and other cronies during his many years in power have provided a striking recent example of the fact that kleptocratic rulers can use their time to amass immense fortunes while many of their citizens are trapped in poverty.

Mubarak, a close ally of the U.S. government all the way until he was toppled.

The world’s poorest countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, have fought long and hard in recent years to receive debt forgiveness from the international community; but this research suggests that in many cases, if they had been able to draw their richest citizens into the tax net, they could have avoided being dragged into indebtedness in the first place. Oil-rich Nigeria has seen more than $300bn spirited away since 1970, for example, while Ivory Coast has lost $141bn.

 

Assuming that super-rich investors earn a relatively modest 3% a year on their $21tn, taxing that vast wall of money at 30% would generate a very useful $189bn a year – more than rich economies spend on aid to the rest of the world.

 

The sheer scale of the hidden assets held by the super-rich also suggests that standard measures of inequality, which tend to rely on surveys of household income or wealth in individual countries, radically underestimate the true gap between rich and poor.

 

Milorad Kovacevic, chief statistician of the UN Development Programme’s Human Development Report, says both the very wealthy and the very poor tend to be excluded from mainstream calculations of inequality.

 

“People that are in charge of measuring inequality based on survey data know that the both ends of the distribution are underrepresented – or, even better, misrepresented,” he says.

What we need is fundamental systemic change. This means truly restructuring the entire financial system, from Central Bank power, to Wall Street funding both political parties, to lengthy jail sentences for financial criminals. If we do that, oligarchs won’t be able to parasitically amass billions so easily in the first place.

 

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Mon, 07/27/2015 - 22:49 | 6361551 HonkyShogun
HonkyShogun's picture

That's Anti-Semitic!

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 22:53 | 6361562 Money Counterfeiter
Money Counterfeiter's picture

Gold or silver, pick one

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 22:58 | 6361579 Harlequin001
Harlequin001's picture

Spot on. Put gold back in money and they can't create it from nothing.

The thieving stops. Dead.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 00:31 | 6361775 ZerOhead
ZerOhead's picture

Abolish the right of private bankers to create our money supply out of thin air in the form self enriching debt.

Tell them to fuck off and take their illegal Federal Reserve and their G20 Central Banks with them...

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 01:51 | 6361903 ConfederateH
ConfederateH's picture

The oligarchs don't need loop holes.  They just tell their cock-suckers at the IRS to fuck off or die.   The IRS, being who they are, obey and then pucker up their anuses.

Also, notice that in all the reporting of the UBS "tax scandal" not one significant rich person was caught.  It wasn't loop holes that got them off.  Its kind of like all of terrorist/no fly lists that the government maintain, except these lists are the "get out of jail free" lists.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 03:23 | 6361974 Four chan
Four chan's picture

are apple and ge oligarchs?

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 05:13 | 6362039 negative rates
negative rates's picture

So fatty wins or loses here?

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 08:34 | 6362323 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

the fact that kleptocratic rulers can use their time to amass immense fortunes while many of their citizens are trapped in poverty.

So maybe someday we'll learn that "ruling" is merely an excuse for "looting", and realize that, since we don't really need "looters", we don't really need "rulers", either.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 06:31 | 6362097 doctor10
doctor10's picture

Yep. All the squirreliness about OBama's social security number is a real eye opener.

I'd expect he was the tip of the iceberg of a bunch of oligarchs that have figured out how to have removed themselves from the IRS computers completely

The powers that be were caught with their pants down on that one.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 10:59 | 6362906 HopefulCynical
HopefulCynical's picture

Link, please? Haven't heard about this one.

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 23:17 | 6361634 Luc X. Ifer
Luc X. Ifer's picture

These numbers are so damn close to USSA debt - just a (weird) coincidence besides that the suckers behind are going to pay the bill?!

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 22:54 | 6361568 jcdenton
jcdenton's picture

And most Jews alive today, especially in Israel, are not true Semites:

 

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/02/03/johns-hopkins-genome-study-of-je...

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 23:57 | 6361581 HonkyShogun
HonkyShogun's picture

True but "Anti-Khazarite" doesn't have the same ring to it. Nor any effective shock power.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 01:06 | 6361844 Klemens
Klemens's picture

there is a good Anti-Khazarite book:  "The Synagogue Of Satan" http://www.amazon.com/Synagogue-Satan-Updated-Expanded-Uncensored/dp/147...

MUST READ!

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 03:43 | 6361994 Marco
Marco's picture

The Jews in Israel for the most parts aren't the super-rich, they are just the useful idiots playing out the Zionist dream of Jews in the US.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 08:22 | 6362305 Moribundus
Moribundus's picture

Israeli Historian: Palestinians Are Biological Descendants of Bible’s Jews.

http://mondoweiss.net/2008/09/israeli-historian-palestinians-are-biologi...

It was Pelesets/Pelestes who were taken into Egypt by egyptian pharoh Ramesse follow defeat of SEA PEOPLE.  

10 commandements are taken from chapter 125 of Egyptian book of dead. Abraham was Ibrahim Zeradust he came to area of middle east after Saraswati river disaperance. Story of Noah is vedic story of Manu. There was wave of people from asia after Saraswati river cataclism ( one earth's plate get under another ) who show up in biblical area and Egypt: Hyksos, Mittani= ( spoke sanskrit got vedic gods, Nefertiti was Mittani princes); and Hitites in Hattusha. More or less Troy itself. so doctrines in bible are not original and were brought in. There is story that Akhenaton was Moses. But no doubt he was influenced by vedas.

Askwhy.co.uk

 

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 09:53 | 6362556 DanDaley
DanDaley's picture

And most Jews alive today, especially in Israel, are not true Semites:

 

There is no such thing as a true semite to begin with. Semite simply refers to many linguistic groups that were supposedly descended from the Biblical son of Noah, Shem. To imagine that there was any sort of genetic purity to these groups is simply wrong, and probably born of an infantile need to categorize people into static designations so as to make the world more easily understandable. To imagine further, that the loose genetic information of any particular population group somehow affects the behavior of any individual, is idiotic.

 

Let the down-voting begin!

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 09:59 | 6362609 Seek_Truth
Seek_Truth's picture

What is idiotic is to ignore all of the studies that have been done on identical twins that were raised in separate families, didn't know of each other because of adoption and yet their characteristics and behaviors were so similar that was truly amazing- proving that there is a genetic reason why people behave the way they do. IQ test also prove genetic linkage.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 10:17 | 6362645 DanDaley
DanDaley's picture

True, identical twin studies do demonstrate that certain behaviors seem to have a genetic component -after all, identical twins are exactly the same genetically. Nevertheless, over the expanse of 10s or 100s of millions of people who are NOT genetically identical (for example, the so-called semites), to suggest that one can attribute specific behaviors to simply being a member of that group is ludicrous; there is just way too much genetic variability. Also, the whole notion of a population group is a rather nebulous construct. So-called groups are always interacting with other groups, importing and exporting genetic material through migration, conquest, and trade.

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 22:58 | 6361580 junction
junction's picture

As tens of billions of dollars were illegally off-shored by America's secret rulers, AG Eric Holder was going after luncheonette owners and the like for "money laundering" for depositing less than ten thousand dollars in cash into business accounts that held under $30,000.  Holder's degenerate U.S. Attorneys couldn't go after the Sinaloa drug cartel billions in HSBC accounts, those drug lords work with the DEA and Obummer's NWO advisors. 

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 23:04 | 6361591 MsCreant
MsCreant's picture

Common! Give Eric a break. He is scared of real power.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 06:27 | 6362096 doctor10
doctor10's picture

good luck.

The banking mechanisms governments use to fleece their citizens can be exploited by those designing the systems.

Corporate mechanisms to fleece a citizenry are aided and abetted by governments and are exploited by those legislating and implementing these systems.

In addition, both banking and corporate fleecing scams require guys on the ground in each country making it happen.

So there becomes a triumvirate of interlocking interests that weave regulatory and tax legislation and enforcement to keep the locals nose to the grindstone while they spirit away their output.

21st century slavery beats the snot outta anything the 19th century could come up with.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 09:40 | 6362502 illyia
illyia's picture

Is that not the challenge, though. To figure out a way to either: reorganize the "system" such that the "off-shore" wealth is revealed - and so is its money trail and/or make such a complete change to the system that the oligarchs are unable to buy in with what they have stashed. I do not know the answer. But I think I've correctly identified the problem.

The solution is better than bitcoin, free from past manipulation and non-counterfeitable (gold is full of past manipulation, but it might play a part), What measure of wealth/store of value would prohibit the oligarchs from using their ill-gotten gains in the new system?

Electronic is ? Hackable ? Bribeable ?

Smart ZH'ers ought to know this...

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 22:52 | 6361560 Omega_Man
Omega_Man's picture

nooo, we need to take the wealth they stole... back.

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 22:57 | 6361575 BoPeople
BoPeople's picture

If by oligarchs you mean the "clever ones" who have the monopoly on creating money out of thin air, trading it for things of value and then taxing all of the world's productive labor, I agree. They add no value to the world and no one would miss them if they were gone.

However, I am one of those people who gets satisfaction out of working and creating and don't really care much for money because it is used by parasites to enslave the masses on this world. I would rather be a happy and creative slave than a parasitic douche bag.

If no one gave a damn about their fiat money they would lose all power.

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 23:43 | 6361693 Dragon HAwk
Dragon HAwk's picture

Yeah I'm Broke  Too....

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 09:42 | 6362519 BoPeople
BoPeople's picture

There are some very good things about being broke... bad things too. But the bad things are only bad things because of the way the "clever ones" have designed their system.

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 22:59 | 6361585 MsCreant
MsCreant's picture

It would be fun if, in the Caribbean they decided to, you know, nationalize the banks!

"All your funds are belong to us!" 

"Help me, I want my trillions!"

"Fuck you, fucker! We say you stole it."

"I'll sue."

"Go for it, pretend we give shit while you are at it. Asset forfeiture, baby. We are suspicious of how you got all this."

 

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 00:57 | 6361832 WillyGroper
WillyGroper's picture

Listening to Jim Willie the other day, he said the maggots that have stolen all the gold have themselves been rehypothecated. True or not... it's a lovely thought.

Dropping out, self sufficiency, barter and reducing every aspect of their system is the only way to make a difference. We can bitch to high heaven. Action is what it's going to take.

On another thought, should the magnetic pole shift hit the fan, that too, could level the playing field. Just might render their hidey holes redundant. That is of course unless they lurk under water.

Scroll down to Chet Snow's map. It's the model the navy uses.

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/profecias/esp_profecia_mapas.htm

 

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 09:45 | 6362537 BoPeople
BoPeople's picture

I have no use for gold.

The money in the Caribbean only exists as electronic entries. Wipe the computers and back-ups and it just goes away.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 21:11 | 6365367 BuddyEffed
BuddyEffed's picture

The Carribean places are their playgrounds and the palms are well greased.  Nationization would be crazy talk.

Plus one guided missile frigate could seize control back with no boots ever touching the ground.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 06:16 | 6362080 detached.amusement
detached.amusement's picture

...and the island would be taken over by the "military" faster thn you could say rumplestiltskin...

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 23:01 | 6361592 warsev
warsev's picture

I'm struggling to find the point of this article. Is the author arguing that international law should prohibit individuals from moving their assets outside of their native countries? Good Gawd. Be careful what you ask for. You're likely to get it.

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 23:03 | 6361599 MsCreant
MsCreant's picture

Agree, instead of more government, we need to enforce the rules on the books already, then see how it all looks. Lots of crime that can be proved if only they prosecuted it.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 00:01 | 6361726 Lumberjack
Lumberjack's picture

My guess is that the expense of prosecuting many of these cases would be the same as the GDP of small countries. Besides the courts and politicians are already bought.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 06:18 | 6362085 detached.amusement
detached.amusement's picture

and surely they'd be stared at by a "judge" with a gold rimmed war flag behind him

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 23:08 | 6361611 saints51
saints51's picture

Author sounds like a commie to me.

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 23:55 | 6361715 JR
JR's picture

You’re confusing American patriots who are so concerned about their national economy that they would move to foreign investments with world class international criminals. These oligarchs are not your average citizen; they are thieves taking in gigantic amounts the estates and labor of their countries for their own benefit and power; and it’s not their money they're taking, it’s your money.

If you want a portrait of an oligarch take a look at George Soros. Would you defend his right using his insider status to steal billions and bankrupt countries, tax free?

Russia's most prized assets were sold off after the fall of the U.S.S.R. to a small circle of vultures - later known as oligarchs – for a smidgeon of their value. The same is happening in the United States and the EU, a process enabled by largely Jewish ownership of and open access to the currency - the Fed and the U.S. Treasury. It is legalized plunder, and now they’ve made it nontaxable.

And when the law finally runs some of these oligarchs down, many take political asylum in Israel.

As for my two cents, powerful and long overdue article, Mike.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 00:09 | 6361736 warsev
warsev's picture

And what, exactly, do you propose as a remedy? Seriously, I'm interested. I see your point. I just don't see a cure that's better than the disease.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 10:59 | 6362909 JR
JR's picture

You are in luck, I have the answer.  The people, exploited by a monetary system that has devised a corrupted currency to use against them, are going to rise up and put a stake through the heart of it – the Federal Reserve System.

Paper money is tryanny.

The middle class is going to turn on the political system that enabled this tyranny, on a Congress that turned over control of the nation and her resources in 1913 to a money trust of international bankers that owned one-fourth the world’s wealth for a century of looting and displaced power. Why? Because if the peope want to remain free, they must. It is the Congress, elected with Fed money, that then passed the 1965 Immigration Law, written and pushed into law by a team of Jewish lawmakers and activists to divide the nation into warring diverse groups of First World and Third World peoples. Its aim was to destroy the nation’s sovereignty and her white Christian culture and to push her into a socialist global government - making the world so ethnically weakened it would be "safe" for banker control. And it is the Rothschild-controlled Fed and the zillions it prints out of thin air that provides them with plenty of money to do it.

“It comes down to this.  If you hate war, oppose the Fed. If you hate violations of your liberties, oppose the Fed. If you want to restrain despotism, restrain the Fed. If you want to secure freedom for yourself and your descendants, abolish the Fed.” Lew Rockwell, “War and Inflation”

http://mises.org/daily/3010

HERE THEN, according to Eustace Mullins, ARE THOSE FOR WHOM GREENSPAN, BERNANKE, and YELLEN/STANLEY FISCHER WORK:

“The shareholders of these banks which own the stock of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (which sets the interest rates and directs open market operations, thus controlling the daily supply and price of money whose stockholders are the real directors of the entire system) are the people who have controlled our political and economic destinies since 1914.

“They are the Rothschilds, of Europe, Lazard Freres (Eugene Meyer), Kuhn Loeb Company, Warburg Company, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, the Rockefeller family, and the J.P. Morgan interests (Rothschild).” --  Eustace Mullins, The Secrets of the Federal Reserve, p. 34. Copyright 1983

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 17:52 | 6364585 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

Need online Protest for a Central Bank Forum and to ask the FED and all it's branches

"FED, What was the Promise that you offered the People of the USA as a Central Bank?"

Wasn't the Promise supposed to prevent Moral Hazard and High Federal Debt Levels that would cause downgrade of Financial Ratings for anyone other than a Superpower?

Hasn't the FED, the US Central Bank Failed in it's Promise to ensure Conservative Banking, Accounting, Auditing, and Financial Ratings.

Today isn't the FED Running a Racket?

What are all the Functions and Purposes of the FED, it is a Simple Question??

And how is it that US Banks and Financial Markets are Self Regulated, but there is no Public Forum to raise complaints and publish Criticisms and for activists to create change for Main Street and to keep the system fair for small banks in a time when there are fewer and fewer banks each year and power is more and more concentrated on Wall Street TBTF.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 02:44 | 6361944 OldPhart
OldPhart's picture

So my years of hoarding gold/silver, expecting to be able to BTUFD (Buy the Ultimate Fucking Dip) on practically anything using the metal, is considered plunder?  (Not that I have anywhere near the assets of a millionairre or any status of any sort)

Then why are we buying the fucking gold and silver?!

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 02:41 | 6361914 Glorious Kataifi
Glorious Kataifi's picture

Is the author arguing that international law should prohibit individuals from moving their assets outside of their native countries? Good Gawd.

Why would anybody argue that, when the unrestricted mobility of capital has proven such a roaring success?

Look how far it has brought us. We even got a chance to repeat the 1930s, which was everybody's secret dream.

 

 

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 06:18 | 6362089 detached.amusement
detached.amusement's picture

You forgot the "stealing" and "usury" parts that predece the flight.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 00:11 | 6361600 Ms No
Ms No's picture

Anybody here ever have the pleasure of meeting crazy Robin?  This one is juicy, even a suicide. 

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2015/jul/25/spokane-brother-sister-accused-of-penny-stock-scam/

This is my favorite part:  “The cast of characters grew to include a swindled Scottish scientist, a mysterious Malaysian businessman, a Yugoslav prince who committed suicide on the company’s premises, and (the company)’s former corporate secretary, who later appeared in a pornographic video and is, she says, a witch.”

 

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 23:11 | 6361619 q99x2
q99x2's picture

Export your billionaires to Q99X2. We'll take care of them.

To the pyramids. To the pyramids. To the pyramids.

Seriously it is insane to allow individuals or corporations to have wealth with today's tech. It is suicidal.

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 23:15 | 6361629 Cabreado
Cabreado's picture

Surprised at the pissing-in-the-wind...

"What we need is fundamental systemic change."

No, what we need is restoration of rule of law,

and that would require focused attention on persons (they have names) in places of control who disregard it.

 

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 00:12 | 6361741 r00t61
r00t61's picture

The system is working as intended.

Corruption is a feature, not a bug.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 00:23 | 6361761 Tall Tom
Tall Tom's picture

The "Rule of Law" is what brought us to this point.

 

Restoring it will not prevent this from happening again.

 

You have heard it said, and quite accurately, that if you were to distribute the wealth of the World evenly...within a few years the wealthy will own it and you will have massive poverty amongst the masses.

 

When are you going TO WAKE THE FUCK UP and LEARN that you cannot legislate Nature and Natural Laws away?

 

Humans, those disgusting filfthy creatures, are an advanced form of HERD ANIMAL who are Genetically HARDWIRED to follow an ALPHA LEADER.

 

Civilization is just a veneer, a thin one at that, which is fragile at best and non existent at worst.

 

Laws DO NOTHING to change that basic nature.

 

THERE IS NO HOPE. So put down the Hopium Pipe and STOP IT as you are setting yourself up for a bitter disappointment.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 04:02 | 6362007 Marco
Marco's picture

Indeed there is no hope, when the veneer falls away you won't find your rulers ready to let you live your life in peace in your compound in the rockies either. Unless you have a nuclear weapon stashed away to engage them in a nuclear detente don't put much faith in your peashooters ability to save you, the drones can aim faster than you.

Elysium is coming, most people will long for the days of this veneer.

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 23:25 | 6361651 erk
erk's picture

The solution is simple, stop the creation of crazy amounts of phoney fiat money like that, all it does is polute the pool of real money.

 

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 23:41 | 6361689 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

Hey take it easy, I'm feeling a little woosey here: isn't it all Fiat created as Debt Money with interest, but the Interest is not created.

Seems like you got Economists & Bankers all analyzing where the money is created, where it is stagnant, where it is invested, where it becomes Capital investment, where it becomes just someone's bank account or trust account, where it is Rent Seeking (Rentier, behavior), where it is usury, where it is looting, and where it is leaking off shore to private accounts or becomes some kind of revenue that sits off shore.

Mal-Investment is through the roof.

Wealth Transfer is through the roof.

Illegal Immigrants are through the roof aided by the legal refugees who want to continue wars or implement Sharia as if Sharia was part of any kind of Democratic Idea anywhere in the world.

This Federal Government & Subsidy Give Away to the Wealthy System is so confused they don't even know which way is north.

Woosey, I tell you.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 00:24 | 6361762 Cthonic
Cthonic's picture

Eight trillion dollar bender, and she ain't even drunk yet.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 08:10 | 6362289 pocomotion
pocomotion's picture

WE Need More Cow-Bell!

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 23:29 | 6361655 Super Hans
Super Hans's picture

Im in the process of fighting the IRS regarding the money I owe in tax penalties from cashing out my retirement funds to pay my bills. 

I never declared my withdrawls. I have been doing this for several years, and now I have no retirement investment left. The IRS just tagged me for last years return.

The IRS has become a lot more aggresive lately in their pursuit of taxes and fines on the little people.

SH

 

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 23:54 | 6361713 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

I was trying to think of German Phrases that would be appropriate... but I don't want to appear insincere.

I am hearing local stories about the government scheming to enter homes to assess the value higher so the can increase the property tax revenue.

- Empty Homes reduce tax revenue, forcing higher tax levies or higher assessments
- But many taxes are from people that make lots of money and they don't know how it effects US Citizens
- Wealthy Federal Politicians quickly forget what real people are like and how they live
- Federal Politicians, the one party, all are making the USA like Europe... maybe to prevent migration, but mostly I just think the European Ideas and Strategies have been transmitting since 1776

- Free Trade is an English Trade Model, they don't invest in their own industries, trade & workers, in favor of bringing in cheaper trade goods and concentrating the profits in the Owners of Capital/Ships/Shipping&Warehousing&Retail

Were European Countries deliberately holding back or the wealthy families holding back or did the powers back military Juntas to hold back Rises in Wages in Spain, Italy, UK, Ireland, South America, Central America, Hawaii, Caribbean? Sure looks that way... Monarchies and Wealthy Lords would rather import and control the ports and shipping to get the highest prices for goods and concentrate the profits into their own pockets.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 02:52 | 6361950 OldPhart
OldPhart's picture

- Empty Homes reduce tax revenue, forcing higher tax levies or higher assessments

Bullshit, you assess as normal and present the bill to the financial institution holding the lien/title.

<In an honest world.>

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 06:40 | 6362117 doctor10
doctor10's picture

"free trade" is how governments keep uppity locals under their thumb. Uppity locals create strong local governments that tend to get in the way. Prevent the locals from accumulating assets keeps them dependent and allows national governments to do as they wish.

Look at the history of the UK.-they figured that out by the 1600's

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 16:14 | 6364180 bid the soldier...
bid the soldiers shoot's picture

You're always safe with this line from Heine:

Ich weiß nicht, was soll es bedeuten, Daß ich so traurig bin

 

very sincere

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 06:37 | 6362111 Grouchy Marx
Grouchy Marx's picture

The author suggests you should have hidden it offshore. 

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 08:57 | 6362379 MachoMan
MachoMan's picture

Im in the process of fighting the IRS regarding the money I owe in tax penalties from cashing out my retirement funds to pay my bills. 

I never declared my withdrawls. I have been doing this for several years, and now I have no retirement investment left. The IRS just tagged me for last years return.

The IRS has become a lot more aggresive lately in their pursuit of taxes and fines on the little people.

You didn't declare as income something that you know for certain on which the IRS received a 1099-R...  If that's your strategy, why did you even bother to file a return?  Why not just declare yourself a "sovereign man" not subject to the IRS or taxation? 

You say that you are in the process of fighting the IRS, but I'm curious as to your defense...  About all you can do is reach a settlement (which would likely entail you paying the tax due in full and then they agree to abate the penalties) or filing one of these and hoping for some mercy (don't hold your breath) http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f843.pdf  If you have a local office, then it's probably quicker to go in there than call a general phone number (written correspondence also works well and usually forces a sane human to look at your case, which is one of the prerequisites for getting out of the "automated hell" of IRS collections).  If they can't help you, then they can give you the contact information for who can...  Good luck.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 09:27 | 6362457 overmedicatedun...
overmedicatedundersexed's picture

macho, good advice..made a call once to sen kennedy's office, was less then complementry- ended the conversation with: "I hope the senator hears mary jo every night screaming"..was then audited for 5yrs, I was lucky did everything in writing, never sent them a dime, but it took hours and hours of my time..sen kennedy's staff was as vindictive as they come..fucking prick progressives, they were facsist little tyrants thru and thru.

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 23:34 | 6361673 MASTER OF UNIVERSE
MASTER OF UNIVERSE's picture

Mike Kreiger is a very intelligent observer, but he fails to understand just what the 2008 crash set in motion. And that all the banks in the entire World are going to go bankrupt, just like all the countries in the World will in very short order.

 

Jade Helm 15 is too costly to be a training exercise IMHO.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 00:53 | 6361829 MrTouchdown
MrTouchdown's picture

Not to mention he misses the futility of saying stupid things like "we need better rules". Just who does he think makes the rules?

No, wait! Just who does he think enforces the rules?

Hold on, I got a better one! Just who does he think hands down punishment?

What a terrible article.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 02:55 | 6361955 OldPhart
OldPhart's picture

Serving my time in Federal Prison (five hours) doing mock job interviews...

Me:  "What was your former occupation?"

He:  "I was a bank robber...didn't pay very well, that's why I'm here."

Me;  "When were you arrested?"

He:  "2008."

Me:  "Damn, man, call your lawyer, Bank Robbery's been legal since 2008!"

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 23:38 | 6361682 PoasterToaster
PoasterToaster's picture

Yes, it was lax tax rules that did it.

Mon, 07/27/2015 - 23:42 | 6361691 Goldilocks
Goldilocks's picture

Immaterial Value and Scarcity in Digital Capitalism
http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=652

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 02:41 | 6361939 bid the soldier...
bid the soldiers shoot's picture

just wait

$21 Trillion In Wealth Fled Offshore

 

You can run but you can't hide  

 Big Brother

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 07:35 | 6362210 lakecity55
lakecity55's picture

Well, now, the USG has quite a stash available for taxing.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 10:53 | 6362878 detached.amusement
detached.amusement's picture

what makes you think oligarch "money" gets "taxed"

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 02:41 | 6361940 quasi_verbatim
quasi_verbatim's picture

Dream on. Offshore? Everywhere is offshore to everywhere else in the digital fairyland.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 17:31 | 6364476 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

Maybe we can reflag our Computer (Bank) and hold the wealth off shore that way. Probably a banking fee of like $100 a year.

So if I have a Credit Union and they set up a Branch in Cayman Islands or Bermuda... it is just an electron to move the account off-shore.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 05:07 | 6362031 falak pema
falak pema's picture

Thank you for summarising the legacy of Maggie's Farm and Ronnie's YARN : "Bring that wall down Gorby, so that I can build mine made of NSA spying and Oligarchy scamming."

Well played Reaganomics. Now Stockton cries : Why O Why did we do all that! 

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 05:25 | 6362047 negative rates
negative rates's picture

We said we would build a star wars defense system, they said they would not believe (in) it.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 08:06 | 6362281 falak pema
falak pema's picture

explain that to this guy : Dave Stockman.

http://rationalrevolution.net/war/trickle_down.htm

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 05:10 | 6362035 Batman11
Batman11's picture

This is what a meritocracy looks like:

1) Everyone succeeds on their own merit
2) There is no un-earned wealth or power, e.g inheritance, trust funds, hereditary titles
3) There is a uniform schools system for everyone with no private schools or universities

Some things to aim for as none of them are true at present.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 05:15 | 6362037 Batman11
Batman11's picture

"But it is only natural a parent should want what's best for their child" Kim Jong-Il

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 05:23 | 6362046 Batman11
Batman11's picture

The wealthy would not hoard so much if there was an inheritance cap.

An ideal meritocracy requires no inheritance at all.

No inheritance is due to your own efforts.

Do you think your children can succeed on their own merit or not?

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 17:26 | 6364457 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

How about a Floor on Gift Tax, Windfall Tax, and Inheritance Tax??

After all with US Health Care we have 50% change of going bankrupt by the time we are 65 years old.

Plus you aren't rich if you have 2 Million Dollars.

So, say no Gambling tax on Winnings, No Gift Tax, and No Inheritance Tax for amounts up to $2 Million USD or $1.5 Million Euros, or $1 Million Swiss Francs.

And let's have an Age Ceiling.

No Gift Tax, No Inheritance Tax, no Windfall Tax from Gambling if you are 60 Years old.

And how about an Age Minimum since Education is Continuous and expensive, Housing is getting more expensive, Health Care is Nuts, and there are no guarantees on City, State, and Federal Taxes or Future Energy Taxes.

So no Gift Tax, No Inheritance Tax, No Windfall tax if you are under 24 Years old.

I mean you know we have Inflation that is a huge bubble that few are talking about. USA is like Europe now without Socialize Health Care and Education.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 05:50 | 6362067 Batman11
Batman11's picture

I can assume the -2 are no hopers with rich parents who could never succeed on their own merit.

"Mummy and Daddy please help I cannot stand on my own two feet"

 

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 06:18 | 6362086 Johnny_is_alrea...
Johnny_is_already_taken's picture

Dont you think it is also merit if I AM SMARTER THAN YOU

I just bought this house cheap for 100k and I menaged to sucker it up to you idiot for 200k because

you are dumb and emotional and you MUST MUST MUST have that house ! 200k ? ohh so cheapppp

Now I'm 100k ritcher!

Isn't it merit also ?

Did I force you to buy it ?

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 05:14 | 6362040 Jack Daniels Esq
Jack Daniels Esq's picture

Impeach all 535 morons + I Criminal-in-Charge for treason, fraud

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 05:27 | 6362049 Blopper
Blopper's picture

The super rich will have no opportunity to spend even half of their wealth without redistributing them back to the middle/poor.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 06:14 | 6362078 Johnny_is_alrea...
Johnny_is_already_taken's picture

This guys bought houses for 100k and sold them to YOU SUCKER for 200k making 100k profit

Now you are under water forever.

is it THEIR fault of your bad judgment ?

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 06:34 | 6362103 brodix
brodix's picture

As every asset is backed by a debt, money is a social contract, not a commodity. As such, it is more like the road, than the car. You own the car, but you only use the road and its liquidity and fungibility is what makes it work. As such, even if you have an expensive car, you don't get more road than necessary.

 It is a glorified voucher system and there is nothing more destructive to a voucher system than piles of surplus vouchers, yet capitalism has metasisized from an efficient medium of exchange, to the production of capital as an end in itself.

Basically money functions in a society like blood functions in the body. The brain might need more than the feet, but it does the brain no good to starve the feet and if it takes more than is necessary, it would have an anurism. The heart and circulation system is like the banking system. You don't want to store excess value in them, as that would be like storing fat in the arteries. Not a good idea.

 Now everyone has been trained to cling to as much money as possible, but that is a bit like the fish clinging to the worm. We replace all social connectivity with this public medium of exchange and it allows those controling it to tax all aspects of society that much more effectively. Go back to treating the people around you well and hopefully it grows into a more organically functioning society. Set up local voucher systems, if necessary. Don't just complain about the powers that be, then worship their strings that control you.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 07:11 | 6362161 BoPeople
BoPeople's picture

As I understand, the intention is for the world to be run from Israel ... at least for a few years (maybe 10).

Money is a fiction, created by bankers, used to steal real wealth from people and countries. This should be obvious. It is also the fiction used to create conflict and enslave people.

Where money goes in the globalized world is irrelevant to the money creation powers. However, it does take power away from the countries and gives it to the bankers. This is by design.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 07:28 | 6362193 overmedicatedun...
overmedicatedundersexed's picture

"no controlling legal authority" a gore vp ..ag holder:"too big to prosecute"..."It's a big club and you and I are not in it" ..some genius named carlin ,rest his soul..

I ask ,what about the above do you not understand? the reason all of this makes no sense: you are dealing with criminals that are above any law..now do we need more lawyers and judges and cops and politicians writing laws for you and me,  that will fix it.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 07:37 | 6362217 besnook
besnook's picture

fundamantal systemic change means a shooting war with the zionazi west and a lot of death sentences in china.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 07:40 | 6362222 brushhog
brushhog's picture

We go down a very dangerous road when we accept the idea that the government has to stop people from "stealing" their own money.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 07:42 | 6362228 Roanman
Roanman's picture

Stupid rant from the usually reliable Mike Krieger.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 08:01 | 6362274 Moribundus
Moribundus's picture

They do not like Putin because he stopped this scenario's application on Russia, + kicked out and imprisoned western agents= oligarchs with khazarian blood

http://off-guardian.org/2015/07/26/damned-lies-and-statistics-the-guardi...

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 09:29 | 6362461 PleasedToMeatYou
PleasedToMeatYou's picture

Yes, what we really need is a state that can and will tax the very same wealth multiple times, no matter where in the world it may be. 

Hey, dat muffuka got money, gimme somma dat shit! 

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 09:51 | 6362560 HopefulCynical
HopefulCynical's picture

"1) Oligarchs create tax loopholes for themselves. Oligarchs control the politicians who write legislation to suit oligarch needs. Whenever you hear politicians talk about taxing the wealthy they mean the suckers in the top 10% who are not politically-connected oligarchs. The super rich will never be touched by such legislation. They will always have loopholes available to them. This is why the statement “we need higher taxes on the rich” is basically a bullshit political talking point."

 

It's actually even worse than a bullshit political talking point. Buffet, Gates and the rest of the parasites use "taxes on the wealthy" to strip wealth away from those who are at the tiers of wealth just below their own. It's a method of eliminating competition. Only psychopaths are allowed on Olympus, you see. Under the current system, only psychopaths are ruthless and unscrupulous enough to amass sufficient wealth to gain admittance. This is by design.

And remember: psychopathy is physiological. There is no curing it. Humanity is going to have to decide whether or not it's going to rise up and cast the self-proclaimed gods from their stolen thrones.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 09:54 | 6362577 Freewheelin Franklin
Freewheelin Franklin's picture

I fully support tax avoidance. Which is why I plan on moving to Delaware from NJ. 

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 10:02 | 6362624 redd_green
redd_green's picture

That's abold move!  Good luck on your journey.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 10:01 | 6362621 redd_green
redd_green's picture

THe billionaires move their money offshore, and its capital controls for the rest of us!!  

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 10:36 | 6362805 Imagery
Imagery's picture

I like your work Mike but careful here.  What you are sugggesting is exactly what these very thiefs do.......steal the wealth and then pass laws to prevent anyone else from thereby come after their very stolen wealth.

We must first return the stolen loot adn try for treason each offender.  Enact the harshest of penalties if found guilty adn lose their charters.  The One Worlders have grown so far and wide that a World-Wide Robespierre moment will be required if humanity is to survive.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 11:12 | 6362913 large_wooden_badger
large_wooden_badger's picture

I would like to travel to this magical land of "offshore" and father many anchor babies. That's where all the money is.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 11:51 | 6363116 Winston Smith 2009
Winston Smith 2009's picture

"What we need is fundamental systemic change. This means truly restructuring the entire financial system, from Central Bank power, to Wall Street funding both political parties, to lengthy jail sentences for financial criminals. If we do that, oligarchs won’t be able to parasitically amass billions so easily in the first place."

Yeah, good luck with that. From Fred Reed, a guy who I don't agree with on all topics, but who I totally agree with on this:

"The educated and thoughtful may have no idea of the night in which the rest live. We tend to associate with people like ourselves. Consequently if you know where Iran is, you probably don’t know anyone who doesn’t. But, a pre-Copernican quarter of the population believes that the sun moves around the earth? As we said in the Sixties, that’s a whole 'nuther head-space... The basalt principle of current American governance is that you can fool enough of the people enough of the time. The smart can safely be ignored. People with capacious and well-stocked mental larders are statistically insignificant. Thus candidates campaign by grinning and smirking, hiding whatever intelligence they may have, and professing sympathy for orphans and the downtrodden."

“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that” - George Carlin


Tue, 07/28/2015 - 12:25 | 6363294 ILikeBoats
ILikeBoats's picture

I don't want the tax loopholes closed ... I want them expanded to everyone!  Let the govt shrink down to a size supported only by import tariffs and the like.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 16:35 | 6364243 honestann
honestann's picture

Oh, right.  More laws.  What BS.  The only solution for predators is extermination.  I hereby give human beings the award for the dumbest creatures in the universe.

Hint:  Stop pretending the fiction people call "government" exists.  Then the human predators you call "oligarchs" won't have a way to manipulate the system to accumulate unearned wealth.  Anyone who gets super-rich because they're hyper-productive is not a problem.  The other 99.999% who steal their wealth (in whole or part) get shot or hung, just like any stickup artist.

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