Monday, October 1, 2012

Here Is Who Gets Taxed To Fund The French 'Fairness Doctrine' Socialist Dream


As we discussed earlier, the French budget  can be summed up as state spending will be frozen (not cut), tax and social contribution increases for households, and companies will see approximately 8% of their current after-tax profits vacuumed up by the government. But it is high-income earners that face a sharp adjustment. On the household side, SocGen notes the flagship measures will be: a new 75% income tax on incomes of €1 mln or more, the Wealth tax (ISF) band to return to the status quo ante (before Mr Sarkozy), the taxation of capital income in line with labor income, and new limits on tax breaks or the freezing of the income tax schedule (except for low income earners). The government expects income tax receipts to increase from €59bn in 2012 to €72.6bn in 2013 (+23%). Income taxes are expected to decline for the 8 lowest deciles (80% lowest incomes) and that the bulk of the income tax increases will affect the top 5% of incomes. A simple rule of thumb suggests that those latter households could experience a 40-50% increase in their income tax bills.



France Unveils A 'Growth-Killer' Budget For 2013


Following closely on the heels of Spain's budget and banking audit debacle, France prepares to unveil its budget (taxing business, bankers, and beer). The positive spin will be deafening as politicians are already proclaiming 'realistic and ambitious' growth targets as getting the country 'back on the rails'. UnMondeLibre's Emmanuel Martin comments "How ironic? The French Presidential candidate who once campaigned with the slogan of 'growth vs. austerity' is now, as President, preparing to give the French the biggest taxation shock ever – a growth killer that is." What matters is the type of path to fiscal responsibility, and, unfortunately, Mr Hollande chose 'austerity with more taxes and no reform'. With France being a crucial player in the Euro-game, one wonders whether this might actually not mean the end of the Euro sooner.



Is China's Communist Party Doomed?

For all the obvious reasons, China's ruling elites will do their best in the next few months to project an image of unity and self-confidence, and to convince the rest of the world that the next generation of leaders is capable of maintaining the party's political monopoly. That is, unfortunately, a tough sell.  Confidence in the party's internal cohesion and leadership has already been shaken by the Bo affair, endemic corruption, stagnation of reform in the last decade, a slowing economy, deteriorating relations with neighbors and the United States, and growing social unrest.  The questions on many people's minds these days are how long the party can hold on to its power and whether the party can manage a democratic transition to save itself. China is in a socioeconomic environment in which autocratic governance becomes increasingly illegitimate and untenable as its rapid economic development has thrust the country past what is commonly known as the 'democratic transition zone' where autocratic regimes face increasing odds of regime change as income rises.



China Manufacturing Disappoints Expansion Expectation, Contracts For Second Month

Following HSBC's PMI data, China's official Manufacturing PMI just printed well below economists' expectations and is now signaling contraction for the second month in a row. Critically the expectation was for a return to expansion at 50.1 but the data came at 49.8 - still marginally higher MoM. Most sub-indices improved modestly from August but of most interest was the fifth month-in-a-row that the employment index dropped. For all the iron-ore-recovery believers, the Inventories of Raw Materials index also jumped by its most in three months as Input Prices also surged for the second month in a row. So contraction confirmed, a CCP in 'leadership' turmoil, and a PBOC stymied by inflationary concerns and the need to push through structural reform.



It's No Fun In Iran

Since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad first became President of Iran, in August 2005, the country's economy has gone from bad to worse. As Steve 'hyperinflation' Hanke noted recently, the Iranian economy has been kept afloat - barely afloat - by oil revenues. Shortly after Ahmadinejad took power, Iran began to draw the ire of the United States and its allies over a number of issues related to its nuclear ambitions and this 'loose' coalition of allies has ratcheted up economic sanctions. These sanctions are starting to have very significant impacts. From the Rial's greater-than-50% plunge to estimated inflation rates over 70%, the country's 'Misery Index', as noted in Bloomberg's Chart-of-the-day, has surged massively in recent months. For context, Iran's Misery score of 106 currently compares to Egypt's pre-Arab Spring Misery score of around 40! Whether the sanctions' "bite" will cause the regime to dig their heels in more and/or force the people to openly revolt (or turn their anger on the sanction-enforcing aggressor?), it truly is no fun in Iran.



Too Much Money And Credit (TMMAC)

Richard Daughty, a.k.a., 'The Mogambo Guru' at Mogambo Guru Report! - 4 hours ago
September 28, 2012 Mogambo Guru I put it off as long as I could, and as distasteful as it was, I finally broke it to the family that I was, alas, being forced to cut expenses, mostly because I don't have a job anymore, and will almost surely never get another one. "Never get a job," I think, silently chortling to myself, "until they start advertising for 'Lazy old man to work, when he is in the mood, for premium pay and generous benefits for doing practically nothing, if anything, a couple of days per week or month." Immediately, the members of the family unit... more » 

Ahead Of Major October Redemptions, Spanish Treasury Cash Slides To Two Year Low


A month ago, when we first presented the dwindling Spanish treasury cash position, we wrote: "once the next Spanish State Liability update is posted, we wouldn't be surprised to see this number plunge to a new post-Lehman low. Yet what is scariest is that all else equal (and it never is), at the current run rate Spain may well run out of cash by the end of the year even assuming it manages to conclude all its remaining auctions through year's end without a glitch." The August cash balance update was just released by the Banco de Espana, and there's good news, unsurprising news and bad news.




Key Events In The Weeks Ahead

The following is a comprehensive list of key events to watch over the next several weeks – events that could have very significant bearing on how the euro sovereign debt crisis evolves.








China Bails Out World's Largest Maker Of Solar Panels

Chinese local governments are facing the prospect of major unemployment problems should the swathe of solar panel makers, that have been subsidized from birth to now-near-death, continue to suffer from US and European tariffs (as well as simple gross mis-allocation of capital amid massive over-capacity). However, as is the way of the mal-investing world today, no barrier to rational economic theory is too low for government status-quo maintenance as it would appear that local banks have been strong-armed into extending loans to keep them alive. As Reuters reports, debt-laden (NYSE-traded) SunTech Power Holdings  - which is close to removal from the exchange due to its dismal equity price - has just received new 'bailout' loans. First, it was a race to debase. Now, we have the race to bailout the world's most worthless companies (especially in channel-stuffed industries) as the New Normal trade wars continue.



Rob Gray: WHAT IS MONEY and Where Do We Go From Here?

Rob Gray of The American Open Currency Standard joins me to talk about what solutions we the PEOPLE have to combat the FED’s criminal printing press. Ron Paul correctly argues that COMPETING CURRENCIES are the answer to the monetary mischief of the powers that be. And some communities are doing just that – embracing alternative currencies to compete with the FED’s fiat Dollars. Rob is the mind behind the beautiful Lakota rounds and the new Silver Bullet Silver Shield rounds, which are available here. Rob & I also talk about the risks of returning to a gold standard when the world’s wealthiest families own most of the gold!

    

U.S. ‘Drowning In Unemployment,’ Says Federal Reserve Member

by Wynton Hall, Breitbart.com:
On Friday, Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher said the U.S. is “drowning in unemployment” and that the Fed’s monetary easing was not the solution; certainty on taxes and regulation are what’s needed to jump start hiring.
Mr. Fisher’s comments, delivered during a speech at the University of Texas at Dallas, highlighted the intractable nature of unemployment over the last few years and the folly of so-called “quantitative easing” by the Federal Reserve.
“A short-term fix to the fiscal cliff will do nothing but push out the envelope of indecision and we will continue to be plagued by high unemployment,” Fisher said. “We’ve had a recovery that is quite disappointing….We’ve never been here before so none of us know how we’re going to navigate out of this particular quadrant of the liquidity pool in this ocean of money. And what I’m concerned about is that we may be painting ourselves into a corner,” he said.
Read More @ Breitbart.com


Fire Congress, Vote Out Incumbents

by Justin Raimondo, Global Research:

For politicians to do what is right, first citizens must do what is right.
Of all the many, many stupid things that most Americans do, nothing is more insane than the ritual every two years of reelecting incumbent members of Congress.  Countless opinion polls find that the public has incredibly low levels of positive regard for Congress.  Just one in 10 Americans approves of the job Congress is doing, according to a Gallup poll released a few weeks ago, tying the branch’s lowest approval rating in 38 years.
Yet this year as in past years, unless Americans take back control of their country, voters will again reelect nearly all incumbents.  Often, some incumbents do not even have any significant opposition.  For example, in the 2000 election cycle, out of 435 House seats, 64 members had no major-party opponent, and in 2008 every House race in Arkansas was uncontested by a major party according to the Center for Voting and Democracy.  Political redesign of congressional districts, gerrymandering, is widely done to ensure reelection of incumbents or one party.
Read More @ GlobalResearch.ca


Great Interview With Charles Goyette – Bernanke is a Hardcore Keynesian

from AltInvestorsHangout:

Charles Goyette is the author of Red and Blue, and Broke All Over. Charles discusses:
(1) How Bernanke is out of his mind and how he’s a hardcore Keynesian.
(2) How Europe will collapse
(3) How both parties are taking away our liberties.


Germany told to ‘come clean’ over Greece

German Chancellor Angela Merkel must “come clean at long last” and admit that Greece will need help for another seven or eight years, the German opposition leader said over the weekend.
by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Telegraph:

“The Greeks must stand by their commitment, but we must give them time. We cannot tighten the screws any futher,” said Peer Steinbruck, the Social Democrat candidate for chancellor. He said the political and economic fall-out from Greek ejection from the euro would be devastating and must be avoided.
The plea came amid reports that Berlin is so worried that a Greek crisis would spin out of control that it is ready to back the next €31bn payment to Athens under its EU-IMF Troika rescue, despite failure to comply with the terms. Wirtschaftswoche, a German news magazine, said Greece’s parliament merely needs to vote on a list of detailed reforms.
It cited warnings from a top EU official that “domino-effect” dangers are too great to allow the ejection of Greece from EMU. Authorities across the world – including the Bank of England – fear a surge of capital flight from Portugal, Ireland, Spain, and Italy if the sanctity of monetary union is violated.
Read More @ Telegraph.co.uk


Australian Government Now Spies on Its Citizens More than the US Government Does

by Andrew Puhanic, Activist Post

The Australian Government has now been labelled as the most intrusive government in the Western world.
It has been revealed that on a per-capita basis, the Australian government spies on its citizens more than any other Western government.
In 2010-2011, more than 3,400 Australians had been spied on by more than 17 government law enforcement agencies. This includes state and federal police agencies, the Australian Tax Office (ATO) and Medicare.
The shocking truth is that these government agencies can access telephone and Internet data records without a warrant from a judge.
Read More @ Activist Post


Living Through A Currency Devaluation

from Silver Doctors:

With The Fed now two weeks into it’s official QE∞ policy, and with calls this week by Fed Presidents Evans and Plosser for even further easing-bringing a devaluation/hyperinflation of the dollar one step closer by the day, we thought it apropos to republish StackerX’s account and experiences recognizing, surviving, and even profiting from a fiat currency devaluation.
Those who recall the account may benefit from re-examining the lesson, and for those unfamiliar with the account of the 1976 Mexican Peso devaluation, this is an ABSOLUTE MUST READ as the US is rapidly descending into full-blown Banana Republic status.

In 1976 I was managing an American subsidiary of a successful large US Company in Mexico. It had been a financial turnaround for our team. Cash flow had accumulated in our bank in Mexico and corporate didn’t want the money repatriated to the US. Although we had already paid a 35% income tax to the Mexican government, we would have to pay an additional 30% exit tax to repatriate the money. In addition, we would have to pay high fees for the peso/dollar exchange, in order to make the transfer. The company wanted to expand our successful business and so we decided to keep the money in Mexican pesos to be used for further expansion.
Read More @ Silver Doctors


Defeat of Position Limits, A Direct Threat to Precious Metals Potential

The message has been sent to the primary manipulative forces in the markets for commodities: “You may continue to influence prices contrary to the interest of the global economy at will.
by James West, Gold Seek:
I can’t say as I’m surprised by the announcement late Friday that lobbyists representing JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, among others, had successfully obtained a judgement quashing the proposed position limits on speculative traders in commodities.
According to Bloomberg: “U.S. District Judge Robert Wilkins in Washington today ruled that the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act is unclear as to whether the agency was ordered by Congress to cap the number of contracts a trader can have in oil, natural gas and other commodities without first assessing whether the rule was necessary and appropriate.
Read More @ GoldSeek.com


Mainstream media called out for complete blackout on GMO health risks

by Jonathan Benson, Natural News:

The recent release of the first ever long-term study to examine the consequences of prolonged consumption of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) has set the world ablaze, with individual citizens and even government officials now calling for an immediate embargo on all things GMO. But strangely silent in all this has been The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, BBC, and various other mainstream media groups based in the U.K., none of which have bothered to even mention the study in any of their reports.
The results of the study, which Natural News has already covered extensively (http://www.naturalnews.com), were so shocking that even many mainstream media outlets in the U.S. covered them, although with plenty of obvious bias. Even so, the U.K.-based media has largely ignored the findings altogether, which most certainly call into question to whom their allegiances lies — with the people or with the biotechnology industry, who appear to be trying to protect from public scrutiny?
Read More @ NaturalNews.com


Supply Chain Management in the Mortgage Banking Industry

A mortgage is really a marketing plan to induce you to assume your role in the world economic system without you knowing about it.
by Vermont Trotter, Chink in the Armor:
In April of 2000, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter produced a white paper for their more sophisticated investors entitled “The B2B Internet Report: Collaborative Commerce”. This report was a snapshot of how the internet had influenced commerce up to that time. It also speculated how the internet was due to influence commerce into the future. It demonstrated how the internet had made information more transparent between business partners and how business partners, both buyers and sellers, would benefit from deeper collaboration in online B2B Commerce.
“B2B [business to business] is closer to a construction project with many synchronized processes between specialists, whereas B2C [business to consumer] is closer to buying the house once all that’s been completed. Unlike B2C, there’s a lot more to relationships between trading partners in the B2B world. These “collaborations” – shared, essential business processes, which facilitate commerce – represent obstacle and opportunity. Almost every business process between business partners can be improved or completely restructured by taking it online.
Throughout the 90’s and the early 2000’s, the sort of consolidation and collaborative online business relationships this paper reported upon developed and continued to develop as predicted.
Read More @ ChinkintheArmor.net


Bibi Cries, Obama Lies: What else is new?

by James Fetzer, VeteransToday.com:
The situation is quite absurd: Bibi Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, gives a new twist to the old term, “Cry, Bibi! Cry!”, which captures to a “t” his distress at not getting the war he wanted, as Mike Rivero has explained below.
And as though to demonstrate that the President of the United States, Barack Obama, himself believes childish fantasies that no person above the age of 12 continues to accept, he has also appeared at the UN to assert that “Al Qaeda has been weakened and Osama bin Laden is no more” and by subtle implication reaffirm the “official account” of 9/11, according to which 19 Islamic terrorists had hijacked four commercial carriers, outfoxed the most sophisticated air defense system in the world, committing the atrocities of 9/11 under the control of a man in a cave in Afghanistan, who would die–for the second time–to promote the political agenda, not this time of Bush and Cheney, but of Barack Obama.
Read More @ VeteransToday.com





The Federal Reserve Sends Thank You Letters To Congress For Letting Them Destroy Our Economy In Secret

The Federal Reserve continues to pump up this “bubble economy” by recklessly printing money and by setting interest rates artificially low, and the U.S. Congress continues to stand aside and allow them to systematically destroy our economy.  The U.S. Congress could choose to end this madness at any time, but the truth is that Congress won’t even pass a law that would allow the American people to see what is going on over at the Federal Reserve.  Congress has voted down every single bill that would authorize a comprehensive audit of the Federal Reserve.  So the folks over at the Fed will continue to be able to destroy our future in secret.  In fact, back in July Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke actually sent five thank you letters to members of Congress that gave speeches on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives encouraging their fellow lawmakers to vote against the bill to audit the Fed.  Since the U.S. Congress continues to refuse to do anything to hold the Federal Reserve accountable, the Fed will continue to print unprecedented amounts of money, it will continue to set interest rates insanely low and it will continue to pump up the greatest debt bubble in the history of the world.  Unfortunately, all debt bubbles eventually burst, and when this one does it is going to be a financial nightmare unlike anything we have ever seen before.
It was Politico that first broke the story about the thank you letters that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sent to five members of Congress back in July.  Bernanke acknowledged in the letters that there was never any worry that the “Audit the Fed” bill would actually get through Congress and be signed into law, but he was still extremely grateful that a number of members of Congress got up and publicly denounced the bill….
Read More @ TheEconomicCollpaseBlog.com



MUST WATCH... All of it...

‘In the Shadow of Hermes’ documentary by Jüri Lina (Full Length)

from 21stCenturyWireTV:

Even today in 2012, ardent socialists and middle class activists continue romanticize about past revolutions and communist exploits. Contrary to popular myth, many of the so-called ‘socialist’ revolutions and wars of independence were not organic, grass-roots movements at all. Historical evidence suggests that both the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and the United States Revolution were Masonic-led, employing American, European and Swiss banker-financed plots to consolidate power, planting the seeds for a New World Order in the 20th and 21st Centuries.


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