"F. George McDuffee" wrote in message
...
On 25 May 2010 23:46:32 GMT, Eregon
wrote:

Don't blame the Obamanation - blame the Unions and the States!

http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/Texas-business-states-CEO/2010/05/24/id/359954?s=al&promo_code=9F17-1

Newsmax
Texas No. 1 on 'Best-for-Business' State List for CEOs
Monday, May 24, 2010 12:59 PM
By: Dan Weil
snip
========
Your concern is appropriate and quite understandable. While
this article is appealing at one level, this fails to
recognize the old syllogism that was operational over much
of the life of the republic is no longer functional and has
not been for the last 20* years or so. That is:

"When American companies are successful,
America is successful; and
When America is successful,
Americans are successful."

* [NAFTA ratified by the Senate in Dec 93, in force 01 Jan
1994 but preceded by very considerable lobbying/bribery
efforts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_A...rade_Agreement
]

The major problem appears to be there are no longer any
major American companies in the traditional sense of making
things here, exporting some, and generating American profits
and taxes, only transnational corporations domiciled in the
U.S., more or less as an accident of history, with their
major manufacturing and markets overseas, products sold in
the U.S. manufactured abroad and imported, all taxes avoided
if not evaded, and foreign profits never repatriated and
subject to U.S. taxes, i.e. stockholder dividends. Two
examples are GMC and Goldman-Sachs.

The world appears to have stumbled/lurched/staggered its way
into a de facto corporate [fascist] state where the
trappings, cant, rhetoric, symbols, procedures, etc. of
democracy and the free market remain, but only as relics
under glass. While the outer trappings of the fascist
states such as party militias, mass rallies, personality
cults, and concentration camps are [so far] absent this time
around as these have been unnecessary and not cost
effective, the bedrock principal of "consent of the
governed" is now largely non-operational.

It is worth noting that the states at the top of the Newsmax
list: Texas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, have all
retained their "old-fashioned" manufacturing operations with
real value added operations, while the bottom states
California, New York, Michigan, New Jersey, and
Massachusetts have largely shifted to the new consumer based
service economy, where money magically appears as it is
transferred from company to company.

In all likelihood it will never be possible to restore the
status quo ante American economy, but if this attempt is to
be successful, the genie must be forced back into his
bottle, i.e. transnational supragovernmental corporations
and markets must be broken and their successors never
allowed to again escape sovereign governmental control and
oversight.
--

-- Unka George (George McDuffee)

What do you think of the EU proposal to create a global
financial transaction tax? IMHO this might be a way to
recapture the taxes lost when corporations relocate to
tax heavens. If i understand correctley it works like
a poker game where the house takes a piece of the
pot on every hand delt. If all nations adopt such a tax
it could work.

Best Regards
Tom.

On Wed, 26 May 2010 00:52:48 -0700, "azotic"
wrote:
snip
What do you think of the EU proposal to create a global
financial transaction tax? IMHO this might be a way to
recapture the taxes lost when corporations relocate to
tax heavens. If i understand correctley it works like
a poker game where the house takes a piece of the
pot on every hand delt. If all nations adopt such a tax
it could work.
=========
For a more complete explication see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobin_tax
http://www.tobintax.org/factsheet.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...erce-tobin-tax
and many more on google

As indicated above, the original Tobin tax would have
applied only currency transactions. Currency
trading/speculation became important only after the
collapse/abandonment of the Breeton Woods fixed exchange
rate mechanism based on gold in 1971, which resulted from
the U.S. unilateral abandonment of the gold standard by
Richard Nixon on 15 Aug 1971.

More than likely Dr. Tobin would have included all financial
transactions in his original proposal if "high volume"/flash
computerized trading had existed in 1972, but less than one
year into the "floating"/free market exchange rates,
currency exchange transactions were the problem area.

In popular usage the Tobin tax has been expanded to include
all financial transactions in order to prove some dampening
of the surges, spikes and oscillations, analogous to the
shock absorbers/dampers on automobiles.

The Tobin tax of c. 0.50% on each financial transaction
should have minimal effect on "legitimate" transactions, as
these tend to be long term and infrequent. Such a tax would
be devastating to the short-term investors [i.e.
speculators] as this is in excess of the profits they make
on most of their individual transactions. The imposition
of the Tobin tax will operationally eliminate the profits
from day and "high volume"/flash computerized trading, which
is all to the good for the vast majority of people. This
also applies the time-tested principal "if you want more of
something -- subsidize it; if you want less of something --
tax it."

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel is to be highly commended
for acting while others talk, talk, talk, as their domestic
economies burn [or are burned] to the ground. In addition
to proposing a "Tobin" tax Chancellor Merkel has imposed
bans on the naked short sales of not only selected [German]
stocks and bonds, but perhaps even more importantly
derivatives [CDS] based on these financial instruments and
Euro denominated governmental bonds.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...QDytsqME&pos=5

Other than the pandemic pusillanimity of the U.S.
administration and Congress, there is no reason why the same
basic steps could not be taken here, and the bungee jumping
U.S. stock markets tamed, even if this does result in a much
more realistic/sensible valuation of c. 6,000 DJIA. ==Note
to the high rollers: if you want "action," go play in Vegas
or Atlantic City, not the financial markets, and use/lose
your own money.==
--

-- Unka George (George McDuffee)
...............................
The past is a foreign country;
they do things differently there.
L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author.
The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).

As a follow-up -- if you find this thread of interest (and
you should if you're in the money economy) take a look at
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/;kw=[36899,157778]
Wall Street's War
Congress looked serious about finance reform – until
America's biggest banks unleashed an army of 2,000 paid
lobbyists

From the same people that called Goldman-Sachs the "vampire
squid."


-- Unka George (George McDuffee)
...............................
The past is a foreign country;
they do things differently there.
L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author.
The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).