Infinite Unknown

Gerard Depardieu  recently received a Russian passport after giving up his French citizenship, saying he was doing so to avoid a new tax rate of 75 percent on the highest incomes.

- Taxes on some wealthy French top 100 pct of income: paper (Reuters, May 18, 2013):

More than 8,000 French households’ tax bills topped 100 percent of their income last year, the business newspaper Les Echos reported on Saturday, citing Finance Ministry data.

The newspaper said that the exceptionally high level of taxation was due to a one-off levy last year on 2011 incomes for households with assets of more than 1.3 million euros ($1.67 million).

Continue reading »

Tags: Economy, EU, Europe, France, Francois Hollande, Global News, Government, Politics, Taxes, Taxpayers

- France Double-Dips As European Recession Is Now Longest On Record (ZeroHedge, May 15, 2013)

Tags: Collapse, Economy, EU, Europe, France, Germany, Global News

- US may face inevitable nuclear power exit (PHYS.org, May 1, 2013):

In a 2012 report, the Obama administration announced that it was “jumpstarting” the nuclear industry. Because of the industry’s long history of permitting problems, cost overruns, and construction delays, financial markets have been wary of backing new nuclear construction for decades. The supposed “nuclear renaissance” ballyhooed in the first decade of this century never materialized. And then came Fukushima, a disaster that pushed countries around the world to ask: Should nuclear power be part of the energy future? In the third and final issue in a series focused on nuclear exits, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published by SAGE, turns its attention to the United States and looks at whether the country’s business-as-usual approach may yet lead to a nuclear phase-out for economic reasons.

Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, France, Germany, Global News, Government, NRC, Nuclear, Nuclear reactors, Obama administration, Politics, U.S.

- German euro founder calls for ‘catastrophic’ currency to be broken up (Telegraph, May 5, 2013):

Oskar Lafontaine, the German finance minister who launched the euro, has called for a break-up of the single currency to let southern Europe recover, warning that the current course is “leading to disaster”.

“The economic situation is worsening from month to month, and unemployment has reached a level that puts democratic structures ever more in doubt,” he said.

“The Germans have not yet realised that southern Europe, including France, will be forced by their current misery to fight back against German hegemony sooner or later,” he said, blaming much of the crisis on Germany’s wage squeeze to gain export share.

Continue reading »

Tags: Collapse, Economy, EU, Euro, Europe, France, Germany, Global News, Government, Oskar Lafontaine, Politics

- China Takes Another Stab At The Dollar, Launches Currency Swap Line With France (ZeroHedge, April 13, 2013):

One more domino in the dollar reserve supremacy regime falls. Following the announcement two weeks ago that “Australia And China will Enable Direct Currency Convertibility“, which in turn was the culmination of two years of Yuan internationalization efforts as summarized by the following: “World’s Second (China) And Third Largest (Japan) Economies To Bypass Dollar, Engage In Direct Currency Trade“, “China, Russia Drop Dollar In Bilateral Trade“, “China And Iran To Bypass Dollar, Plan Oil Barter System“, “India and Japan sign new $15bn currency swap agreement“, “Iran, Russia Replace Dollar With Rial, Ruble in Trade, Fars Says“, “India Joins Asian Dollar Exclusion Zone, Will Transact With Iran In Rupees“, and “The USD Trap Is Closing: Dollar Exclusion Zone Crosses The Pacific As Brazil Signs China Currency Swap“, China has now launched yet another feeler to see what the apetite toward its currency is, this time in the heart of the Eurozone: Paris. According to China Daily, as reported by Reuters, “France intends to set up a currency swap line with China to make Paris a major offshore yuan trading hub in Europe, competing against London.” As a reminder the BOE and the PBOC announced a currency swap line back in February, in effect linking up the CNY to the GBP. Now it is the EUR’s turn.

More on this curious move by the Bank of France and the PBOC from Reuters: Continue reading »

Tags: Brazil, China, Collapse, Dollar, Economy, EU, Euro, Europe, France, Global News, Government, India, Iran, Japan, Politics, Russia, U.S., Yuan

-The Entire Economy Is a Ponzi Scheme (ZeroHedge, April 13, 2013):

Bill Gross, Nouriel Roubini, Laurence Kotlikoff, Steve Keen, Michel Chossudovsky, the Wall Street Journal and many others say that our entire economy is a Ponzi scheme.

Former Reagan budget director David Stockman just agreed:

YouTube Added: 10.04.2013

So did a top Russian con artist and mathematician.

Even the New York Times’ business page asked, “Was [the] whole economy a Ponzi scheme?”

In fact – as we’ve noted for 4 years (and here and here) – the banking system is entirely insolvent. And so are most countries. The whole notion of one country bailing out another country is a farce at this point. The whole system is insolvent.

As we noted last year: Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Bill Gross, Bonds, Debt, EFSF, ESM, EU, Europe, France, Germany, Global News, Government, Greece, Italy, Joseph Stiglitz, Laurence Kotlikoff, Michel Chossudovsky, Nouriel Roubini, Obama administration, Politics, Portugal, Spain, U.S.

- Carmen Reinhart: “No Doubt. Our Pensions Are Screwed.” (ZeroHedge, April 11, 2013):

“The crisis isn’t over yet,” warns Carmen Reinhart, “not in the US and not in Europe.” Known for her deep understanding that ‘it’s never different this time’, the Harvard economist drops the truth grenade a number of times in this excellent Der Spiegel interview. Sweeping away the sound and fury of a self-serving Federal Reserve or BoJ, she chides, “no central bank will admit it is keeping rates low to help governments out of their debt crises. But in fact they are bending over backwards to help governments to finance their deficits,” and guess what, “this is nothing new in history.”

After World War II, all countries that had a big debt overhang relied on financial repression to avoid an explicit default. After the war, governments imposed interest rate ceilings for government bonds; but, nowadays, she explains, “monetary policy is doing the job. And with high unemployment and low inflation that doesn’t even look suspicious. Only when inflation picks up, which is ultimately going to happen, will it become obvious that central banks have become subservient to governments.”

Nations “seldom just grow themselves out of debt,” as so many believe is possible, “you need a combination of austerity, so that you don’t add further to the pile of debt, and higher inflation, which is effectively a subtle form of taxation,” with the consequence that people are going to lose their savings. Reinhart succinctly summarizes, “no doubt, our pensions are screwed.”

This will take 3 minutes to read – read it. Understand what she is saying. Continue reading »

Tags: China, ECB, EU, Europe, Fed, Federal Reserve, France, GDP, Global News, Government, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Pension, Politics, Retirement, Spain, U.S.

- My Talk With An Endangered Species: An Entrepreneur In France (Testosterone Pit, April 5, 2013):

“I need to hire more people, but the government won’t let me,” said my friend, an internet entrepreneur in France, one of the intrepid figures still slugging it out over there—in a country whose relentlessly deteriorating unemployment problem is gnawing at the very fabric of society.

We spent an hour and a half on Skype, talking about topics that were a bit, let’s say, delicate under the current regime in France. So he and his company, both well known, will remain unnamed. He has been successful in the startup sense: his company has had two solid rounds of funding from venture capital investors. VCs are another phenomenon that hasn’t gone extinct in France yet, testimony to the mind-boggling human capacity to adapt and survive no matter how hostile the environment.

Continue reading »

Tags: Businesses, Economy, EU, Europe, France, Global News, Government, Politics, Society

- UK troops arrive in Mali to back up French war (PressTV, March 28, 2013):

British troops have begun arriving in Mali as part of the UK government’s commitment to help France’s war on the West African country, it has been announced.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed that some 21 soldiers from the 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment arrived in the Malian capital of Bamako on Tuesday.

They will also be joined by further 19 troops drawn from 45 Commando Royal Marines and 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery.

Continue reading »

Tags: Africa, France, Global News, Government, Mali, Military, Politics, U.K., War

- Another European Politican Exposed As Complete Liar (ZeroHedge, April 2, 2013):

Remember this guy?

This would be Jerome Cahuzac, the French “budget minister” who was tasked with rooting out tax fraud by his socialist “75% tax or the capitalist pigs win” overlord, and who resigned two weeks ago to avoid “hindering” an investigation into allegations he had a secret Swiss account, all the while maintaining his innocence? Well, he was just exposed as the latest lying Eurocrat politicians.

• FORMER FRENCH BUDGET MINISTER SAYS LIED ABOUT BANK ACCOUNT
• EX-FRENCH BUDGET MINISTER SAYS HAS HAD THE FOREIGN BANK ACCOUNT FOR ABOUT 20 YEARS
• EX-FRENCH BUDGET MINISTER SAYS HAD EU600,000 IN FOREIGN ACCOUNT
• EX-FRENCH BUDGET MINISTER APOLOGIZES TO HOLLANDE, AYRAULT

Where did he make the confession?

• EX-FRENCH BUDGET MINISTER COMMENTED ON HIS BLOG TODAY

The take home:

• EX-FRENCH BUDGET MINISTER SAYS `CAUGHT IN SPIRAL OF LIES’

In other words: just another politician.

But that’s ok: it got serious - he could have gone to jail or been fired in disgrace, so naturally he had to lie.

Tags: EU, Europe, France, Francois Hollande, Fraud, Global News, Government, Jerome Cahuzac, Politics, tax