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).

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

- 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

- Is Nigeria, And Its Light Sweet Crude, About To Be Drawn Into The Mali “Liberation” Campaign? (ZeroHedge, Feb 19, 2013):

Precisely a month ago, when we last looked at the ongoing French campaign in Mali, whose diplomatic justification before the people of the “democratic” world was the eradication of “insurgents”, and various other “Al Qaeda rebels”, we asked readers, rhetorically, to look at a map of Mali and tell us what they see.

We even provided an answer:

“Nothing. Mali is one of the most irrelevant countries in West Africa from a resource standpoint, and what happens inside of it is certainly irrelevant from a greater geopolitical standpoint. What is more important is what this map doesn’t show, specifically the name of the country located a few hundred miles to the south: Nigeria.

Now Nigeria is important: very important. Or rather, Nigerian light sweet, one of the highest quality crudes in the world, is. And thanks to the “bungled” French peacemaking attempt, the US now has a critical foothold in what is the most strategically placed stretch of desert in Western Africa, a place where US “military trainers” will now be deployed at will. Be on the lookout for curious escalations in violence around the capital Abuja, and key port city Lagos, in the coming months once the current Mali fracas is long forgotten.”

It appears that Nigeria will be drawn into the fray far sooner than even we expected following today’s news that Islamist militants from neighboring Nigeria abducted a French family of seven, including four children, in northern Cameroon on Tuesday, French President Francois Hollande said. Next up: Al Qaeda is mysteriously discovered to be aiding and abetting “evil” insurgent Malians out of Nigeria, and the French campaign, with the generous and stealthy support of the US, shifts slowly but surely southward to its ultimate destination: liberating all that Nigerian light sweet oil.

From Reuters:

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Tags: Africa, Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaida, Barack Obama, China, Economy, EU, Europe, France, Francois Hollande, Global News, Government, Mali, Nigeria, Obama administration, Politics, Terrorism, U.S.

- French Socialist Nightmare: ‘The State Cannot Do Everything’ (Testosterone Pit, Feb 8, 2013):

The preannouncement came Thursday evening: PSA Peugeot Citroën, France’s largest automaker, would have a write-down of €4.7 billion. On top of a hefty operating loss. It would be colossal. An all-time record. Rumors spread immediately that PSA would need a bailout. The second in four months.

PSA passenger car sales in France dropped nearly 17% in 2012 from an already awful 2011. In January they dropped another 16.7%. Sales for all automakers dropped 15%, and PSA’s market share had eroded further. Kia-Hyundai sales jumped 21.2%, the only major automaker with gains. Even Volkswagen Group got clobbered: down 23.9%. PSA isn’t internationally diversified enough. It doesn’t have much in China and nothing in the US, the largest markets in the world, both growing. It’s mired in Europe where auto sales have ground to a halt. It’s bleeding €200 million a month. It’s trying to lay off 8,000 workers and shutter its plant in Aulnay-sous-Bois. And its Banque PSA Finance was bailed out last October with €7 billion in taxpayer money.

The government was so worried that it was actively studying a bailout, sources told the Liberation after the losses were announced. It was just hypothetical. “But if a capital infusion would become inevitable, the state could participate,” the source said. Instantly, a cacophony of discord erupted—within the Socialist government.

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Tags: Bailout, Cars, Collapse, Economy, EU, Europe, France, Francois Hollande, Global News, Government, Politics

Related info:

- Depardieu ‘Shrugged’ – Open Letter To French PM Jean-Marc Ayrault (From Gerard Depardieu)

- Comrade Depardieu: France’s Most Famous Millionaire Expat Granted Russian Citizenship (ZeroHedge, Jan 3, 2013):

Thirty years ago, the USSR was better known as the “Evil Empire.” Fast forward to today, when its successor Russia, is apparently the “Tax Free Empire“, and less socialist than France, at least to infamous millionaire expatriate Gérard Depardieu, who as reported previously has paid €145 million in taxes over 45 years, and who demonstratively decided to give up his French passport in the wake of France’s socialist 75% millionaire tax (subsequently ruled unconstitutional), and as of today, has just been granted Russian citizenship.

From AFP, pretty much in its hilarious entirety

Gérard Depardieu, the French actor who has waged a battle against a proposed super-tax on millionaires in his native country, has been granted Russian citizenship.

A brief announcement on the Kremlin website revealed that President Vladimir Putin signed the citizenship grant on Thursday.

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Tags: Francois Hollande, Gerard Depardieu, Global News, Government, Politics, Russia, Vladimir Putin

Before:

- French Constitutional Court Strikes Down 75% Millionaire Tax, Finds It ‘Unfair’

So Obelix will not return:

- Depardieu ‘Shrugged’ – Open Letter To French PM Jean-Marc Ayrault (From Gerard Depardieu)

- Gerard Depardieu Is Latest Refugee From French Millionaire Tax, Escapes To Belgium

- France Seeks New Path to High Tax (Wall Street Journal, Dec 31, 2012):

PARIS—The government of Socialist President François Hollande on Sunday said it would consider other ways of imposing a top income-tax rate of 75% on high-wealth individuals after the country’s top constitutional authority scrapped the plan.

The Constitutional Council’s decision is a political blow to Mr. Hollande, who had vowed to shift to the rich the burden of efforts to improve the country’s finances.

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

- Depardieu ‘Shrugged’ (ZeroHedge, Dec 16, 2012):

Via Emmanuel Martin, Executive Director of
the Institute for Economic Studies-Europe (www.ies-europe.org) and editor of www.LibreAfrique.org.,

Last week the big story in French headlines has been the tax exile of Gerard Depardieu in Nechin, Belgium, half a mile from the French border. French PM Jean-Marc Ayrault called the French movie star’s behavior “minable” (pathetic). A socialist MP, Yann Galut, even suggested that M. Depardieu loses his French nationality. In an open letter in the Journal Du Dimanche on December 16, Depardieu, who famously starred as Obélix, the big Gallic fellow of Astérix, carrying menhirs on his back – and sometimes throwing them at the Romans, replies. With a taste of Ayn Rand’s famous character John Galt. Gerard shrugged.

Depardieu begins by saying that what is pathetic is to call his behavior pathetic. Although he does not want to justify the many reasons of his choice, he makes it clear that he leaves after paying 85% of taxes on his income this year and € 145 million through his entire life; He leaves because the French PM thinks that “success, creation and talent, in fact difference, must be punished”. He then reminds Jean-Marc Ayrault that he set up companies that employ 80 people. Depardieu says he is ready to give up his French passport and his “Social Security” (the French public health care system, which he claims he never used).

This letter is important.

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Tags: Belgium, Economy, EU, Europe, France, Francois Hollande, Gerard Depardieu, Global News, Government, Jean-Marc Ayrault, Politics, Society, Taxes, Taxpayers

- Gerard Depardieu Is Latest Refugee From French Millionaire Tax; Escapes To Belgium (ZeroHedge, Dec 10, 2012):

Three months ago many were angry and surprised (or not at all, as realistically this was a perfectly logical move), when Bernard Arnault, head of LVMH and the richest man in socialist France, decided he had had enough, and would move to Belgium to avoid Hollande’s punitive taxes on France’s wealthiest. The indignant media’s mocking response in France was fast and furious, with many delighted to see the billionaire leave. We wonder how the media will respond as more and more wealthy Frenchmen decide, now that the seal has been broken, to do just that and leave France to its grassroots movement where it is only “fair” that those who have more income and/or wealth, pay more than everyone else to keep the myth of the ponzi scheme formerly known as the welfare state alive and well. Such as one of France’s most popular actors, Gerard Depardieu, who is the latest high profile departure to leave his native country and go to Belgium to avoid the second coming of the “fairness doctrine” (the first one of course, doing less than spectacularly with that whole USSR thing).

From The Independent:

Gerard Depardieu is to leave his French homeland for Belgium in order to pay less tax.

The actor is the latest high profile figure to leave France after a series of wealth tax hikes by President Francois Hollande.

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Tags: Belgium, Economy, EU, France, Francois Hollande, Gerard Depardieu, Global News, Government, Politics

- France and the euro – The time-bomb at the heart of Europe (Economist, Nov 17, 2012):

Why France could become the biggest danger to Europe’s single currency

THE threat of the euro’s collapse has abated for the moment, but putting the single currency right will involve years of pain. The pressure for reform and budget cuts is fiercest in Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy, which all saw mass strikes and clashes with police this week (see article). But ahead looms a bigger problem that could dwarf any of these: France.

The country has always been at the heart of the euro, as of the European Union. President François Mitterrand argued for the single currency because he hoped to bolster French influence in an EU that would otherwise fall under the sway of a unified Germany. France has gained from the euro: it is borrowing at record low rates and has avoided the troubles of the Mediterranean. Yet even before May, when François Hollande became the country’s first Socialist president since Mitterrand, France had ceded leadership in the euro crisis to Germany. And now its economy looks increasingly vulnerable as well.

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Tags: Collapse, Debt, EU, Euro, Europe, Francois Hollande, Global News, Government, Politics, Society

- The French Great Socialist Revolution Will Be Homework-Free, And Very, Very Cold (ZeroHedge, Oct 19, 2012):

Whereas some may have welcomed the latest development in the Great French Socialist Revolution chronicles, primarily those 8-16 year olds who would directly benefit from president Francois Hollande’s attempt to capture the vote of those still ineligible to actually vote, by promising to do away with homework (because it encourages “inequality” as homework apparently “favors the wealthy”), everyone else saw right through it for the sad attempt at populism it was. Luckily, the impact of this idiotic policy, if it were to actually pass, would not be visible for at least a decade at which point French society would be so dumb (not to mention poor) that few would actually care. However, another proposal being currently contemplated in France may have far more immediate terminal consequences to the life expectancies of those personally experiencing the reincarnation of wholesale of socialism. Because as Bloomberg notes, “Heating a French home could soon require an income tax consultation or even a visit to the doctor under legislation to force conservation in the nation’s $46 billion household energy market.” Congratulations Europe: in your ongoing crusade of wealth redistribution (when all this could have been averted if you, and the US, had simply allowed the banks who control your society to collapse), you are about to make heating one’s home a privilege for the despised Bourgeoisie, an act which must be monetarily punished, and socially ostracized.More on this sad and pathetic at the same time development, coming to broke socialist countries near you: Continue reading »

Tags: Collapse, Dictatorship, Economy, EU, Europe, France, Francois Hollande, George Orwell, Global News, Government, New World Order, Politics, Society