American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture
Read his post, and check out the graph:
(click on graph for large version)
No wonder Putin’s unhappy.
This is not going to make you happy: The Government Generously Offers To Help You “Manage” Your Retirement Account. But I digress.
Also unhappy, a London cabby, [LANGUAGE WARNING: DEFINITELY NOT SUITABLE FOR WORK]
Yesterday the plan was to scalp all bank accounts over €100,000 by 10%, and everybody else by 6.75%.
But now, the Cyprus’s government, just like in a Sham-Wow ad, right when you think has sucked up all the sanity, doubles the offer, and proposes a new plan to ease the burden of that tax on small savers:
According to two European officials familiar with the talks, the new proposal being floated by the government would see smaller depositors, those with up to €100,000, taxed at 3% rate—down from 6.75% as initially envisaged. Savers with €100,000 to €500,000 would be taxed at a 10% rate; and those with over €500,000 taxed at 15%, one official said.
Because the “small savers” are the ones who take to the streets, storm the banks’ doors, and riot.
Maybe the EU ought to be worrying about Putin, who’s not happy,
The deposit levy would be felt sharply by Russian financial institutions and companies which have large footholds on the island. According to Moody’s Investors Service estimates, Russian residents and institutions could lose around $2 billion if Cyprus goes ahead with this latest unconfirmed proposal to raise taxes on deposits.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has strongly criticized a proposed deposit tax in Cyprus that could cost Russian financial institutions an estimated $2 billion as “unfair” and “dangerous,” his spokesman told news agencies Monday.
“Mr. Putin said that such a decision, if adopted, would be unfair, unprofessional and dangerous,” said his spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
We all know what happens when Vladdy is not happy.
Putin is nothing if not professional; he might even say “This is the business we have chosen”:
Tomorrow all bank deposits over €100,000 will have 10% expropriated in Cyprus, while
Goat herders, taxi drivers, et al. (what the New York Times calls“pensioners, workers and regulator depositors”) with less than €100,000 get whacked 6.75 percent.
What do they get for that? A €10 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund and European lenders.
In Ireland, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria and France, the governments take over citizens’ pension money to make up government budget shortfalls.
In 2008, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard asked, Argentina seizes pension funds to pay debts. Who’s next?
My fear is that governments in the US, Britain, and Europe will display similar reflexes. Indeed, they have already done so. The forced-feeding of banks with fresh capital – whether they want it or not – and the seizure of the Fannie/Freddie mortgage giants before they were in fact in trouble (in order to prevent a Chinese buying strike of US bonds and prevent a spike in US mortgage rates), shows that private property can be co-opted – or eliminated – with little due process if that is required to serve the collective welfare. This is a slippery slope.
This is only the beginning, folks.
Government Motors to increase Chevy Volt subsidy from $7,500 to $10,000!
ReVolt: Obama wants you to pay even more for cars nobody wants
In a speech before the Daimler Trucks North America manufacturing plant in Charlotte, N.C. today, the president delivered his answer to rising gas prices: He wants to increase the $7,500 tax credit for alternative-energy vehicles to $10,000, earmark $1 billion to reward cities that provide infrastructure for such vehicles, earmark an additional $650 million for a research program to increase the range and decrease the price of the vehicles, and repeal $4 billion of tax incentives for oil and gas companies.
Are talking about the expensive car that goes up in flames?
The one whose manufacturer stopped production due to low demand?
The one getting over $256,000 in subsidies per vehicle?
Oh, yes.
Warms the cockles of your heart, doesn’t it?
UPDATE:
Via Instapundit: Volt for you, but not for Chu.
Volt production on hold for 5 weeks
General Motors has told 1,300 employees at its Detroit Hamtramck that they will be temporarily laid off for five weeks as the company halts production of the Chevrolet Volt and its European counterpart, the Opel Ampera.
“Even with sales up in February over January, we are still seeking to align our production with demand,” said GM spokesman Chris Lee.
“Seeking to align our production with demand” = nobody wants them so we can’t keep making them, in spite of the fact that the total amount of state and federal subsidies for each Chevy Volt sold is as much as $256,824 per vehicle.
Maybe Obama’s still on time to buy one, there must still be plenty of Volts on the dealers’ lots,
UPDATE
Barack Obama blew more money on the Chevy Volt than the entire annual GDP of Belize.
Drumroll, please!
Yay! The Chevy Volt!
Yessss!
The bland little car that looks like every other forgettable little car in the parking lot, each costs $230,000 of taxpayer subsidies, and gives new meaning to burning rubber when it catches on fire.
Only Netflix’s Qwikster, and A&F’s push-up bra for little girls could top that, but, for my taxpayer bang-for-the-$230,000-bucks, the Volt is #1.
Government Motors: Wasting your money in the most hazardous way.
UPDATE
I left one out,
Obama gets two ‘awards’ for worst product failures of 2011
Obama’s second flop took sixth place.
The booby prize want to the Fiat 500 auto, which administration officials touted when they arranged for Fiat to buy the ailing Chrysler company.
“The car was expected to be a big seller, rivaling BMW’s Mini… [and] Fiat expected to sell 50,000 500s during 2011 in North America,” according to the Yahoo! Finance Top 7 list. However, “Fiat sold fewer than 12,000 [and] sales were so poor that Chrysler Group, which manages the Fiat brand in the United States, ousted U.S. chief Laura Soave this past November,” noted Yahoo.
UPDATE 2:
ALL VOLTS RECALLED!
Chevy Volts Called Back By GM For Battery Fixes
GM is making the repairs after three Volt batteries caught fire following crash tests done by federal safety regulators.
Fire hazard.
Demonize an industry, load it with government regulations, burden it with union rules, and sooner or later, they move their business out of the USA:
The main draw is price. Executives say its cost of labor offers savings of 25% to 30% over the U.S. and at least 30% over Japan. Proximity to North American companies means shipments can arrive in days, not weeks, and executives can coordinate plans during working hours. Carlos Bello, head of the aerospace industry group, says the idea is to begin with parts and basic manufacturing before expanding into more advanced areas like assembly and design.
And what companies are there?
It is the latest project of Mexico’s budding aerospace industry, a sector that has averaged 20% growth the past five years while attracting the likes of engine-maker General Electric Co., Textron Inc.’s Cessna Aircraft Co. and an array of suppliers tapped by giants Boeing Co. and Airbus, a unit of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co.
GE?
The same GE that got a $182.5 billion bailout from the Obama administration?
Related,
Despite Violence, U.S. Firms Expand in Mexico