There had been a raid on a building on the rue de la Trémoille in the
aristocratic district of the Champs-Élysées, where officials of a Swiss bank had a five-room apartment. Police had passed through a crowd of impatient clients in the waiting room, entered the office, and seized all available documents.
Albertin argued that the operation should have occurred earlier, as the business had gone on without interruption for ten days. Even so, the police collected 245,000 French francs, 2,000 Swiss francs, and even more important, an index, a cashbook, a file, and ten large notebooks with two thousand names.
[..]
He began to name the names of the tax evader elite, including two bishops, who he said, “though the kingdom isn't of this world,” were able to reconcile their oaths of poverty with the desire to shelter their fortunes.
[...]
Swiss bankers were stunned by the revelations of their clients' names. They feared that unless they could block future exposure, they might lose the deposits people had stashed with them to avoid paying their own countries' taxes. To make sure that account owners' names could never be made public again, in 1934, the Swiss Confederation made it a crime for a bank employee to violate the secrecy of clients' identities. Bank secrecy was born; even law enforcement on the track of thieves could not pierce it.
30.1.06
Will Iran’s oil kill the U.S. dollar?
On March 20th, 2006, Iran is planning to open an International Oil Bourse (market) for the express purpose of trading oil priced exclusively in Euros. The world currently does all oil trades in US dollars, commonly referred to as the petro-dollar. Introducing an alternative currency that directly competes against the US dollar will facilitate many global economic changes.
The US, of course, stands to be the most affected. Up until now, the Americans have been able to maintain a high demand for their currency due to its role in purchasing the world's primary energy resource. This demand has allowed the US to mushroom its debt to record levels supported by the selling of US treasury bills to foreign countries. How will the US continue to operate if countries stop floating their debt and turn instead towards the Euro?
The Iranian line in the sand
and more here
also on the project censored 2005 list of censored (underreported) news storie- for obvious reasons!
no more stupid yank accents babbling about national security and world peace on my telly.. no more yanks murdering brown women and children on my telly.. no more yanks.. no more telly!
The US, of course, stands to be the most affected. Up until now, the Americans have been able to maintain a high demand for their currency due to its role in purchasing the world's primary energy resource. This demand has allowed the US to mushroom its debt to record levels supported by the selling of US treasury bills to foreign countries. How will the US continue to operate if countries stop floating their debt and turn instead towards the Euro?
The Iranian line in the sand
and more here
also on the project censored 2005 list of censored (underreported) news storie- for obvious reasons!
no more stupid yank accents babbling about national security and world peace on my telly.. no more yanks murdering brown women and children on my telly.. no more yanks.. no more telly!
"working" in "development"
Stiglitz helped translate one, a "Country Assistance Strategy", from bureaucratese. There's an Assistance Strategy for every poorer nation, designed, says the World Bank, after careful in-country investigation. But according to insider Stiglitz, the Bank's staff "investigation" consists of close inspection of a nation's five-star hotels. It concludes with the Bank staff meeting some begging, busted finance minister who is handed a "restructuring agreement" pre-drafted for his "voluntary" signature (I have a selection of these).
Each nation's economy is individually analyzed, then, says Stiglitz, the Bank hands every minister the exact same four-step program.
Each nation's economy is individually analyzed, then, says Stiglitz, the Bank hands every minister the exact same four-step program.
27.1.06
he he he he no sense for irony these yanks
from same site: Contra Cafe - uniquely smooth and full-bodied coffee grown by former Nicaraguan Contras. in the 1980s, these freedom fighters defended a communist dictatorship with U.S. assistance
newspaper article re above: "Contra Café underscores its conservative credentials by also giving 2 percent of its profits to the Freedom Alliance, a foundation started by Lt. Col. Oliver North.
North rose to fame during the Iran-contra hearings as the architect of a network that sold arms to Iran and used the profits to covertly fund the contras."
and who protects us from the police?
Khalil al-Dulaimi said Saddam wants to sue both leaders, along with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, for allegedly authorizing the use of weapons such as depleted uranium artillery shells, white phosphorous, napalm and cluster bombs against Iraqis.
"We will sue Bush, Blair and Rumsfeld in The Hague for using such weapons of mass destruction," al-Dulaimi, in Jordan, told The Associated Press in Baghdad during a telephone interview.
more of the same
big it up! via jona's v entertaining link below, thanks jona
reds under the beds
Welcome to DiscoverTheNetworks. This site is a "Guide to the Political Left." It identifies the individuals and organizations that make up the left and also the institutions that fund and sustain it; it maps the paths through which the left exerts its influence on the larger body politic; it defines the left's (often hidden) programmatic agendas and it provides an understanding of its history and ideas
By browsing this database, and familiarizing oneself with the agendas of the individuals and organizations it contains, with the scope of their activities and with the tens of millions of dollars available to support them, a user of this base will find ample evidence for the existence of this left and for the fact that it is a major player in the political destinies of the nation
By browsing this database, and familiarizing oneself with the agendas of the individuals and organizations it contains, with the scope of their activities and with the tens of millions of dollars available to support them, a user of this base will find ample evidence for the existence of this left and for the fact that it is a major player in the political destinies of the nation
west bank looks like concentration camp?
mein fuehrer would have been impressed! very sturdy construction
26.1.06
dob it off?
What's Wrong With Cutting and Running?by wacko leftie William E. Odom
If I were a journalist, I would list all the arguments that you hear against pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq, the horrible things that people say would happen, and then ask: Aren't they happening already? Would a pullout really make things worse? Maybe it would make things better.
[from our friends at truth will out]
The Sting in the tale of Democracy: Hamas
'Democracy is about renouncing violence'-Jack Straw
'Hundreds of Israeli civilians have died in nearly 60 Hamas suicide bombings'-the Guardian
How can one respond to Jack Straw's comment said with not an ounce of irony or humour? This utterly ridiculous comment made on tv shows the perplexion with which the news of Hamas' election victory has been greeted. Obviously Tony hasn't heard what its all 'about'........
So how many civilians has the Likud party killed? Is it really true that democracies never fight each other? As Hamas sweeps to power we will see non governmental terrorism converted into official terrorism just like every other government; violence against its own citizens and the states enemies. How will this compare to their Israeli rivals? The lines of defiinition between terrorists and state blur even further in the confused rhetoric of 21st century terror speak. The double standards of western democracy and condemning opposition will now be exposed on a grand scale. 'the election result is a major embarassment'
'Hundreds of Israeli civilians have died in nearly 60 Hamas suicide bombings'-the Guardian
How can one respond to Jack Straw's comment said with not an ounce of irony or humour? This utterly ridiculous comment made on tv shows the perplexion with which the news of Hamas' election victory has been greeted. Obviously Tony hasn't heard what its all 'about'........
So how many civilians has the Likud party killed? Is it really true that democracies never fight each other? As Hamas sweeps to power we will see non governmental terrorism converted into official terrorism just like every other government; violence against its own citizens and the states enemies. How will this compare to their Israeli rivals? The lines of defiinition between terrorists and state blur even further in the confused rhetoric of 21st century terror speak. The double standards of western democracy and condemning opposition will now be exposed on a grand scale. 'the election result is a major embarassment'
25.1.06
ironic
He, though, was a converted Jew and loyal above all else to his country. He pushed the military into the use of chemical weapons. Their first major trial, of chlorine gas against French troops at Ypres on April 22, 1915, was a stunning success. Five thousand were killed and another few thousand incapacitated.The German papers were full of praise, and Haber was promoted to captain. Finally a way had been found to break the stalemate of trench warfare. Haber threw a dinner party to celebrate. Clara and he got into a furious argument. That night she took his army pistol and killed herself in their garden with a shot to the chest.
Haber left the next day for the Eastern front, not even staying for the funeral arrangements. He continued to promote the use of poison gases, even when the true answer to the trenches turned out to be tanks. He was branded a war criminal after the Allied victory, but still won the Nobel Prize in 1918 for ammonia synthesis.
He remarried, and spent the years after war doing basic chemistry, but also searching desperately for a way to extract gold from seawater in order to pay the Weimar's Republic's debts. He rose steadily in honors, but nothing availed him when the Nazis came to power. Converting to Christianity and aiding one's country mightily in its worst struggle didn't count compared to his ancestry.
also:
In the 1920s, scientists working at his institute developed the cyanide gas formulation Zyklon B, which was used as an insecticide, especially as a fumigant in grain stores, and also later in the Nazi extermination camps. [...] He committed suicide in 1946. Members of Haber's extended family died in concentration camps through the use of his invention, Zyklon B.
24.1.06
getting medieval on their arse
A European investigator looking into allegations of secret, CIA-run prisons in Europe said today that "a great deal" of evidence pointed towards the existence of a US system of "outsourcing" torture.Swiss senator Dick Marty said it was also highly likely European governments knew what the US had been doing,[tony lying? no!] and that more than 100 prisoners may have been involved in recent years.
"It has been proved that individuals have been abducted, deprived of their liberty and all rights and transported to different destinations in Europe, to be handed over to countries in which they have suffered degrading treatment and torture," he told the council's assembly in Strasbourg.
23.1.06
doomsday machine real "idea"
In response to such a strategy, Kahn (only half jokingly) proposed his "Doomsday Machine," a massive computer connected to a stockpile of hydrogen bombs. When the computer sensed imminent and intolerable danger from a Soviet attack, it would detonate the bombs and cover the planet with radiation fallout and billions of dead.
this all part of "clever" and "logical" game theory research
this all part of "clever" and "logical" game theory research
marshall islands
up and down!
U.S. Representatives George Miller and Ron de Lugo write to Dr. Ruth Faden, chairperson of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments: "...There is no doubt that the AEC intentionally returned (Marshallese) to islands which it considered to be "by far the most contaminated places in the world,' but which it told the people were safe. Nor is there any doubt that the AEC, through the Brookhaven National Laboratory, then planned and conducted test after test on these people to study their bodies' reaction to life in that contaminated environment."
morales
"The worst enemy of humanity is capitalism. That is what provokes uprisings like our own, a rebellion against a system, against a neoliberal model, which is the representation of a savage capitalism. If the entire world doesn't acknowledge this reality, that the national states are not providing even minimally for health, education and nourishment, then each day the most fundamental human rights are being violated."
21.1.06
ents
When you buy Fighters+Lovers products you might experience legal problems because of US or EU "antiterrorist" legislation, outlawing financial support to organizations labeled as "terrorists", including the PFLP and the FARC.
-----
Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez claimed that modern day Capatalist control the resources of the world in a speech delivered 24 December, 2005.
Chávez made the remarks at a rehabilitation centre saying "the descendants of those who crucified Christ ... have taken ownership of the riches of the world, a minority has taken ownership of the gold of the world, the silver, the minerals, water, the good lands, petrol, well, the riches, and they have concentrated the riches in a small number of hands.”
"judeoscope" is not impressed with these supposedly "anti-semitic" comments. erm anti-roman comments perhaps? yet.. the romans are pov nowadays.. hmmmm.. or could judeoscope be referring to the "concentration of riches" in new york banks?
-----
Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez claimed that modern day Capatalist control the resources of the world in a speech delivered 24 December, 2005.
Chávez made the remarks at a rehabilitation centre saying "the descendants of those who crucified Christ ... have taken ownership of the riches of the world, a minority has taken ownership of the gold of the world, the silver, the minerals, water, the good lands, petrol, well, the riches, and they have concentrated the riches in a small number of hands.”
"judeoscope" is not impressed with these supposedly "anti-semitic" comments. erm anti-roman comments perhaps? yet.. the romans are pov nowadays.. hmmmm.. or could judeoscope be referring to the "concentration of riches" in new york banks?
19.1.06
chocolate city
"There's a lot of chocolate cities, aroundWe've got Newark, we've got Gary
Somebody told me we got L.A....
And when they come to march on ya
Tell 'em to make sure they got their James Brown pass
And don't be surprised if Ali is in the White House
Reverend Ike, Secretary of the Treasure
Richard Pryor, Minister of Education
Stevie Wonder, Secretary of FINE arts
And Miss Aretha Franklin, the First Lady
Are you out there, CC?
A chocolate city is no dream
It's my piece of the rock and I dig you, CC
God bless Chocolate City and its (gainin' on ya!) vanilla suburbs
Gainin' on ya!"
Dollar Rises As Foreign Investors Fund Trade Deficit
Net foreign holdings of US stocks, bonds and treasuries rose $89.0 billion from a revised $104.2 billion October figure, yet was still better than expectations of an $85 billion increase in holdings. The net influx was mainly bolstered by a record net $54.6 billion purchase of Treasuries as investors sought high returns, the result of 13 consecutive rate hikes, with relatively little risk. The sway the indicator held for the session stemmed from the month’s $64.2 billion trade deficit, as many feared the economy’s ability to attract enough investment to cover the ever present trade gap.will see how "relatively little" risk is as usd fetish enters terminal phase :-)
<-- "The Washington-based government, which hasn't shown a profit in five years and carries the highest debt in its history, was ultimately driven out of business by costly overhead and cheap foreign competitors." enjoy!
18.1.06
mission accomplished?
'The former senior official said that after the election he made a lengthy inspection visit to Iraq and reported his findings to Bush in the White House: “I said to the President, ‘We’re not winning the war.’ And he asked, ‘Are we losing?’ I said, ‘Not yet.’ ” The President, he said, “appeared displeased” with that answer.“I tried to tell him,” the former senior official said. “And he couldn’t hear it.”
There are grave concerns within the military about the capability of the U.S. Army to sustain two or three more years of combat in Iraq....'
17.1.06
"What luck for rulers that men do not think" - Adolf Hitler
"The ruling elite can, through clandestine programming and seemingly innocuous entertainment, influence the way millions of minds think, invariably transforming free thought into shackled reasoning. Over decades of methodical molding and development, beginning at the earliest possible age of a human being, those who control television oftentimes succeed in altering and indeed controlling the opinions, beliefs and thoughts of a person. Thus, the goals and views of the elite are transmuted onto those who stand not to benefit by the beliefs they now possess and the thoughts they have been brainwashed to accept."
luvely tellay - brain damaging?!
Brazelton hooked newborn babies up to electroencephalographs and then exposed them to a flickering light source similar to a television but with no images. Fifteen minutes into their exposure, the babies stopped crying and produced sleep patterns on the EEG, even though their eyes were still open and observing the light. Brazelton's experiment revealed that the medium itself, with no content, acts directly on the brain to suppress mental activity. The Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry confirmed Brazelton's finding in 1982. They reported that the brain waves generated while watching even the most exciting shows were those of low attention states. The researchers found that while subjects viewed television, "output of alpha rhythms increased, indicating they were in a passive state, as if they were just sitting in the dark."
luvely tellay - brain damaging?!
Brazelton hooked newborn babies up to electroencephalographs and then exposed them to a flickering light source similar to a television but with no images. Fifteen minutes into their exposure, the babies stopped crying and produced sleep patterns on the EEG, even though their eyes were still open and observing the light. Brazelton's experiment revealed that the medium itself, with no content, acts directly on the brain to suppress mental activity. The Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry confirmed Brazelton's finding in 1982. They reported that the brain waves generated while watching even the most exciting shows were those of low attention states. The researchers found that while subjects viewed television, "output of alpha rhythms increased, indicating they were in a passive state, as if they were just sitting in the dark."
15.1.06
if it smells like shit and it looks like shit, what is it?
remember saddam starting talking about euro denominated oil sales, can´t remember why the idea never took off... well, now this seasons enemy is having a go. nuclear smokescreen not withstanding (and britain should know about using civilian nuclear energy as a cover for the development of weapons because that´s what it did according to tony benn) excellent links via thetruthwillsetyoufreealso see this from same blog on $ demise and stories about buffet and gates, via alex jones
"We are first world reserve currency issued by a debtor nation," Smith said. "How long will the rest of the world accept that?"
"I don't know when it happens. I don't have any idea whether it will be this month or this year or next year, but we are force-feeding [printing] dollars on to the rest of the world at the rate of close to a couple billion dollars a day, and that's going to weigh on the dollar." [Warren]
14.1.06
My Secret Life
These feelings got intensified when I thought of my aunt's backside, and the cunts of my cousins, but when I thought of the heroines, it seemed strange that such beautiful creatures should have any. The cunt which seemed to have affected my imagination was that of my aunt, which appeared more like a great parting, or division of her body, than a cunt as I then understood it; as if her buttock parting was continued round towards her belly, and as unlike the young cunts I had seen as possible. Those seemed to me but little indents. :-)
moron yanks murder women and children- yet again
It killed 18 people including women and children. A resident was quoted "I don't know who carried out this attack and why. We were needlessly attacked. We are law-abiding people."
note typical cowardly death from above tactics
note typical cowardly death from above tactics
13.1.06
A CounterPunch Exclusive Investigation
How the FBI Spied on Edward Said
he FBI has a long, ignoble tradition of monitoring and harassing America's top intellectuals. While people ranging from Albert Einstein, William Carlos Williams to Martin Luther King have been subjected to FBI surveillance, there remains an under-accounting of the ways in which this monitoring at times hampered the reception of their work.
he FBI has a long, ignoble tradition of monitoring and harassing America's top intellectuals. While people ranging from Albert Einstein, William Carlos Williams to Martin Luther King have been subjected to FBI surveillance, there remains an under-accounting of the ways in which this monitoring at times hampered the reception of their work.
In response to my request under the Freedom of Information Act, filed on behalf of CounterPunch, the FBI recently released 147 of Said's 238-page FBI file. There are some unusual gaps in the released records, and it is possible that the FBI still holds far more files on Professor Said than they acknowledge. Some of these gaps may exist because new Patriot Act and National Security exemptions allow the FBI to deny the existence of records; however, the released file provides enough information to examine the FBI's interest in Edward Said who mixed artistic appreciations, social theory, and political activism in powerful and unique ways.
money talks
Wikinewss: But some Brazilians still trust in President Lula, right? Ricardo Lobo: This number get smaller each day. But there are someones who still believe in Santa Claus. (laugh) You excuse me but I dont know how to speak about Lula without doing a joke. (laugh)
a-murderin', nobel piss prized
"I'm assuming you're really going to keep your mouth shut on this subject?"
National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger to his staff in October 1975 in response to reports that Indonesia had begun its attack on East Timor
12.1.06
US would have invaded Iraq if its main export was pickles, not petroleum
"How can people help in the war on terror?" asked Alex Childress of Louisville, who attended with his mom, Martha.
"Well," Bush began, "that's the hardest question I've had all day."
He said he welcomes an honest debate about Iraq but one that is "respectful."
"I expect and frankly welcome the voices of people saying `You know, Mr. President, you shouldn't have made that decision,' or, `You should have made it another way,'" he said. "What I don't like is when somebody says `He lied,' or `They're in there for oil.'"
ts ts ts
"Well," Bush began, "that's the hardest question I've had all day."
He said he welcomes an honest debate about Iraq but one that is "respectful."
"I expect and frankly welcome the voices of people saying `You know, Mr. President, you shouldn't have made that decision,' or, `You should have made it another way,'" he said. "What I don't like is when somebody says `He lied,' or `They're in there for oil.'"
ts ts ts
11.1.06
Will the US Need an IMF Bail Out?
Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard University budget expert Linda Bilmes have calculated the cost to Americans of Bush's Iraq war to be between one and two trillion dollars. This figure is 5 to 10 times higher than the $200 billion that Bush's economic adviser, Larry Lindsey, estimated. Lindsey was fired by Bush, because Lindsey's estimate was three times higher than the $70 billion figure that the Bush administration used to mislead Congress and the American voters about the burden of the war. You can't work in the Bush administration unless you are willing to lie for dub-ya.
Americans need to ask themselves if the White House is in competent hands when a $70 billion war becomes a $2 trillion war. Bush sold his war by understating its cost by a factor of 28.57. Any financial officer any where in the world whose project was 2,857 percent over budget would instantly be fired for utter incompetence.
9.1.06
We're supposed to believe...
Beyond the ballot
BY NOAM CHOMSKY
6 January 2006
THE US President Bush called last month’s Iraqi elections a "major milestone in the march to democracy." They are indeed a milestone — just not the kind that Washington would welcome. Disregarding the standard declarations of benign intent on the part of leaders, let’s review the history. When Bush and Britain’s Prime Minister, Tony Blair, invaded Iraq, the pretext, insistently repeated, was a "single question": Will Iraq eliminate its weapons of mass destruction?
Within a few months this "single question" was answered the wrong way. Then, very quickly, the real reason for the invasion became Bush’s "messianic mission" to bring democracy to Iraq and the Middle East. Even apart from the timing, the democratisation bandwagon runs up against the fact that the United States has tried, in every possible way, to prevent elections in Iraq.
From the Khaleej Times
6.1.06
why i want to fuck ronald reagan
Motion picture studies of Ronald Reagan reveal characteristic patterns of facial tones and musculature associated with homoerotic behavior. The continuing tension of buccal sphincters and the recessive tongue role tally with earlier studies of facial rigidity (cf., Adolf Hitler, Nixon). Slow-motion cine films of campaign speeches exercised a marked erotic effect upon an audience of spastic children. Even with mature adults the verbal material was found to have a minimal effect, as demonstrated by substitution of an edited tape giving diametrically opposed opinions...
Jesus 'healed using cannabis'
Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles, Monday January 6, 2006, The Guardian Jesus was almost certainly a cannabis user and an early proponent of the medicinal properties of the drug, according to a study of scriptural texts published this month. The study suggests that Jesus and his disciples used the drug to carry out miraculous healings.
The anointing oil used by Jesus and his disciples contained an ingredient called kaneh-bosem which has since been identified as cannabis extract, according to an article by Chris Bennett in the drugs magazine, High Times, entitled Was Jesus a Stoner? The incense used by Jesus in ceremonies also contained a cannabis extract, suggests Mr Bennett, who quotes scholars to back his claims.
"There can be little doubt about a role for cannabis in Judaic religion," Carl Ruck, professor of classical mythology at Boston University said.
"Death and taxes are both certain . . . But death isn't annual."
A PURTON pensioner has been warned by magistrates that he could face jail after withholding 10 per cent of his income tax payments in protest against the Iraq war.Douglas Barker, 72, a former RAF serviceman, appeared at Chippenham Magistrates' Court yesterday to defend his actions.
The court heard that when sending back his tax return in July he included a letter explaining why he was withholding a portion of his bill.
He has put the money aside and says he wants to donate it to children and families in Iraq instead of giving it to the Government.
Barker was given a liability order by the magistrates and told that he would face jail if he continues not to pay the sum.
Prosecuting, Amanda Cassidy, of the Inland Revenue, said Mr Barker had paid his income tax, but was left with a shortfall of £1,142.58.
Court action was taken after he refused to pay.
why give the london shitspeakers any money at all?
5.1.06
'last week the iranians had nothing but rocks!'
The Russian, who had defected to the US years earlier, still couldn't believe the orders he had received from CIA headquarters. The CIA had given him the nuclear blueprints and then sent him to Vienna to sell them - or simply give them - to the Iranian representatives to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). With the Russian doing its bidding, the CIA appeared to be about to help Iran leapfrog one of the last remaining engineering hurdles blocking its path to a nuclear weapon. The dangerous irony was not lost on the Russian - the IAEA was an international organisation created to restrict the spread of nuclear technology.
ts ts ts!
Dodge City
While the government is moaning on about scroungers and cheats and reckon that working in dead end jobs for £5 an hour is enough to live on, they don’t seem so keen on chasing the rich for their taxes.
It’s not just top media tycoon Rupert Murdoch who pays virtually no tax thanks to his use offshore tax havens: Neo Labour donor and third richest man in the world, Lakshmi Mittal, worth £13bn, owns a £57m London home next to Kensington Palace but by claiming the UK isn’t his primary residence, pays bugger all tax, and also avoids capital gains tax on UK assets by holding them in a foreign company or trust. The business empire of retail billionaire Philip Green is mostly held in the name of his wife, Tina, who is resident in Monaco. Taveta Investments, the vehicle used to acquire Arcadia in 2002, paid out a hefty £460m to its owner last year; Green, who spends much of his time in Britain, would have been landed with a £150m tax bill if he officially owned Taveta but as it's held by the missus, a minuscule amount of tax is due.
What these super rich are doing is perfectly legal – you see they can afford to employ accountants to move their money about in clever ways to avoid tax. The rest of us see our wages taxed at source and the closest we get to tax avoidance is a day trip to France to stock up on booze and fags.
It is reckoned that the world’s super rich are hiding $11.5 trillion in tax havens around the world (10 times Britain’s GDP). The annual income that these assets earn is $860bn and taxable income from this could exceed $255bn. And that doesn’t include the trillions held in overseas accounts for multinational corporations; offshore companies of this type are springing up at the rate of about 150,000 a year. Whereas in the 1970s there were just 25 tax havens, now there are at least 63, about half of them British protectorates or former colonies. Tax avoidance in Britain alone is estimated to cost the Treasury between £25bn and £85bn a year.
The rich stashing away cash is nothing new, but the gulf between the haves and the rest of us just gets wider and wider. “This is one of the defining crises of our times,” reckons John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network, “One of the most fundamental changes in our society in recent years is how money and the rich have become more mobile. This has resulted in the wealthy becoming less inclined to associate with normal society and feeling no obligation to pay taxes.”
George Gelber, head of public policy at Catholic aid agency Cafod, says: “The people who use tax havens are free-riders on the taxes paid by working people round the world. They pay little or nothing for public goods such as the rule of law and security, which have to be paid for by the taxes of much less well-off people.”
more here
lrb got this guy saying it how it is
With advice from Ernst & Young, directors of a major phone company paid themselves in gold bars and fine wines to avoid paying UK income tax and national insurance contributions (NICs). No sooner had the government plugged this loophole than the firm devised another scheme, which enabled its clients to pay directors salaries and bonuses through an elaborate offshore "employee benefit trust" and avoid UK income tax and NICs. The scheme is estimated to have been copied by 500 companies to avoid paying an estimated £1.5bn in taxes and NICs. The House of Lords has now ruled that the scheme was unlawful.
gold and fine wines hey? Accountants: a threat to democracy erm democracy? nevermind
'Be fair' plea as tax loopholes targeted
While the government is moaning on about scroungers and cheats and reckon that working in dead end jobs for £5 an hour is enough to live on, they don’t seem so keen on chasing the rich for their taxes.
It’s not just top media tycoon Rupert Murdoch who pays virtually no tax thanks to his use offshore tax havens: Neo Labour donor and third richest man in the world, Lakshmi Mittal, worth £13bn, owns a £57m London home next to Kensington Palace but by claiming the UK isn’t his primary residence, pays bugger all tax, and also avoids capital gains tax on UK assets by holding them in a foreign company or trust. The business empire of retail billionaire Philip Green is mostly held in the name of his wife, Tina, who is resident in Monaco. Taveta Investments, the vehicle used to acquire Arcadia in 2002, paid out a hefty £460m to its owner last year; Green, who spends much of his time in Britain, would have been landed with a £150m tax bill if he officially owned Taveta but as it's held by the missus, a minuscule amount of tax is due.
What these super rich are doing is perfectly legal – you see they can afford to employ accountants to move their money about in clever ways to avoid tax. The rest of us see our wages taxed at source and the closest we get to tax avoidance is a day trip to France to stock up on booze and fags.
It is reckoned that the world’s super rich are hiding $11.5 trillion in tax havens around the world (10 times Britain’s GDP). The annual income that these assets earn is $860bn and taxable income from this could exceed $255bn. And that doesn’t include the trillions held in overseas accounts for multinational corporations; offshore companies of this type are springing up at the rate of about 150,000 a year. Whereas in the 1970s there were just 25 tax havens, now there are at least 63, about half of them British protectorates or former colonies. Tax avoidance in Britain alone is estimated to cost the Treasury between £25bn and £85bn a year.
The rich stashing away cash is nothing new, but the gulf between the haves and the rest of us just gets wider and wider. “This is one of the defining crises of our times,” reckons John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network, “One of the most fundamental changes in our society in recent years is how money and the rich have become more mobile. This has resulted in the wealthy becoming less inclined to associate with normal society and feeling no obligation to pay taxes.”
George Gelber, head of public policy at Catholic aid agency Cafod, says: “The people who use tax havens are free-riders on the taxes paid by working people round the world. They pay little or nothing for public goods such as the rule of law and security, which have to be paid for by the taxes of much less well-off people.”
more here
lrb got this guy saying it how it is
With advice from Ernst & Young, directors of a major phone company paid themselves in gold bars and fine wines to avoid paying UK income tax and national insurance contributions (NICs). No sooner had the government plugged this loophole than the firm devised another scheme, which enabled its clients to pay directors salaries and bonuses through an elaborate offshore "employee benefit trust" and avoid UK income tax and NICs. The scheme is estimated to have been copied by 500 companies to avoid paying an estimated £1.5bn in taxes and NICs. The House of Lords has now ruled that the scheme was unlawful.
gold and fine wines hey? Accountants: a threat to democracy erm democracy? nevermind
'Be fair' plea as tax loopholes targeted
80s? i'm a 90s crack negroe!
It seems that the UK has never taken the 1980's "Just say no" message to heart.
also:
mass muderin' tony has got a mate who seems mighty confused about the green
also:
mass muderin' tony has got a mate who seems mighty confused about the green
4.1.06
Another Successful Year
1. Profits are up, but the wages and the incomes of average Americans are down
2. More and more people are deeper and deeper in debt.
3. Job creation has not kept up with population growth, and the employment rate has fallen sharply
4. Poverty is on the rise
5. Rising health care costs are eroding families' already declining income.
happy new year everyone
2. More and more people are deeper and deeper in debt.
3. Job creation has not kept up with population growth, and the employment rate has fallen sharply
4. Poverty is on the rise
5. Rising health care costs are eroding families' already declining income.
happy new year everyone
laugh or cry
They handcuff me, hands behind my back, and take my rucksack out of my sight. They explain that this is for my safety, and that they are acting under the authority of the Terrorism Act. I am told that I am being stopped and searched because:
· they found my behaviour suspicious from direct observation and then from watching me on the CCTV system;
· I went into the station without looking at the police officers at the entrance or by the gates;
· two other men entered the station at about the same time as me;
· I am wearing a jacket "too warm for the season";
· I am carrying a bulky rucksack, and kept my rucksack with me at all times;
· I looked at people coming on the platform;
· I played with my phone and then took a paper from inside my jacket.
This Reuters story was written while the police were detaining me in Southwark tube station and the bomb squad was checking my rucksack. When they were through, the two explosive specialists walked out of the tube station smiling and commenting: "Nice laptop." The officers offered apologies on behalf of the Metropolitan police. Then they arrested me.
at least you didnt get shot in the head by the morons
cop cunt jokers, get a fucking job!
· they found my behaviour suspicious from direct observation and then from watching me on the CCTV system;
· I went into the station without looking at the police officers at the entrance or by the gates;
· two other men entered the station at about the same time as me;
· I am wearing a jacket "too warm for the season";
· I am carrying a bulky rucksack, and kept my rucksack with me at all times;
· I looked at people coming on the platform;
· I played with my phone and then took a paper from inside my jacket.
This Reuters story was written while the police were detaining me in Southwark tube station and the bomb squad was checking my rucksack. When they were through, the two explosive specialists walked out of the tube station smiling and commenting: "Nice laptop." The officers offered apologies on behalf of the Metropolitan police. Then they arrested me.
at least you didnt get shot in the head by the morons
cop cunt jokers, get a fucking job!
Bolivia 'to join Chavez' fight'
"The axis of evil - do you know who the axis of evil is? Washington - that's the axis of evil. And their allies in the world [britaineer jokers], who threaten, who invade, who kill, who assassinate,"
he said.
"We are creating the axis of good, the new axis of the new century."
3.1.06
definitely not a crusade
Well over a hundred thousand American men and women, most younger than 30, spend a year or more at a time in a foreign country where they are almost totally isolated from the indigenous population. Are all these troops really chaste for those long periods, as called for by military regulations?What is going on sexually among US troops in Iraq is one of the great untold and unknown stories of the Iraqi occupation. As I have followed the course of this war, I have paid careful attention to any glimmers on information available. Having read perhaps 30,000-50,000 articles on Iraq, I've seen at most a couple dozen mentions of anything related to sex, other than the systematic sexual abuse and sometime rape of detainees at Abu Ghraib and the other US prisons. Of course, military regulations ban sex out of marriage, but these regulations have about as great a chance of being obeyed as the US has of obtaining the “total victory” that the President is always promising.
coca farming prez
So more staff can be hired for Bolivia's education, health and social programs, President Elect Evo Morales announced that he and his cabinet will take a 50% pay cut. The 46-year-old leader slashed his future salary of about $3600 a month to $1800.
selfless! just like our tony tosspott :-D
Mr Morales will be able to point to the sort of measures unveiled on Tuesday if, as seems likely, he moves more slowly on other pledges such as nationalisation of the gas industry or easing restrictions on growing the coca plant.
Mr Morales also announced that his first foreign trip as president-elect would be to Cuba, a country he has long admired.
This visit will be closely watched in Washington, which fears the potential influence in Latin America of an alliance between Cuba, Bolivia and oil-rich Venezuela.
parasitical (yes thats what those figures mean) banana thieves panicked!
selfless! just like our tony tosspott :-D
Mr Morales will be able to point to the sort of measures unveiled on Tuesday if, as seems likely, he moves more slowly on other pledges such as nationalisation of the gas industry or easing restrictions on growing the coca plant.
Mr Morales also announced that his first foreign trip as president-elect would be to Cuba, a country he has long admired.
This visit will be closely watched in Washington, which fears the potential influence in Latin America of an alliance between Cuba, Bolivia and oil-rich Venezuela.
parasitical (yes thats what those figures mean) banana thieves panicked!
2.1.06
truth hurts!
Evo Morales, the winner of Bolivia's presidential election, branded U.S. President George W. Bush a "terrorist", in an interview with Arabic satellite television on Tuesday.
"The only terrorist in this world that I know of is Bush. His military intervention, such as the one in Iraq, that is state terrorism," he told Al Jazeera television.
also: US envoy urges Venezuela to tone down attacks
wannabe yank whore on charm offensive
weren't expecting that, were you?
that's right: tony "tosspott" blair gives the world an inclusive insight into his "job"
A working day in the life of Tony Blair is illegally long, wildly unpredictable and, on the evidence of a film released by Downing Street today, involves more costume changes than an episode of Sex and the City.
The British Prime Minister has released the Day In The Life video in an attempt to offer a glimpse into his working world. In the space of three and a half minutes, he is shown wearing 15 different ties, at least three different designer suits and a black tracksuit.
piece of shit joker
"When you get things done and you see results, and you think, well, in part, that happened as a result of something I did, or we did, or decisions that were taken here, that's what makes everything worthwhile and it's an enormous privilege to be able to do it."
murder? privilege!
that's right: tony "tosspott" blair gives the world an inclusive insight into his "job"
A working day in the life of Tony Blair is illegally long, wildly unpredictable and, on the evidence of a film released by Downing Street today, involves more costume changes than an episode of Sex and the City.
The British Prime Minister has released the Day In The Life video in an attempt to offer a glimpse into his working world. In the space of three and a half minutes, he is shown wearing 15 different ties, at least three different designer suits and a black tracksuit.
piece of shit joker
"When you get things done and you see results, and you think, well, in part, that happened as a result of something I did, or we did, or decisions that were taken here, that's what makes everything worthwhile and it's an enormous privilege to be able to do it."
murder? privilege!
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