Seems like a far way out. The ECB would rather see private capital injections and asset sales.
Comments »Monthly Archives: October 2011
S&P Cuts the Sovereign Debt Rating of Slovenia
Oil Manages to Pare Losses on Hopes of a EU Debt Solution
Japan Plans a 2 Trillion Yen Stimulus Package to Boost Economic Growth
250 billion Yen will got to hiring workers while the rest will go into rebuilding factories…
Comments »France and Germany Reach a Rift Regarding Debt Solution
Is this a last chance to shake the tree and push out weak hands or a true roadblock ? Who knows what is real anymore. All parties expect to resolve the problems by this weekend despite speed bumps.
Comments »Asian and European Markets Trade Firmly in the Red While U.S. Futures Hold Higher Ground
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gs2o5T7oN8 450 300]
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TRAGIC: Photo of Animals Put Down in Ohio
Forty nine dangerous animals were put down today in Ohio, after being freed by some nutcase who was housing them on his property. After releasing them, he commit suicide.
MUST LISTEN: Steve Wynn Earnings Call Rant Against Obama
ROBERT REICH: The Republican Economic Plan Is An Austerity Death-Trap
FLASH: Politicians Are All Glued to iBC
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgWUi-ozMAU 450 300]
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How Social Media and the Internet May Effect Our Brain
U.S. Pay Data Described as “Awful” #OWS
A Third Lawsuit is Filed Against Big Banks For Colluding on ATM Fees
Asian Markets Open Down Marginally
Lenny Dykstra Cuts a Deal for Car Thefts But Faces Jail Time
Former New York Mets star and financial guru Lenny Dykstra pleaded no contest Wednesday to three counts of grand theft auto and filing a false financial statement in a scheme to obtain luxury automobiles. He faces up to four years in prison.
Dykstra, 48, entered his plea before L.A. County Superior Court Judge Cynthia Ulfig, who released him pending sentencing on Jan. 20, 2012, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Alex Karkanen. The case is among the baseball star’s mounting legal woes, which include criminal charges involving federal bankruptcy fraud and indecent exposure.
In January, Dykstra, his accountant Robert Hymers, 27, and friend Christopher Gavanis, 30, tried to lease high-end automobiles from several area dealerships by allegedly providing fraudulent information and claiming credit through a phony business, prosecutors said.
At two dealerships, Dykstra and Hymers allegedly provided information from a man who they said was a co-signer, even though they were not authorized to use his name. Prosecutors said Dykstra failed in his initial attempts to lease a new Mercedes Benz S-550 and new Cadillac, but the men succeeded in obtaining a Ford Flex, a Lincoln and a Ford Mustang.Dykstra was arrested April 14 by Los Angeles Police Department detectives while serving a search warrant at his Encino home. Authorities allegedly found cocaine and Ecstasy along with Somatropin, a synthetic human growth hormone.
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Dykstra was originally charged with five counts of attempted grand theft auto, eight counts of filing false financial statements, four counts of identity theft, three counts of grand theft auto and three counts of possession of a controlled substance. In addition, he was charged with one misdemeanor count each of possession of a controlled substance without a prescription and unauthorized possession of a syringe. He originally faced up to 12 years in state prison. In exchange for his plea, the remaining charges will be dismissed at sentencing.
If Dykstra fails to appear for sentencing, he faces up to six years in state prison.
In September, Hymers pleaded no contest to one felony count of identity theft, and Gavanis pleaded no contest to one felony count of filing a false financial statement. Their sentencing was put over for a year.
Analysis of Co-Cain’s 9-9-9 Plan
Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 Tax Plan
The Tax Policy Center has estimated the distributional effects of a fully-phased-in version of Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan. Summary tables are available here 
View this page as a PDF
Herman Cain’s plan would eliminate the current individual income tax, corporate income tax, payroll tax, and estate and gift tax and substitute three taxes imposed at a 9 percent rate: 1) a 9 percent “national sales tax” 2) a 9 percent “business flat tax”, and 3) a 9 percent “individual flat tax.” Based on descriptions from the Cain campaign website and Fiscal Associates, the firm that analyzed the proposal for the Cain campaign, we conclude that all three taxes are versions of well-known forms of consumption taxes, although collected in different ways and with a few modifications.1 The bases of all three taxes are essentially the same as the base of a national sales tax. The basic structures of the three taxes are:
1. National Sales Tax: This is a retail sales tax, collected on sales to final consumers. It is imposed on all sales to households, non-profit institutions and governments, as well as sales by the business activities of government and non-profits (for example, revenues of non-profit hospitals.) The tax is modeled on the Fair Tax proposal that has been proposed by Americans for Fair Taxation and was first introduced in Congress by Representative John Linder (R-GA) in 1999. The tax rate is 9 percent of the total price (including tax) charged by businesses to consumers.2
2. Business Tax: This is a subtraction method value-added tax, sometimes called a business transfer tax (BTT). All businesses would pay a 9 percent tax on all sales minus purchases from other businesses (including purchases of investment goods). This is essentially the same as a retail sales tax, except that it is collected in pieces on the value added at each stage of production. In the aggregate, those pieces add up to retail sales.
3. Individual Flat Tax: As described by Fiscal Associates, this is a version of the Flat Tax originally developed by Professors Robert Hall and Alvin Rabushka and endorsed in the past by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, and former Presidential candidate Steve Forbes. The flat tax is a subtraction method value-added tax, similar to the BTT, with the exception that businesses may deduct wages paid and workers must report and pay taxes on their wages. With a single rate, however, it makes no difference whether the worker or the business remits the tax. (The original flat tax proposal would have allowed workers to claim exemptions for themselves and dependents, but the Cain proposal has no such adjustment.)
The three taxes include several modifications.
a. The Cain plan would allow businesses to deduct dividends paid under the business tax (BTT), but would include dividends received in the base of the individual flat tax. Because the rates of the BTT and the flat tax are the same, this treatment is equivalent simply to exempting dividends received by individuals from tax. But the modification would provide a tax subsidy for dividends paid to tax-exempt investors, such as non-profit institutions, pension plans, and qualified retirement plans.
b. Wages paid to government workers would be part of the tax base under the individual flat tax, but not under the retail sales tax or the BTT. (We assume that the savings to the federal government from not having to pay retail sales tax and BTT on wages would offset the revenue loss from not taxing these wages.)
c. The Cain plan would allow individuals to deduct charitable contributions from the base of the flat tax. These deductions would reduce the net income from wages and dividends that is subject to the 9 percent tax. The deduction would be available both to those currently claiming the charitable deduction and to those who contribute to charities but do not currently itemize deductions on their income tax return.
We assume that the national sales tax and business flat tax are imposed independently on businesses so they sum to sales tax rate of 18 percent. The individual flat tax, however, is applied to real wages that have been reduced by 18 percent by the other two taxes. The 9 percent individual tax thus applies to only 82 percent of tax-inclusive consumption, making its effective rate 7.38 percent of all consumption. Therefore, the three taxes combined are equivalent to a 25.38 percent national sales tax, with the above mentioned adjustments for dividends paid to tax-exempt entities and charitable contributions.
The Cain campaign documents also contain some discussion of deductions for empowerment zones that might relieve some of the tax burden on low wage workers. We have not received any details of these provisions and thus cannot estimate them. If such relief were to be provided, it could relieve some of the burden at the low end of the income distribution, but would reduce the net revenue raised by the proposal.
The Tax Policy Center estimates that, if fully phased in, the plan would raise about $2.55 trillion of revenues at 2013 levels of income and consumption, virtually the same amount that would be collected if current tax policy were in place that year (that is, if 2011 tax law, other than the payroll tax reduction, were extended). However, the plan would raise about $300 billion less revenue than would be raised by current tax law, under which most 2001-2010 tax cuts would have expired by 2013.3
Read the source article here.
Comments »Income Inequality #OWS: Obamacare Will Price Less Skilled Workers Out of Full-Time Jobs
One of the factors widely believed to have contributed to the current income inequality is the move from low-skill to high-skill jobs. New research asserts that Obamacare will only exacerbate income inequality by pricing less skilled workers out of full time jobs.
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“President Obama’s health care law requires employers to offer health benefits to full-time employees. This employer mandate will price many unskilled workers out of full-time employment.
After paying the new health premiums, the minimum wage, payroll taxes, and unemployment insurance taxes, hiring a full-time worker will cost employers at least $10.03 per hour. Full-time workers with family health plans will cost $13.75 per hour. Employers who hire workers with productivity below these rates will lose money. Businesses employing less skilled workers will probably respond by dumping their employees onto the federally subsidized health care exchanges and replacing full-time positions with part-time jobs.” [Emphasis mine].
Read the research about what this will do to less skilled workers here.
Comments »The “Non-Partisan” Occupy Wall Street Mob Harrases John Stossel #ows
The Greek Riots, in Video
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cEaFR5HkxM 603 500] [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZrDUSFUMYo 603 500] [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtwMNDhuu2g 603 500]
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