According to a poll by TNS Sofres, 2/3 of French people confess to have had any training courses in economics at school or at the University. Only one in ten…
News
In a press release published today, the European Commission set out its ideas for the future taxation of the financial sector. Underlining that the financial sector needs to make a fair contribution to public finances, and that governments urgently need new sources of revenue, the Commission puts forward a two pronged approach. At global level, the Commission supports the idea of a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT), which is supposed to help fund development and climate change. At EU level, the Commission recommends a Financial Activities Tax (FAT).
Politicians and interest groups in the USA claim higher taxes are necessary because it would be impossible to cut spending by enough to get rid of red ink. This Center for Freedom and Prosperity video shows that these assertions are nonsense. The budget can be balanced very quickly by simply limiting the annual growth of federal spending.
Singapore will host tomorrow the Global Tax Forum 2010. According to Dan Mitchell from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, the OECD will attempt there to promote a project against tax competition. This project received a boost when the Obama Administration joined forces with countries such as France and Germany, but the tide is now turning against high-tax nations – particularly as more people understand that such an approach inevitably leads to Greek-style fiscal collapse.
This is the problem that government representatives are discussing at the United Nations antipoverty summit this week.
The French President Nicolas Sarkozy hurried up to announce that despite of its deficits France will increase its aid by 20% and become the second world contributor after the USA. Donating public money, he added, is not enough to help end poverty and meet other U.N. goals. He renewed France’s push for a small international tax on financial transactions. This proves, if anything else two things : that the French President has an interesting understanding of the concept of “donation” and that he has no understanding at all of how development works.
Economic freedom around the world fell for the first time in decades, according to the Economic Freedom of the World: 2010 Annual Report, released by the Cato Institute in conjunction with the Fraser Institute of Canada. In this year’s index, Hong Kong retains the highest rating for economic freedom, followed by Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, Chile, the United States, Canada, Australia, Mauritius, and the United Kingdom.
A recent opinion poll realised for IREF by the Ifop institute shows that 82% of French people want to have their own individual retirement account. This percentage is even higher (87%) for the group of interviewees 35 years old or younger and for women (84%). Regardless of their political convictions, incomes and education level, the majority of the interviewees have answered that they would prefer to have pension plans rather than to rely exclusively on the “pay-as-you go” system.
In an interview for the German Handelsblatt, the French Minister of Economy Christine Lagarde suggested that European countries that do not respect deficit limits should be punished. Lagarde proposes that…
A recent study by Duanjie Chen and Jack Mintz, School of Public Policy, University of Calgary is estimating the effective corporate tax rates in 80 countries. These effective rates are taking into account statutory rates plus tax base items that affect taxes paid on new investment, such as depreciation deductions, inventory allowances, and interest deductions.