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leanomist

Listed below are comments made by leanomist between Sunday, 29th November 2009 and Tuesday, 1st December 2009 (23 Hours Ago) .

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Shouldn't banks work for us? 8:48pm on 01 Dec 2009 #6 and #89 Writingsonthewall - Excellent posts as usual and I am sure you will not be surprised to hear that I agree with everything you've said again here too (given I have written a number of posts on my own blog following, and in support of, the insights you have provided in the past).

IMHO I also think the following post re-enforces the fact that there will be a revolution too ... http://poweromics.blogspot.com/2009/07/big-questions-too-hot-to-handle.html ... and once again I'm with you. Keep up your brilliant work ... because the drivers of change are definitely growing ... and I agree with you that change (i.e. revolution) is coming.
Appetite for fat cat taxes? 3:02pm on 01 Dec 2009 Post 118 BankSlickerminustheR wrote: "Not even a whiff of this world breaking story on any the BBC websites main story boards.Not even a whiff of this world breaking story on any the BBC websites main story boards .... a week after the Telegraph coined the term "Climategate" to describe the scandal revealed by the leaked emails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, Google was showing that the word now appears across the internet more than nine million times ... Climate change: this is the worst scientific scandal of our generation ..."

An excellent post and I couldn't agree more - take a look at my post a while ago pointing to this folly too ... http://poweromics.blogspot.com/2009/07/more-spin-than-science.html ... and this one to see why the BBC report (and don't report) as they do ... http://poweromics.blogspot.com/2009/09/bbc-part-of-conspiracy-preventing.html ... all the evidence is now starting to spill out (thanks again to the Telegraph) ... and it's indeed a Climategate ...

As far as the economy is concerned IMHO this now means the 'next bubble' they planned to inflate has just burst in their face ... so now what are they going to do? ... hope? discredit? create more spin? or adopt some effective solutions to our problems ... I'm afraid with the 'shower' sitting within every mainstream political party, it could be any of the above, except for the latter!
Appetite for fat cat taxes? 10:24pm on 30 Nov 2009 IMHO the Lib Dems have also waivered and succumbed to self interest/greed. If you think any of the current 'leaders' are going to solve our problems then you probably need to read this ... http://poweromics.blogspot.com/2009/07/big-questions-too-hot-to-handle.html ...
Appetite for fat cat taxes? 8:34pm on 30 Nov 2009 Post 87: in response to post #16 ... "Gambling Tax - high percentage level of tax applied to investment banking, trading, hedge funds etc. This tax would at least create some value to society from such socially useless (and arguably morally corrupt) activities. It would also make profiteering from gambling much harder, and focus more attention on trying to create real wealth instead." ...

... Ishkander wrote "Interesting !! Hong Kong has a gambling tax. On a 6% betting tax, the Hong Kong Jockey Club produces sufficient tax revenue to fund about 60-70% of the HK government expenditure, year after year after year !! Then again, the Chinese are well known to be inveterate gamblers !! ... As for casino banking and related activities, all they need is to be properly regulated and taxed !!

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Thanks for the insight about the effectiveness of gambling taxes in Hong Kong - interesting indeed ... Hong Kong also appears to be keen on Land Value Tax too ... funny how leading nations do, whilst those in the west don't even look. IMHO casino banking does need to properly regulated, but it needs to be taxed more than normal gambling too (e.g. to pay back taxpayers for previous bailouts).
Appetite for fat cat taxes? 4:18pm on 30 Nov 2009 Post 29 - rates were replaced by a property tax - the council tax - which replaced the person tax (poll tax). land is also not subjected to inheritance tax in the same way as property is either. lastly, if you want to promote a future based on gambling ... good luck ... but I think you'll find it'll only be the bookies who will win (cf all the recent taxpayers bailouts). with regard to land value tax etc I would also personally recommend reading James Robertson's work on this too*, as I do not have the time to explain it here.

* e.g. http://www.jamesrobertson.com/article/taxshift.pdf
Appetite for fat cat taxes? 3:54pm on 30 Nov 2009 Following on from Post 23 :-

Land Value Tax implementation should/would focus on taxing the market value of land, based on the planning restrictions that apply to it (residential, commercial, industrial). These would change as/when any changes to land use were agreed (which removes the speculation/profit you refer to, as well as the developer removing the roof in order to avoid a property tax!).

The use of taxes raised from Land Value Tax should also be used to support real wealth creation/enterprise, which helps to create jobs (rather than simply paying people to do nothing) and the point made here was well made. Thank-you.
Appetite for fat cat taxes? 3:05pm on 30 Nov 2009 I also agree with post 12 - see below

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/stephanieflanders/2009/11/appetite_for_fat_cat_taxes.html#P89200912
Appetite for fat cat taxes? 2:46pm on 30 Nov 2009 IMHO we need to immediately introduce 2 taxes:

1 Land Value Tax (which is NOT a Property tax) - this taxes the ultra-rich land-owners, who gain wealth as a consequence of what we put around that land. They cannot avoid it and they cannot pass it on (law of natural economics). This could then be used to subside tax reductions to the hard-working (e.g. through tax threshold increases, and basic rate of tax reductions). Take a look at http://www.urbantools.org for instance and http://poweromics.blogspot.com/2009/08/land-of-free-but-whos-paying-for-it.html for instance.

2. Gambling Tax - high percentage level of tax applied to investment banking, trading, hedge funds etc. This tax would at least create some value to society from such socially useless (and arguably morally corrupt) activities. It would also make profiteering from gambling much harder, and focus more attention on trying to create real wealth instead. See http://poweromics.blogspot.com/2009/11/hypocrisy-corruption-and-battle-ahead.html for instance.

These will deter profiteering from gambling as well as profiteering by simply owning land (whilst adding no value at all).
Dubai: Just a sideshow? 12:06pm on 29 Nov 2009 Post 105 wrote ... "Yes, up to a point although rights or wrongs do not mean a lot. Nature has no principles, principles are man made, a cultural thing, talking about rights and wrongs means nothing."

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If we as human beings have fallen so low that all morals/principles have been ejected then we are now nothing more than animals ... and God help us!

Post 102 wrote ... in response to the comment "For evil to flourish, all it needs is for good men to do nothing' [Edmund Burke]" ... "It's worse when "good" men aid and abet, knowingly or unknowingly, evil for their own ends !!"

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Should it not be 'otherwise "good" men'?
Dubai: Just a sideshow? 10:54am on 29 Nov 2009 Post 108 wrote ...

"Full spectrum meltdown is coming - but no-one wants to know about that because true to form they prefer the comforting fog of delusion".

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Well put. IMHO as ignorance reduces it exposes apathy ... i.e. those who know what's going on, but who prefer/choose to sink back into the 'fog of delusion' rather than do something about it ... they can then pretend to be ignorant, instead of apathetic, which helps then to feel less guilt for their inaction.

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