03-09-2009, 01:59 PM
Peter Presland Wrote:The US authorities are determined to increase their tax take by making access to US capital markets conditional upon a raft of intrusive measures aimed at ANYONE owning 'US assets' anywhere in the world and largely through the legal construct of 'US Person' - Watch out, buy shares in IBM and you could find yourself designated a 'US Person' involving major potential liabilities and no benefits whatsoever other than said access - if that can really be described as a benefit at all these days.
The second part deals with the other side of the balance sheet so to speak - ie 'access to US capital markets' which it finds of very questionable value. It is essentially an analysis of US government debt and forward liabilities, most of which is already pretty familiar territory. It argues - persuasively in my view - that the measures being taken to increase the tax take on foreign held securities will make it more difficult (as if it were not already pretty well impossible) for the US Treasury to finance its liabilities and that any increased tax take will be dwarfed by the the additional financing costs it precipitates.
Certain words and phrases come to mind, in a stream of consciousness fashion:
Imperial overrearch.
Hubris. Nemesis.
"US person" = the opposite of an "unperson", in the Orwellian sense.
However, if "US person" means you get taxed by The Empire, then Swiss bankers recommend you become an "unperson"....
Peter Presland Wrote:BTW - welcome back David G.
Yup. :hello:
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War."
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta."
The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War."
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta."
The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war