Things just keep getting rougher for average citizens in Europe. Some have faced government seizure of accounts to help fund government operations and requirements that they explain withdrawals to their banks. Now, the European Central Bank (ECB) is imposing a negative interest rate on banks for their deposits. So, you can keep your money under your mattress or put it in a bank where the bank will use it to earn money while charging you for the pleasure. This is of course the central bank which directly relates to individual banks as opposed to individual depositors. Those banks will now pay to park their money and those costs will be passed along to depositors. Banks are likely going to try to hide the fact that the interest rate is now negative through fees and other measures.
The ECB cut the rate on its deposit facility for banks from 0 percent to minus 0.10 percent. It also cut its main interest rate to from 0.25 percent to 0.15 percent as well as cutting the rate on its marginal lending facility by 35 basis points to 0.4 percent from 0.75 percent.
It is an interesting situation where banks will now be treated as solely a safe place for holding your money but you will pay for the service as a fee. Much like the airlines where aspects of what was once viewed as the basic service are being converted into fees, banks will now be treated as akin to a safety deposit box. However, unlike airlines or safety deposit boxes, the banks are making money off the deposits. It is a fundamental change in function of banks.
I have long been critical of the tax increases and measures in Europe that will likely have displacement impacts on investments and movement of citizens and businesses. In this case, I would expect people to look for alternatives from Internet banks to foreign banks.
😮
paulette and John,
I guess my sarcasm radar is not working tonight! 🙂
John,
I am sure glad that you cleared that up for me. So I should get a job a get rich! Who knew it was so easy?? Of course, it helps when daddy or mommy give you a few million and then you pay congress to give you and your pals tax breaks that the rest of us can’t take advantage of. It also helps when corporations are now paying less taxes than ever and sending their jobs overseas so the wealthy can keep more money for themselves and pay their workers even less. You are right it is just greed…but you pointing the finger at the wrong camp.
rafflaw – your talking about the rich giving jobs to their kids sounds a lot like the Kennedys.
John ~
Excellent use of snark.
OK. So there are two camps. One wants to be free to make money. The second wants the money the first makes.
That is seriously rational. It is genetic to desire something and to attempt to obtain with the least amount of effort.
There is naturalism which is capitalism and there is parasitism which is communism.
Why don’t the poor people just go get a job and get rich? If they work hard and invest a lot of whatever they make for 35 years, they will be.
All men are created equal, not the outcome of their lives.
There is no perfection.
I’m not interested in the public debt. Put together a stimulus bill, rebuild infrastructure, hold off on declaring another war, and watch it tumble.
However, I will pay 15% more if all elections are publicly funded. Fix that horrible Citizens United that completed the sale of our government to the rich. And no more 501c3 and 501c4 BS either. I’ll be glad to pay. My country is worth it. How about you, Darren? You in favor of billionaires buying every elective office in the land?
feynman wrote: “However, I will pay 15% more if all elections are publicly funded. Fix that horrible Citizens United that completed the sale of our government to the rich.”
What makes you assume that the rich are not part of the public? Why would you want to take away their vote? I don’t think it is right to disenfranchise voters.
Darren,
if the need for taxes is real, I would pay more. However, I agree with paulette that those wealthy individuals paying on dividends only and secreting money overseas need to pay more too. Not to mention corporations. I am not holding my breath that the wealthy and corporations will pay their fair share. Why do you think they are spending millions to buy Congress and the Supreme Court?
The Preamble limits government to security and infrastructure and secures the “blessings of liberty” as it promotes the general welfare and deliberately excludes individual welfare. The Constitution provides for the right to private property. Taking money from one man to give it to another confiscates private property and makes it public. Thomas Jefferson rejected societies of “communion” and stated that moveable property was “admitted” before a nation was founded. Redistribution of wealth and central planning and definitively unconstitutional. The Constitution and Communist Manifesto are different and they are not the same.
Former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was an ideologue and political appointee who lacked the objectivity and ethical compulsion to support the Constitution even though his personal beliefs, as presented above, supported the dictatorship of the proletariat, central planning and utopian redistribution of wealth as prescribed in the Communist Manifesto.
Sorry. The Constitution says you can’t control the economy, confiscate private property (moveable, personal, real, etc.) or redistribute wealth here in America.
You are, however, abundantly free to build the largest charitable organization that free and open markets will allow.
Oh, and let’s not forget the Walton’s and their WalMart billions.
I will if Romney, Forbes and the Kochs do!
Sounds good so far on the poll.
For those who would like to pay more taxes, next April 15th, you will have the opportunity. Under the tax law, you may submit additional money to help reduce the public debt.
I recommend that you pay 15% more of your adjusted gross income in taxes, since paying more is what you have offered to do.
Come April of 2015. We can be looking forward to your contribution to the IRS, no?
Shuler
Just imagine. Wouldn’t it be great for Californians to have a fabulous state university system once again?
Shuler
The right and the wealthy looong for a flat tax. And those high-end purchases? Watch for them to be exempt from any flat tax. – along with capital gains and estate taxes.
Shuler ~
A flat tax (say 10%) for a millionaire w/$10 MILLION (said in Austin Powers Goldmember voice) would pay $1MM in tax and let’s say s/he spends $1MM for living expenses. That leaves $8MM to invest. Our poverty level family of 4 makes $23,850. They pay $2,385 tax with zero left over to invest.
The poor don’t have money to make money. The wealthy have money to make money.
A flat tax is inequitable for all but the wealthy.
paulette wrote: “A flat tax is inequitable for all but the wealthy.”
It depends on the type of flat tax system. One flat tax system proposes a standard deduction that allows income tax to be negative for the poor. Under that system, a family of four earning $34,000 a year would receive a check from the government for $4,000. Only those earning above $54,000 a year would pay a flat 20% tax on income above $54,000. Could you live with that kind of system?
paulette92122
Former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once noted that “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.”
I, for one, vote for a civilized society.
Dear Paulette:
I wish our country was made of more people like you! How is this notion lost on Americans and nouveau riche?
I’m willing to pay more tax as well. For a more civilized society.
I’ll pay more.
feynman – you can claim to want to pay more, but you won’t even use your real name on here. How would we know you paid more?
When I worked at a certain trade association in DC in the 90’s, the flat tax came up for a while there as a popular political football. At the time, the wealthy and many businesses were decisively and strongly against the flat tax because it would cause high-end purchases to pay more tax per purchase. That’s the bottom line.
I kinda wonder about the flat tax. If it were that regressive, surely it would be implemented by now? Any opportunity where the poor or middle can pay seems to happen. Maybe the wealthy just want to wriggle out of paying? I’m no accountant so I don’t know…
Former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once noted that “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.”
I, for one, vote for a civilized society.
paulette wrote: “Former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once noted that “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.” ”
When taxes are at a low level, this his statement is true. However, when taxes are high like we have now, then the following is true:
“Taxes are what we pay for a corrupt government.”