From a Francis Porretto post, this morning:
‘…The International Monetary Fund (IMF) quietly dropped a bomb in its October Fiscal Monitor Report. Titled “Taxing Times,” the report paints a dire picture for advanced economies with high debts that fail to aggressively “mobilize domestic revenue.” It goes on to build a case for drastic measures and recommends a series of escalating income and consumption tax increases culminating in the direct confiscation of assets.‘ (bold mine)
Francis has more to say, of course. And note his words on the subject of conspiracies…..
Oh, and watch out for the term “mobilizing domestic revenue”, coming soon from the lips of a politician or bureaucrat near you..
It sounds so much nicer than “State theft of private property”, after all.
Unfortunately, the people keep voting for big-spending parties. To be fiscally prudent is considered to be “extreme right-wing.” If the last election was anything to go by, only about 5% of voters want a party that is serious about reigning in the madness.
On the other hand, here in Mission Bay, people seem to be rolling in cash. The cafes and restaurants are packed every night. Tamaki Drive is full of European sports cars perpetually in 1st gear. The real estate section of the Herald is as fat and glossy as our neighbor’s cat. The good times appear to be everlasting…
Odayu-sen – add “Christian fundamentalist” to the extreme right wing label. The media does everything it can to brainwash the public. Some of my highly educated, intelligent friends cannot see this and continue to think Obama is a god, anybody who goes to church is a nut and that Israel is the source of all evil.
The other thing is I’m amazed at how much money the yoof, who are “priced out of the housing market”, have to throw around on entertainment, cars and technology……..and how poorly they perform at work.
“..The good times appear to be everlasting…”
I’m sure citizens of Imperial Rome said the same thing, Odayu-sen.
I’m convinced that the recent confiscation of money by the banks in Cyprus for the government was a trial balloon. The fallout has been very muted and there has been very little about it in the MSM.
IF this is going to be used to pay off the debt racked up by governments (who have essentially been using it to buy themselves re-election and luxury) you can be certain that it is going to be simultaneously implemented by those Western countries who attend the various international meetings like the G7 and the G20. This means that NZ and Aus will have to go along with the US, Britain and the European countries.
The problem is to find a way of hiding ones wealth and, as mentioned in the blog, Asia seems to be the logical destination for both investing and job relocation.
“We are going to fundamentally transform America” has such a broad scope of meaning.
Singapore begins to look even better….
It is too organised. Maybe a country where the bureaucracy is a bit more chaotic and where it will be easier to hide.
hmmm…more chaotic often means insecure, though.
India?
There were rumblings from the Obama administration a couple of years ago about how the economy would take off if those pesky private pension funds would just release some of the $3 trillion they held.
Yeah, that private money is a real nuisance.
Note that they referred to these measures not as being able to “pay off the debts” (impossible) but as “restoring debt stability”.
That’s the equivalent of giving Fat Tony the bare minimum required to avoid having your legs broken.
Desperate to create their police state before the debt bomb goes off, they’re not up to schedule and it’s scaring the crap out of them.
Exactly.
Here’s someone who hasn’t been to the “meetings”:-
Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said today the U.S. and the rest of the democratic world is at a security crossroads in the wake of last month’s deadly al-Shabab attack at a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya – and suggested an answer could be in arming civilians.
He’s not going to be there much longer without an attitude adjustment.
Via Theo Spark at – http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/exclusive-westgate-interpol-chief-ponders-armed-citizenry/story?id=20637341
Finally someone out there thinks like some of us nutjobs. Sad that the rest of us haven’t woken up to what’s staring us in the face, but atleast a few are starting to get it.
India looks good. A functioning bureaucracy that’s also corruptible on the local level and reasonable levels of security.
Mr. Noble’s days are numbered. Wait for the retraction…..
“Mr. Noble’s days are numbered.” The first thing someone close to him has already said to him something on the order of: ‘Oh, you’re smarter than that.’
“Wait for the retraction…..” Should he not convincingly grovel, say he was joking — afterall the public isn’t trained like are the pros — he will hear something on the order of “We thought you were smart.”
Even should his retraction get him a bail now, somewhere down the road he will hear that phrase. Same thing happened to Larry Summers who just failed to become Fed Chief, losing to a woman — har, har. You may recall he was forced to resign as President of Harvard due to his ‘ innate differences between men and women might be one reason fewer women succeed in science and math careers.’
I have a good memory for useless info, and so can piece “the rest of the story” together for my friends pretty regularly.
Mr. Noble: go have a chat with Mr. Summers. Maybe plan a lot of long fishing trips.
Yes indeed.
“arming civilians” ?!?!
Actually giving power to the people? (Falls off chair and bangs head on the (threadbare) carpet.)
BTW KG.
You posted this thread less than an hour after I complained to you “Nobody has been charged incorrectly with being overly paranoid more than yours truly.”
Twas a friendly thing to do.
Unthinkable, eh? (Odakyu-sen)
End Fractional reserve banking! Even if we had zero govt spending we would still have the issues we have!
It would be more feasible to unscramble a thousand eggs.
In this case, what had been done cannot be UNdone. Only a hard reset will sweep aside this madness.
@Wombat:
The big reset is coming in the next few years on a day when the Progressives decide to make their play for total power in America, which will be smoke screened by a major crisis that allows them to declare martial law.
As is well known, all the world’s major economies are MAED (Mutually Assured Economic Destruction) the theory being that linked together they are too big to fail, but the reality is that when one major economy does belly up – they all go down the drain in true 1929 fashion.
The question that I have is a very logical one, because under the Progressive theory of the economic destruction not only of the United States, but the entire world crash into a super depression and super anarchy – HOW THE HELL DO THE PROGRESSIVES THINK THEY CAN COME OUT ON TOP
It’s a stupid plan tantamount to suicide for millions of American Progressives.
However, these same people came up with the train wreck called Obamacare.
IMHO they believe that they can replace the incentives of a (collapsed) free market economy with the fear of being shot for sedition.
The hard-core high tier progressives almost certainly believe that the crash will remove all restraints on their power because for society to survive it will be forced to adhere not to capitalist incentives but to government diktats.
The farmers will farm or be arrested.
The truckers will truck or be arrested.
To refuse to truck and farm would cause the starvation of millions and therefore be tantamount to murder, punishable as such.
They are relying on the fact that the population is so unprepared and feckless that they will have no choice but to comply 100% or face starvation.
In the US the powers that be have laid the groundwork under executive order to seize all productive assets in the event of a national emergency. When it comes (or when it’s triggered) it will make them or break them. They will hold power or chaos will result.
For them it’s a win/lose scenario. For everyone else it’s simply lose/lose.
Millions around the world will die during the transition. They don’t need everyone to survive so it’s not going to bother them at all. There will be no internet and no independent media so when political “undesirables” are rounded up and butchered wholesale it will fall to future historians to tell their story. For the newcomer, political undesirables are anyone that’s visited this blog or one like it.
In essence it will be the Communist revolution to end all Communist revolutions, but unlike before, this one will come from the top down.
Survival will rely on being able to transition from “shelter in place” to “bugthefuckout” at the drop of the proverbial hat. High distinctions in survival will go to the “better a year early than a minute late” crowd.
And if you haven’t got plenty of caches then you’re going to find out the hard way how much camping truly sucks after the first week.
Just one man’s opinion…
I’m surprised it took them so long to figure this out, perhaps they knew all along but were just waiting for the right moment. Don’t the stupid sheeple what’s coming until it’s too late.
Higher taxes and a lower standard of living are what’s coming to us, what else can we expect, we don’t want to pay for security or health, we want someone else to do it and at the same time work even less for it.
It’s like defying gravity, you can fly and float around all you want, eventually you will have to come down. Some out there have been stupid enough to chuck out the parachutes and landing gear to stay in the air a little longer, it’ll be very painful for them.