FTT could be introduced as value added tax
Monday 3 Oct 2011 | Regulation Mutters
Rumours are circulating that the European Commission may seek to introduce the controversial FTT through the back door as a value added tax.
A well-placed MEP tells the Mutterer that this is one route the EU executive is actively considering to ensure the controversial tax is not killed off by the bloc’s cumbersome decision-making structures, which demand consensus.
By introducing the tax on…
Idiotic insults never get you heard
Thursday 29 Sep 2011 | Regulation Mutters
The poor old European Commission came in for a battering last night on Newsnight when both Telegraph hack Peter Oborne and presenter Jeremy Paxman referred to an EC spokesman as an idiot – not once, not twice, but three times.
Quite rightly, the commission spokesman did the sensible thing and walked out of the studio after the third insult – see video below.
The debate was centred on the…
‘I go to bed every night and I dream of another recession’
Tuesday 27 Sep 2011 | Regulation Mutters
You’d have thought the world of finance could do little to shock the public after the dramatic events of the financial crisis and the subsequent recession – until an excited trader told the world he’s rooting for another one.
Speaking to BBC News 24, independent trader Alessio Rastani left presenters gobsmacked after declaring that investors “don’t really care” about the fall of the economy as…
The financial crisis – now on your iPad!
Friday 23 Sep 2011 | Regulation Mutters
Amid all of the International Monetary Fund’s recent doom-laden analysis of the state of the global economy, you could be forgiven for missing some of its more positive news: the international lender has launched its own iPad app.
In case the public is in any doubt about the state of global finances, the exclusive system allows users to trawl through a series of databases that the IMF maintains…
Crunch: The game for utter bankers
Thursday 22 Sep 2011 | Regulation Mutters
Our financial foundations are crumbling while our cherished traditions of greed, profit and exploitation are threatened.
This is the opener for a rather amusing card game that has found its way to the desk of the Mutterer.
‘Crunch’, by the makers of ‘War on Terror: the board game’, sees players take on the role of chief executive of a global bank.
Your task is to do “whatever it takes…
And this year’s award for best finance minister goes to…
Wednesday 21 Sep 2011 | Regulation Mutters
Australian treasurer Wayne Swan has won Euromoney magazine’s finance minister of the year award for his steady handling of the country’s economy through the financial crisis.
Swan, who is also deputy Prime Minister of Australia, is praised for his “careful stewardship” of the country’s finances and economy – which has been the best performing developed market economy in the world since the…
The war against the wealthy: part IV
Tuesday 20 Sep 2011 | Regulation Mutters
Vince Cable, Britain’s outspoken business secretary, is leading the resistance to Conservative plans to roll back the 50p rate of tax.
“Some believe that if taxes on the wealthy are cut, new revenue will miraculously appear,” the Liberal Democrat said in his party conference speech in Birmingham on Monday.
“I think their reasoning is this: all those British billionaires who demonstrate their…
MEP: ‘100,000 EU laws costing UK jobs’
Thursday 15 Sep 2011 | Regulation Mutters
A British Conservative MEP has called for the European Parliament to be shorn of powers to regulate the financial industry in his home country.
David Campbell Bannerman contended on Wednesday that close to “100,000” EU laws, regulation, directives and decisions are costing the UK economy £118bn (€136bn/$186bn) a year – yes billion!
Bannerman takes
Trying to squash a rumour is like trying to unring a bell
Wednesday 14 Sep 2011 | Nicola York
Talk about market jitters, the Dow plummeted by 112 points on Wednesday after false rumours spread that the Austrian government had failed to ratify EU proposals to expand the European bailout facility.
It turns out that the headlines were wrong and that the parliamentary committee had simply decided to delay its decision on the extension of the European Financial Stability Facility until a…
American tax: some interesting facts
Friday 9 Sep 2011 | Regulation Mutters
Twenty-five of the 100 highest paid chief executives in the US earned more last year than their companies paid in federal income tax.
In 2009, the average chief executive’s salary was 185 per cent larger than the average worker’s. That same year 1,470 millionaires and billionaires paid zero taxes.
And yet America still has one of the biggest corporation tax rates in the world – above France,…
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