This, by me, is on the Guardian’s Comment is Free this afternoon:
Rumour has it that Alistair Darling is about to introduce a windfall tax on banks, and bankers. It’s an idea that, as Larry Elliott has noted, is timely and appropriate. It is also fraught with problems [...]
Frenzied cost-cutting will not fix our economic crisis | Society | guardian.co.uk .
The following is by Andrew Simms of the New Economics Foundation and a fellow member of the Green New Deal group:
Cuts, cuts, cuts… The word is chanted in politics until we work ourselves into a frenzy. We’re transfixed by [...]
From the blog of Richard Butt – editor of Isle of Man Today:
ONE reader of my blog, I was surprised to learn, is Richard Murphy.
Mr Murphy has been quoted in so-called liberal newspapers such as The Guardian and on the BBC decrying ‘tax havens’.
He is director of Tax Research [...]
The Guardian reports:
The government’s crackdown on tax avoidance and evasion has raised over £1bn in just 18 months, and speculation is growing that Alistair Darling is preparing a fresh raft of tough anti-avoidance measures in his pre-budget report next week.
A TUC analysis of recent government measures suggests that rules [...]
Polly Toynbee and the Guardian have followed up on my Comment is Free on the non-doms yesterday with more comment today. Polly said:
The revelation that Zac Goldsmith is a non-dom comes as no surprise. .. To David Cameron’s acute embarrassment here is yet another duck-island reminder.
Once [...]
The mystery of Tony Blair’s finances | Politics | guardian.co.uk .
Blair is as opaque as ever.
Worth reading.
And a perfect example of how not to manage your finances, unless it is your intention to mainly benefit accountants and lawyers.
[...]The Dubai government refused to guarantee the huge debts built up by its conglomerate Dubai World, dashing investor hopes that the latest episode in the global financial crisis might be swiftly resolved.
In an interview on local television, the director general of Dubai’s department of finance, Abdulrahman [...]
I have the following article on the Guardian’s ‘Comment is free’ section today under the heading “The non-dom rule is racist”:
Zac Goldsmith’s embarrassment about his non-domiciled tax status is more important than it seems. It cannot be dismissed as simply being an effective blow landed by the Lib Dems [...]
In a Guardian article titled A jamboree of repression, Tom Porteous, director of Human Rights Watch, raises concerns about the failure amongst Commonwealth countries to "muster the collective political will to uphold its core values of political freedom and respect for human rights" and concludes that the Commonwealth has [...]
Brown and Cameron clash over budget deficit | Business | guardian.co.uk .
Brown offers Keynes - give or take - which is the only way there is to get out of a recession caused by market failure (which is what happened).
Cameron disagreed:
Cameron rejected Brown’s arguments, insisting that the budget deficit must be [...]
Lloyds facing £54m tax bill after HBOS ruling | Business | guardian.co.uk .
Lloyds Banking Group, which is 43% state-owned, has failed in its latest attempt to avoid a £54m tax bill.
In a new ruling last month, the judge, Howard Nowlan, disagreed with HBOS’s argument that the scheme was [...]
The Guardian has noted:
The controversial tax on financial transactions endorsed by Gordon Brown and Lord Turner, the top City regulator, was last night beginning to garner the support of leading financiers for the first time.
The idea of a Tobin-like tax was embraced by outspoken City figure Terry Smith as [...]
A flaw in the TUC masterplan | Tim Worstall | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk .
Worstall makes a fool of himself in the Guardian on the proposal by the TUC for a bank transaction tax in the UK. As I noted in response:
Worstall seeks to make a point and fails to do so
First, [...]
Don’t let a backlash knock out Tobin tax | John Hilary | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk .
Gordon Brown’s statement of support for a tax on global financial transactions is a welcome call on the banks to repay [...]
The taxman cometh | Comment is free | The Guardian .
In the 60s, the Isle of Man recast itself as an offshore tax haven. How will the Manx ‘nation’ react now that status is under threat?
The Guardian considers the issue. And draws no conclusions.
Apart, it seems, from the fact that [...]
