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now they are proposing a tax on property in italy, since they saw how well the bank tax went.
you can't wait in line to try and get your money out of your property, can you?
Governments who need assets to balance numbers on a spreadsheet to prevent the current ruling class from going under will do whatever they need to balance the books. If one is wealthy enough to have around $100K+ in the bank/401(k)/IRA, with a small five figure mortgage left on the home, they should have already been doing things to protect against government seizure/taxation. They should already have had a very nice home safe, with no one else knowing about it (outside of the spouse). The safe should have at least $10K in gold and $10K in silver, likely a few grand in various currencies (I would say Canada, Australia, New Zealand, but that is just me). They could also have invested in things like tools, firearms, ammunition, stuff that continues to hold some sort of value in any sort of economic collapse situation.
Ultimately it doesn't really matter. If the US were to do the same thing, it would be only on the high value savers, who likely would still have money and stuff left over to leave them just ticked off enough to curse the government, but not mad enough to "go postal." If that wasn't enough, they would just go further, taxing all savings accounts like 401(k)s or IRAs, and if need be, taxing equity on homes, or even passing a national sales tax. If the powers that be need to make it appear to everyone else that the numbers work, they will tax whatever or take whatever needed to make the numbers work on paper. There is much anyone with significant savings can really do about it. The best course of action would be to try to decide the confiscation methods that are the least likely to occur and save more heavily in that aspect. Government going door-to-door and taking 10% of physical held wealth is the least likely thing to occur, so holding cash or precious metals would protect one from gov. confiscation. However, it is also the most risky due to theft and fire. One would need a costly safe placed in the home, and even then, one might have to resort to burying stuff in the yard in glass jars. A bank safety deposit box would be harder for the gov to confiscate than just having to deal with electronic 1s and 0s, but one takes the risk of banks being told to block access to boxes.
More and more economists now admit that the US policy of holding down interest rates on top of a small amount of inflation is more punishing to savers than the one time hit of 10%. Bottom line is that government interference in markets is generally no good for anyone.
Governments who need assets to balance numbers on a spreadsheet to prevent the current ruling class from going under will do whatever they need to balance the books. If one is wealthy enough to have around $100K+ in the bank/401(k)/IRA, with a small five figure mortgage left on the home, they should have already been doing things to protect against government seizure/taxation. They should already have had a very nice home safe, with no one else knowing about it (outside of the spouse). The safe should have at least $10K in gold and $10K in silver, likely a few grand in various currencies (I would say Canada, Australia, New Zealand, but that is just me). They could also have invested in things like tools, firearms, ammunition, stuff that continues to hold some sort of value in any sort of economic collapse situation.
Ultimately it doesn't really matter. If the US were to do the same thing, it would be only on the high value savers, who likely would still have money and stuff left over to leave them just ticked off enough to curse the government, but not mad enough to "go postal." If that wasn't enough, they would just go further, taxing all savings accounts like 401(k)s or IRAs, and if need be, taxing equity on homes, or even passing a national sales tax. If the powers that be need to make it appear to everyone else that the numbers work, they will tax whatever or take whatever needed to make the numbers work on paper. There is much anyone with significant savings can really do about it. The best course of action would be to try to decide the confiscation methods that are the least likely to occur and save more heavily in that aspect. Government going door-to-door and taking 10% of physical held wealth is the least likely thing to occur, so holding cash or precious metals would protect one from gov. confiscation. However, it is also the most risky due to theft and fire. One would need a costly safe placed in the home, and even then, one might have to resort to burying stuff in the yard in glass jars. A bank safety deposit box would be harder for the gov to confiscate than just having to deal with electronic 1s and 0s, but one takes the risk of banks being told to block access to boxes.
I would think if the banks are under capital control, you wouldn't want your assets in a bank safety deposit box.
a good piece by nigel farage, with good advice, as usual:
this is the 5th of 17 countries needing to be bailed out. I can even understand wanting assets in the face of yet another bailout, but certainly retroactive stealing isn't fair.
punishing savers is stupid, and some day the countries will miss all those savings that they discouraged.
bottom line is that it is always stupid to reward bad behavior and punish good behavior--- always.
yep they can continue what caused the decline in the first palce little longer.Kick the can down the road as they have been as this crisis approached to keep the voters voting for what can't be paid for.
More and more economists now admit that the US policy of holding down interest rates on top of a small amount of inflation is more punishing to savers than the one time hit of 10%. Bottom line is that government interference in markets is generally no good for anyone.
That is a good point. It's been years of nothing interest rates and it's punishing.
Ultimately it doesn't really matter. If the US were to do the same thing, it would be only on the high value savers, who likely would still have money and stuff left over to leave them just ticked off enough to curse the government, but not mad enough to "go postal." If that wasn't enough, they would just go further, taxing all savings accounts like 401(k)s or IRAs, and if need be, taxing equity on homes, or even passing a national sales tax. If the powers that be need to make it appear to everyone else that the numbers work, they will tax whatever or take whatever needed to make the numbers work on paper. There is much anyone with significant savings can really do about it. The best course of action would be to try to decide the confiscation methods that are the least likely to occur and save more heavily in that aspect. Government going door-to-door and taking 10% of physical held wealth is the least likely thing to occur, so holding cash or precious metals would protect one from gov. confiscation. However, it is also the most risky due to theft and fire. One would need a costly safe placed in the home, and even then, one might have to resort to burying stuff in the yard in glass jars. A bank safety deposit box would be harder for the gov to confiscate than just having to deal with electronic 1s and 0s, but one takes the risk of banks being told to block access to boxes.
I don't believe there isn't anything people can do about it. I'm sure smart people with money know what to do, it's the average person, and really older people living off savings and people with a retirement nest egg, that don't know what to do. Are actual rich people burying money in a jar? How are they protecting themselves, I'd like to know.
The actual rich person is making a fortune off all this. You can bet someone is getting extremely rich, that's why the bailout, so they can rake in big money that will be taken from taxpayers.
I don't believe there isn't anything people can do about it. I'm sure smart people with money know what to do, it's the average person, and really older people living off savings and people with a retirement nest egg, that don't know what to do. Are actual rich people burying money in a jar? How are they protecting themselves, I'd like to know.
The irony is that Cyprus banks was one of the spots the rich were using to hide wealth. Especially Russians. They now have to worry about other tax havens.
Cyprus is paying a high price for the $13 billion financial rescue it finally obtained from the E.U. early Monday after a week of high drama: the destruction of a key pillar of its economy, its status as the offshore tax haven of choice for wealthy Russians.
Quote:
The overall impact will be a dramatic change for Cyprus’ economy. Over the past 30 years, since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the island has banked on its ability to attract money from Russia and elsewhere as an offshore center. Oversight has been tightened up since Cyprus joined the E.U. in 2004, but it remains relatively lax by international standards, and foreign companies pay a flat tax rate of just 10%. For a while the strategy seemed to work well; Cyprus built up a gargantuan banking industry, which is currently about five times the size of its total economy, according to Standard & Poor’s.
About one-third of the $88 billion in deposits in those banks is from Russians, who have increasingly used the island’s banking system as a tax-sheltered conduit for their financial transactions worldwide. Indeed, Cyprus shows up in international statistics as a huge investor in Russia itself, as a result of “round-tripping” by Russians who didn’t entrust their money to their national banking system. According to European Central Bank statistics, more than 40% of the deposits in Cyprus banks are in excess of $650,000
So in the aggregate you have to wonder if those with large balances who were using Cyprus as a shelter aren't still ahead of the ball game.
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How are they protecting themselves, I'd like to know.
