printThe ostrich press, “Bloomberg, CNN, New York Times or anywhere in the US print or TV media,” did not report it. VDARE did:
“On Thanksgiving eve the English language China Daily and People’s Daily Online reported that Russia and China have concluded an agreement to abandon the use of the US dollar in their bilateral trade and to use their own currencies in its place. The Russians and Chinese said that they had taken this step in order to insulate their economies from the risks that have undermined their confidence in the US dollar as world reserve currency.” …
“The American financial press finds solace in the episodes when sovereign debt scares in the EU send the dollar up against the euro and UK pound. But these currency movements are just measures of financial players shorting troubled EU-denominated debt. They are not a measure of dollar strength.”
UPDATE I: The custodians of the Irish state are still better than the filth that gathers to rule us from DC. The American governing class has been unique in working against the economic interests of its countrymen and their country. (Treason?)
News comes that, “Ireland [will] endure the toughest cuts and tax hikes in its history as an unavoidable price for saving the debt-burdened nation from bankruptcy, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan told lawmakers as they prepared to vote on a brutal 2011 budget.”
“Lenihan’s plan — the harshest yet of four emergency budgets unveiled since 2008 to combat a runaway deficit — contains euro4.5 billion ($6 billion) in spending cuts and euro1.5 billion ($2 billion) in tax rises.”
Lenihan said income taxes would be broadened to bring tens of thousands of low-salaried workers into the tax net for the first time, while welfare payments would be cut across the board. Spending on capital projects — chiefly jobs-intensive building of roads and public transportation networks — would be cut by euro1.8 billion ($2.4 billion).
“Lenihan said Ireland had no choice but to slash spending and raise taxes immediately because the country this year is spending more than euro50 billion on regular government and at least euro45 billion to bail out its banks — yet collecting just euro19 billion this year in taxes. The staggering imbalance means an underlying deficit this year of 11.6 percent that, when bank-bailout costs are included, balloons to a modern European record of 32 percent of GDP.”
[SNIP]
I like the Irish idea of tax hikes on the poor a lot. Really. The cost of the welfare state must be felt by those who demand its spoils. Making the rich bleed for creating wealth will not ween the poor off welfare.
UPDATE II: The state has bifurcated the population into taxpayers and tax consumers. The so-called poor don’t really pay taxes as they receive in the form of assorted transfer payments from the government more than they contribute. They are net tax consumers.
The so-called rich pay all the taxes. Making the poor pay might just turn them against all the stuff they believe they are owed.
America is crumbling around the edges. All of us “God’ the flag and motherhood” down home folks can protest all we want to but I fear it’s too late. There is to much ground to make up and only the Republican party is there to carry the fight. I fear they are too much a part of the problem to be any help.
So do I, Ilana. However, thats not what this tax will be paying for. This tax will be paying the banksters of Ireland whose liabilities were 100% assumed by the government and thrown onto taxpayers. I would never support taxing the poor to support bailed out banks.
I like the Irish idea of tax hikes on the poor a lot. Really. The cost of the welfare state must be felt by those who demand its spoils. Making the rich bleed for creating wealth will not ween the poor off welfare.
On one train of thought, understood and agreed…but not so: theft can never be justified, regardless of how moral (or balanced) the outcome may seem. The Irish need what the US needs: no taxes, and no government “services”.
There are some in the US (myself included) who are trying to make a true private business succeed (no grants, no sba loans, no gov. contracts, etc.) by bootstrapping…and the social security tax (15.3% if you make less than $106,800, then down to 2.9% if you make more) alone is a massive obstacle…so the taxes on the “poor” are just as evil as taxes on the “rich”…indeed, the “poor” tax stops those who are trying to dig their way out using moral means.
P.S. Ilana, your views are usually most refreshing and educating – thanks very much for the good work. Your posts have improved my thinking many times.