I don’t like the international bureaucrats at the IMF, and I don’t like the corrupt politicians of Greece, so for whom do I cheer if there’s a fight between those two groups?
Ideally, both sides will lose (which is also my view of the European fight between Keynesians and tax increasers).
You’ll understand when you read about the recent remarks by Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund. Here’s what the UK-based Guardian reported.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde’s uncompromising description of Greeks as rampant tax-dodgers has provoked a furious reaction in Athens less than a month before the crisis-hit country heads to the polls. With Greece mired in ever-worsening recession, with cutbacks and tax rises, the IMF managing director was rounded on by almost the entire political establishment. In an interview with the Guardian, Lagarde said she had more sympathy for victims of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa than Greeks hit by the economic crisis. “As far as Athens is concerned, I also think about all those people who are trying to escape tax all the time. All these people in Greece who are trying to escape tax.” Evangelos Venizelos, the Greek socialist leader, who met Lagarde several times as finance minister, accused her of “insulting” Greeks. “Nobody has the right to humiliate the Greek people during the crisis, and I say this today specifically addressing Ms Lagarde … who with her stance insulted the Greek people.”
So what should we think of this fight?
Well, I agree with Lagarde that the people of sub-Saharan Africa are more deserving of sympathy. After all, the Greek people repeatedly voted to steal money from their fellow citizens by using the coercive power of government, so it’s hard to feel much sympathy for people who thought that scam could continue indefinitely.
Though, to be fair, the people in sub-Saharan Africa would probably make the same venal choices if they had democracy.
On the other hand, I am nauseated by Lagarde’s comments about tax evasion. She is one of the world’s biggest leeches, with annual compensation of more than $550,000 that is diverted from the productive sector of the economy. And, adding insult to injury, her bloated salary is tax free. So we have the grotesque spectacle of a pampered international bureaucrat whining and moaning that ordinary people aren’t paying enough tax.
Keep in mind, by the way, that the tax burden in Greece is more than 40 percent of economic output (see annex table 26), which (at least to normal people) shows that the problems is that the Greek government is spending far too much.
Then we have the sniveling comments of Greece’s former socialist finance minister, who says the Greek people have been “insulted.” Well, they should be insulted. And mocked. And berated. After all, these are the people who voted for one kleptocrat government after another.
These are the people who thought it was a good idea to elect governments that made insane decisions such as choosing to subsidize pedophiles and imposing a regulatory requirement to collect stool samples from entrepreneurs setting up online companies.
I think “a pox on both your houses” was a line in one of Shakespeare’s plays. But wherever it comes from, it sums up my view of this spat between the IMF and Greece. The only good decision for the United States would be to back away and not be involved. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration wants American taxpayers on the hook for the reckless overspending of foreign politicians.
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Default: Coming to a circus theater near you. See crystal ball for dates and times.
It is the one and only method that will both chastise and drive home the necessary epiphianic moment to all three ringmasters of this circus; the creditors, the distributors, the entitlees.
They all know it and each ringmaster will direct their own act in a furious bid to discredit the other two. Its not the ending they seek to shape but the laying of blame. For all intents and purposes they are resigned to their fates: default.
I love it when the leftists keep saying that austerity failed in europe so we should not try it here. What they ignore is the european austerity was tax hike austerity. Spending austerity, which would have worked, has never been tried.
The line “a pox on both your houses” comes from Romeo & Juliet. Its one of Mercutio’s, uttered after he’s been fatally wounded in a duel with Tybalt.
Mr. Ducote,
Your logic is that an organization that doesn’t believe think tanks, among many other types of organizations, should be taxed should stand on its principles by being taxed?
Cato is not a conservative think tank unless you come from a progressive ideological camp that views all dissent of itself as “conservative.” Many Cato supporters would describe themselves as liberal.
Third, what sort of mindset believes not being taxed is “government dependency?” Are you my dependent by virtue of not sending me money?
A suggested suggestion that Dan Mitchell might consider:
In light of the continuing cry for
less government and more freedom,
what does Dan Mitchell think about personally suggesting
that a leading conservative think tank, (Cato?),
consider certifying it’s leadership
by standing on it’s espoused principles,
and therefore reject
it’s government dependency
under the tax benefits of 501(c)(3)?
And yes, just as I know Dan Mitchell knows, there are
many underlying issues that would arise from this
suggestion. But the question here is simply whether
he would entertain the notion of this suggestion.
Respectfully,
And looking forward,
Russell H. Ducote
Director
Sector Lafayette LA, Inc.
the two photos are instructive: the top Minnie the Moocher at IMF and the Greek Finance Minister, bloated in body as is his nation bloated in appetite.
two photos there, head Minnie the Moocher at IMF and a Greek finance minister, bloated in body as is his government bloated in appetite.
Only in politics and the bamboozling dynamics of the ballot box is the Perpetual Motion Machine revived, i.e. recipes which after an initial stimulus promise prosperity without effort, wealth without exceptional productivity. Comfortable insulation from mediocrity under a centrally thought all-knowing master plan, where every morning exceptional people get out of their house and leave their family, leisure and hobbies to go work for distant others a few streets away, a few neighborhoods away, a few cities away, a sew states away, a few countries away. The dream of prosperity thorough flattening of the natural effort-reward curves lives on… and the now speedy decline of the Western World is accelerating.
Greece is living through the middle chapters of the Gospel of Mandatory Collectivism, also known as the Book of Hope and Change. Americans seem to have liked the cover and are now reading the introduction. It’s one of those books that you cannot put down once you start reading. But the scary parts are yet to come, though some are already hearing the ominous music in the background. You are now living into the decline.
Perhaps and ironically, as in times past, when it comes to the western world, Greece is not behind, but ahead… only that few western world voter lemmings realize that this is the 21st century and things are moving faster than ever. Changes, ascents and declines that once used to take hundreds of years will now conclude in a mere couple of decades. The Western Voter Lemmings think they have time, they think it’s their children’s problem. Alas…
[…] Dan Mitchell, do Instituto Cato, informa que o governo greco exige exames de fezes para quem quer abrir um negócio na internet. […]