The old saying that “two wrongs don’t make a right” is especially true in the field of public policy. A good example is the crazy new proposal from the United Nations to collect billions of dollars by imposing global taxes on financial transactions and energy. That’s bad enough, but the international bureaucracy wants to impose these taxes in order to bribe developing nations into agreeing to cripple their economies with policies designed to fight global warming. So people in the real world would pay more money to support a misguided scheme, while a bunch of tax-free bureaucrats get more power. This is so absurd that even the Obama Administration is opposed – at least according to this Bloomberg story.
At least $65 billion might be raised by taxing foreign-exchange transactions and auctioning pollution permits, a United Nations panel said today in a report recommending ways to finance aid for fighting global warming. The panel, which includes billionaire investor George Soros and Larry Summers, director of President Barack Obama’s National Economic Council, said selling carbon-emissions permits would generate $38 billion and a financial transactions tax an additional $27 billion, according to the report released today. The findings are intended to guide envoys at UN climate talks that start this month in Mexico as they seek ways to pay for $100 billion in climate aid that was pledged by 2020 to poor nations at last year’s summit in Copenhagen. The report found that the goal is “challenging but feasible” to achieve. …Former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and labor groups including the U.K. Trades Union Congress have supported the idea. President Barack Obama’s administration opposes it. A tax of 0.05 percent on financial transactions may raise as much as $700 billion a year, according to WWF, a Washington-based global environmental activist group.
[…] global taxation from the United Nations are so radical and so far from the mainstream that even the Obama Administration generally is opposed to these crack-pot ideas. “I’m horribly […]
[…] Let’s close with some good news. Proposals for global taxation from the United Nations are so radical and so far from the mainstream that even the Obama Administration generally is opposed to these crack-pot ideas. […]
[…] global taxation from the United Nations are so radical and so far from the mainstream that even the Obama Administration generally is opposed to these crack-pot ideas. “I’m horribly […]
[…] powers for the United Nations or any other entity. President Obama, for instance, already has rejected some global tax proposals and his Administration has been resisting other European proposals for global […]
[…] powers for the United Nations or any other entity. President Obama, for instance, already has rejected some global tax proposals and his Administration has been resisting other European proposals for global […]
[…] June 5, 2011 by Dan Mitchell Regular readers know that I’m not a big fan of the international bureaucracies. I don’t like the International Monetary Fund because it encourages bad policy by bailing out nations such as Greece. I don’t like the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development because it promotes bigger government with its anti-tax competition campaign. And I don’t like the United Nations because it is a wasteful and corrupt bureaucracy, though at least it is ineffective so we don’t have to worry too much about the bad ideas it generates (such as global taxes – see here, here, and here). […]
Who voted for Soros, Strong , Gore and like minded extortionists who swan around the world leaving carbon footprints the size of Texas with their attendance at wealth plundering gabfests?
However, these are the extortionists that are constantly working out ways behind closed doors (Bilderberg etc) to pilfer the worlds wealth from those least able to afford it via their networks of political proxies.
We already had a financial transaction tax in Brazil a few years ago (CPMF) and the new administration may revive it, with help from Senate and House of Deputies. I guess it’s an aphorism for public authorities: “When you don’t know what to do, tax the #$%¨&* “@ idiots,” or something like that. It’s a confession of ineptness on the part of ANY administration (or the UN, for that matter). It’s also an admission of guilt: “Hey, we’re sorry, but we’ve got to grease some hands, funds are getting low, so open your wallets.”
CATO must find a way to become more vocal. Twitter and Facebook are fine, but maybe some VIPs in corporate world, networks and other opinion makers could help.
I do my part by re-tweeting, but that’s not enough. In any event, it’s good to know there are thinking heads out there… Thanks.
P.S.: Yes, I’m Brazilian, but I follow you because your problems today are ours tomorrow – and vice-versa.
Liberalism MUST triumph.
Obama says he’s opposed? Actions speak louder than words.
It only needs to pass one single time, out of the many that has been and will keep being proposed. Then the global tax will become permanent, ever increasing and ever expanding to more and more areas.
As John Lennon would sing in hope: “Imagine all the pepoole… paying global tax…youhooo”
But…isn’t the money the US and other nations already give to the UN a global tax?