Dear Patriotic Global Citizens and Friends of Ethiopia:
It is becoming apparent by the day, as Good Governance demands transparency and accountability, the US Tax Payers have been supporting yet another corrupt system that was favoring Tax Heavens for Corporate Welfare for such a long time.
Tax Shelter countries such as Ireland, Netherlands and Bermuda as well as a series of Islands like the Caymans, Gibraltar and Switzerland are going to have another Economic Shock wave as Good Governance is shining its torch of transparency and accountability on Big Giant Corporations that are being bailed out by the US tax payers continue to shelter themselves from paying taxes.
Please follow Rachel Maddow presentations on yesterday evening (04 May 2009) on the Big Corrupt US Corporations that are being bailed out by US tax payers as being the most offensive and rather corrupt organizations. Imagine, giving a huge Bonus in Millions to such CEOs who are nothing but financial criminals protected by such big money and Corproate Welfare. I wonder what Lanny Guiners the so called Welfare Queen by the Republicans will feel when she reads such gross corruptions! I just wonder!
Imagine, such level of corporate welfare to Corporations who intentionally do not pay taxes; and then when their greed takes over and overwhelm themselves with "Toxic Assets" of their own making, the US tax payer is expected to bail them out. Then they come back again and say "Big Government is the problem", by people like the lapsed Catholic Priest turned Fox journalist Hannity of Fox Cable News.
Developmental States call this level of Tax Fraud and Shelter as Rent-Seeking Countries and Corporations. Perhaps there is no better term but terms like Gross International Corruption Network might describe them better. We might come up with better economic and good governance terms that reflects their impact and their mechanism of operations and the financial regulatory terms.
The most funny part is that they demand the Corporate Welfare Money but do not want to pay into it.
Wow, if this is not a crime, corruption then need to be investigated instead of being bailed out, what else can be called an intentional crime. Just imagine the amount of critism that surfaces from the Series of Goons like Transparency International and Economic Genocide Watch,etc when a small country from Africa or Asia has small financial challenges. Here , we have Mega Corruption in the US Corporate System and very little is said by Transparency International and all those goons who make noise when small African countries have challenges.
Mind you these Mega Corrupt Corporations are not only taking the US down but the whole Global Economy , and yet the world is expected to keep quiet and sing the usual mantra of Global Economic Crisis and Stimulus and Recovery Packages in Billions being dolled out to the same corporations who created the mess in the first place. This is crazy and Bernie Maddof will be laughing at us the Global Fools who are doing nothing about it. Remember, G20 When the European Countries refused to deal with the Global Toxic Asset, regardless of President Obama's strategy to remove it from the market. Here is the worst Toxic Asset being uncovered.
It is falling on President Barack Obama to address it and you will see after all the Irish lobbyist fail to reach the President, they will use all their Irish Democratic Senators to go wild and say, Good Governance is not for the Irish.
I just remembered one Irish Black Jew who used to write in Irish Time highly insensitive and out right racist and Genocidal Articles not to assist Ethiopians as they are busy reproducing beyond their means.
I wonder, what he is going to say about the potential Potato Famine or to be exact Technology Famine that is going to emerge from President Barack Obama's decision to ensure the US tax laws are applied rigorously in these times of Global Economic Crisis.
All the same, please read the attached article by Quentin Fottrell of Dow Jones Newswires and see tonight what Rachel Maddow of MSNBC and the Sister Fox Cable news would have to say.
Imagine, the arms of Good Governance that is transparency and accountability coming to major US Corporations and those little Tax Shelter states who were collecting money against the interest of the US tax payers.
All the same, Change we can believe in is coming full swing and I could not believe to see how the the Republican leadership and Fox Goons are going to spin this. I wonder how this fares with the IMF not releasing the Contingency funds needed by Emerging Developing nations. May be Emerging Nations should start Good Governance Tax Recovery Centers, I just wonder!
Here is Quenin Fottrell
Dr B
By Quentin Fottrell
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
DUBLIN (Dow Jones)--Ireland faces yet another potentially damaging blow to its faltering economy after U.S. President Barack Obama announced plans late Monday to cut overseas tax benefits for U.S. multinationals.
The White House said it proposed to cut tax benefits for those U.S. corporations that invest overseas and use some of their forecasted revenue to gain tax credits for investment in research and development.
Obama's tax plans could - in a worst case scenario - spell more trouble for Ireland's attractiveness as a destination for foreign investment, which was crucial in the emergence of the so-called Celtic tiger.
Economists say Ireland is already battling for its economic survival. When it comes to maintaining U.S. foreign direct investment, it needs it now more than ever.
In a briefing note, the White House cited Ireland as one of three small countries, alongside the Netherlands and Bermuda, as accounting for about one-third of all foreign profits by U.S. multinationals in 2003.
Obama said in a speech late Monday: "We will stop letting American companies that create jobs overseas take deductions on their expenses when they do not pay any American taxes on their profits."
"For years, we've talked about shutting down overseas tax havens that let companies set up operations to avoid paying taxes in America," Obama said. "That's what our budget will finally do."
This comes at a critical time for Ireland, which has been caught in a maelstrom of a banking industry on the verge of collapse, rising unemployment, a property market crash and plummeting tax receipts.
The small, open economy was the first in the euro zone to slide into recession and looks set to be the worst-performing economy in the euro zone this year, as the government tries to plug the hole in public finances.
Deputy Prime Minister Mary Coughlan told state broadcaster RTE Radio Tuesday that Ireland had brought "consistency" to its system for R&D tax credits and advised a "proportionate response" to Obama's speech.
Coughlan said that Ireland had "very fine" lobbyists in Washington but, once the lobbying by government representatives on Capitol Hill is done, "at the end of the day the Hill will make the final decision."
Ireland hosts the European headquarters of major U.S. firms, including Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Intel Corp. (INTC), Dell Inc. (DELL), Google Inc. (GOOG), Hewlett Packard Co. (HPQ) and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM).
None of these companies were available to comment Tuesday, but Pat Wall, Chairman of the Dublin-based American Chamber of Commerce Tax Committee, said, "U.S. multinationals here are significant employers."
Around 500 U.S. multinationals pay about EUR2.5 billion in tax yearly, and about 2% of the workforce directly or 100,000 people directly, more than the population of Bermuda, he said. Ireland's population is 4.1 million.
U.S. firms export around EUR83 billion of products and services from Ireland and contribute about EUR13 billion in expenditure to the Irish economy in terms of payrolls and goods and services employed in their operations, Wall said.
He said IDA Ireland - the state body charged with securing crucial new foreign direct investment, the Department of Finance and representatives from the Irish Embassy in Washington will all lobby hard on Capitol Hill until the proposals become law in 2011. "The rules have changed for everybody," he said.
IDA Ireland said the country faces a period of uncertainty over the next 12 to 18 months as details of the U.S. tax proposals emerge.
IDA Chief Executive Barry O'Leary told Dow Jones Newswires that U.S. multinationals in Ireland, which has a 12.5% corporate tax rate, have more substance than "holding companies" in the Netherlands or "tax havens" like Bermuda.
O'Leary also said Obama's proposals are unlikely to involve a blanket ban on U.S. companies' ability to defer paying U.S. tax on profits earned in Ireland, but will focus more on measures like tax deductions for expenses.
He also pointed out that Ireland was not categorized as a "tax haven" by the Organization of Economic and Cooperation and Development. Likewise, the Dutch Ministry of Finance said the Netherlands was not known as a tax haven.
The Netherlands' Ministry of Finance spokesman Marcel Homan told Dow Jones Newswires the government was "surprised" by Obama's statement as the Netherlands is known for its "average tax regime." He said the Dutch ambassador in Washington will ask the U.S. government for clarification.
The Netherlands is an important base for holding companies from the U.S. But American companies also employ over 200,000 people in the country, which has a population of around 16.5 million.
In 2007, American direct investment from holding companies in the Netherlands were $254.5 billion on a historical-cost basis, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. This accounts for nearly 70% of total U.S. direct investment in the Netherlands in the same year.
Despite its relatively low corporate tax rate, Ireland faces a loss of competitiveness and foreign investment, even without the latest blow from the U.S., as companies seek out lower cost economies in Eastern Europe and Asia.
Dell Inc. said earlier this year it was moving its Irish manufacturing operations to Poland by early 2010, a cost-cutting measure that would result in the loss of 1,900 Irish jobs - about half of the computer maker's Irish work force.
Ireland's National Competitiveness Council has highlighted problem areas for the country which include productivity, labor and energy costs, increased business regulation and overall infrastructure quality.
Obama's speech comes as Ireland faces its most serious economic crisis in the history of the state, with some economists forecasting the worst economic contraction in any industrialized country since the 1930s.
The Economic and Social Research Institute, an independent think tank, forecasts that Ireland's economy will contract by around 14% over the three years from 2008 to 2010 and sees unemployment hitting nearly 17% next year.
ESRI, one of the organizations consulted by representatives from the International Monetary Fund on their annual visit here last month, sees a general government deficit at 12% of gross domestic product in 2009. Ireland needs every penny it can get. The Irish government said late Tuesday it posted a budget deficit of EUR7.3 billion for the first four months of 2009 versus a deficit of EUR3.7 million for January to April 2008. Dermot O'Leary, an economist with Goodbody Stockbrokers, said Obama's tax plans smack of protectionism. "With Ireland waiting on a trade boost to provide a stimulus to recovery," he said, "these announcements are not welcome."
-By Quentin Fottrell, Dow Jones Newswires; +353-1-676-2189; quentin.fottrell??dowjones.com (Maarten Van Tartwijk in Amsterdam also contributed to this article.)
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Belai Habte-Jesus, MD, MPH.
www.globalbelai4u.blogspot.com
V: 571.225.5736; V:703.933.8737;
Globalbelai7@gmail.com
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