I’m not a fan of international bureaucracies. I’ve criticized the United Nations for wanting global taxes. I’ve condemned the International Monetary Fund for promoting bigger government. I’ve even excoriated the largely unknown Basel Committee on Banking Supervision for misguided regulations that contributed to the financial crisis. But the worse international bureaucracy, at least when measured […]
read more...Most of us are aware that America has a punitive corporate tax system, but here’s a sobering bit of analysis. Corporations pay more money to governments than they do to their shareholders. Here’s a chart from a recent Tax Foundation analysis. Now here’s something even more important to understand. Corporations don’t actually pay all those […]
read more...Dr. Andrew P. Morriss of the University of Alabama and Lotta Moberg of George Mason University have produced a new paper titled, ““Cartelizing Taxes: Understanding the OECD’s Campaign Against ‘Harmful Tax Competition’,” which thoroughly documents the OECD’s anti-tax competition campaign. The paper echoes years of CF&P work in its description of an organization that has […]
read more...[PDF Version] October 25, 2011 Dear U. S. Senators and U. S. Representatives: As part of an overall effort to help control the size of government, we believe American taxpayers should not subsidize the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Even if we had a balanced budget, OECD funding would be contrary to US interests. The […]
read more...I’ve previously blogged about the declining status of the United States, as measured by objective sources such as the Economic Freedom of the World Index and the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report. My attitude about these developments is to sarcastically say, “Thanks for nothing, Bush and Obama.” But the real insult to injury is […]
read more...Accusing a political opponent of being anti-science has become a standard tactic of both parties in recent years. These accusations are usually dishonest, as what the accuser typically means is that the accused is not properly weighing the costs and benefits of addressing a particular issue to their liking. Or they accuse them of disagreeing […]
read more...Being the world’s self-appointed defender of so-called tax havens has led to some rather bizarre episodes. The bureaucrats at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development threatened to have me thrown in a Mexican jail for the horrible crime of standing in the public lobby of a hotel and giving advice to low-tax jurisdictions. On […]
read more...Another American company has decided to expatriate for tax reasons. This process has been going on for decades, with companies giving up their U.S. charters (a form of business citizenship) and redomiciling in low-tax jurisdictions such as Bermuda, Ireland, Switzerland, Panama, Hong Kong, and the Cayman Islands. The companies that choose to expatriate usually fit […]
read more...Advocates of limited government love to fantasize. But because we’re strange people, we don’t have ordinary fantasies about supermodels or playing pro baseball. We daydream about a libertarian nirvana, where the rights of individuals are protected, guided by a moral order based on freedom and responsibility, and the leviathan state is forever constrained. Ayn Rand […]
read more...I’ve joked on many occasions that bipartisanship occurs in Washington when the evil party and the stupid party come up with an idea that is simultaneously malicious and misguided. The international version of two-wrongs-don’t-make-a-right occurs whenever the French and the Germans conspire on economic policy. The latest example is a joint proposal for “economic governance” […]
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