The Great Game | 29 comments (29 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

this borders on paranoid sorry (none / 1)

just who controls this cabal of capital? All that is missing from this "analysis" is an instruction on who to burn once we gather with torches in the town square....

The purpose of inheritance taxes is to steadily shave down big piles of capital. Notice any Vanderbuilts with much money left? nope. You think Paris Hilton will end up with more or less than she starts with? Michael Jackson is turning $500 Meg into dust. Gates and Buffet are giving it away.

While time lets the rich pile up more and more within their lifetime, they tend to produce kids that piss it away. Clogs to clogs in 3 generations is the Dutch expression I believe. Is there anyone on the world's top 10 richest list from money older than 50 years? not that I see. The Mars heirs are still loaded but are also ready to croak. Ka ching for Uncle Sam.

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/54/biz_06rich400_The-400-Richest-Americans_Rank.html?boxes=custom

Buffet, Gates, Walton heirs (big funder of the anti inheritance tax as they are getting old), Dell, Ellison (Oracle). I don't see any ancient money dating to the Knights Templar or Rothschilds.

Last time I looked we had this thing called central governments that take in a fairly large portion of the national/world's earnings in order to fund the things you desire. The percentage is what we argue over in the political arena.

by HiD on Fri Jan 19th, 2007 at 07:49:31 AM EST

Re: this borders on paranoid sorry (none / 1)

Just to note, the top ten people on that list are worth an estimated $250 billion dollars. While that is an obscene amount of money, it pales in comparison to the US budget of 2.5 Trillion annually.

I don't think the national interests are being starved of cash by these guys controlling all the money....

by HiD on Fri Jan 19th, 2007 at 06:11:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: this borders on paranoid sorry (none / 1)

Only little people pay taxes...

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson

by ChrisCook (cojockathotmaildotcom) on Fri Jan 19th, 2007 at 06:23:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: this borders on paranoid sorry (none / 0)

The Business: The £40m banker (17/01/2007)

How one man at Barclays Capital was paid more in one year than the total earned by the bank's executive board
...
Jenkins, 51, is not a member of Barclays' executive board; he is believed to receive a percentage of the profits generated by his division, which is the most profitable part of the investment bank by a considerable margin.
Indeed, such is the importance of his division that, in an unprecedented agreement, each time it completes a deal that saves money for Barclays, the bank pays a fee to its investment banking subsidiary.
...
Jenkins, nicknamed Dodger, joined Barclays as a graduate trainee in 1978, five years after representing Scotland in the 400 metres at the British International Games at Crystal Palace. He came third. Alan Pascoe came first.
...
Jenkins' division devises complex structures that are designed to improve the profitability of transaction carried out by other parts of the bank.
While the transactions can take many forms, their structures have one common aim - to reduce the tax liability of clients.

There is tax dodging, and then there is legal tax dodging. Reminds me of a diary on Acceptable market Manipulation.

"It's the statue, man, The Statue."

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Jan 19th, 2007 at 06:31:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: It'll all end in Tears (none / 1)

Yup. Familiar with that.

But this

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/92f7ee6a-a765-11db-83e4-0000779e2340.html

is more worrying. Probably worth a Diary on its own.

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson

by ChrisCook (cojockathotmaildotcom) on Fri Jan 19th, 2007 at 06:58:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]

utter bollocks (none / 0)

only little people pay ALL their taxes. or as much as you and I think fair.

the rich work hard for tax dodges, no question. but that's a matter for better government.

by HiD on Fri Jan 19th, 2007 at 08:22:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: utter bollocks (none / 0)