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PoliGAF 2013 |OT2| Worth 77% of OT1

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B

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
Oblivion said:
WHAT.

It wasn't released for peer review?? How the fuck do you do that? And despite this, it was pretty much accepted as gospel? I mean, I shouldn't be surprised, but seriously, what the fuck?
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Yep. They got away with it because economics. If it had been a hard science they would have been laughed out of the room.
 
W

Wilsongt

Member


Americans Giving Up Passports Jump Sixfold as Tougher Rules Loom

Americans renouncing U.S. citizenship surged sixfold in the second quarter from a year earlier as the government prepares to introduce tougher asset-disclosure rules.

Expatriates giving up their nationality at U.S. embassies climbed to 1,131 in the three months through June from 189 in the year-earlier period, according to Federal Register figures published today. That brought the first-half total to 1,810 compared with 235 for the whole of 2008.

The U.S., the only nation in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that taxes citizens wherever they reside, is searching for tax cheats in offshore centers, including Switzerland, as the government tries to curb the budget deficit. Shunned by Swiss and German banks and facing tougher asset-disclosure rules under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, more of the estimated 6 million Americans living overseas are weighing the cost of holding a U.S. passport.

"With the looming deadline for Fatca, more and more U.S. citizens are becoming aware that they have U.S. tax reporting obligations," said Matthew Ledvina, a U.S. tax lawyer at Anaford AG in Zurich. "Once aware, they decide to renounce their U.S. citizenship."

Fatca requires foreign financial institutions to report to the Internal Revenue Service information about financial accounts held by U.S. taxpayers, or held by foreign entities in which U.S. taxpayers hold a substantial ownership interest. It was estimated to generate $8.7 billion over 10 years, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.

Delaying Implementation

The 2010 Fatca law requires banks to withhold 30 percent from "certain U.S.-connected payments" to some accounts of American clients who don't disclose enough information to the IRS. While banks can sign agreements to report to the IRS individually, many are precluded from doing so by privacy laws in their jurisdictions.

The Treasury Department last month announced that the IRS will delay the start of Fatca by six months until July 1, 2014, to give foreign banks time to comply with the law. The extension of the act follows a previous one-year delay announced in 2011.

Financial institutions including Canada's Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) and Allianz SE of Germany have expressed concerns that Fatca is too complex.

The latest delay comes after the Swiss government agreed in February to simplifications that will help the country's banks implement Fatca.

Penalty Threat

"The United States wishes to ensure that all income earned worldwide by U.S. taxpayers on accounts held abroad can be taxed by the United States," the Swiss government said on April 10.

Since 2011, Americans, who disclose their non-U.S. bank accounts to the IRS, must file the more expansive 8938 form that asks for all foreign financial assets, including insurance contracts, loans and shareholdings in non-UNN.S. companies.

Failure to file the 8938 form can result in a fine of as much as $50,000. Clients can also be penalized half the amount in an undeclared foreign bank account under the Banks Secrecy Act of 1970.

The implementation of Fatca from July next year comes after UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, paid a $780 million penalty in 2009 and handed over data on about 4,700 accounts to settle a tax-evasion dispute with the U.S. Whistle-blower Bradley Birkenfeld was sentenced to 40 months in a U.S. prison in 2009 after informing the government and Senate about his American clients at the Geneva branch of Zurich-based UBS AG.

Compliance Costs

The additional compliance costs for companies to ensure that Americans they hire are filing the correct U.S. tax returns and asset-declaration forms are at least $5,000 per person, said Ledvina.

For individuals, the costs are also rising. Getting a mortgage or acquiring life insurance is becoming almost impossible for American citizens living overseas, Ledvina said.

"With increased U.S. tax reporting, U.S. accounting costs alone are around $2,000 per year for a U.S. citizen residing abroad," the tax lawyer said. "Adding factors, such as difficulty in finding a bank to accept a U.S. citizen as a client, it is difficult to justify keeping the U.S. citizenship for those who reside permanently abroad."
Click to expand...

Well, that's one way to avoid paying taxes...
 
P

PhoenixDark

Banned
Chuck Todd mentioned the White House believes the NSA issue has hurt Obama's numbers more than any other issue being discussed right now (economy, IRS, etc). Hence the weak "transparency" attempt Obama is doing right now at the press conference.
 
W

Wilsongt

Member
I still stand beside a comment I made a while back when all of this stuff was released that you have to be extremely naive to have not believed that the government was obtaining meta data and information on everyone.
 
M

Mr. RHC

Member
I think Obama does not realize that it doesn't matter whether or not the government is or isn't using the data to spy on everyone and that a failsafe is worth nothing compared to the risk of this data getting abused.
 
O

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
Dax01 said:
Obama: “The one unifying principle in the Republican Party at the moment is making sure 30 million people don’t have health care”

Haha. True.
Click to expand...

Nice. But why is he talking about health care and the fed nominations in a speech about the NSA?
 
B

Black Mamba

Member
The Technomancer said:
I asked this in the "far left economic views" thread but haven't gotten an answer yet, maybe someone here can enlighten me.

I get the idea behind "spending is bad/needs to be heavily controlled because inflation is bad" argument. I disagree with it, but I can see what chain of thoughts might lead a person to that conclusion.

But where does "cutting spending in a slum will actively help the economy" come from? Is there any coherent (even if inaccurate) chain of steps linking those two, or is it literally no deeper then "they just are"?
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They believe that somehow having a balanced budget (without raising taxes of course) will keep interest rates from skyrocketing, runaway inflation, and therefore more money in the hands of the people. They believe gov't deficits "crowd out" private spending.

It's nonsense of course, but that's what they believe. Crowding out can occur from huge deficits if the economy is doing really well but not when it's in the shitter. It's why every country that has reduced spending is worse off for it in comparison to those that increased or at least maintained their spending levels.


WHAT.

It wasn't released for peer review?? How the fuck do you do that? And despite this, it was pretty much accepted as gospel? I mean, I shouldn't be surprised, but seriously, what the fuck?
Click to expand...

No, it was a working paper that they published [i believe] on their own online. Never was submitted for peer-review. Even still, the results given didn't support their conclusion at the time, much less so now that we know they fucked up.
 
P

PhoenixDark

Banned
He hit the nail on the head with respect to the healthcare law, in a way he hasn't in some time; I remember him backing off saying republicans had "no plan" during the creation of the ACA, during which republicans were waving around a 10 page plan (that wasn't scored by the CBO). Good to see, and a quick glance at twitter reveals tons of conservatives butthurt. Good.

But his comments about Snowden and the NSA were terrible. As was his general view that Americans should simply trust he and the government are doing the right thing. I doubt these planned reveals will do much of anything; the plan remains in place, nothing changes. And something tells me Greenwald was waiting for this moment so he could drop another bombshell.
 
empty vessel

empty vessel

Member
Oblivion said:
By the way. Remember that report written by those Austerians which was debunked when some college student found an error in the excel spreadsheet? Does anyone know why it took so long to find out about this? The report was written in like 2009/2010. NO ONE who looked at that noticed any issues with it?
Click to expand...

The authors had not released their data.
 
Z

zero shift

Banned
I've been looking for data that says whether or not people in richer countries are happier than poorer countries and the data is all over the place.

I was wondering if money really does buy happiness?
 
W

Wilsongt

Member
zero shift said:
I've been looking for data that says whether or not people in richer countries are happier than poorer countries and the data is all over the place.

I was wondering if money really does buy happiness?
Click to expand...

Well, I bet there are lots of CEOs and rich people out there laughing their way to the banks daily. So yes?
 
T

Tamanon

Banned
zero shift said:
I've been looking for data that says whether or not people in richer countries are happier than poorer countries and the data is all over the place.

I was wondering if money really does buy happiness?
Click to expand...

I don't think it can necessarily buy happiness but it can certainly lower stress which could lead to more happiness.
 
B

Black Mamba

Member
As the fall’s fiscal drama nears, a group of conservative lawmakers are urging Republican leaders to use Obamacare as a bargaining chip. Behind the scenes, they’re warning Speaker John Boehner and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell that unless the president’s signature law is defunded, they won’t support a “continuing resolution” to fund the federal government.

The debate has caused tension in the ranks since many Republicans are uncomfortable with talk of a shutdown. Speaking with National Review on Friday, House majority leader Eric Cantor clarified the House’s strategy. “No one is advocating a government shutdown,” he said.

He also threw a little cold water on the “defund or shutdown” rallying cry. “In order to avoid a government shutdown, we need 60 votes in the Senate and 218 votes in the House to pass a continuing resolution,” he explained. “To get 60 votes in the Senate, you need at least 14 Democrats to join Republicans and pass a CR that defunds Obamacare. Right now, I am not aware of a single Democrat in the Senate who would join us. If and when defunding has 60 votes in the Senate, we will absolutely deliver more than 218 votes in the House.”

“Repealing Obamacare remains the goal,” Cantor said, ”as is doing everything we can to protect people from its harmful effects here and now, like delaying the mandate for people, not just big business.” But for the moment, connecting government funding to that effort isn’t likely part of his plan.
Click to expand...
http://www.nationalreview.com/corne...e-advocating-government-shutdown-robert-costa

Cantor dropping truth bombs (hopefully).


Also, I was about to say, Yellen's husband is a well-know economist, so maybe Obama just got confused. :p
 
R

remist

Member
While I thought the press conference was weak, I'm glad to hear Obama approve of an independent adversarial position for the FISC courts. If they appoint someone competent, it could be a good first step. I guess it would further institutionalize the secret courts, but I don't have much hope left in that area.
 
N

NYCmetsfan

Banned
Wilsongt said:
Gotta love the "Obama is evil" talk...
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Its not really obama. Its the US. People hate the superpower. They always have. They don't like that it sometimes gets away with things they can't. It won't end till the US isn't the most powerful country on earth or we have a real evil power like the Soviets.

EmoProgs are the worst.
 
W

Wilsongt

Member
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) said on Twitter this week that he would like to "defund white trash" who take advantage of federal social programs.

Rohrabacher made the remark in a reply to a Twitter user who was complaining about immigration policy.

House Republicans are seeking cuts to food stamps that would trim the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program's cost by roughly 5 percent over 10 years.

In June, Rohrabacher said that John Boehner (R-Ohio) should be removed from his position as House speaker if he brought immigration reform to a full vote without majority support from Republicans.
Click to expand...

Ga_bree_lla @ga_bree_ella

@ImmortalTech @danarohrabacher Its ok for lazywhitetrash 2live off food stamps but won't legalize my ppl who actuall contributetothiscountry

@ga_bree_ella would defund white trash, but not our vets , seniors & other deserving Americans 2 provide benefits 2 those here illegally

Huh.
 
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