This is an emerging issue is the EU, and I’m sure some visionaries have the idea to ‘harmonize’ taxes all over the globe.

Basically, the exploiters (governments) don’t like exploited people (anyone who engages in voluntary trade) moving away from their taxes. This ‘harmonization’ bullshit is nothing but pressure applied to low-tax governments. They’re pressuring them to steal more from their exploited masses, so the bigger crooks don’t look as bad.

THE Irish economy will be devastated under EU plans to introduce a common tax base across Europe in the next two years, a top Brussels lawyer warned yesterday.

Sources in Brussels have indicated that the new European Commission is treating as a matter of high priority the ‘harmonisation’ of taxes across the 27-member bloc.

There are real fears the move would drive foreign businesses out of Ireland, exacerbating the country’s already fragile economy. (Read more from thefreelibrary.com)

Geithner addressed the campaign against too-big-to-fail banks during a recent interview with Politico. While Geithner said he understood the anger against bailed out banks and said that it was fair for bank customers to expect more, he did not explain why he thought that it was a bad idea.

Move Your Money is a project that seeks financial reform from the ground up. Account holders with money at bailed-out banks are encouraged to withdraw their money and deposit it into smaller, better-managed community banks and credit unions.

. . . .

Geithner’s comments about Move Your Money begin at 3:35.

This guy’s analysis is so wrong, and so insidious — blaming all the problems on liberty.

To learn more about the Move Your Money campaign, visit MoveYourMoney.info.

Coverage from Daily Paul:

Did Campaign For Liberty Give $350,000 to a Neocon?
John Tate Statement on $350,000 C4L Ken Buck Media Buy Raises More Questions
Michael Maresco Responds to John Tate

Farmers threatened to block traffic on major roads in Greece on Monday to demand full payment of subsidies they are entitled to and better prices for their produce.

The farmers announced the planned protest Sunday after meeting with a minister in Greece’s government, which is trying to pull the country’s economy out of its worst debt crisis in decades. (AP) (Read more from ynetnews.com)

Learn to recognize coercion. This example is what Frederic Bastiat called “rent seeking.” Rather than rely on the voluntary exchange of goods and services, these farmers seek to acquire wealth by bending for forceful hand of government. They demand subsidies. Subsidies are monies taken from the public by force or threat of force and redistributed.

They make everyone poorer. By keeping the money in private hands, new industries would emerge; industries which produce things society voluntarily consumes. Instead, society is forced to buy over-priced milk.

Other countries are also hurt by this. Perhaps some poorer nation can produce very inexpensive milk. When government subsidizes local milk (or restricts trade via tariffs), the economies of foreign nations are hurt. This is wonderful for statists. Not only do they get to redistribute wealth from the public to the milk farmers, but now they have reason to take more wealth from the public and spend it on foreign aid, all the while proving their benevolence.

Good compilation. Raises doubts about Al Quaeda and the underwear bomber. In the mean time, our Nobel Peace Laureate expands the war.

This report is from Fortune. It says that the Federal Reserve System made $51 billion in 2009, and it returned over $46 billion to the government.

If you are a regular reader of my reports, you are well aware of this. I write articles on this at least once a year. Why? Because so few critics of the FED understand this. I keep getting questions on the forums about how the FED works.

The Federal Reserve System is not about making money at the expense of the government. It is about using a government-granted monopoly over money to regulate the economy to the benefit of a handful of large banks. This has always been its primary function.

The banking system is a cartel. The Federal Reserve System is the cartel’s protector and enforcer.

. . . .

Who owns the FED? Member banks. How much money did the FED make in profit? About $1.4 billion. That’s not bad on $51 billion of income. It’s about 2.7%. But it is a far cry from the standard criticism from anti-FED critics that the FED makes huge profits by creating money out of nothing.

For 2.7%, why does anyone care who owns the FED?

I have heard these anti-FED criticisms for 45 years. The FED is deservedly criticized, but not on this issue: profits.

The concern over a peripheral issue deflects serious criticism, namely, its control over the monetary base. It creates the economy’s boom-bust cycle. It never gets blamed for this by academic economists or the mainstream media.

The news release on what the FED paid to the Treasury is the first that I can remember in 45 years of monitoring the FED. It got a lot of coverage. (Read more from lewrockwell.com)

This was a pretty widely reported story from motherjones.com:

The price tag for the Wall Street bailout is often put at $700 billion—the size of the Troubled Assets Relief Program. But TARP is just the best known program in an array of more than 30 overseen by Treasury Department and Federal Reserve that have paid out or put aside money to bail out financial firms and inject money into the markets. To get a sense of the size of the real $14 trillion bailout, see our chart here. Below, a guide to the pieces of the puzzle: (Read more from motherjones.com)

I heard these mentioned in opposition to Big Media’s consensus that ideas about state’s rights, nullification, and sovereignty are reserved for racist, red-neck whack-jobs.

All from wikipedia:

The resolutions opposed the federal Alien and Sedition Acts, that extended the powers of the federal government. They argued that the Constitution was a “compact” or agreement among the states. Therefore, the federal government had no right to exercise powers not specifically delegated to it and that if the federal government assumed such powers, acts under them would be void. So, states could decide the constitutionality of laws passed by Congress.

Thomas Jefferson wrote the Kentucky Resolutions. The Kentucky state legislature passed the first resolution on November 16, 1798 and the second on December 3, 1799.

James Madison wrote the Virginia Resolution. The Virginia state legislature passed it on December 24, 1798.

Alexander Hamilton, then building up the army, suggested sending it into Virginia, on some “obvious pretext.” Measures would be taken, Hamilton hinted to an ally in Congress, “to act upon the laws and put Virginia to the Test of resistance.”

(See more from longstreet.typepad.com)

For most of the past 70 years, the U.S. economy has grown at a steady clip, generating perpetually higher incomes and wealth for American households. But since 2000, the story is starkly different. (Read more from washingtonpost.com)

Expect the lost decade to turn into the lost two decades as the government remains intent on taking money from responsible people and giving it to irresponsible people.

I envision us looking back at this statement with great sadness. Let it not be said that no one tried to prevent what is about about to happen.

I’m glad I was able to find a transcript of Congressman Ron Paul’s statement. Youtube videos sometimes vanish. I’m storing the transcript here.