Widening the Pathways to Open Societies

From today we conclude the posts on this page. Thank you for your support and you can follow us on GCC Views, Goethals Consulting Corp. and Instituto de Estudios para una Sociedad Abierta - ISA.

Politicians Are Addicted to Price Controls
By Veronique de Rugy

Despite overwhelming historical evidence demonstrating the folly of government-imposed price controls, modern politicians just can't seem to quit inflicting them on us. One obvious example involves health care, where price controls on prescription medications always seem to be just around the corner and are now being considered in the rush to eliminate surprise medical bills. Fewer people know about similar efforts regarding the aluminum market, where some politicians are contemplating price controls to compensate victims of the trade war.

Back in March 2018, President Donald Trump announced that he would impose a 10% tariff on all imported aluminum (unless an exemption was later granted by the Department of Commerce).
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Politicians Are Addicted to Price Controls, by Veronique de Rugy Despite overwhelming historical evidence demonstrating the folly of government-imposed price controls, modern politicians just can't seem to quit inflicting them on us. One obvious example involves health care, where price controls on prescription medications always seem to be just around the corner...

versus the negative effects of
When brilliance and ignorance collide
By Richard W. Rahn

Are you amazed about what your fellow humans conceive and create when it comes to technology — the iPhone, 5G, the Tesla, rockets that land upright after being fired, artificial hearts, etc., etc.? Are you also amazed by the willful ignorance of history and economics shown every day by the political and media class?

Engineers who ignore the laws of physics find themselves unemployed. Politicians who ignore basic historical and economic truths often go on to leadership roles with the aid of corrupt and/or ignorant members of the media.
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Economic freedom versus the negative effects of socialism In the United States, the left has been working to undermine the necessary civil institutions for a successful society — including the courts, schools, churches and the free press.

Hasta el año que viene!

Tenemos que tomarnos un descanso. Muchas horas pensando, discutiendo y elaborando contenido para todos ustedes, queridos lectores, clientes, amigos. Aprovecharemos estos días para correcciones técnicas y que el próximo año los sorprenda con muchas mejoras en nuestras redes. Regresamos el Lunes 6 de Enero del 2020. Hasta entonces, les deseamos unas muy felices estas de Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo, desde ISA, WPOS, GCCViews y por supuesto, la compañía madre, Goethals Consulting. Y aquí les dejamos nuestro regalo, un poema del escritor Jorge Luis Borges para todos aquellos que desde su individualidad y potencialidad, colaboran para que el mundo sea un poco mejor cada día. Disfruten.

Los Justos

Un hombre que cultiva su jardín, como quería Voltaire.
El que agradece que en la tierra haya música.
El que descubre con placer una etimología.
Dos empleados que en un café del Sur juegan un silencioso ajedrez.
El ceramista que premedita un color y una forma.
El tipógrafo que compone bien esta página, que tal vez no le agrada.
Una mujer y un hombre que leen los tercetos finales de cierto canto.
El que acaricia a un animal dormido.
El que justifica o quiere justificar un mal que le han hecho.
El que agradece que en la tierra haya Stevenson.
El que prefiere que los otros tengan razón.
Esas personas, que se ignoran, están salvando el mundo.

Jorge Luis Borges

GCC Views on Twitter “Hasta el año que viene! https://t.co/KTtQCU8NTF”

Germany Presents Text For EU Financial Transactions
by Ulrika Lomas

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has presented a final proposal for a European Union financial transactions tax to the 10 member states participating in the initiative.

Under the German proposal, announced on December 9, 2019, a tax of 0.2 percent would apply to the purchase of shares in domestically listed companies with a market capitalization in excess of EUR1bn (USD1.1bn). The tax would also apply to depositary receipts issued domestically and abroad and which are backed by shares in these companies. Initial share offerings would be excluded from the FTT.
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Germany Presents Text For EU Financial Transactions Tax Tax-News.com delivers news headlines and features on international tax, law, politics, economics and trade.

Should citizens pass an American history test to ?
Literate voters should know the basics of our government
By Richard W. Rahn

There are few things that will have more impact on your economic well-being and liberties than the votes and actions of those who serve in elected office. If collectively the citizens make the wrong decision at the ballot box, it can mean disaster. How many Venezuelans regret their vote for Hugo Chavez back in 1998? Chavez took the richest country in South America and with his successor, Nicolas Maduro, turned it into one of the poorest, while at the same time destroyed the peoples’ liberties.

The cruel fact is that most democracies or democratic republics, going back to ancient Greece, are destroyed from within by incompetent or corrupt rulers initially elected by the people. The American Founding Fathers were well aware of the fact that almost all democracies sowed the seeds of their own destruction.
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Should citizens pass an American history test to vote? There are few things that will have more impact on economic well-being and liberties than the votes and actions of those who serve in elected office. If collectively the citizens make the wrong decision at the ballot box, it can mean disaster.

Will the Fed Edge Out the Competition With Real-Time Payments?
By Veronique de Rugy

Imagine what it must be like for private companies that have invested in a new technology and suddenly find out they have to compete with a tax-supported government agency — the very one that also regulates the industry. That's what happened when the Federal Reserve entered the real-time payments market. What this development means for the private companies and the consumers they serve in this market is unclear. The outcome will depend on the Fed's willingness to play by the rules.

The Fed plans to develop what it's calling the FedNow Service, which is expected to launch sometime in the next five years. FedNow is to be a real-time gross settlement service that would compete against private-sector options like The Clearing House, or TCH, payment platform, which is run by a consortium of large banks. Real-time payments would significantly speed up the current slow speed of many payments. That's more convenient for American businesses and consumers, and it reduces the burden on lower-income Americans.
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Will the Fed Edge Out the Competition With Real-Time Payments?, by Veronique de Rugy Imagine what it must be like for private companies that have invested in a new technology and suddenly find out they have to compete with a tax-supported government agency — the very one that also regulates the industry. That's what happened when the Federal Reserve entered the real-time payments ...

The Best Part of USMCA Is that Most of Is Preserved
By Dan Mitchell

One of my big 2018 worries was that Trump would wreck NAFTA.

We dodged that bullet, but my two cents is that the new deal is underwhelming.

The bottom line is that his revisions to the pact – which is now called USMCA – create some new barriers to trade.

But there also are a few good parts of the deal.

And at least a source of economic uncertainty is now in the past. Indeed, that’s the real victory. There’s now presumably no risk that Trump will cause a meltdown of North American trade.
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The Best Part of USMCA Is that Most of NAFTA Is Preserved One of my big 2018 worries was that Trump would wreck NAFTA. We dodged that bullet, but my two cents is that the new deal is underwhelming. The bottom line is that his revisions to the pact –…

UK Gov't To Pursue , Digital Services After Election Win
By Jason Gorringe

The Conservative Party in the UK has won an outright majority in elections held on December 12, 2019.

The party secured a total of 365 seats in the House of Commons, of a total of 650, with Labour securing just 203. The Scottish National Party secured 80 percent of the seats being contested in Scotland, with a total of 48.
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UK Gov't To Pursue Brexit, Digital Services Tax After Election Win Tax-News.com delivers news headlines and features on international tax, law, politics, economics and trade.

Declining consumption inequality
Young billionaires wear T-shirts, jeans and athletic shoes, like ordinary folk
By Richard W. Rahn

Listening to the debates among the Democrats running for president, there is much hand wringing about the alleged increase in income and wealth inequality. But is it true?

Back in 2013, French economist Thomas Piketty, by using tax data, wrote a best-selling book claiming that inequality had been growing rapidly and that the top 1 percent had been “making out like bandits” at the expense of the rest of the 99 percent. Mr. Piketty’s, and his co-author’s, arguments were quickly picked up by socialist and socialist-leaning politicians like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who proposed massive income taxes and wealth taxes on the rich.
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Declining consumption inequality Listening to the debates among the Democrats running for president, there is much hand wringing about the alleged increase in income and wealth inequality. But is it true?

Congress' Continuing Resolution Is an Opportunity for Reform
By Veronique de Rugy

Once again, Congress failed to pass its budget before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. It also failed to do this critical part of its job before the continuing resolution, or CR — which they enacted in September to fund the government — expired on Nov. 21. The sorry result is that Congress compelled itself to adopt yet another CR, one that will run through Dec. 20. If this tale sounds familiar and irresponsible, that's because it is.

As of now, Congress finds itself, yet again, in the same position it was in last year when it faced a year-end shutdown. Unfortunately, this combination of budgetary cowardice and irresponsibility is not new. As the Pew Research Center explains, "In the four decades since the current system for budgeting and spending tax dollars has been in effect, Congress has managed to pass all its required appropriations measures on time only four times: in fiscal 1977 (the first full fiscal year under the current system), 1989, 1995 and 1997."
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Congress' Continuing Resolution Is an Opportunity for Reform, by Veronique de Rugy Once again, Congress failed to pass its budget before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

Releases Eight New Action 14 Peer Reviews
By Ulrika Lomas

The OECD recently released the seventh round of stage one peer review reports, assessing eight jurisdictions' efforts to implement the BEPS Action 14 minimum standard on tax dispute resolution.

The reports for Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Russia, and Saudi Arabia contain around 190 targeted recommendations that will be followed up in stage two of the peer review process. The peer review reports incorporate MAP statistics from 2016 to 2018, as reported under the recently developed MAP Statistics Reporting Framework.
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OECD Releases Eight New Action 14 Peer Reviews Tax-News.com delivers news headlines and features on international tax, law, politics, economics and trade.