Worse than Italy “sleepwalking into instability” is the European Commission pushing the Eurozone into it fully awake.

Sir, Jim Brunsden and Miles Johnson writes the European Commission stepped up action on Italy’s rule-busting 2019 budget, warning that its plans to stimulate the economy through increased borrowing, risks “sleepwalking into instability”. “Brussels warns Italy’s budget threatens ‘instability’” November 22.

Of course, as Pierre Moscovici, EU economy commissioner, says: “this budget carries risks for Italy’s economy, for its companies, for its savers and its taxpayers”.

The sad fact though is that reaching an acceptable agreement on the budget issue would still be like papering over Italy’s and EU’s real underlying problems, not solving much.

The European Commission must/should know: 

1. About the challenges the Euro imposed on Eurozone members and that it has, for soon twenty years now, done nothing to resolve. 

2. That, for purposes of bank capital requirements, assigning a 0% risk to all sovereign borrowers within the Eurozone, those who de facto have their debt not denominated in a domestic (printable) currency, is a regulatory subsidy that impedes markets to signal the real costs of sovereign debt; which will necessarily cause many of its members to incur in dangerous excessive levels of public debt.

Before EC face up to these issues and does something real and sustainable about it, though much mightier, it has still not earned much right to lecture Italy.

Just like all regulators and central bankers, believing that what bankers perceive as risky is more dangerous to our bank systems than what bankers perceive as safe, have no right to lecture us on risk management.

EU can’t keep forcing its members to walk the plank, as it did with Greece, and still remain a viable union. Anyone against a Brexit and for a Remain should be very aware of that… that is unless his position has nothing to do with EU and all to do with local politicking.

@PerKurowski

Down with all corporate taxes, these only dilute the citizen’s tax representation.

Sir, I refer to Mr. George Osborne’s, Mr. Pierre Moscovici’s and Wolfgang Schäuble’s “We are determined that multinationals will not avoidtaxes” February 16, and which unfortunately does not seem to imply that the “smaller businesses paying up to 30 per cent” will now be able to pay the 5 per cent the authors indicate multinational pay. 

Yet all corporate taxes will, no doubt, at the end of the day, one way or another, be paid by a citizen somewhere. And therefore that citizen’s payment will occur without the governments being held accountable to that citizen, allowing instead that citizen’s tax-paying-representation powers to be exercised by the corporations. 

Also, since the final real bill for a corporation’s tax might hit someone earning or having absolutely nothing, these corporate taxes can de facto also be extremely regressive. 

I therefore hope the ensuing discussions and determination of this powerful trio, gets to be oriented toward lowering or better yet eliminating all corporate taxes. Of course, a zero corporate tax would imply that all investment income had to be taxed at the same level as all other income. 

Down with corporate taxes! The only ones who should have the right to cover for a government expenses are the citizens, and that right should not be diluted in any way. 

PS. This is not the moment, but if you have time, I would like to refer you to My Tax Paradise, because nothing is more powerful against sinful tax-havens than a virtuous tax heaven.