terça-feira, 3 de julho de 2012
sexta-feira, 22 de junho de 2012
Os novos fiscais do Sarney
Por toda a história da humanidade nunca existiu uma instituição que consiga acabar completamente com a liberdade de comercio entre duas partes que queiram fazer comercio.Isso vale tambem para os governos.
Exemplos não faltam: a ex União Soviética não conseguiu acabar com resquicios de capitalismo e muitas trocas e negociações que aconteciam por baixo dos panos, mesmo no auge do regime.Os EUA não conseguiram acabar totalmente com a comercialização de bebidas nos anos 1930, pelo contrário, ela apenas migrou de meios legais e tributados para meios ilegais( leia-se Al Capone)
O mesmo ocorre com muitas outras atividades por todo o mundo, passando por paises ricos e pobres e por toda a historia da humanidade.O problema é que a crença na instituição estado que muitos possuem os leva a sonhar em um mundo idealizado e tentam usar o estado para chegar nesse mundo.Mas no mundo real, enquanto duas partes quiserem livremente chegar a um acordo, mesmo que este acordo não se encaixe no mundo perfeito dos estatistas, estas transações contiuarão para sempre.
Do mesmo modo que é uma idiotice completa ter a pretensão de acabar com a inflação via decreto( existem duas partes que desejam transacionar a um outro preço, e logo o plano cruzado de Sarney teve o destino que mereceu), da mesma forma enquanto a humanidade existir não tenho duvidas que o comercio de drogas e a prostituição sempre existirão.
Não estou dizendo com isso que são atividades boas ou más.Estou apenas apresentando um fato: em paises ricos e pobres ao redor do mundo e por toda a historia da humanidade estas praticas sempre existiram e sempre existirão.E a razão é a mesma: existem duas partes que querem fazer uma transação.A vontade do estado não terá nunca capacidade de impedir todos os casos.Logo, o lógico seria liberar, regulamentar, deixar o mercado atuar e tentar dar contornos razoaveis a estas atividades.Mas racionalidade não passa pela cabeça de estatistas, sejam politicos ou eleitores.
Brasileiros gostam de bater no peito e pensar que o pais ''evoluiu'' e que se antes coisas bizarras aconteciam na economia e na política, agora pelo menos temos um novo grau de respeito internacional.
Este pensamento possui de fato alguma verdade e o pais realmente evoluiu.Mas não tanto como muitos brasileiros pensam.E muitos que se orgulham em pensar que o pais nunca faria outro plano cruzado-afinal é mesmo muita burrice pensar que uma lei poderia accabar com uma força espontanea do mercado que é a inflação- são os mesmos que acham essencial o estado proibir drogas, prostituição ou qualquer outra atividade que não se encaixe no ideal de mundo deles.
Não só é ineficaz, contra-producente, gera mais violencia, ilegalidade, e lavagem de dinheiro do que aconteceria se politicos percebessem o obvio-que liberar e regulamentar é o unico caminho logico-mas além de tudo tentar proibir estas atividades é exatamente o mesmo que tentar proibir a inflação-uma lei burra e morta em um pedaço de papel.
Por isso leitor, se voce for a favor da proibição das drogas, da inflação, da prostituição ou qualquer outro fenomeno que a economia de mercado sempre produziu e sempre ira produzir e se acima de tudo voce for a favor de tentar usar leis para combater manifestações da economia de mercado, lhe convido a ir agora para a frente de um espelho e repetir ''Eu sou um fiscal do Sarney!''
terça-feira, 5 de junho de 2012
FT
Counting echoes of Tiananmen in market fall
In a country that ascribes great meaning to numbers, the Chinese stock market’s fall on Monday was a potent and, for the government, dangerous reminder of the Tiananmen square massacre.
The Shanghai Composite index tumbled 64.89 points – a freakish coincidence on the anniversary of the June 4 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing, an event known in Chinese simply as “liu-si” or “six-four”.
More
ON THIS STORY
- Ghost of Tiananmen stalks China’s elite
- Chen decries disrespect for law in China
- Tiananmen hardliner regrets massacre
- US human rights report criticises China
- Chinese activist’s brother flees village
ON THIS TOPIC
- Luxury market set to hit $1.5tn
- China warns on lending to steel plants
- Fears over impact of Beijing ‘stimulus’
- The Last Word China set to continue supersize binge
IN ASIA-PACIFIC
The government, which has long tried to silence discussion of the bloody events in and around Tiananmen 23 years ago, acted quickly. Searches for the phrase “Shanghai Composite index” were banned by censors on popular microblogs.
“According to the relevant laws, regulations and policies, the results for this search term cannot be displayed,” Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, informed users. Other censored search terms included the words “anniversary”, “blood” and “candle”, a reference to a candlelight vigil held every year in Hong Kong.
Word of the stock market’s apparent memorial to the democracy protesters still spread quickly on the internet, where another odd coincidence was also noted. The market had opened at 2,346.98 points. With a little bit of parsing, the message seemed clear: 23 for the 23rd anniversary of the killings, and 46.98 was the infamous date rendered backwards.
“Looking at the opening and the drop of the market today, I finally realise that there truly is a big force behind its movements,” said Wang Chunxiao, a Weibo blogger.
Monday’s drop of 2.7 per cent also marked the biggest daily fall in the main Chinese equity index since November last year.
The Communist party’s official verdicton the events of June 4 1989 concluded that the actions of China’s leaders were justified to “quell a counter-revolutionary rebellion”. Since then, the party has worked to erase all trace of the incident from public memory and discourse within China.
However, with Chinese travelling abroad as never before, and information flowing more freely on the internet despite censorship, the government has had to redouble its efforts to snuff out allusions to the protests.
In Hong Kong, a record 180,000 people attended the annual candlelight vigil. Lee Cheuk-yan, a member of Hong Kong’s legislative council and chairman of the group that organises the event, said attendance had swelled in recent years because of growing participation by younger generations and mainland visitors.
Mr Lee estimates that a fifth of this year’s visitors to a June 4 memorial installation in Hong Kong were from the mainland.
“I have decided to come for the first time because I think it is important for Leung Chun-ying [Hong Kong’s next chief executive] to hear the people’s view on Tiananmen,” said Wong Tin-shing, a fifth-grade secondary school student.
Comments by Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, about democracy and other political openings have raised hopes among some activists in recent months that the country’s leaders might be willing to revisit the events of 1989 for the first time.
But others say that the Communist party is still unlikely to delve back into the most painful chapter in its recent history because doing so would threaten to tear the leadership apart and undermine its rule.
Additional reporting by Emma Dong
quinta-feira, 31 de maio de 2012
Viva o Twitter da Lei Seca
Todos os orgãos governamentais são por definição ruins.Peço perdão aos leitores do blog por tamanha obviedade.Mas sem dúvida, no sudeste do Brasil, o Detran do Rio de janeiro é o pior, alem de mais autoritário.
A lista é longa: recusa a conceder documentos onde pessoas estão com pericings( o nazismo não era muito diferente disso), as ridículas vistorias como se assim como os funcionarios publicos do Detran nenhum de nós trabalhasse, mas eles semm dúviddas e superaram com a tentativa de proibir, na marra, o Twitter da Lei Seca.
A ``Lei Seca`` (esse nome é incorreto pois remete a proibição do Alcool nos EUA nos anos 1930, algo que nao tem nada a ver com as tais fiscalizações períodas em veículos no Rio e em SP a noite), ja é ridícula por sí só, ao dar uma de Minority Report, onde prende-se alguem por que poderia cometer um crime.Ok, coisas de pais onde se acredita na capacidade do estado de ter ``autoridade`` e resolver problemas.Mas a proibição daliberdade de expressão é algo que não se pode tolerar.
Viva o Twitter da Lei Seca, que aliás, faz muito mais pela cidade em dias de chuva/tiroteios/acidentes que o estado.E nnão custa perguntar: o tal objetivo da Lei Seca não é evitar mortes no transito ( e esquecermos que o alcool NAO é o responsavel pela maioria das mortes no transito)? Ora, se graças ao Twitter um motorista alcoolizado nao pegar o carro então foi atingido o objetivo! Mas não é isso, é claro! O que os burocratas querem , é sangue, com muitas pessoas tendo veículos apreendidos, de preferencia ricos e famosos do eixo Barra/Zona Sul que é no final onde ocorre a imensa maioria das blitz no estado, e claro, multas , muitas multas.
Burocrata do Detran avistado
quinta-feira, 24 de maio de 2012
quinta-feira, 17 de maio de 2012
Uptade on Saverin´s story
Sometimes , admitedly not many times, i feel pround to be a brazilian when i read asnine things like that:
Senators want to block Facebook’s Saverin from reentering the U.S (update)
Sparked by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s renouncement of citizenship, two U.S. Senators are planning to unveil a new plan focused on preventing the super rich from dodging taxes.
Saverin has been taking quite a bit of heat over dropping his citizenship, which was announced coincidentally just weeks before Facebook goes public. Many viewed the action as a way for him to save an estimated $100 million on taxes, a sentiment Saverin denies, as VentureBeat reported yesterday.
Sens. Charles Schumer, (D-NY) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) plan, called the “Ex-PATRIOT Act” (Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore Tenancy Act), seeks to bar people like Saverin from reentering the U.S. once they’ve renounced their citizenship to avoid heavy taxation. While I understand how it could be upsetting that some people don’t value their citizenship despite everything the U.S. offers, but deciding to block them from ever visiting the country is just asinine. The goal is to compel the super rich to continue paying taxes, not excommunicate them. (See update below with more details on the bill.)
In grand dramatic political fashion, Schumer’s office labels Saverin’s renouncement as a “scheme,” and tries to bring a sense of urgency to the matter due to the recent news. What’s funny about this move is that its anything but urgent. Saverin filed the paperwork to give up his citizenship in January 2011, but was only approved the following September.
Also, people giving up their citizenship to avoid paying taxes is not a new concept. As my fellow staffer Jolie O’Dell previously pointed out, filing taxes as a U.S. citizen while living abroad can be an expensive and complicated nightmare. That said, nearly 1,800 people renounced their citizenship in 2011 to avoid having to deal with those taxes.
Generally speaking, Schumer does some really good things with his power, such as trying to speed up the process of adoption process for sweet German Shepherd dogs that have served in the military. But when it comes to the “Ex-PATRIOT Act,” it seems like little more than banging pots and pans in a silent room filled with people for the sole purpose of grabbing attention.
The senators are scheduled to explain their Ex Patriot Act plans later today. We’ll update the post with any interesting bits from the press conference.
Update 5/17/2012 – 9:08 a.m. PST: The senators just wrapped the press conference, offering up some additional details about their proposed legislation, which is officially called the “Ex-PATRIOT Act.”
Under the proposed bill, expatriates with either a net worth of $2 million or an average income tax liability of at least $148,000 (over the last five years) will be presumed to have renounced their citizenship for tax avoidance purposes. Any person that fits this description does have a chance to appeal to the IRS to prove why they aren’t dodging taxes.
Anyone that the IRS determines was indeed dodging taxes by renouncing citizenship will be slapped with a new tax on all future investment gains — no matter where he or she resides. The senators said this stipulation would eliminate any tax benefit/financial incentive associated with renouncing one’s citizenship. Also, the rate of the new capital gains tax will be 30 percent, which is consistent with the current rate applied on non-resident aliens for dividends and interest earnings.
Official statements from Schumer and Casey pasted below:
“Mr. Saverin has decided to ‘defriend’ the United States of America just to avoid paying his taxes. We aren’t going to let him get away with it so easily,” Schumer said. “It’s infuriating to see someone sell out the country that welcomed him and kept him safe, educated him and helped him become a billionaire. This is a great American success story gone horribly wrong. We plan to put a stop to this tax avoidance scheme. There should be no financial gain from renouncing your country.””We simply cannot allow the ultra-wealthy to write their own rules,” said Senator Casey. “Mr. Saverin has benefited greatly from being a citizen of the United States but he has chosen to cast it aside and leave U.S. taxpayers with the bill. Renouncing citizenship to simply avoid paying your fair share is an insult to middle class Americans and we will not accept it.”
Schumer photo via lev radin / Shutterstock
Saverin, Cuba and the right to leave
When it comes to politics, it is natural that many of us have different opinions.After all, we were raised in different ways, we have different beliefs and values .So, opinions in this field will always be variable, even among similar groups of people.But i have always believed that there is one core value that must be present in any society that calls itself free.It is natural that in issues such as taxes, drugs, etc. disagreements can existBut if there is a field that really defines, in my opinion, a state that is not of slavery, it is the right to leave a country.It is possible to argue that taxes must be imposed, that there shoud be restrictions to drugs, customs, etc. even though I disagree with these points.But any defender of freedom, not only libertarians, can never disagree that the basis of a free society is the right of every free citizen of this society to choose not be part of it any longer.Whitout this, it is impossible to argue that such a place is not a tyranny.
Thus, it is undeniable that for example, Cuba is a dictatorship, citizens of this country who want to emigrate and to leave everything behind and are prevented force must remain on the island prison for the rest of life, unless he was also able escapar.Assimobviously in all socialist regimes of the twentieth century.
But there are more subtle issues: the cryout because of the renunciation of U.S. citizenship of Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin is a great example.
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