european union

At National Review, Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Stephen Meyer looks at Brexit and the ensuing panic in the financial markets. His analysis: there is nothing to fear. Meyer writes: ”an increasingly democratic Britain acting once again in accord with its own national interests will likely result in more, not less, free trade and greater economic freedom — not only for Britain but also for its key trading partners, including the United States. Economic growth will be the inevitable result.” You can read Meyer’s article, Goodbye, EU-Imposed Regulation, at the National Review website.

Imagine you own a successful business, and you have a much larger and less efficient competitor. Your inefficient competitor has demanded you make payments to him or he will pressure your suppliers to stop doing business with you. I have just described classic criminal extortion, as now conducted by some governments in the European Union.

In the above example, substitute: France, Germany and Italy for the “inefficient competitor;” smaller, low tax jurisdictions for the “successful business;” global financial institutions for “suppliers;” and coerced taxes and information for “payments.” Now you begin to understand what is going on.

On July 1, the controversial European tax savings directive took effect. This requires 25 EU members and 15 other countries and independent territories to institute an automatic information exchange system. This would require financial institutions to report to the citizen’s home country any interest earned outside that country. Or countries may withhold taxes on interest income at a rate that will rise to 35 percent.

Last Saturday, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin “proposed a radically new approach” that would take control of Iraq from the U.S. (surprise) and give it to the U.N. He demanded that an Iraqi provisional government be established within a month, a constitution written by the end of the year, and elections held by the spring of 2004. Iraq does Read More ›