Little-Acorn
05-05-2014, 06:54 PM
Apparently the liberals in the European Unions didn't do too well in their English Literature class, if they ever took one.
They're talking about creating yet another tax (that's not the surprise), to divert part of every financial transaction into government coffers.
The weird part is, they're apparently calling it the "Robin Hood" levy.
They got it backward, of course. Robin Hood was a literary character who took money from the tax collectors and treasury agents, and gave it back to the people it had been taken from as taxes.
Not the other way around, as these EU functional illiterates are doing. Robin Hood was, in fact, a conservative. These EU tax-and-spenders are anything but.
Perhaps if they called it the Sheriff of Nottingham tax, it would clear up the confusion. Or, in consideration of their bumbling ineptness, the "Sir Guy of Gisborne" levy. At least it would be more accurate, as English literature goes.
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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/feb4ce70-d430-11e3-a122-00144feabdc0.html
Europe debate over ‘Robin Hood’ levy is taxing reality
By Alex Barker in Brussels
If political hype could be taxed, then the fuss over the EU’s planned financial transaction tax might generate enough cash to settle the bloc’s debt crisis.
The proposed levy on trading in stocks, bonds and derivatives has been billed as the fiscal reckoning for the financial sector’s sins. For three years, it has been snarled in EU wrangling that has taken on a life of its own. More than just a simple tax, the FTT has become the vehicle for assorted national myths.
For its Franco-German backers, this so-called “Robin Hood tax” burnishes their credentials as scourges of high finance and speculation. For the British, meanwhile, it is a test of their mettle as defenders of the City of London against meddlesome initiatives from Brussels and the continent.
They're talking about creating yet another tax (that's not the surprise), to divert part of every financial transaction into government coffers.
The weird part is, they're apparently calling it the "Robin Hood" levy.
They got it backward, of course. Robin Hood was a literary character who took money from the tax collectors and treasury agents, and gave it back to the people it had been taken from as taxes.
Not the other way around, as these EU functional illiterates are doing. Robin Hood was, in fact, a conservative. These EU tax-and-spenders are anything but.
Perhaps if they called it the Sheriff of Nottingham tax, it would clear up the confusion. Or, in consideration of their bumbling ineptness, the "Sir Guy of Gisborne" levy. At least it would be more accurate, as English literature goes.
------------------------------------------
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/feb4ce70-d430-11e3-a122-00144feabdc0.html
Europe debate over ‘Robin Hood’ levy is taxing reality
By Alex Barker in Brussels
If political hype could be taxed, then the fuss over the EU’s planned financial transaction tax might generate enough cash to settle the bloc’s debt crisis.
The proposed levy on trading in stocks, bonds and derivatives has been billed as the fiscal reckoning for the financial sector’s sins. For three years, it has been snarled in EU wrangling that has taken on a life of its own. More than just a simple tax, the FTT has become the vehicle for assorted national myths.
For its Franco-German backers, this so-called “Robin Hood tax” burnishes their credentials as scourges of high finance and speculation. For the British, meanwhile, it is a test of their mettle as defenders of the City of London against meddlesome initiatives from Brussels and the continent.