Squire wrote:

youngdan wrote:

Time for a classic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqpFm7zAK90

That is a good link and just about sums it up. The problem is the mice accept and expect very low standards. Makes me wonder about the democratic process and universal rights and obligations.

Not much of a post election bounce in the markets. IMO the Democrats have now peaked and it will be decline from here on as the enormity of the problems become apparent. In the last 2 years they could have done a lot more to curb Bush and chose not to and like sheep they overwhelmingly voted for the bail out. They were complicit in what has happened so why expect fundemental change?

Good to see the back of Bush a truely lamentable individual, who should face retribution for what he has done. Good also to see a non white elected, but that should really not be an issue. With regards Obama I hope my assessment of him is wrong, but I have seldom found the characteristics that produce a good used car sales man to belong to the type of person I want to be associated with or believe. His pronouncements leave a severe credibility gap with me, and I truely do not comprehend the belief in him or the adoration.

Have to say I'm with you on that one. I'd have been appalled to see McCain in, would have unhesitatingly voted Obama, and certainly am more hopeful of a positive term this way round - but at the end of the day he's a politician, not the Messiah.

By the way, Audi, that's an extraordinarily offensive video. Would you reconsider posting it, or at least mark it pretty clearly as racist?

Roll on Jan 20. Will we see the patriot acts repealed. Two chances, none and none at all. Will we see the wars over, one chance on this, zero. Will the economy be better, no chance at all on this score.

What we will have will be a donkey talking about global warming and nonsence about Africa.

The good news is that secession is back in fashion and there will be no republicans to blame. The Loons are in power now and look what is happening. About 2 trillion dollars worldwide has been lost since the polls closed.

I liked the mouse video.

youngdan wrote:

Roll on Jan 20. Will we see the patriot acts repealed. Two chances, none and none at all. Will we see the wars over, one chance on this, zero. Will the economy be better, no chance at all on this score.

What we will have will be a donkey talking about global warming and nonsence about Africa.

The good news is that secession is back in fashion and there will be no republicans to blame. The Loons are in power now and look what is happening. About 2 trillion dollars worldwide has been lost since the polls closed.

Um, yeah, but that's been happening rather a while now.

It would now be very easy for the Democrats to repeal the patriot acts.

Talk is cheap and the economy is out of the control of politicians to influence unless they actually minded their
own business.

The patriot acts are the yardstick as they could be repealed in 10 minutes. When they are not touched it should be clear to even the most muddled minds that they have been taken for suckers.

What will the fools on P.ie who were crying with joy explain it when Bush is not held to account. It is great. I can't wait for the free health care.

I agree with Slim Buddha.... also, if he had the cojones to ban the use of tax havens for personal income (income tax avoidance), perhaps we could all raise our taxes on the personal incomes of the wealthy, and repair our balance sheets. The US, alone of all the world economies, is big enough to do this. Would love to wave bye bye to the Caymans, Jersey, Monaco, etc.... Enough of the non-domiciled city financiers who pay less tax than their cleaners. Worldwide, we need their excess incomes to feed the schools and hospitals, not Ascot, Henley, the Hamptons, the Galway races etc

I would also hope that he would have enough sense to leave corpo tax alone, though.... job destruction isn't a good idea at the moment

expat girl wrote:

I agree with Slim Buddha.... also, if he had the cojones to ban the use of tax havens for personal income (income tax avoidance), perhaps we could all raise our taxes on the personal incomes of the wealthy, and repair our balance sheets. The US, alone of all the world economies, is big enough to do this. Would love to wave bye bye to the Caymans, Jersey, Monaco, etc.... Enough of the non-domiciled city financiers who pay less tax than their cleaners. Worldwide, we need their excess incomes to feed the schools and hospitals, not Ascot, Henley, the Hamptons, the Galway races etc

I would also hope that he would have enough sense to leave corpo tax alone, though.... job destruction isn't a good idea at the moment

The reports yesterday were that he is going to do just that - and that his hit list is the OECD list of tax havens.

http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/taxes/Factsheet_Tax_Plan_FINAL.pdf

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2008/1107/1225925538865.html

I see from his taxes Factsheet that closing down oil and gas tax loop holes is part of his plan. That's something we could look at here.

On the one hand his tax policy is homebased and protectionist, which is generally a sign of a sick economy and a rightward move politically, and on the other hand it would be very progressive if it lead to a much higher global rate of corporation tax/tax compliance. As he is talking about increasing corporation tax take in the US by more than 100 billion dollars, that money will either be coming from the corporations, or states like Ireland, or both. At very least I think we can be sure that he will be introducing a more competitive corporation tax regime in the US.

An article in the Independent pointed to a lot we could do to make Ireland a more competitive base for industry. At the end of the day though, is cutting each other's throats for a dwindling market in the slumps, and for our slice of expansion in booms, really the best way to live?