Gimme!
Concern at plan to let HMRC recover unpaid tax directly from bank accounts
George Osborne, the chancellor, believes the measure can be justified because the Department for Work and Pensions already has the right to take money directly from people’s bank accounts to pay child maintenance.
However, the committee pointed out that the parallel is not exact as the DWP is acting as an intermediary between two individuals, while HMRC would be acting in pursuit of its own objective of bringing in revenue for the exchequer. Tyrie said: “The proposal to grant the power to HMRC to take money directly from people’s bank accounts is very concerning.
Stockholm Syndrome in the Baltics
Neoliberals claim that Latvia’s bounce back shows that austerity can restore growth as well as avoid public debt defaults. Its success in reversing the sharp wage increases that occurred during the real estate bubble of 2005–7 is applauded as an object lesson for indebted economies throughout the European Union, and even the United States, to follow suit.
But Latvia’s economy has never really departed from its structural underdevelopment created at independence. Its economic contraction in 2008–10 was brutal, and it remains the most impoverished country in the EU after Romania and Bulgaria, as Richard Milne stated in the Financial Times: “Latvia remains an impoverished country, the poorest in the EU after Romania and Bulgaria, and its GDP is still below pre-crisis levels. Unemployment has fallen from peaks of more than 20 per cent but remains high at 10.9 per cent” (Milne 2013).
Ukraine crisis EXCLUSIVE: West draws up plan to ‘disarm’ Russia’s energy supply threat
“The diversification of sources and routes for fossil fuels is essential,” the G7 communique stated.
“No country should depend totally on one supplier. Nor should energy be used as a means of political coercion or a threat to security.” [SH: But payment systems should?]
Stacy again: I think it’s adorable that Americans are so patriotic as to be willing to double or triple their own energy bills so that Europe may be ‘free’ from Russian energy hold! Watch the Get REAL interview with Jan Skoyles with Reuters’ natural gas expert for a bit of sense on this energy war in Ukraine: