Ingen Ørneborg

Financial Times, hjemsted for de gode kapitalister. John Kay om skattely:

From its inception, the existence of the haven depended on the hypocrisy of its larger neighbours, which tacitly acknowledged the utility of the haven as a safety valve. Their politicians could denounce excesses of wealth and proclaim the need to regulate improper or immoral behaviour, but their rich and famous citizens could always ensure that the restraint on them did not become too onerous.

Governments can make life difficult for the havens or for the people who use them. But they rarely do. After decades of pontification, only mild bullying was needed to persuade Switzerland, the most respectable and most powerful of havens, to modify its banking secrecy. The Monaco casino project would have been stillborn if there had been genuinely principled opposition from neighbouring states. Monaco, then and now, is completely dependent on France for its physical infrastructure and on the European financial system for its financial infrastructure. Minor harassment of returning visitors, and a more determined refusal to co-operate with companies that did business in the haven, would have ended the project.

Topskatten og alt det gejl kan være ligemeget, hvis det her får en ende. Og man skal bare ville det. De store lande skal bare sætte sig ved et bord og tage beslutningen. Så kan man sætte skatten ned på arbejde og alt det, som man siger er så fantastisk og incentiverende. Med den seneste udvikling har vi nu beviset for, at Schweiz ikke er nogen Ørneborg. Det var ikke så svært - lidt pres fra Tyskland, og de giver sig. Det kan sagtens lade sig gøre.

Schweiz er som regel er de liberales eksempel på et land, der fungerer godt med lav skat.