The French will simply not be outdone on matters of making Europe the most inhospitable place on earth to be a banker. Fresh from declaring victory over the wicked Anglo-Saxons and their lasseiz-faire banking cabal, France now says it, too, will impose a huge one-time tax on banking bonuses, just like the British said they’d do last week.
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said that they, too, would take half of what the banks pay their employees this Christmas, thank you. The move is no surprise, given the Wall Street Journal op-ed from a few weeks ago where British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and le Petit Napoleon, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, called a one-off tax on banking bonuses “a priority, due to the fact that bonuses for 2009 have arisen partly because of government support for the banking system.”
The French tax will apply to bonuses over €27,500.
Meanwhile, the British have endeavored to ensure that Joseph Goebbels will not have any new material for a sequel to his classic, Die Rothschilds. The U.K. government will extend its banking bonus tax beyond its original April 5 expiration to cover NM Rothschild, which doesn’t pay its bonuses until the summer.
France Plans 50% Tax on Bank Bonuses [WSJ]
Government to ensure Rothschild caught by bonus tax [Times]
Wish they would just admit they are replenishing their coffers by raping and pillaging the banks. The banks are the bad guys and can’t vote. Easy pickings!
So it applies only to traders, not corporate/private banking (weird?), and traders outside France get exemptions.
Ok, how much does SocGen/BNP/Caylon actually pay to traders in-country compared to RoW?
Shazbot – nice work on this one.
I have so many problems with this trend, other than my own selfish motivations.
Namely, (1) taxes are not supposed to be punative and (2) the double-dip the government gets for hiting bonuses upfront and then on the PIT side seems egregious.
i am not even in finance and find this disgraceful. Why is the govt entitled to this money?
I am wondering if Obama is also President of France.
Anal_yst, what is your take on the French bank bonus situation?
If the bank took government money to stay alive, it deserves this. A good disincentive for future stupidity.
Is it just me or is this whole taxing the rich to punish them situation reminding people of either a) The time between the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution or b) Exactly what Mr.Marx had in mind?
They’re not taxing the rich, they’re taxing banks that took government money. Read much?
Why not take crazy risks when Uncle Sam and French/British equivalents has your back? What’s the downside risk, a one-time 50% tax on bonuses? Boo hoo, hoo. If that’s the only threat you have to be concerned with, stop your bitching and get on with the making of that money, you cocksuckers!
@7 – so are you saying people who take government subsidies are deserving of future punative action by the same government?
@9
What they say they’re doing and what they’re effectively doing are not, necessarily, one in the same.
A #9- Right. These cogs here are carrying on as if this tax is a human rights violation. Unless you want to argue that a bank has human rights. What’d'ya say, cogs? Do ya?
Is it just me, or is this whole situation reminding anyone else of that new movie, The Road? I mean, these taxes are very much like being hunted down by post-apocalyptic hillbillies in a world with no future.
Tax Chick, do try to keep abreast of current events, ok? If anyone receiving gubmint subsidies gets it in their head to…oh, I don’t know…try to collapse an economy? Then yes, they should be subject to punitive actions.
@15 – Yes, except UAW workers should be excluded from punitive actions for they are the salt of the earth and had no hand in the ruin of their companies.
@ #14- It’s so tedious how you and your brethren insist of portraying yourselves as the victims. You have no shame at all. I only wish a horde of drooling cannibals were hunting your dumb asses.
Anal_yst,
Agree wholeheartedly. What do you think about the French government’s bailout of Alsthom, Carrefour, Alcatel and Michelin last year?
They really should apply this tax across the board. Why discriminate against only the “fat-cat” bankers other than to satisfy the proles?
-Forehead slapper
@15 – Riiiight… I forgot, this is all part of a master plan by the banks to lose gobs of money, get daily rectal exams from the federal government, and have their executives’ families terrorized by tax-evading public interest groups. They wanted this, they have to pay the price. Gotcha… sorry, I was preoccupied with trying to figure out how to pay my bills now that I’m working for free.
@ #16- And you’ve yet to meet an anti-union ceo that doesn’t get your little pecker stiff. If only workers would bend over and take with pride management’s shaft going up their asses. Have I got that right, Scooter?
@18 – @7, 9 here – I agree. The whole system is effed once government money gets involved. R.I.P. free market economy. And don’t think Citi, WFC and others aren’t still on the dole.
@ Tax Chick- “and have their executives’ families terrorized by tax-evading public interest groups.” Oh, snap! That was funny! Just for that you deserve a new Hermes scarf to flatter your weary shoulders.
Working for free? You can always teach school, bay-bee.
I too am interested to hear what Anal_yst’s thoughts are.
Trig Palin
France sucks. Let ‘em tax the hell out of the bankers. And when their socialist policies keep their economy from growing, well, then they’ll have no one but themselves to blame.
Long live naked access!
@22 – How do you know I don’t? How do you know I don’t tithe my salary to the poor and needy? How do you know I don’t support an eldery or disabled parent, sibling, or child? You don’t. So don’t pretend you know me or my circumstances, you ignorant fuck.
Finally. I see two countries whose leaders have the uncircumcised set to tell the circumcised chosen people/banker elites to take a hike.
It’s obvious that what wait the US is what happened to Germany in the 20′s & 30’2. And if this is what the chosen epople brought to Germany during the Weimar Republic -It explains Hitler.
Long Live The Real US of A – based on the Constitution. To hell & death with the US of Goldman Sachs – You bankers are full of sh*t & the Guillotine is coming for your ugly asses.
@ 27, really? pls tell me you aren’t serious with that asinine statement.
Why the hate? I’m totally seriously comparing the new bonus taxes to the end of civilization and the permanent death of life on earth. Well, I guess I’m just comparing it to the cannibalistic and hyper-violent struggle for meaningless survival amidst the end of civilization et cetera, but you get the gist.
@27- Apologize for your life.
Then kill yourself.
@29 Well, I don’t, I don’t really think that the end can be assessed…uh as of itself as being the end because what does the end feel like, it’s like saying when you try to extrapolate the end of the universe you say the…if the universe is indeed infinite then how what does that mean? How far is is it…is it all the way and then if it stops what’s stoppin’ it and what’s behind what’s stoppin’ it, so what’s the end, you know, is my…question to you….
Methinks this board was linked to by trolls.com or the like . . . Seem to be under attack by the populist torches & pitchforks lemmings.
@22 – sorry, meant for @23
-Angry TC @26
Tax Chick, then there is a place in heaven for you. (Not Lloyd’s heaven, but still) If all that umbrage is merely false- then tie an alligator belt around your neck and hang yourself, bitch. I want you to go out in style.
Methinks -your arrrogant/elite ass is full of plastic dildos. And needs a good bitch slap from those “populist – rowdy masses” to kick out & hopefully your IQ will go back up.
Me thinks you need to look at history. Me thinks – is either you flatulant pansy boys get straighten out. Because more important than you pansy paper pushing glory hole hanging out waste of humans is ” THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ” & the CONSTITUTION that is based on.
LOUD NOISES!!!
What is really depressing is that Obama failed to remind the country that the financial services sector is going to pay for a large portion of the bill for “THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA & the CONSTITUTION that is based on” is running up.
Can someone help me with what this maniac is trying to say? Is there a pending class war that I should be gearing up for?
@35 -
Tiresome. I’m looking forward to the next bubble you believe in and that bursts so you and the other ignorant lemmings can be told to direct your ire elsewhere.
OH LOOK – A CLIFF!! CHARGE!!!
well, they should be made
to smell it.
There is a pending class warfare. Obviously, few here have a pulse on the rest of the country. I do. It’s bad.
Obama was supposse to be “change”. The thing that changed was Oil insider for Wall Street insider. No frustaration build, pressure increases & it’s building.
Paul Volcker clearly & loudly stated the truth which goes against all your pro WS propaganda. PV said it – All financial engineering hides risk/ increses rent seekers & its costs & has no value.
Your day is approaching, cogs.
@40 – exactly. And then, this miniature bread. It’s like… I’ve been working with this now for about half an hour. I can’t figure out… let’s say I want a bite, right, you’ve got this..And then you…everyhing has to be folded, and then it’s this, and I don’t want this. I want large bread. So it’s a complete catastrophe!
@40 – try to remember to wear the tinfoil hat shiny side OUT. It’s the only real way to stop the mind-control beams.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_foil_hat
It is an absolute fact that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is a shitheel.
Nigel @ 40 – Lick my Love Pump.
I like this Nigel fellow!
Hello, folks?!?! The French gov’t never bailed out its banks, the AMERICAN govt did! That’s our freaking money, you frogs!!! Remember, AIG?!?!!?
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article6920043.ece
“The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s attempts to cut the contracts’ value met with particular opposition from the French banks, which called in their own regulator. Mr Barofsky’s report recounts: “The Commission Bancaire forcefully asserted that under French law, absent an AIG bankruptcy, the banks could not voluntarily agree to less than par value.”
Surely we can get Timmy G to forcefully assert that under US law, it it is illegal for stolen US taxpayer money to end up in the hands of the French govt. That would be taking a kickback!
@ #44- The ass Sarkozy gets is so much better than what you’re getting, yeah?
I AM A UAW WORKER AND LET ME TELL YOU BOYS AND GIRLS, YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE TO WIPE YOUR ASS WITH A BROKEN, FLATTENED CAN OF COORS LITE EACH DAY IN YOUR TRAILER. AND LET ME TELL YOU BANKER FAGS ONE MORE THING, AND THAT’S THAT THAT THAT I GET HOME FROM WORK AT 4:30 PM AND HAVE GREASE AND OIL AND DIRT ALL OVER MY FINGERS AND I DON’T EVEN HAVE A SINK TO CLEAN MY FUCKING HANDS WITH. SO WHEN I GRAB ONE OF MY 8 BABIES, ALL THAT SHIT GETS ALL OVER THEM AND THEY LOOK ALL GREASED UP. AND THEN I PUT THEM IN THE BATHTUB AND FEED THEM SPAGHETTI.
YOU DON’T KNOW THE COMMON PEOPLE, COCK SUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SIGNED,
Wilbert Jinxsom
Detroit, MI
48065
I really, really hope @49 is for real, because that would be pure gold. There’s no Wilbert Jinxsom on google and I don’t know why a UAW guy would be on DB at 2pm but something feels right about that post.
Nah, but 51 might actually be a UAW dude.
-49
$50 – you’re an idiot. Clearly a joke. Although I do sense a class warfare fight brewin’ – I just think it’s funny that 99% of the 25 year olds on this board think they’re in the upper class.
$50 – you’re an idiot. Clearly a joke. Although I do sense a class warfare fight brewin’ – I just think it’s funny that 99% of the 25 year olds on this board think they’re in the upper class.
@42/ Nigel – Rise above it. You are a professional. Don’t let this affect your performance.
55 – I know, it’s all a joke.
@56/ Nigel – How do you feel about Armadillos?
Nigel – do you have an Armadillo in your trousers or are you just happy to see me?
Anal_yst – let me add myself to the line of people wanting to hear what you think.
“I just think it’s funny that 99% of the 25 year old’s on this board think they’re in the upper class.”
Identifying with their masters. Pity.
57/58 – you’ll run screaming. it’s quite frightening, the size, in my tight trousers
@53/54
See http://www.breakingmedia.com/audience.php
@Anal_yst – so 60% of this site’s viewers earn less than $250K – i.e. not upper class. And most are 25-34. So tell me how I’m wrong? Or were you even arguing?
@63
Just presenting the only info we have.
btw, if you’re in your late 20′s and pulling in $250m/year you’re not doing too bad, especially now when 20% of your cohort is pulling in $405/week, so its all relative.
Also, what, ~20% are over 35 (if memory serves correctly); probably a far higher demo than almost any other finance blog out there (save the big MSM-linked ones)