Nous allons payer les impôts des grecs...

Il semble que payer ses impôts soit un peu optionnel en Grèce (surtout pour les revenus élevés). De plus, Zero Hedge (citant "The Guardian") nous dit qu'un resserrement de la discipline fiscale à venir serait une cause non négligeable de la fuite actuelle des capitaux de Grèce. Tout cela n'invite vraiment pas à la mansuétude (l'italique est de ZH, le reste du Guardian):

While a fifth of the population lives beneath the poverty line, some 20% of Greeks are believed to earn more than €100,000 annually – even if, according to income tax records, 90% declare salaries of less than €30,000 a year.

"Greece has a lot of rich people who are not being taxed properly because there is so much tax evasion," finance minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou, told the Observer. "If you look at the actual numbers, you will see that the number of people declaring over €100,000 a year is roughly 15,000," he said. "I don't think that there is anyone in this country who believes there are only 15,000 Greeks earning more than €100,000 a year."

And as if the Greek population needed any more reasons to deteset the current economic fiasco, and to draw even more distinct lines of social separation:

The growing flight of funds from Greece has whipped up much resentment among the public. "It's revolting," said one popular radio chat-show host last week. "After pillaging the country, they flee with their ill-gotten gains at the very mention of the word tax."

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Aussi de Zero Hedge, une comparaison Californie/Grèce:

With Greece getting all the imminent default attention, have we forgotten California? Jim Grant chimes in.

• Greece: 3% of Eurozone GDP
• California: 13% of USA GDP

Rate Curves:

Greece

• 3 year: 3.45%
• 30 year: 6.26%
• 5 Year CDS: 400+

California

• 3 year: 1.89%
• 30 year: 5.59%
• 5 Year CDS: 333

Grant points out Trichet's Jan 14 commentary: "belonging to the euro area, you have an easy means of financing your current account deficit. You share a currency that is credible, so that you have a quality of financing that corresponds to that of a credible currency." Further: "this should be borne in mind, compared with the share of CALIFORNIA, FOR INSTANCE, in the overall GDP of the USA."

Grants reviews CA's Baa1/A- rating as the worst in the US, the S&P downgrade and the structural not cyclical problem of California.

• State Revenue up 22% in decade debt service cost +143%.
• Interest expense to consume 10% of revenues by 2013.

Howerver Grant's notes that Californida's debt / gdp ratio of "perhaps 25% is dwarfed by Greece 113%"

Un complot américain contre l'euro?

C'est ce que dit Jean Quatremer sur son blog. L'article date de vendredi. Je ne sais pas l'écho qu'il a reçu. Je ne suis pas en avance en ce moment et je paie le prix de mes sources d'informations exclusivement anglo-saxonnes. Si c'est ça, c'est la guerre. Mais autant que cela soit clair après tout!

Je suis donc en retard sur l'info mais pas sur la mise en garde sur le fait que les américains ne sont pas nos amis. Ils mettront tout en oeuvre durant cette crise pour que quel que soit le niveau où tombe l'économie américaine, le reste du monde tombe plus bas.