A Big Bank Suggests WEALTH Taxation - Jeff Nielson

There is a two-word phrase which is virtually never heard within the vacuous propaganda machine known as the mainstream media: “wealth taxation”. There are very obvious reasons for such conceptual censorship.

To begin with, the corporate media is merely one of the subsidiaries of the financial crime syndicate which readers know as “the One Bank” . The One Bank exists for one purpose, to steal wealth. Any form of wealth-taxation would effectively claw back significant amounts of these ill-gotten gains; therefore, discussion of this concept is verboten.

This is why we have an “income taxation” system, the most inefficient, complex, and economically destructive form of taxation system which could be inflicted upon us. We have income taxation for one, and only one reason: it provides a taxation “free ride” for the Ultra Wealthy, the proprietors of the One Bank.

How, then, is it possible that Deutsche Bank, one of the Big Bank tentacles of the One Bank, could have recently and openly suggested implementing wealth taxation? It is both a putrid and delicious display of irony.

Our governments have already been bankrupted, and our public treasuries have been emptied (via the “bank bail-outs” of 2008). The masses have already been virtually squeezed-dry of their wealth. Our overall standard of living has already plummeted by more than half. The Middle Class is virtually extinct , having devolved into the Working Poor. But the bankers’ masters are still hungry.

Thus, their psychopathic minions have been encouraged to dream up new-and-innovative ways to steal more. One form of systemic theft which has been gaining momentum is “the negative interest rate”: borrowers literally stealing from lenders (and savers). It is in this context that we see the two-word phrase which is a “four-letter word” to all bankers: wealth taxation.

…the ECB and BoJ should move more strongly toward penalizing savings via negative retail deposit rates or perhaps wealth taxes .

Here it is necessary to point out the extreme perversity which is implicit in this suggestion. Why is a Deutsche Bank mouthpiece suggesting “negative retail deposit rates or perhaps wealth taxes”? The answer is to (supposedly) stimulate our economies.

Of course, another, obvious way to characterize negative interest rates on bank deposits is as a tax on bank deposits. That is why negative interest rates are suggested interchangeably along with wealth taxation – they are both a form of taxation.

Do you “stimulate” an economy by raising taxes? No (but with a caveat). Thus any and every time we see a banker, or politician, or mainstream drone suggesting negative interest rates as a means of “stimulating our economies” they are lying. It is merely an utterly absurd pretext to supposedly justify more, naked stealing.

In fact, we already have a general, systemic “tax” inflicted upon everyone (except the Ultra Wealthy). It’s called inflation. Every time that corrupt central banks print up a new unit of their fiat currency funny-money, they create inflation. That is the (correct) definition of inflation.

Here we get more lies and perversity. The bankers, and central bankers in particular, lament that we don’t have enough inflation, because we supposedly need more inflation to “stimulate our economies”. Let’s put aside the first, obvious lie: the ludicrous/mythical “inflation rates” fabricated by our corrupt governments. Let’s deal, instead, with the second lie.

Does inflation “stimulate our economies”? We can answer that question by simply looking back in time, to when we had lots of (official) inflation: the 1970s. In the 1970s, did all the inflation created by our central banks stimulate our economies? No. In fact, it was labeled stagflation, and it was universally recognized that inflation (like any tax) does not stimulate our economies . Thus whenever a banker claims that “we need more inflation”, he/she is also lying.

This brings us to the delicious aspect of Deutsche Bank’s ironic suggestion. Because the Big Bank’s foot soldiers are being encouraged to think of more ways to steal-via-taxation, it was only natural that one of those foot soldiers would eventually blurt out the taboo words “wealth taxation”. What makes this deliciously ironic is that unlike the tax of negative interest rates, and unlike the tax of inflation, wealth taxation would actually serve to stimulate our economies, if we used it to replace our destructive/inefficient income taxation system. How? Why?

First we require a quick summary of the destructiveness of income taxation. We officially dwell in “capitalist” economies: nations whose economic growth is derived from profit. What does income taxation do? It taxes profit. It taxes it in the form of wages. It taxes it in the form of dividends and capital gains. It taxes profit in any-and-all forms from our basic commerce.

In other words, income taxation discourages people from increasing their incomes. It discourages people from reaping dividends and capital gains. It discourages people from generating profits in their business enterprises. This is good for our economies? No. How do you destroy any capitalist system (or at least cripple it)? Tax income.

Conversely, by definition, wealth taxation is the broadest form of taxation in existence: everything is taxed. Because wealth taxation is all-inclusive, any wealth taxation system would automatically have a lower tax rate than any other form of taxation system we could imagine. It is thus less punitive on wages, less punitive on dividends and capital gains, less punitive on profit. Because it is all-inclusive, it replaces all these other forms of taxation.

Income taxation is selective taxation. Worse, as previously noted, it is a form of taxation which automatically under-taxes individuals at the top of the wealth totem-pole. This is a matter of simple arithmetic.

For a poor person (someone with little-to-no-wealth), their annual income is virtually equal to their total wealth. Thus, taxing income provides the maximum “bite” on the wealth of the poor. For the average billionaire, his income is (at most) no more than roughly 1% of his total wealth. Tax that income, even at 100%, and the billionaire hardly notices.

Income taxation is a free ride for those on top. Income taxation is more and more punitive, the farther you descend on the wealth totem-pole. Do our societies benefit, as a whole, from providing a free ride for those on top, light taxation for the rest of the Rich, and extremely punitive taxation for the majority?

No. As a matter of elementary economics, what do we know about the wealth of the wealthy, and in particular, the Ultra Wealthy? They hoard it, almost all of it. Because the Oligarch Trillionaires have been allowed to steal most of the wealth from our societies, most of that wealth (our wealth) is now hoarded. It is idle, useless capital – in a capitalist system. We see how our economies are literally starving to death from lack of capital, via a U.S. chart which is familiar to regular readers.

More and more and more wealth is being sucked (illegally) into the hoards of the Ultra Wealthy, via their Big Bank crime syndicate. Less and less capital is circulating in our economies. How do we reverse the economic starvation of our economies? Tax that stolen wealth .

Unlike the Ultra Wealthy, every time a dollar enters the hands of a poor person, they spend almost all of it. That stimulates our economy. Every time a dollar enters the hands of a Middle Class person, they spend most of it. That stimulates our economies. Every time a dollar enters the hands of a rich person, they hoard almost all of it. No stimulus. No benefit for our economies, in any way/shape/form.

As already noted, introducing wealth taxation would reduce the tax rates for those on the bottom. Conversely, a wealth tax would (for the first time in the history of our societies) tax the Fat Cats in a meaningful way. How much of our wealth are the Fat Cats hoarding? How much of our wealth have they stolen? A single headline says it all.

U.S. Wealth Inequality – top 0.1% worth as much as the bottom 90%

This must be restated, in order for the full monstrosity of this truth to be comprehended. In any average roomful of 1,000 Americans, the one Fat Cat would hold as much wealth as 900 of those people combined. That’s a lot of stolen wealth, as certainly the Fat Cat didn’t earn as much as the other 900 people.

Income taxation fully taxes the wealth of the bottom-90%. Income taxation doesn’t even touch the equal amount of wealth held by the Fat Cat. Introducing wealth taxation would thus double the size of the tax base. For the Fat Cat, this means paying a meaningful level of taxation, for the first time ever. For the bottom-90%, who would no longer shoulder the tax burden alone, it means lower taxes.

Lower taxes for the bottom-90% means more dollars in the hands of the poor. Lower taxes for the bottom-90% means more dollars in the hands of the Middle Class. That stimulates our economies. Since the stolen wealth of the Fat Cats just sits in idle hoards, taxing (i.e. liberating) that stolen wealth would have no detrimental impact on our economies. Wealth taxation is win/win.

Income taxation destroys our economies. Hidden taxation, in the form of inflation, destroys our economies. Hidden taxation, in the form of negative interest rates, destroys our economies. Wealth taxation (i.e. a flat wealth tax, universally imposed) would stimulate our economies.

The genie has now been let out of the bottle.

The question is: are any of the bottom-90% even paying attention?

The views and opinions expressed in this material are those of the author as of the publication date, are subject to change and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sprott Money Ltd. Sprott Money does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, timeliness and reliability of the information or any results from its use.