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Mercadian
Posts: 39
Joined: July 24th, 2020, 4:22 pm

Re: What is Trussonomics?

October 3rd, 2022, 2:19 pm

Is the goal of tax to

A) raise money for public services
Or
B) punish people for earning money?
Or.... MMT's C)....  Pool currency so it can be shredded 
 
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Paul
Posts: 6604
Joined: July 20th, 2001, 3:28 pm

Re: What is Trussonomics?

October 3rd, 2022, 2:55 pm

Or “I haven’t seen a single bread queue. Please take me to meet the person in charge of supplying bread to London. I must learn his secret" D) Controlling how companies spend or invest. 
 
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Marsden
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Joined: August 20th, 2001, 5:42 pm
Location: Maryland

Re: What is Trussonomics?

October 3rd, 2022, 2:56 pm

My experience is the exact opposite! Sociopaths spend most of the evening down the pub, followed by a spot of gratuitous knifing. The wealthy are excessively altruistic. The common oik is more likely to steal the charity collection jar.

The main media in the UK is run by the BBC. And BBC employees are almost entirely posh boys and girls (except for some audience facing, chosen for their common accents). Probably 90% leftie (maybe less, but others too afraid to speak out!). I assume it's a tribal thing...they are left wing but probably aren't really sure why. They are, to misquote Cuch, stuck in a view of the UK from the 1950s where the Conservatives are the baddies. And, of course, Channel 4 with Jon "F**k the Tories" Snow, son of a bishop, grandson of a general, private school. Watch his recent documentary, great insight into the leftie mind, it's all about all the amazing events he's been involved with, and coincidentally the late Queen was also there. The Queen first met him when he was a young boy, and what an honour it was for her.

You should watch that old TV experiment in which the boss of Pimlico Plumbers revealed the salaries of all employees...to see what happened. What happened was nothing like settling "upon a level of compensation for themselves that keeps them comfortable and that otherwise lets everyone else around them do all right." Before the salary reveal they were all happy. And they were happy at the end. Guess why!
How many employees of a plumbing concern are anything like what we would consider "comfortable," though?

If you're making 75K a year -- I guess pounds and dollars are pretty much the same these days -- and you're more concerned with bettering your own station than with anything else, good for you: you don't pose any danger of having government officials custom fitting legislation they put forward to cater to your wishes.

If you're making 100M a year and all you want is more, we could end up with -- I don't know -- a tax system where the first penny of wages is subject to 15% tax and most property-derived income isn't taxed at all, or is taxed at a maximum rate of 20%.

It could happen.

And "gratuitous knifing" -- you Brits have it so easy!

;-)
 
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Paul
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Joined: July 20th, 2001, 3:28 pm

Re: What is Trussonomics?

October 3rd, 2022, 3:51 pm

PP is not just any plumbing concern!

If you want to incentivise people using tax then the marginal rate needs to decrease with income. There’s probably a nice model balancing incentive and envy.
 
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bearish
Posts: 5189
Joined: February 3rd, 2011, 2:19 pm

Re: What is Trussonomics?

October 4th, 2022, 1:26 am

She seems to be Keir Starmer’s greatest fan. Why else would she pretty much guarantee that he succeeds her?
 
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Marsden
Posts: 789
Joined: August 20th, 2001, 5:42 pm
Location: Maryland

Re: What is Trussonomics?

October 4th, 2022, 1:46 am

PP is not just any plumbing concern!

If you want to incentivise people using tax then the marginal rate needs to decrease with income. There’s probably a nice model balancing incentive and envy.
Incentivise to do what -- ?
 
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Paul
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Joined: July 20th, 2001, 3:28 pm

Re: What is Trussonomics?

October 4th, 2022, 6:38 am

Work, earn, become more efficient,…

When Darling put the marginal rate of income tax up to 50% I stopped taking on new work. I replaced it with other activities. Daughter born a year later.

Oh, I see now what you mean by “Incentivise to do what?”!
 
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Marsden
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Joined: August 20th, 2001, 5:42 pm
Location: Maryland

Re: What is Trussonomics?

October 4th, 2022, 12:13 pm

PP is not just any plumbing concern!

If you want to incentivise people using tax then the marginal rate needs to decrease with income. There’s probably a nice model balancing incentive and envy.
You know, looking the other direction, I guess it would most incentivise people with low income to figure out their capabilities, and tax them 100% on all their income until they fulfill their potential, and at that point allow them to keep just enough to survive. And maybe their only other compensation would be to avoid the lash.
When Darling put the marginal rate of income tax up to 50% I stopped taking on new work.
Did the economy survive? Did your quality of life decline?

Well, obviously with a newborn it did ... but I mean otherwise.
 
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Paul
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Joined: July 20th, 2001, 3:28 pm

Re: What is Trussonomics?

October 4th, 2022, 12:34 pm

When Darling put the marginal rate of income tax up to 50% I stopped taking on new work.
Did the economy survive? Did your quality of life decline?

Well, obviously with a newborn it did ... but I mean otherwise.
Well, clearly the economy hasn't been the same since. 

And my quality of life peaked at around age seven. (Sgt Pepper.)

It's very kind of you to ask. Darling didn't show any interest whatsoever. 
 
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Marsden
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Re: What is Trussonomics?

October 4th, 2022, 1:24 pm

One thing that flummoxes me is the seizures of megayachts from sanctioned Russian plutocrats.

I mean ... what do you do with a megayacht -- ? Maybe you can find some other billionaire who wants to buy it -- at a steep discount, obviously: if you're shelling out full price for a megayacht, you want it made to YOUR specifications.

But I doubt that's an easy sell; I don't think Craigslist or even FaceBook market has a page of megayachts for sale.

So even if you mean to sell it, you'd better figure on paying a lot, one way or another, to maintain and dock it while you look for a buyer.

And is it an investment? Even assuming you got the megayacht for free, you're basically staffing a small hotel to make it usable for anyone, plus the small matter of the skilled crew who actually sail it. And it's not designed to be a cruise ship that you can book separate parties on.

So you probably have a huge cost to staff it, plus a lot of not inconsequential maintenance and fuel costs, and your market is just small-ish, fairly intimate groups. Maybe company events?

And the people for whom they are made in the first place -- how much time do they actually spend on them? They have to be fairly well staffed whether you're on them or not. And in my admittedly limited experience, being on the water for a long time is its own sort of discomfort that I doubt any amount of luxury could overcome. Is it really anything more than a "drop trou and measure" undertaking?

But apparently making megayachts has been a thriving industry the last couple of decades.
Paul:

It's very kind of you to ask. Darling didn't show any interest whatsoever.
You could relocate to the states. Tape a $100 bill to your forehead, and Members of Congress would be interested in you like a dog is interested in bacon.
 
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DavidJN
Posts: 242
Joined: July 14th, 2002, 3:00 am

Re: What is Trussonomics?

October 4th, 2022, 2:43 pm

I too feel puzzled about the oligarch asset seizures. Although many western countries need the money to recover public finances that have been self-impaired by 40+ years of unfunded tax cuts, I doubt obtaining money is the motivation for the seizures. It is perhaps a hail Mary effort to break up the Putin kleptocracy, which has probably stolen more than any in human history. Putin needs the oligarchs to hide the loot, or so goes the official western story. Squeezing the oligarchs might crack their subservience to Putin, another official story.
 
I have some concerns that the asset seizures were hurried and may not pass the higher legal bar we set for ourselves than the Russians. I do hope we do not lower our legal standards another notch towards the likes of Russia, something already well underway in the US what with the very legitimacy of the SCOTUS under question. On that last sorry note, affirmative action is about to disappear in the US.
 
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Marsden
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Re: What is Trussonomics?

October 5th, 2022, 11:29 am

The best role for the megayachts might be to hold them hostage, to be returned when the oligarchs turn on Uncle Vlad.

Other than that, they probably end up being scrapped, probably with expenses that outweigh recovery.

Or maybe Paul will make an offer! If the right tax advantages are offered, maybe it could work ...

lol
 
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Cuchulainn
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Re: What is Trussonomics?

October 5th, 2022, 2:51 pm

The best role for the megayachts might be 

Escort them up to Scapa Flow under the watchful eye of the Royal Navy.

And then scutte them.
 
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Paul
Posts: 6604
Joined: July 20th, 2001, 3:28 pm

Re: What is Trussonomics?

October 5th, 2022, 3:52 pm

The best role for the megayachts might be to hold them hostage, to be returned when the oligarchs turn on Uncle Vlad.

Other than that, they probably end up being scrapped, probably with expenses that outweigh recovery.

Or maybe Paul will make an offer! If the right tax advantages are offered, maybe it could work ...

lol
I would hate having a yacht. It would require a crew. And I cannot abide “staff.” Nannies, cooks, cleaners, butlers…all destroy my privacy. That’s why this lady is a tramp.
 
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Cuchulainn
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Re: What is Trussonomics?

October 5th, 2022, 6:48 pm

The best role for the megayachts might be to hold them hostage, to be returned when the oligarchs turn on Uncle Vlad.

Other than that, they probably end up being scrapped, probably with expenses that outweigh recovery.

Or maybe Paul will make an offer! If the right tax advantages are offered, maybe it could work ...

lol
I would hate having a yacht. It would require a crew. And I cannot abide “staff.” Nannies, cooks, cleaners, butlers…all destroy my privacy. That’s why this lady is a tramp.
+ an IT guy to keep the servers and printers running.