Economy

The Tax Freedom Day has arrived! The last Tuesday was the first day when people have started to earn on their own and not for the State and needs of public finances.

The rapid economic growth, coupled with the rise of capitalism, is the source of the wealth of our society. However, this fact is often overshadowed by the perpetual discussions about inequality and wealth differences.

Fiscal harmonization is the homogenizing of countries’ tax systems, whether by natural occurrence (through fiscal competition) or political negotiation. But is fiscal harmonization a credible goal, and if so, who would benefit?

Europe is experiencing a boom in the contingent convertible bonds, in the Anglo-Saxon world also dubbed CoCos. These are the bonds which, at a certain point, convert to the shares of the debtor.

Many people, both in the West and in the former socialist countries, display an attitude which I call—somewhat pointedly—“a mentality of Soviet official”. It is a generalized belief: “whatever problem there exists, only the state can solve it.” The state is perceived as a deity, i.e. an omniscient and benevolent being with unlimited resources.

Since the transition, a number of national and international contrastive studies have noted a growing anti-capitalist sentiment in the Hungarian society.

FDP leader Christian Lindner expressed a strong need for more responsibility in fiscal policy and a legally anchored ban on the bank bailout. He criticized the state bank bailout as a perversion of the market economy.

European Commission wants to tackle down on in-app purchases of add-ons for free tablet and mobile games. Commissioner Neven Mimica said, that “consumers, and in particular children, need better protection against unexpected costs”. He’s absolutely right.

The goal of the project is to explain that there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch provided by state and to inform general public on the costs of the public services by using this specific visual form. It uses per citizen calculation (including children and retirees), that enables better understanding of each taxpayer´s share on financing the public services.

The key question is: why should the German regional states own a bank? It has cost and still costs the German taxpayer a great deal of money to invest in boats, planes and property, yet brings the taxpayer few advantages for the risks incurred. Given the strength of our economy, this poor performance still looks very strange.