EU conducts new financial regulations!!

[Thorn777]

On the last EU summit in Berlin(Feb 22) the EU conducted a new set of regulations concerning "dangerous elements of the financial markets".

German chancellor Merkel already proposed a big part of this two years ago at the G8 summit, but the plans where rejected by the UK and the US. Now even the lovely Brits agreed on the proposals(better late then never).

The plan also contains agreements to "dry out the tax oasis's"(Belgium, Switzerland, Jersey Island, Lichtenstein etc), and to put certain destructive hedge fund activitys to a hold(like milking healthy companys till they broke). I hope Obama will also agree on these plans next summit in London(Im quite optimistic). So, it seems something good for the future comes out of the current crisis.

http://www.newsmeat.com/news/meat.ph...com&build=3281

Stay positive and buy stuff people.

[antares24]

On the last EU summit in Berlin(Feb 22) the EU conducted a new set of regulations concerning "dangerous elements of the financial markets".

German chancellor Merkel already proposed a big part of this two years ago at the G8 summit, but the plans where rejected by the UK and the US. Now even the lovely Brits agreed on the proposals(better late then never).

The plan also contains agreements to "dry out the tax oasis's"(Belgium, Switzerland, Jersey Island, Lichtenstein etc), and to put certain destructive hedge fund activitys to a hold(like milking healthy companys till they broke). I hope Obama will also agree on these plans next summit in London(Im quite optimistic). So, it seems something good for the future comes out of the current crisis.

http://www.newsmeat.com/news/meat.ph...com&build=3281

Stay positive and buy stuff people.

this summit was a preparation for the march EU summit, it seems the various leaders agree on most things, hopefully the nexts G20 in the Uk and G8 in Italy summits will have good pratical results, with new international rules on finance.

Glad to see that they're going against fiscal heavens, i can't stand fat cats that escape to Swiss banks or open Cayman accounts to don't pay taxs in good years, now that we're all in a recession it is simply outrageous.
It would be bad news for Switzerland, Luxemburg and the like, but i really don't care, this was long overdue.

[molonthegreat]

I don't like this plan regulations of business is not good.

[Holger Danske]

I don't like this plan regulations of business is not good.

Well, we have seen what happens when they have none...

[IrishHitman]

Excellent.

[Darsh]

Great but now we must retain our billionnaires in EU.

[Thorn777]

Great but now we must retain our billionnaires in EU.

Probably the US will also join on this issue, and maybe many more from there. Nonetheless you will of course still have safe havens for the "unpatriotic" over-greedy, but I say .... them. We need to have principals in place.

[IrishHitman]

Probably the US will also join on this issue, and maybe many more from there. Nonetheless you will of course still have safe havens for the "unpatriotic" over-greedy, but I say .... them. We need to have principals in place.

They're generally tiny countries (sometimes islands) with extremely small or non-existent militaries.

Tell them to hand over the unpatriotic bastards, or else.....

[Treize]

Greedy aristocrats...

If they continue with these stupid thing, we really need some revolution.

[zerathule]

Technicaly, its the US that started just a few days/weeks ago.
I'm working for the compliance department of a bank(department in charge of supervising the ethical aspects of their costumers), and it appears that some guy in a swiss bank helped his american costumers to evade tax by hiding their money in his bank.
The US justice asked for information, and the swiss bank said ok here is the information, and to prove our goodwill, here is 50 more US citizens that evaded taxes in their homeland with the help of our banks.
Then other swiss banks started yelling about their banking secrecy rules etc ... but the US justice asked for 52000 more informations (really 52000).
At that point the EU said "why do you give informations to the US and not to us ? We want the same informations ! now !".
So you see, it doesnt always come from EU those kind of regulations ...
And also, please note that if you consider Free market principles, you need pure competition (no trusts, no bargains between competitors) but also total information for all the actors.
So saying that no regulation must be put in business is not actually a principle of free market (if everyone has the same regulation), and opposing regulation regarding bank secrecy or anything related to total information on business actors is going totaly against one of the fundamental principles of capitalism.

[Thorn777]

Technicaly, its the US that started just a few days/weeks ago.
I'm working for the compliance department of a bank(department in charge of supervising the ethical aspects of their costumers), and it appears that some guy in a swiss bank helped his american costumers to evade tax by hiding their money in his bank.
The US justice asked for information, and the swiss bank said ok here is the information, and to prove our goodwill, here is 50 more US citizens that evaded taxes in their homeland with the help of our banks.
Then other swiss banks started yelling about their banking secrecy rules etc ... but the US justice asked for 52000 more informations (really 52000).
At that point the EU said "why do you give informations to the US and not to us ? We want the same informations ! now !".
So you see, it doesnt always come from EU those kind of regulations ...
And also, please note that if you consider Free market principles, you need pure competition (no trusts, no bargains between competitors) but also total information for all the actors.
So saying that no regulation must be put in business is not actually a principle of free market (if everyone has the same regulation), and opposing regulation regarding bank secrecy or anything related to total information on business actors is going totaly against one of the fundamental principles of capitalism.

Indeed, and it was bitter that the EU nations could not have the same deal as the US got in Switzerland. But I guess that Switzerland was given some time to jump-start on other economic aspects, what they are doing pretty successful.

I totally agree on your free-trade statement.

@IrishHitman

I smell Marxism in the air. It smells good but coming closer you see its a rotting corpse. Seriously, I get your joke.

The corpus delicti is the money traveling around the globe. I could not care less about Ebeneezer.

[Hun Birodalom]

Great to see the EU being able to work together, including the UK. Economic regulations are vital to successfully stop the recession. Bailouts just keep struggling companies and countries from crashing. Regulations will hopefully reverse the recession within the next 1-2 years. AT least in Europe. The US might take longer because the $h!t really hit the fan there. I hope Obama knows that he must work with the EU if he wants to work on the recession in the US. I also hope that other countries from around the world, especially from Asia will respond to the global recession in a similar manner (regulations and working with other countries).

[zerathule]

@Thorn : Free market is a dogma like communism, hope i made my point understandable by showing the big paradox around this.
The funny thing is that all of this is , because nothing will truely come out of those regulations.
Since the last 5 years, even Caiman islands or Jersey are not considered "uncooperative" by international organisations. The fact is that when it's something related to "war on terror" then they'll cooperate. But when it comes to taxes or money laundering most government cant do (or wont do actually) anything about it.
I must admit for once that the US is far ahead regarding ethics and banking. Compliance officers (those in charge of ethics and investigating if their costumers arent "bad guys") in the US are legaly responsible for the business their bank is running : if you, as a compliance officer dont do everything in your power to check if a costumer is a crook (or terrorist) and that he gets caught you are considered accomplice and go to jail.
I can assure you that those guys take very seriously their business when it comes to their investigations and procedures.
Its clearly not the same way in europe (but UK is above the rest of europe).
(this is no "anglo-saxon" propaganda, clearly "latin" countries in europe are far behind when it comes to checking costumer backgrounds, and that's coming from an "american hating french guy ;-) )

[Ahlerich]

how are they going to dry out the tax oases? i mean switzerland is a non eu member. will the eu put pressure on switzerland to open its doors for tax dodging investigators?
will they threatten switzerland to do so? coz switzerland surely doesnt like the idea of course.

[Thorn777]

@zerathule

@Thorn : Free market is a dogma like communism, hope i made my point understandable by showing the big paradox around this.

I understand what you mean by that. I dont believe in dogmas either. I referred to your remark about fairness, free-market and universal regulations not being a hinderniss for the free-market when they count for all.

The funny thing is that all of this is , because nothing will truely comeout of those regulations.

Care to elaborate.

Since the last 5 years, even Caiman islands or Jersey are not considered "uncooperative" by international organisations. The fact is that when it's something related to "war on terror" then they'll cooperate. But when it comes to taxes or money laundering most government cant do (or wont do actually) anything about it.

Well, they say that this is now a target, and these obscuritys of capitalism have proved them selves allot more dangerous then "terrorism"(not only derivates). I like to believe in the good will, but of course my conspiracy theory part of the brain says that they wont start giving a damn.

I must admit for once that the US is far ahead regarding ethics and banking. Compliance officers (those in charge of ethics and investigating if their costumers arent "bad guys") in the US are legaly responsible for the business their bank is running : if you, as a compliance officer dont do everything in your power to check if a costumer is a crook (or terrorist) and that he gets caught you are considered accomplice and go to jail.
I can assure you that those guys take very seriously their business when it comes to their investigations and procedures.
Its clearly not the same way in europe (but UK is above the rest of europe).
(this is no "anglo-saxon" propaganda, clearly "latin" countries in europe are far behind when it comes to checking costumer backgrounds, and that's coming from an "american hating french guy ;-) )

They where ahead of the entire financial game for decades, so that they had their defaults in place is not to surprising. Germany and France for instance never had so much stakes in this game compared to the above. They where allot more dependent on industry, but experienced first hand what power/impact these activitys from London and NY have when hedgefunds etc came along to buy them selves in companys, "restructure" them, milk them, drop them and often buy them back. In order to have an efficient solution you would need some sort of "universal" agreement, that was the aim of Germany/France earlier, which the US/UK rejected out of their own interests. However, luckily the current crisis turned many heads to wards the right direction(at least I like to believe).

@Ahlerich

The 1.000.000 Euro question.

Im no expert, but I guess by agreeing with the local governments. Switzerland already has much interaction with the EU on several sorts of regulations, and I guess that this was planned a long time together with Switzerland, as the EU helped them out on expanding into other economic branches. I have a feeling Luxembourg is pretty comparable, but a "country" like Lichtenstein will be totally out of business.

I guess we will here about that when the ink has dried.

[Ahlerich]

@Ahlerich

The 1.000.000 Euro question.

Im no expert, but I guess by agreeing with the local governments. Switzerland already has much interaction with the EU on several sorts of regulations, and I guess that this was planned a long time together with Switzerland, as the EU helped them out on expanding into other economic branches. I have a feeling Luxembourg is pretty comparable, but a "country" like Lichtenstein will be totally out of business.

I guess we will heir about that when the ink has dried.

how long will it take for the ink to dry?
should i plan my eastern holidays in switzerland? :Scared:

i like the whole deal of your article but the switzerland thing is a bummer for me

[Thorn777]

how long will it take for the ink to dry?
should i plan my eastern holidays in switzerland? :Scared:

i like the whole deal of your article but the switzerland thing is a bummer for me

a)Who knows, at least several months.
b)Yes, spend your mediocre German income at our filthy rich and expensive neighbors. Their tourist-sector needs a helping hand.
c)Slovenia is the new Switzerland, and much moar cheapier.

EDIT: The new plan includes a "sanction-mechanism" towards tax-havens not cooperating.

[Ahlerich]

so i should plan my holidays in switzerland and slovenia - first switzerland. then forge fake easter eggs with fillings and down to slowenia.

sanctions thats what i feared - the eidgenossen wont approve

[Thorn777]

so i should plan my holidays in switzerland and slovenia - first switzerland. then forge fake easter eggs with fillings and down to slowenia.

sanctions thats what i feared - the eidgenossen wont approve

Sarkozy said "we have to be serious with this and use sanctions to make clear we are not jocking, and have an instrument in place that reasures positive results", and I agree with this, nobody likes to stop a flourishing source of income, so we have to create some knuckles and rub their heads a bit when they are not cooperating.

Its like: You steal from me? Ill make sure you wont sell your goods at my doorstep.

[Ahlerich]

what if switzerland answers with a european chees embargo