I have had a life long interest in etymology, the study of words and their origins.
Take for example, hypocrisy, defined as "the practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; in other words, falseness." The word comes from the Latin hypocrisis, meaning play-acting, pretense, and from the Greek hupokrisis, to play a part, to pretend.
Essence of Hypocrisy
If ever there was an international political example of pretense, play acting and falseness, it occurred last week in London at the G-20 meeting of the leading economic nations. They convened ostensibly to combat the global recession and most probably guaranteed that it will only get worse if they have their way.
In a pre-arranged staff-drafted statement released at the meeting's conclusion, the assembled worthies pledged support for "an open world economy based on market principles" and proclaimed their desire to "promote global trade and investment and reject protectionism," to oppose "measures that constrain worldwide capital flows" and "to refrain from raising new barriers to investment or to trade in goods and services."
Then these hypocrites, in the very same statement, went against the pledges they had just made, announcing their intention "to take action against non-cooperative jurisdictions, including tax havens. We stand ready to deploy sanctions to protect our public finances and financial systems."
Free trade is fine with the G-20, so long as it is on their terms and they decide just how "free" it will be allowed to be.
Lies and Blackmail Against Tax Havens
Up until the London meeting tax havens were repeatedly and falsely accused of being a major cause of the global recession, as though London and New York had not been at the financial heart of the real cause. But in the G-20 statement, these hypocrites showed their true hand, saying: "The era of banking secrecy is over."
Their concern was never about tax havens causing the recession, which they knew to be a lie. From the beginning, their interest has been in collecting more taxes based on the false assumption that anyone who does business offshore is automatically engaged in illegal tax evasion.
The G-20 then signed on as the official sponsor of international blackmail, endorsing the blacklist tactics promoted by the Organization for Economic and Community Development, stating: "We note that the OECD has today published a list of countries assessed by the Global Forum against the international standard for exchange of tax information."
Birds of a Feather
For a while I was at a loss as to what to say about the G-20 meeting.
In spite of the ritual denunciation of tax havens, subsequently no OECD armed shock troop accountants were seen wading ashore in Panama. No EU financial SWAT teams had raided Swiss banks. France hadn't kidnapped any more Luxembourg insurance executives. Germany hadn't bribed any additional Liechtenstein bank thieves to steal private account lists. Al that may come in due time.
But the television coverage of the anarchic frenzy in the streets of London and Strasbourg gave me needed inspiration.
It occurred to me that most of the G-20 leaders, including Messieurs Obama, Brown, Sarkosy and Frau Merkl and the anti-globalization, anti-capitalist rioting street thugs have much in common. Surely each group would deny that assertion, but they share similar views and use similar tactics against free market capitalism.
Mutual Hatred of Free Markets
The kind of "free trade" which I understand is the free movement of business and capital among countries based on comparative taxes, and the ease of doing business with minimal government restrictions. The organized hard core nihilists at Tax Justice et al and the college kids who are their dupes oppose free trade and capitalism, claiming these hurt the poor of the world.
Think about it. The G-20 and their OECD blacklisting puppets want to control tax havens and capital movements because they claim, without proof, the world's poor (and tax collectors) are robbed of tax revenues. In spite of their pious pledges, many of the G-20 leaders and these anarchists actually oppose true, unfettered capitalism and free trade. Both want to control trade and business for their own ends and in their own ways.
Milk Those Cows Dry
Both distrust capitalism, except when it serves their own ends. The G-20 governments see free enterprise and capitalists as tax cash cows to be regulated and milked.
Tactically, both mask true aims in public relations prose, lacking courage to state their true goals. Both are willing to use violent means to achieve their ends, London street riots and burning buildings in Strasbourg being the latest exhibits from the street thugs. The OECD's threatened financial sanctions and phony blacklists aimed at destroying the economies of numerous tax havens is the G-20 equivalent.
And given success, both the G-20 and the anarchists will be able to do great harm to those they claim to wish to help -- both the poverty stricken and the capitalists.
Leftists Platitudes
These seeming opposites deserve each other, though not at the price of destruction of the free world economies. What was needed from G-20 leaders was a robust defense of economic freedom.
Instead the world got platitudes, over a trillion dollars in more promised "stimulus" spending and a left-wing blue print for some vague international control of banks, businesses and currencies.
It is time for freedom loving persons everywhere to heed the historic call: "Citoyens! Aux barricades!"
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