The International Monetary Fund (IMF) quietly dropped a bomb in its explosive October Fiscal Monitor Report. After painting a dire economic picture for advanced economies like Europe, America and other nations with high debts that fail to raise revenue to cover those debts, it builds a case for drastic measures, namely direct asset confiscation of private wealth by government action.
Read carefully what the report actually says. “The sharp deterioration of the public finances in many countries has revived interest in a “capital levy” — a one-off tax on private wealth—as an exceptional measure to restore debt sustainability. The appeal is that such a tax, if it is implemented before avoidance is possible and there is a belief that it will never be repeated, does not distort behavior (and may be seen by some as fair)… The conditions for success are strong, but also need to be weighed against the risks of the alternatives, which include repudiating public debt or inflating it away… The tax rates needed to bring down public debt to pre-crisis levels, moreover, are sizable: reducing debt ratios to end-2007 levels would require (for a sample of 15 euro area countries) a tax rate of about 10 percent on households with positive net wealth.”
Obviously, the IMF believes that there are too few rich people to fund today’s free-spending governments, so they suggest a one-time plunder of all households with positive assets, such as retirement savings, home equity, business assets, etc. Such a scenario would also necessarily include a major change in the concept of private property.
Notice also, that the report suggested that the wholesale theft of private property should be carried out before people could avoid it by transferring wealth overseas or to hide it in some way. Note also that they suggested getting the public to believe it would happen only once. But doing such a thing would set precedence so that it can be done again.
Notice also that the pillaging of assets would only restore debt sustainability. In other words, the rulers and “kings of the earth” can carry on with their reckless social programs and public spending, which permitted the economic crisis in the first place, and which would permit it to re-emerge. All the while the people blithely believe that their assets would never be ransacked again.
Furthermore, the IMF apparently suggests that if sovereign governments fail to muster the courage to rob their citizens of their wealth, they would end up in bankruptcy (debt repudiation and hyperinflation). There is no discussion in the report about structural reforms that would limit entitlement programs.
The IMF justifies all this by highlighting the massive and increasing income inequality and the decline in tax revenues. The report also proposes restrictions on mobility of money and people, in other words, capital controls and exist restrictions. “Financial wealth is mobile, and so, ultimately, are people… Substantial progress likely requires enhanced international cooperation to make it harder for the very well-off to evade taxation by placing funds elsewhere.”
The report also says, “There is a surprisingly large amount of experience to draw on, as such levies were widely adopted in Europe after World War I.” Does anybody remember how that turned out?
Notice that the recommended confiscation of assets is 10 percent? The merchants of the earth and the kings of the earth are preparing for a major economic catastrophe. Consider this prophetic statement.
“This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you… He will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day.” 1 Samuel 8:11, 14-18
“Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days” James 5:3. This is the time to put your assets into God’s cause. When the government comes for them, they will be worth nothing to you.
Source Reference
- The IMF Report [2]