The move may increase pressure for a similar tax in the UK, which suffers from the highest levels of obesity in Europe.
Starting from this Saturday, Danes will pay an extra 30p on each pack of butter, 8p on a pack of crisps, and an extra 13p on a pound of mince, as a result of the tax.
The tax is expected to raise about 2.2bn Danish Krone (£140m), and cut consumption of saturated fat by close to 10pc, and butter consumption by 15pc.
This is pure evil. Fats are good for you, just read the works of Weston A. Price. Bureaucrats said margarine was good for us, yet it's filled with trans-fats which they're now banning all over the place. These people are idiots and they have no business telling people what to eat. - Chris
An eye-opening interview with renowned speculator Doug Casey, conducted by Karen Roche and JT Long of The Gold Report. Doug explains why fiat currencies around the world are destined for collapse... and what investors can, and should, do to protect themselves.
If dollar-dumping turns from a trickle into a flood, look out. Exploding prices (aka exorbitant inflation) resulting from the ... (more)
How in the world does the average American family survive in this economy? The median household income is a little bit less than $50,000 a year right now. So let's call that about $4000 a month. But before any of that money gets spent, you have to take out at least $1000 in taxes. That leaves about $3000 a month to pay all the bills with. With that $3000 you have to pay the mortgage (or rent), make the car payments, make the student loan payments, pay for power and water, pay for health ins... (more)
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said the central bank’s independence is under attack from both ends of the political spectrum in Congress, and he singled out two of the critics by name.
“We are being attacked from the right and from the left, and I don’t see much difference between a certain congressman from Texas named Ron Paul and a certain congressman from Massachusetts named Barney Frank,” Fisher said in response to audience ques... (more)
Chris Waltzek: Today’s special guest, Jim Rogers from his home in Singapore. Well, with the panic gripping the global financial system and paper assets going up in flames, my featured guest says commodities prices never fall to zero.
Jim Rogers taught finance at Columbia University,... (more)
Global markets have been whipsawed in recent weeks as uncertainty over Europe's debt situation persisted. But renowned investor Jim Rogers says the U.S. economy has more serious problems than Europe.
"Europe has a few bad, bankrupt states, so does America. We've got Illinois which is bigger than Greece, we've got California, we've got New York, you know those are pretty big states that have serious economic problems. We have pension plans in America that are terribly under water,"... (more)
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) released the findings of a new Public Policy Polling survey which found overwhelming opposition from voters to the expansion of the IRS's involvement in preparing individuals' tax returns, a potential backdoor plan to raise taxes on Americans.
"This poll makes clear that voters believe, as we do, that a 'Simple Return' system is a fundamentally flawed scheme that ... (more)
"Who knows whether the other half of our life, in which we think we are awake, is not another sleep a little different from the former, from which we awake when we suppose ourselves asleep? And who doubts that, if we dreamt in company, and the dreams chanced to agree, which is common enough, and if we were always alone when awake, we should believe that matters were reversed?
In short, as we often dream that we dream, heaping dream upon dream, may it not be... (more)
This video making the rounds from Change.org is shockingly stupid and deeply offensive. Some immigrant workers are brought to America to work, and rather than try to create value for their employer, the local union goons teach them how to file suit against their employer for "exploiting" them, because as they say in this video, paying people something like $10/hr to p... (more)
I didn't post this video yesterday because, frankly, I found it uninteresting. The guy doesn't give any specific recommendations outside of "bonds," probably the most overvalued asset class in the world right now. He reminds me a lot of Robert Kiyosaki, and sure enough, he says he is not a trader but an "investment speaker." Nonetheless, the video has gone supe... (more)
UPDATE: "Instead of operating from a plush office in Canary Wharf Mr Rastani works and lives with his partner Anita Eader in a £200,000 semi in Bexleyheath, south London. The house, complete with a mortgage from Royal Bank of Scotland, belongs to her not him.
He is a business owner, a 99pc shareholder in public speaking venture Santoro Projects. Its most recent accounts show cash in the bank of £985. After four years trading net assets are £10,048 - in the red." - The UK Telegraph
Sure enough... I don't know why people go for this stuff. - Chris
Last month, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran an article focusing on Missouri governor Jay Nixon's "Made in Missouri" jobs initiative. To promote this new initiative, Missouri's Department of Economic Development was planning to give away 6,000 key chains emblazoned with the insignia "jobs.mo.gov" at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia.
"The politicians giveth, and the free market taketh away." ~ traditional saying that I just made up.
The Greek government is going to default on its interest payments to the bonehead European bankers and investors who thought that getting high interest rates on Greek debt was a great way to avoid suffering the low-interest rates on German government bonds. After all, Greece would pay interest in euros. No problem!
The psychological effects of the Dow are undeniable. When the average investor or even consumer sees green, life is good, even if every other indicator in the economy clearly says otherwise. For the common Dow lemming, “green” supplants reason, mathematics, instinct, and blatant logic. If mushroom clouds came in that particular shade of bull market green, nuclear holocaust would be welcomed with beers, barbeque, and jubilee. Green in the Dollar Index is no different. Many market joyr... (more)
New home sales in the United States are on pace to set a brand new all-time record low in 2011. This will be the third year in a row that new home sales have set a new record low. Sadly, this is yet another sign that the U.S. economy continues to grow weaker. Back in 2005, more than four times as many new homes were being sold as are being sold today. The home building industry is one of the central pillars of the U.S. economy, and the fact that we are going to set anothe... (more)
Private companies cannot use governmental power to outlaw competition, yet this is what the city of Milwaukee does for its established taxi cartel.
Milwaukee allows only 321 taxicabs on its streets—almost half of which are owned by Milwaukee County Supervisor Joe Sanfelippo. That is about one cab for every 1,850 residents, one of the highest ratios... (more)
Last week the US Federal Reserve delivered no real surprises. Its new policy was expected by the market and those members of the public who still follow the central bank's every move with interest and, I can only assume, in the misguided belief that it has the answer to our problems. As part of "Operation Twist" the Fed will purchase $400 billion of long-dated government bonds and sell an equivalent number of short-dated securities from its extensive portfolio over the coming nine months. The op... (more)
Rather than write a check to the regimists in Washington out of his own volition, this idiot statist asks Obama to use the state to force him to, because "doing the right thing" must involve government force.
"...liberals gushed when a rich audience member asked Obama that question today. It seems relevant to point out that this rich liberal is Doug
In their recent "Occupy Wall Street" protests, liberals made 2 things perfectly clear: First, you can do some of the drugs, all the time; and you can do all of the drugs, some of the time… but you can't do all of the drugs, all of the time, without huge sacrifices in basic hygiene and interpersonal skills.
Second, liberals still think "the rich" don't "pay their fair share." Somehow -- no matter how many times you show them federal tax statistics -- liberals refuse to reev... (more)
Is gold becoming the new currency? The Swiss stock exchange will soon offer clients the possibility of having post-trade profits paid out in gold.
Introducing the new service, post-trade specialists operating on the Swiss stock exchange Six Securities Services (a subsidiary of Six Group, owner of the Swiss stock exchange) said the new payment versus delivery service using gold was the first of its kind in the world and would operate “exactly like” a new currency. ... (more)
Anyone trading gold and silver most likely had a heartattack this morning. Of that subset, anyone who survived and traded with conviction made a killing, following an impressive surge in both metals, which saw silver soar from $26 all the way back to $30, after it was made clear that there was no behind the scenes liquidation of the metal but merely more piggybacked margin hikes this time out of China as was first reported by Zero Hedge. Another factor that helped was Marc Faber's appearance on ... (more)
Investment guru Marc Faber resembles nothing so much as an ageing rock star, but his outlook on the investment world is generally downbeat. The author of the Gloom, Boom and Doom newsletter typically emphasises the 'gloom' and 'doom' scenario more than the 'boom' aspects. But today, Faber confesses to being drawn to the Indian stock market, particularly after the recent sharp market correction. "I think the Indian economy has very favourable prospects," he told Firstpost on the sidelines of the ... (more)
The latest quarterly report from the Office Of the Currency Comptroller is out and as usual it presents in a crisp, clear and very much glaring format the fact that the top 4 banks in the US now account for a massively disproportionate amount of the derivative risk in the financial system. Specifically, of the $250 trillion in gross notional amount of derivative contracts outstanding (consisti... (more)
German and French authorities have begun work on a three-pronged strategy behind the scenes amid escalating fears that the eurozone’s sovereign debt crisis is spiralling out of control.
Their aim is to build a “firebreak” around Greece, Portugal and Ireland to prevent the crisis spreading to Italy and Spain, countries considered “too big to bail”.
According to sources, progress has been made at the G20 meeting in Washington, where globa... (more)
The head of the IMF has warned that its $384bn (£248bn) war chest designed as an emergency bail-out fund is inadequate to deliver the scale of the support required by troubled states.
In a document distributed to the IMF steering committee at the weekend, Ms Lagarde said: "The fund's credibility, and hence effectiveness, rests on its perceived capacity to cope with worst-casescenarios. Our lending capacity of almost $400bn looks comfortable today, but pales i... (more)
