SPEAKING OF TAX CHEATERS
Poor old Paul Hogan of Crocodile Dundee fame will rue the day he decided to attend his mother’s funeral back home in Sydney last month. The Australian Tax Office obtained a Departure Prohibition Order to hold him and his passport in Australia until he sorted out the taxes that were due on $37.5 million of unreported income. The only way he would be released to fly back to America is if he produced a bankable check for the amount owed. In the eighties, led by the leading accounting firms (generally for a fee based upon the percentage of tax saved) offshore tax havens were created as a safe harbor for client’s money in order to avoid paying any taxes. It was termed in Aussie as a “bottom of the harbor” tax avoidance scheme.
Paul set up Rimfire Films to produce the Crocodile Dundee movies specifically so he and his partner John Cornell would pay little or no tax in Australia or America. Unfortunately they chose a crook of an accountant to handle the deal and like most small time crooks, when he was caught, he sang like a canary. The result was the Australian Taxation Office ended up with a watertight case against the Croc and his mate. For over twenty years they fought to keep their overseas bank accounts secret but eventually the High Court ruled Messrs. Crocodile Dundee and Cornell had better cough up or else.
While there is no question, no one person has ever done as much as Paul Hogan did to put Australia on the tourist map, it is sad that the very people who obtain fame and fortune and can afford and should pay their fair share of taxes think they are entitled to pay nothing and keep everything. Sure without Hogan, the two Crocodile Dundee movies would have ended up like the third, which was a complete flop. However I believe one of the reasons apart from his age (seventy-two) we have seen very little of him on the big screen for the last twenty-five years is his reputation in Australia is shot. Aussies, unlike Americans, have little time for people who take shortcuts. Maybe had he paid his taxes, he might have ended up with more money than has now!
PRESIDENT OBAMA REFURBISHES THE OVAL OFFICE
Yes, I know he is the President of the United States and yes, I know we must house him and his family in a manner befitting the office of the leader of the free world, but for a guy who claims to be representing the little poeple rather than the fat cats, he sure does a great job at taking care of business for himself. Just before he spent ten days at Martha’s Vineyard, long a holiday haven for the rich and famous, in one day he flew down and back in Air Force One to take a much publicized twenty minute dip in the Gulf of Mexico with one of his daughters to declare tourism of the Gulf States was reopen for business.
Two weeks ago he brought Los Angeles evening traffic at peak time all but to standstill to attend a fund raiser at the home of some Hollywood celebrity, only to do the same thing the following morning returning to LAX to fly back in Air Force One to Washington D.C. Soon after he took office, he took the First Lady to New York for a Saturday night outing to the theater, where the same problems occurred for New Yorkers. The money spent to accomplish taking his missus on a date was such that for a tiny fraction of the cost, he could paid for the show to shut down for a few days and come to the White House’s own theater!
My simple point in expressing my view here is the hypocrisy involved. President George W. vacationed back at his Crawford Texas ranch most of the time during his presidency and even President Clinton’s tastes were less extravagant than President Obama’s. If the Gulf States needed a tourist boost, why not holiday there for ten days with his family. It cost many $millions for him to spend five minutes there, as it did for him to visit L.A. and New York and for the First Lady and the kids to pop over to Spain for a few days. Here we are in the midst of the Great Recession, second only to the Great Depression and instead of demonstrating by example some belt tightening, President Obama is lapping up the trappings of being the leader of the free world.
In these times going ahead and refurbishing the Oval Office (which would already be the grandest office of any world leader) is not what I expected from a caring and socially aware President. So much for the kid who basically was brought up by his loving, working class grandparents, won scholarships through college and then went on to become a social worker and public servant. This is the same man who claims to understand how badly off the poor are and how the previous administration’s lack of oversight and extravagant spending got us into all this trouble in the first place. Hey Barrack, mate, you and your missus are really showing us what it is like to be the King and Queen of America. I don’t think you have time anymore to even try to take a step back and worry about us little folk.
AIRLINES ARE BACK ON THEIR FEET
IATA statistics show the industry is back in the black and revenues are continuing to climb from passenger and cargo operations. In America the regulatory authorities have given the thumbs up for the merger between United and Continental Airlines. As the consolidation of the industry continues throughout the world (including China) we will soon be paying for our travel with a laundry list of sundry charges. The ticket will soon start to resemble our telephone statement. Already on international sectors coach is down to one bag only and soon a carry-on will face a separate charge. As is the case with domestic flights, food and beverages will be purchased from the trolley. We may even see overweight people charged for excess kilograms! Free movies will become non-existent and there is even talk of charging to go to the bathroom! I am sure airlines will offer the choice of prepayment or paying for add-ons on board.
Airlines now are more aware that united they stand and divided they will fall. The recession has changed many things. New start up airlines will be few and far between. No more Jet Blue’s! As airlines continue to merge, pricing will move up because certain large routes will virtually be controlled by just one or two airlines. More and more airlines will dump first class and cattle class will become bigger and bigger. The opposite will happen with airfreight. Already with aircraft and schedule changes many carriers are dumping standby pricing and selling “express” services only. Case in point is Air NZ. With the United States route the 777 is replacing the 747 and several flights have been dropped altogether. With the reduced capacity, they are cleverly marketing a prime express service. Rumor has it cargo profitability is going through the roof. We won’t see them ever wet leasing 747 freighters again!
Freight forwarders will be facing many challenges in the years ahead. Global trade patterns will continue to change and evolve. The large legacy forwarder may not have the resources or ability to adjust. Whether it was design or good luck, we at CII have concentrated on our niche; export air to the South Pacific and the Pacific Islands. Will we be the harbinger of things to come? Smaller forwarders offering plain vanilla, old fashioned personal service to niche markets or are we a dinosaur and like the dinosaur we become extinct? In 2008 I took my normal contrary position and predicted the recession will last until 2012. Here we are at the end of 2010 and the airline industry has undergone significant change in order to survive and become profitable. Will forwarders have to do the same sooner rather than later if business remains terrible until 2012?
NOW IS THE TIME FOR A CLEAN OUT BACK HOME
Vocal Los Angeles Congresswoman Maxine Waters’ life as a politician on Capitol Hill may be coming to an end. Like many of her colleagues on both sides of the house, she represents all that is disgusting about politics. This woman with no moral compass, universally recognized as totally corrupt and a grand champion of nepotism has amassed a personal fortune during her thirty-five year political career. The boys who ran the City of Bell blatantly lined their pockets straight from the city checking account. Waters for thirty odd years has covered her ass pretty well. A long time resident of up-market Hancock Park, Maxine surrounded by family as staffers, claims she fights injustices meted out to minorities. Because of this up until now, there has been a fear of taking her on because up will come the race card.
Thanks to the Ethics Committee being given some muscle to root out corruption on Capitol Hill, Maxine is up to her eyeballs in alligators! All because she jumped in to get TARP money to stop a minority-owned bank, One United Bank, (where her husband had been a longstanding director and stockholder) from going under. The colorful CEO of One United Bank, Kevin Cohee, (he has a rap sheet ranging from drug dealing to rape) lives in a Santa Monica Beach mansion which his employers pay $30,000/month rental. He drives a bank-owned Porsche Turbo to work each day and is known for his ultra expensive tastes in clothing. So much for a bank that was set up to look after poor minorities from the “hood”.
Politics and big business is rotten to the core in America. Instead of us continuing to promote the virtues of democracy and capitalism to the world at large, it is about time for honorable people who weald power and influence in America to take the lead and for starters demand the clean up of Washington Beltway. Maxine Waters has no conscience. She will fight the charges and in all probability the Ethics Committee will capitulate and she will get off scot-free. There is no humility or shame when it comes to politicians’ behavior. Why such a great country as ours has allowed itself to be taken over by such corrupt and nasty people dumbfounds me. Coming to power, President Obama had an opportunity to clean it all up because the morale of America was low and the country was in an economic mess. Quite frankly instead of beating the corrupt system into the history books, he joined it. America deserves better than the likes of a Maxine Waters; When will decent men and women of integrity stand up and offer themselves for public service? Soon I hope.
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