Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Dane Business Story

I noticed in business news this morning over Europe....a Bloomberg report which discussed this new trend in Denmark.

For those who've never been to Denmark....it's one of the more taxable countries in Europe.  It doesn't matter if we are talking about new cars, gas sales, smokes, luxury items, etc.  I've spent six weeks of my life in Denmark.  My observation would be that it's a wonderful place....but difficult to imagine permanently living there with the taxation business.

Well....there's this new trend. There is a suggestion by the government to arrange tax cuts....across all classes of the public in the country.

The idea is to cut the country's tax base downward by 3.7-billion dollars of value.  A hefty sum.  Naturally, this would be phased through various years and take a while to reach.

Why the need?  They need people to shift their priorities and work.  When the unemployment rate was near 8-percent (2012)....it didn't really matter.  Now?  They are fairly near 4.3-percent back in early 2017....presently, the numbers are almost down to 3.5-percent.  All of this represents labor shortages unless people work more or you get the unemployed eager to apply for jobs.

What you tend to notice over Nordic countries is a permanent cycle of boot-bust which occurs on a frequent basis.  If you opened up the doors for more migration....there would be some point in five to ten years where the boom cycle would end, and you'd go through a bust-cycle....which leave you with a fair sum of migrates which you need to pay for.....because they are a permanent part of your society then.

Will the tax cuts really matter?  It's hard to predict on this.  I once talked to an American who had a Danish wife.  He pointed out that new car sales were really screwed up because of the sale tax trend, and that most Danes bought cars and kept them for an extended period of time (more than a decade). Gas prices made it a difficult thing to purchase each tank of gas, and added up over a year.

Where do the cuts take place?  Little is spoken over this and you have to wonder if they are just delaying road/bridge projects by two or three years each, and planning on making this a permanent thing.


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