INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL STUDIES

The slowdown in raising the deductible item did exactly what the government needed. More taxes are paid to the budget and people have not even noticed it.

Robert Miskuf, CEO and founder of Pedal Consulting, a business development consultancy based in the Slovak Republic, started working in European public procurement eight years ago — and his job was mired in paperwork.

Unless you were hiding in the woods, you couldn’t have missed the screaming headlines about Oxfam’s inequality report last month. Much outrage was directed at the eight men who own the same wealth as half the world does. If you weren’t already hiding in the woods, you might have been tempted to head in that direction.

In recent months the media have begun to discuss the cashless economy, which does not use physical cash but only credit cards or other forms of electronic payment (e.g. PayPal).

Small entrepreneurs in Slovakia spend 140 hours annually — about 17.5 full working days — navigating the country’s complex regulatory red tape. That’s one of the startling findings from the new “Bureaucracy Index” launched by the Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS), an Atlas Network partner based in Slovakia. Those 140 hours of regulatory grappling include an average of 75 administrative tasks that cost €1,471.50 (US$1,565.31) per year.

The rich know how to evade taxes better than the middle class. After the Panama papers leak, this much should be clear even to the less well-informed. Every name plucked from the Panama bag, over-brimming with appalling news as it is, adds to the allure of Asian property and income anonymization schemes. Migrations towards the eastern tax havens didn’t start with Panama. It’s been ongoing for at least a decade, propped up by the Great Recession when it had transpired that the European commercial and bank secrets aren’t what they used to be, and that the United States can manhandle even Switzerland. A depth is lacking in the public discourse spurred by recent revelations.

Long term unemployed employment support is missing a building block. (Notes from an expert seminar).

Speech given in Bratislava on the 12th August 2014 to the Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS) by Sean Gabb.