Please pay us, cut your flesh or someone else's, surely they can do better than that? And a tribute.

I'm starting to get worried that my blog will rise on the anti-US hitlist... It's really not meant like that. And I'll make up for it at the end (well... a little bit anyway). But it's not me that is spewing criticism, it's Joe Stiglitz. Sitglitz is a US citizen, Nobel price winner, former chief economist of the World Bank, author of several books and one of the most influential thinkers of today. And what he said last week was not open for interpretation. He said that if a country had applied for World Bank aid during his tenure, with a financial regulatory system similar to the Federal Reserve's - in which regional Feds are partly governed by the very banks they're supposed to police - it would have raised alarms: "If we had seen a governance structure that corresponds to our Federal Reserve system, we would have been yelling and screaming and saying that country does not deserve any assistance, this is a corrupt governing structure."

No further comments but you can read more here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/03/stiglitz-nobel-prize-winn_n_484943.html

In the mean time the US is still in shutdown. This also affects the National Weather Service where about 4000 employees are continuing working but without being paid. The NWS amongst others provides the weather forecasts for airports. The Anchorage office issued last week this forecast, including a message to its government (see red box):

But then yesterday, the big whammy hit those of us who live in the eurzone with thanks to the IMF. I wrote before (here) about the bail-in becoming standard procedure in case of a bank default. Saving accounts will be stripped above a supposedly guaranteed amount of 100000,- €. The IMF has just taken this a step further and proposes to levy a one-time tax of 10% on all saving accounts of the 15 countries of the eurozone. I repeat: the IMF proposes to levy a one-time tax of 10% on all saving accounts of the 15 countries of the eurozone. The idea is not new and has been floated by other groups and a (Danish) bank CEO (by the way it seems the Danish banks are in need of > 15 billion € to meet capital rules - see Bloomberg - now I don't believe in coincidence, do you?).

The idea is included in the IMF Fiscal Monitor of October 2013 under the chapter "Taxing our way out - or into? - trouble". I copy the relevant text for you below:

So is this just some brainstorming thoughts of economists who don't have their feet in reality any more? Hmmmm, not sure. It becomes difficult to further tax industry without killing it completely. It is equally difficult to further tax the income of employers. Substantially raising the VAT would have equal detrimental effects. So what is left is that enormous amount of capital that is 'hiding' in saving accounts and is low taxed (or not at all below a certain level). If I take Belgium's example: the total amount on saving accounts is 246 billion €. Yes largely untaxed (only if your interest rises above 1880,- € / year, you pay taxes). But bear in mind I only get to keep half of my salary (50% is taxed away) and VAT is 21% so anything that I manage to save is already after our government took the bulk of my gross income (in addition my employer pays another 30% of tax on top of my gross income). Now this 246 billion € of savings, you need to offset it against Belgium's debt: 370 billion €. So a 10% tax levy would substantially lower it. Very tempting for politicians and I bet they would already have done it if they thought they would get away with it. So far it hasn't happened but the pressure is rising. Every budget control our government does look with watering mouth to these savings and you can hear them think "if only...". Of course scaling down the government expenditure would be another way of making savings but of course that doesn't even cross their mind. If you had the choice what would you do: cut your own flesh or someone else's? So read that IMF proposal again and draw your conclusions.

One of my fellow twitterers pointed me to an article on helicopters of the future (this is the kiss-and-make-up part with the US) . The Pentagon is running several projects looking a couple of decades ahead. Four companies have been selected to refine their initial designs: Bell Helicopter, Sikorsky Aircraft, AVX Aircraft and Karem Aircraft. One particular design study from AVX caught my eye. I love new technology, and gazing into the future mesmerising what might be possible is fascinating. And the US has often been the birthplace of many new technologies, so the Pentagon projects promises to be very inspiring. But when I saw the AVX, I had a flash-back.

Picture courtesy of AVX

It immediately reminded me of an iconic rotorcraft: the Gironef! The Gironef was first used in 1945 (The Island of Amoras), designed by professor Barabas. Ok ok it's from a (Belgian) comic strip (Suske en Wiske - or Spike and Suzy in English - for other languages see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_and_Suzy).I know both designs are not identical (double main rotor, canards, ducted fans, tailplane) but that's only because the AVX design is just a first study and needs further refinement :-).

From the album 'The Island of Amoras'

But let's be honest: if we Belgians thought this one up back in 1945, then surely the US can come up with something better than this?

This morning I heard the news that Scott Carpenter died at the age of 88. He was one of the Mercury Seven, the second American to orbit the Earth and the fourth American in space, following Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom and John Glenn. As a small suggestion  to all of you who won't be watching football this evening (like me), I suggest to watch the epic movie "The Right Stuff" (watch it here or here) which tells the story of the Mercury program. As a tribute to Astronaut Carpenter.