HOWARD ELSTON, our financial editor in chief (exec), continues his exhaustive and contemplative interview with Fiscal Cliff as a deal is hammered out in the US of A.
Howard Elston: Looks like you’re toast and crusin’ for a bruisin’ on this one, Mr Cliff, what with the deal hammered out and all
Fiscal Cliff: Things ain’t wrapped up yet, son. They still gotta deal with the public sector cuts.
HE: You said many times that you can be down but not out in American politics. Mr Cliff..
Mr Fiscal Cliff
FC: Fiscal, please, just plain Fiscal…
HE: Well, Fiscal, what do you say to all the rich folks that’ll have to cough up more taxes as part of a mash up deal by all those white haired guys in Congress
FC: The white haired guys don’t frighten me and neither do they scare rich folks. We all just up and move to Britain where you all know how to bleed the system
HE: But the UK has laws and penalties…and high taxes
FC: Rich don’t pay taxes. It’s in the job description. You roll everything out to Jersey or the Isle of Man, create a corporate dodge in the Netherlands, take another slug of a Starbucks iced expresso and live the life of Larry in Mayfair with a pile in Surrey and a fishing lodge up in the Highlands.
HE: And…?
FC: Take over one of those robber baron banks, bleed it dry and get a bonus for it. Then shove the kids into one of those over the top snobby schools and keep an eye on that offshore money
HE: That’s all you need?
FC: A place in Spain too.
HE: So, mucky old damp semi-socialistic ‘death lists on the NHS Britain’, is a bolthole for the wealthy?
FC: Always has been. Gotta run, I’m sitting down with my tax accountant and a travel agent in a couple of mins. Cheerio, tarra a bit, pip pip and all that
*This interview forms part of the Elston Howard Library. All rights are reserved