Zut alors

This just in from Paris:
Le Président de la République a reçu conjointement cet après-midi, au Palais de l'Elysée, M. Bill GATES, co-président de la fondation « Bill et Mélinda Gates », et Bono, co-fondateur de l'organisation non gouvernementale « ONE ». Le ministre délégué chargé du Développement, M. Pascal CANFIN, a participé à l'entretien.

You have to hand it to M. Hollande. He must have one hell of a sense of humour. Just days after announcing that he thought it would be perfectly reasonable to tax all French plutocrats at a marginal rate of 75%, who does he invite to the Elysée Palace?

Why none other than the former head of a US multinational that ran all its European revenue through Ireland to get a 12.5% tax rate, and an Irish popstar who thinks it is perfectly reasonable to book all of his royalty income in the Dutch Antilles where it suffers tax 5%.

As I said 2 years ago "the next time the sanctimonious U2 frontman comes calling to berate us about how little we do to help poorer countries, we can point out that while we put up a ten figure sum to help out his home country, he routes his royalties through the Netherlands to the Dutch Antilles because he finds the 5% cost of doing so preferable to the meagre 12.5% corporate tax rate he would have paid if he left them in Ireland."