Economy
In reply to the discussion: Weekend Economists Deck the Halls Christmas Day 2013 [View all]Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)The UK will be in a position to overtake Germany as Europe's largest economy, according to the think tank the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR)...
... The CEBR in its report added that in addition to the UK's population growth boosting economic expansion, that "lesser dependence on other European economies" would also aid progress, as well as "relatively low taxes by European standards."
However, as far as Germany, the group said that should the euro "break up", that "Germany's outlook would be much better."
As for France, The CEBR said it will be one of the "worst performing" of the Western economies, and will be overtaken by the UK by 2018. This is because of slow growth due to "high taxation" in addition to the general issues of eurozone economies.
/... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25519110
The thing about taxation is that it's not just the overall level of taxation that matters but also the way it's targetted (and then what's done with the taxes raised). Taxing production, even especially destructive production, and consumption, even especially destructive consumption surely does more to depress economies than would taxing the capital of the super-rich, where most idle wealth is stored (and then putting that capital to work towards useful ends).