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By Scott Jordan A central tenet of Marxism and all its variants is that the rich—if you must have 'em—must pay more taxes than the proletariat. It's only fair, goes the thinking, that those who have more should pay more… not just proportionally more according to their larger income, but exponentially more through application of a larger multiple: a higher tax rate.

In a linguistic twist that must have given Orwell grim satisfaction, this is known as "progressive" taxation. Now, chew on that term: "progressive." Doesn't it sound nice? Per webster.com, its leading definitions are all gauzily forward-thinking and steeped in a heart-swelling sense of advancing modernity towards a brightening future for all humankind:

Main Entry: pro·gres·sive Pronunciation: pr&-'gre-siv Function: adjective Date: circa 1612

1 a : of, relating to, or characterized by progress b : making use of or interested in new ideas, findings, or opportunities c : of, relating to, or constituting an educational theory marked by emphasis on the individual child, informality of classroom procedure, and encouragement of self-expression

2 : of, relating to, or characterized by progression

3 : moving forward or onward : ADVANCING

Clearly, to be "progressive" is a desirable trait. Who wouldn't want their core tenets labeled in a way that connotes "progress" or "new ideas" or "opportunities" or even "encouragement of self-expression"? But consider the next definition:

4 a : increasing in extent or severity b : increasing in rate as the base increases

Tired of Being Isolated and Ignored, Continent Isn't Bloody Moving

Sydney, 800 miles S. of Nova Scotia (SatireWire.com) — After what witnesses described as an all night blinder during which it kept droning on about how it was always being bloody ignored by the whole bloody world and would bloody well stand to do something about it, Australia this morning woke up to find itself in the middle of the North Atlantic.

"Good Lord, that was a booze up," said a bleary-eyed Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, speaking from his residence at Kirribilli House, approximately 600 nautical miles east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

According to Australians and residents of several countries destroyed or lewdly insulted during the continent's nearly 7,000-mile saltwater stagger, the binge began just after noon yesterday at a pub in Brisbane, where several patrons were discussing Australia Day and the nation's general lack of respect from abroad.

"It started off same as always; coupla fossils saying how our Banjo Patterson was a better poet than Walt Whitman, how Con the Fruiterer is funnier than Seinfeld, only they're Aussies so no one knows about 'em," recalled witness Kevin Porter. "Then this bloke Martin pipes up and says Australia's main problem is that it's stuck in Australia, and everybody says 'Too right!'"

"Well, it made sense at the time," Porter added.

By 2 a.m., powered by national pride and alcohol, the 3-million-square-mile land mass was barging eastward through the Coral Sea and crossing into the central Pacific, leaving a trail of beer cans and Chinese take-away in its wake.

When dawn broke over the Northern Hemisphere, the continent suddenly found itself, not only upside down, but smack in the middle of the Atlantic, and according to most of its 19 million inhabitants, that's the way it's going to stay.

"We sent troops to Afghanistan. You never hear about it. We have huge government scandals. You never hear about it. It's all 'America did this,' and 'Europe says that,'" exclaimed Perth resident Paul Watson. "Well, we're right in the thick of things now, so let's just see if you can you ignore us."

Officials on both sides of the Atlantic conceded that would be difficult. "They broke Florida," said U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. "And most of Latin America is missing."

Meanwhile, victims of what's already been dubbed the "Australian Crawl" are still shaking off the event.

"Australia bumped into us at about midnight local time," said Hawaii governor Ben Cayetano. "They were very friendly — they always seem friendly — but they refused to go around unless we answered their questions. But the questions were impossible. 'Who is Ian Thorpe? Do you have any Tim Tams? What day is Australia Day?'"

"Fortunately, somebody here had an Unimportant World Dates calendar and we aced the last one," Cayetano added.

Panama, however, was not so lucky.

"Australia came through here screaming curses at us to let them through," said Ernesto Carnal, who guards the locks at the entrance to the Panama Canal. "We said they would not fit, so they demanded to speak with a manager. When I go to find Mr. Caballos, they sneak the whole continent through."

When Caballos shouted to the fleeing country that it had not paid, Australia "accidentally" backed up and took out every nation in the region, as well as the northern third of Venezuela. They then made up a cheery song about it.

By late morning today, however, not everyone in Australia was quite so blithe. "We've still got part of Jamaica stuck to Queensland," said Australian army commander Lt. Gen. Peter Cosgrove. "I think we might have declared war on it. I don't bloody remember. Maybe it's time to go home."

Cosgrove, however, is not in the majority, and at press time, U.S., African, and European leaders were still desperately trying to negotiate for Australia's withdrawal. But the independent-minded Aussies were not making it easy. In a two-hour meeting at midday, Australian representatives listed their demands: immediate inclusion in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a permanent CNN presence in all 6 Australian states, a worldwide ban on hiring Paul Hogan, a primetime U.S. television contract for Australian Rules Football, and a 4,500-mile-long bridge between Sydney and Los Angeles.

U.S. negotiators immediately walked out, calling the Australian Rules Football request "absurd."

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Friday, June 13, 2003 By: Jose Gregorio Pineda & Jose Gabriel Angarita

VenAmCham's Jose Gregorio Pineda (chief economist) and Jose Gabriel Angarita (economist) write:  On Thursday June 12 the National Assembly's Finance Committee authorized the 4.8 trillion bolivar public borrowing for which Finance Minister Tobias Nobrega asked for authorization on May 26. But before the Assembly took action the government made use of Article 80 of the Organic Financial Administration Act, according to which borrowing authorization requests are automatically approved due to "administrative silence" if no decision has been made within 10 days of submission.

The public borrowing policy pursued in the last several months comes as no surprise; it had been expected since the beginning of the year that the National Treasury would need to make major fiscal adjustments to meet its obligations in 2003, especially in view of the economic contraction's effects on non-oil revenue collections.

The rapid growth of Venezuelan public debt in recent years, the high cost at which money has been borrowed, and the debt's high concentration, can all undermine the maintenance of long-term financial solvency. The most important fiscal problem at this time is an issue of liquidity or flow of funds, but the way this liquidity problem has been addressed may lead to a solvency problem in the future, given the large and rapid growth of government debt's share of GDP. Consequently, the main risk facing public finance is that the only viable way to resolve a future solvency problem is to liquidate those liabilities through high inflation.

The Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) board has expressed its deep concern that the rapid growth of national debt could have an impact on fiscal sustainability and the absorption capacity of the domestic market ... and especially that of the banks ... because the recession forecast in the months to come will result in an even smaller demand for credit, leaving the banks with no other profitable option than purchase of high-yielding public securities.

All this could generate a situation of high risk in which the financial system's health would be tied to the evolution of internal public debt.

Monday, Jun. 16, 2003. Page 6 The Moscow Times, Reuters

Gazprom said last week it would set up a world-scale oil trading branch whose first task would be to take over part of Iran's gas condensate operations from French Total.

Gazprom, the world's largest gas producer, said in a statement that its main export arm, Gazexport, would set up an office in Iran to market the gas condensate that Gazprom is getting from its production-sharing agreement with the state.

Gazprom, Total and Malaysian Petronas signed an agreement in 1997 to develop phases two and three of Iran's South Pars offshore Persian Gulf field, one of the biggest in the world with reserves of above 12 trillion cubic meters.

The field also contains around 600 million metric tons of gas condensate that will be sold on international markets to compensate international firms for their investments in the field.

Gazprom, which supplies Europe with one-fourth of its gas needs, had initially wanted Total, which is leading phases two and three with 40 percent, to market its share of gas condensate exports, but said Wednesday it now wanted to expand into the trading business itself.

"Entering the global oil liquid market will allow Gazprom to gain experience in international trading and create opportunities to boost these activities based on our projects to produce liquids in Russia, Iran, Vietnam, Pakistan, Algeria and Venezuela," the statement said.

Gazprom produces around 200,000 barrels per day of oil and gas condensate in Russia on top of its giant gas production of about 530 billion cubic meters a year.

Gazexport has recently hired several traders from Nafta Moskva, the biggest Russian oil trader in the mid-1990s, whose operation has shrunk virtually to zero over the last few years as domestic oil majors have squeezed out independent trading firms.

Market analysts have praised Gazprom's decision to consolidate oil trading under the branch of Gazexport, saying it could help the company boost revenues to service its huge debt and invest billions of dollars to maintain gas output.

 Spot sales of Russian gas to Europe are increasing in a trend that will boost the continent's trading market, an expert on Russian gas said last week.

Most Russian gas sales to Europe are still on long term contracts and only around 1.2 billion cubic meters of the total 130 bcm were sold in short-term deals.

But spot sales to countries such as Britain and Belgium were rising, said Jonathan Stern, director of natural gas research at Britain's Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

"The role for short term trading [of Russian gas] is still small but increasing and it will add to the potential of the trading market in Europe," he said on the sidelines of an energy trading conference in Berlin.

Spot gas trading in Europe is gathering pace as the European Union opens up its energy markets to full competition.

Gazprom said in November it that planned to boost spot sales to Britain and Belgium.

The announcement came after the company booked extra capacity in the Interconnector pipeline linking Britain with Zeebrugge in Belgium, mainland Europe's main gas trading hub.

Gazprom owns a 10 percent share in the Interconnector and has trading offices in London.