Mr Barroso did not release details of his plan, except to say it could raise some €55bn a year. However, a study carried out by the Commission has found that the tax could also dent long-term economic growth in the region by between 0.53 per cent and 1.76 per cent of gross domestic product.The article doesn't mention who did the study, or give a link to it. But there's worse. If reported accurately, it seems the European Commission's economists -- or whoever they had do the study mentioned -- actually think that the "3" in 0.53 and the "6" in 1.76 mean something. That's quite impressive accuracy when talking about economic growth. In a time of great uncertainty.
I would bet a great deal that a more accurate statement of the confidence of their results would be, say, between 0 and 2 percent crudely, or maybe even -1 and 3. But that would be admitting that no one has any certainty about what's coming next, and that's not part of the usual practice.
