While everyone else has been focused on the banks’ stress tests and how much government is spending to bail out troubled “too big to fails,” a disturbing trend on the other side of the equation is now emerging: how much (or rather, how little) the U.S. government is receiving in tax revenues.

But maybe bondholders are so used to being screwed out of buying power that they don’t even notice anymore. Or they are all taking drugs and don’t realize that they are being screwed out of buying power.

It seemed such a neat idea. The Government needed money, and there were all these British companies making a packet abroad, but not registering the cash in the UK. Fix the loophole, ran the logic, and hey presto! More tax revenues in the Treasury coffers.