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Murphy v Mitchell

February 4th, 2008

About a year ago Dan Mitchell of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity got very heated about trying to arrange a debate with me. I refused to take part in an event he organised. I have no respect for his organisation. But although he represented otherwise, I did not decline to debate with him per se. I said I would if someone reputable organised it to ensure fair play.

Well, now they have. Offshore Alert in the USA have organised a conference in Florida in April this year where Mitchell and I will meet in a debate, billed as follows:

OFFSHORE FINANCIAL CENTERS: ARE THEY HEALTHY FOR THE GLOBAL ECONOMY?

A debate between pro-offshore and anti-offshore factions on whether OFCs play a positive or negative role in world finance.

PANELISTS:

Yes, they are:
Daniel J. Mitchell, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute (USA);

and
Richard Hay, International Tax Principal, Stikeman Elliott (UK).

No, they aren’t:
Jack Blum, Co-Author, ‘Financial Havens, Banking Secrecy & Money Laundering’ (USA);

and
Richard Murphy, Research Director, Tax Justice Network (UK).

I’m very much looking forward to this. Jack is a great guy to partner. Amongst his many achievements was cracking BCCI. Mitchell and Hay have got a problem on their hands.

Richard Murphy Tax Havens, Tax Justice Network

  1. roger rabbit
    February 4th, 2008 at 19:24 | #1

    Richard - would be interested in hearing this or seeing a transcript/report if poss when it happens.

    Watch out - Florida has about as many ‘gators living there as people.

  2. Chris Steel
    February 5th, 2008 at 23:01 | #2

    Best news I have heard in a very long time. Murphy and Blum 10 : Mitchell and hey 0 and thats meant to be a British socker score.

    Richard, Mitchell and hey are minos compared to Rubishka, who you destroyed in 2006.

  3. Azra
    February 6th, 2008 at 11:56 | #3

    Richard Hay is a lawyer who thinks he can do economics and statistics.
    See http://www.jerseyfinance.je/_support/uploadedFiles/008%20-%20Richard%20Hay%2024.04.07.ppt#1 for a recent presentation of his where he claimed for instance that that lowering coprporate taxes increased (global) revenues in developped countries, based on a graph. No correlation coefficient, no Pearson’s r, no claim for increased volume, no causality, no nothing.

  4. February 12th, 2008 at 19:16 | #4

    Roger Rabbit,

    You can hear this debate live at the 6th OffshoreAlert Financial Due Diligence Conference: ‘The Unexpurgated Offshore’ this April 13 - 15, 2008 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL USA.

    For more information visit the official conference website at http://www.offshorealertconference.com

  5. Lawrence
    December 10th, 2008 at 18:58 | #5

    Is there a transcript of this?

    A comment on the Guernsey local press ‘blog’ http://www.thisisguernsey.com/comment/yourshout is citing Dan Mitchell as some sort of knowledge to behold. It would be good to be able to counter it with a link to a debunking of his opinions. I’ve googled to no effect.

    Thanks

  6. December 10th, 2008 at 19:26 | #6

    Lawrence

    Seehttp://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2008/04/16/mitchell-v-murphy/

    and http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2008/04/14/do-ofcs-contribute-to-the-health-of-the-glocal-economy/

    Mitchell put up a pile of slides about Adam Smith

    No one understood why

    It’s why I guess people reckoned I won

    Richard

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