The Sovereign Society is one of those US right wing organisations that promotes tax havens and a very distorted view of what capitalism should be. It's got to be said these guys don't like me much. As they said in a blog yesterday:

The U.K. based, far Left loonies at the Tax Justice Network (TJN) believe all the world's tax havens to be -- evil in incarnate -- and in need of destruction by a concerted global force of legions of tax collectors, backed by police state might, if need be. (Sounds rather like that "new global financial order" Europe's Left now is touting).

Two of the top TJN toadies, in a recent Manchester Guardian op-ed piece reveal the truth, as they see it.

Now it's world financial turmoil on which they're grabbing a free publicity ride. (And what is of concern to me is that, based on his sponsorship of totalitarian anti-tax haven legislation, Senator Barack Obama, seems to agree with these socialist charlatans).

As they then note:

The authors get credit for honesty in their conclusions. They admit their real goal, which is to attack free-market jurisdictions. Moreover, notwithstanding the alleged concern about regulatory gaps, they further admit their real goal is to give politicians more power to increase the tax burden and worsen the tax bias against income that is saved and invested.

Which is as about as far from the truth as it is possible to get. First, the tax bias is in favour of capital, the world over right now. We're trying to create balance, not imbalance. Second, to argue (as they do) that the whole world is socialist bar them is a little bizarre: to argue that I'm far Left when I've been senior partner of a firm of chartered accountants and have run more than ten companies even more so. Third, we're not attacking free market jurisdictions. Free markets work on the basis of open access to markets and free availability of information. Remove those conditions and you get ones in which monopoly survives i.e. market abuse. This is exactly what secrecy jurisdictions seek to create: an environment in which there is inequality of access to capital, information and markets by the creation of secrecy and artificial factors of production providing some an unfair advantage to ensure they make super normal profits, so undermining the credibility of the market system as a whole. The actions I promote are intended to create effective, workable, efficient markets. Not the monopoly advantage for a select few that the Sovereign Society promotes.

But most of all, I guess the really bizarre thing about all this is that these guys still think they're right. Their world has just collapsed round them. Their own Right wing president has just undertaken the biggest programme of nationalisation ever done to mop up the failure their ideas created, and yet they still persist in their belief - or at least lash out at those who challenge it.

And who are the Lefties John Christensen and I might liaise with? Well, I'm in Oslo right now at a conference at which I was the first speaker on how to tackle illicit financial flows in the world - criminal, corrupt and just tax abusing. Almost all go through tax havens, of course. And who is here? The IMF, World Bank, OECD, UN, many governments. But the lead is being taken by a few of us from civil society who are experts in this field. And action is likely.

John Christensen is at the UN in Geneva today. Subject: its international tax committee. On Friday he goes to that den of the Left, the Vatican, to address them on the issue of tax havens, at their request.

And so on, and on.

This is not a left / right issue. This is an issue for all those who want to create effective market economies. And it is one for all those who realise that a pre-condition of effective market economies is a fully functioning government.

I have to feel a little sympathy for those on the Right who have seen their world fall apart around them. But not a lot. After all, the Sovereign Society blog ends with this:

There still are many legal ways to bank and save taxes offshore; I tell you Where To Stash Your Cash: Click Here. And if you're interested in Switzerland, Click here for Swiss Money Secrets.

And right now, as my previous blog showed, there's not a lot of sympathy for Switzerland in the world. When you're in w hole guys, I'd quit digging if I was you. Most people agree it's the wise thing to do.