The Jersey Evening Post has run one of its regular articles where it gives particular prominence to a comment I have made about the Island. Yesterday they reported:
JERSEY is a bigger threat than the Soviet Union ever was to UK markets because of its tax haven model, according to economics professor and finance industry critic Richard Murphy.
Mr Murphy, who is a professor in international political economies at City University and has advised Labour leader Jeremy Corbin, also claimed that Jersey was ‘hiding the true nature of capitalism'.
His comments come after Jersey was back in the news following the collapse of retailer BHS on 25 April, the company having been sold by Sir Philip Green in 2015 to Retail Acquisitions Ltd for £1 - Sir Philip's wife Lady Green and ‘her immediate family' are reported to hold some of their interests through Jersey.
I think I actually said Jersey was threatening capitalism, and I note Jeremy Corbyn has acquired a Jersey twist to his name, but let's not have facts get in the way: this article is pertinent for several reasons.
First, the threat of offshore to free markets is a theme of my new book.
Second, the fact that such comments keep getting published in Jersey reveals how important opposition is in these places.
Third, in fairness to the Jersey Evening Post, it shows they still have some willing to find an opposition story to wind their politicians up with (as it always does).
But then let's look at the fourth, real issue, which is that opacity is really harming business, which was my point. And ordinary people, including 60 employees of BHS in Jersey, are suffering as a result of this.
As important still though, supplying this opacity is costing Jersey vasty sums: as the Guardian reported last year (based on my work) Jersey is going bust because of its dedication to the corrupt supply of opacity (corrupt in the sense that it is intended to and does undermine markets). The Soviet Union collapsed from within. So might Jersey. The analogy is quite a good one.
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When I found myself near the banks of the Elbe not long after Stalin died on the personal staff of the General Officer Commanding the 7th Armoured Division the information we had suggests that you are wrong. We were facing the Third Shock Army and they were ready to go and we were on one hours notice to move.
But things changed
Thankfully
Meh… Nothing will ever change.
The system survives because those that benefit (1%) from it are too powerful and will never let it collapse. And those benefiting (99%) from the system by and large do not want the the system to collapse because they secretly want to be in the 1% and hence benefit from the system.
Yes there are some social justice warriors who fly the flag of Marxism and Social Democracy whilst enjoying an organic soya milk latte, but most of the people are too busy watching TV and enjoying the view of conspicuous consumption, dreaming of having the opportunity to consume conspicuously themselves.
You should study some more history salamander, because there is one thing for certain – change is inevitable, no injustice lasts for ever but time is the one uncertainty of when such change will come.