According to the Guardian this morning:
Barack Obama is launching a crackdown on international tax evasion in response to recent disclosures in the Panama Papers revealing the scale of offshore financial activity.
In a series of initiatives announced by the White House on Thursday night, the president will take executive action to close loopholes used by foreigners in the US and call on Congress to pass legislation.
As the paper notes, the chance of the latter is limited, which is why the option of executive action is being used instead.
In this context what is being done should also be noted. As the paper reports:
The initial package of measures outlined by the White House this week may not go as far as some campaigners wish, but focus largely on increasing transparency regulations as a tool to flush further offshore tax abuses into the open. These include
- immediate executive action to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, and tax evasion with tighter transparency rule
- new treasury rules closing a loophole allowing foreigners to hide financial activity behind anonymous entities in the US
- Stricter “customer due diligence” rules for banks handling money of behalf of clients
Let's put this another way. The US is taking very tentative steps towards undertaking those actions that it already expects the rest of the world to perform to protect its own revenues. In the process it may make it very slightly harder to use the USA as a tax haven.
That is progress, of course, but let's be under no illusions about this. First these announcements may not result in action. Second, the loopholes in the US look likely to remain gaping and readily available. Third, the US is doing all it can to block real transparency, such as public country-by-country reporting, where it is the major obstacle to the EU proposal on the issue.
I welcome this move, of course. But the words too little and too late come to mind at the same time.
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Point four: Obama’s hands may be tied anyway. The issue of tax havenry is governed to a large extent at state level – 90%+ of the problem is in Delaware, Nevada and Wyoming, as you know. Getting state legislatures to comply with federal directives is never easy, but one of the major thrusts of the Tea Party faction has been to remove federal interference – so any executive orders are swimming against a mighty tide.
Oh dear. oh dear…………..you have to laugh at American democracy when the President of the United states always seems to bring some really good ideas in towards the end of his reign when they should have been brought in at the beginning. No doubt these initiatives will be repealed by Trump if he gets in and no doubt Hilarious (sic) will have to think about dropping them in order to please her backers.
‘Yes we can’ has become ‘Umm…..maybe we didn’t’.
Yes I know that the Republicans have held Obama back but the Democratic Party is a bit like New Labour – in the thrall of markets – and has only itself to blame for not offering a convincing alternative to those who find Trump attractive.
The Democrats have done exactly what New Labour did (in fact didn’t NL copy the Democrats?) in that they have gone after getting republican voters by changing their policies to attract them thus alienating any traditional voters they had and becoming more a party trying to please everyone but in the end failing.
NL did the same with tory voters – I heard a Labour MP banging on this morning about Corbyn’s Labour not appealing to a ‘wider’ public. I knew exactly what she meant – Labour appealing to tory voters.
I think Corbyn’s instinct to bring those who do not vote back ‘on line’ so to speak is the way to go.
You are probably right about Hillary CLinton, who in all probability will be the next president. But don’t forget Bernie Sanders, who has real and I believe lasting support. He calls himself a socialist – in America! That in itself is astonishing. But that he has so much support from people across the board is refreshing and encouraging. Like Corbyn, he is opening the Overton window, allowing debate on issues that have been buried for decades, and he is energising a new generation of progressive young people.
I have my Bernie Saunders T-shirt and wear it with pride! I picked up on him as he appears in one of Michael Moores’ documentaries.
Incidentally whilst at the University of Westminster in London between 1994 and 2000 (ex-Polytechnic of Central London) I was taught by a lady called Judith Allen – an American – who was obviously not a friend of Ayn Rand.
Judith was a hard task master – demanding rigorous application of deductive skills and analysis and even though I may never have met her exacting standards she certainly dragged me up by my boot strings as a mature student!!
But she also encouraged us to read widely and this included American academic studies about poverty and social exclusion in housing. I remember being staggered that this country of apparent rabid free market-teers could produce studies of such quality and that there were people over there who actually cared about such issues.
But it also gave me an insight into what has been happening in the USA for some time and how then battle of ideas had been won by the right – for now. But it also gives me hope for America because the counter-narrative there does seem to be growing.
Pilgrim Sight Return, you might be interested in this HuffPost piece on Clintonian “triangulation”, the clear equivalent of, indeed, as you say, the inspiration for, New Labour’s “chasing the Tory vote” (can’t the Blairites recognise when the horse is well and truly dead??)
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/the-problem-with-hillary-clinton_b_9349590.html
As I observed, when I responded to the above on Google+
Wow! This makes clear that Bill Clinton and his “Third Way” and Tony Blair and his “New Labour” were identical twins, pretending to be progressive when they were all about surrender to the same Thatcher/Reagan Right Wing bilge – Dukes of Plaza-Toro – only leading from the front when in retreat! Here’s the words of the WS Gilbert song
In enterprise of martial kind,Â
When there was any fighting,Â
He led his regiment from behindÂ
(He found it less exciting).Â
But when away his regiment ran,Â
His place was at the fore, O-Â
That celebrated,Â
Cultivated,Â
UnderratedÂ
Nobleman,Â
The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
For “the market” was always the REAL General for Blair, and apparently for Clinton too.
America needs Jeremy Corbyn!
Prof. Wolff joins News.Markets and explains why official US jobs numbers don’t reflect the real state of the US economy and the average US worker. He believes the US needs a slice of the UK’s Jeremy Corbyn to combat extreme inequality.
http://www.rdwolff.com/content/prof-wolff-newsmarkets-why-us-needs-jeremy-corbyn
Thank you Andrew – very thought provoking.
I do hope Clinton gives Bernie a job in her administration and brings back Robert Reich whilst she’s at it.
I have read three reports of this announcement and still cannot work out what is a concrete action that will happen and what is just a hope that Congress with think about something. Even the White House website does not have anything I could find from a quick look. I did notice that he asked Congress to approve the treaties with Switzerland and Luxembourg which have been held up for five years so I suspect he is not expecting much immediate action on his other points.
PS – sorry about too many ‘buts’ in my post above – ‘ hard day at the orifice today.