Talking of unpopular men, my friend, colleague and Treasure Islands' author Nick Shaxson is certainly rocking opinion in the US right now. As he has noted on this blog:

I have been astonished at the reaction in the United States to my Vanity Fair article on Mitt Romney's offshore investments. It's generating headlines like this:

Vanity Fair's Brutal Offshore Banking Piece Just Sank Mitt's Candidacy

which is surely over the top, but it does reflect (the extreme end of) a fair few opinion pieces out there. We have Obama's campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt saying:

“Vanity Fair's raising important questions about Romney's offshore accounts in foreign tax havens”

and I'm told that Obama has personally taken quite an interest in my article.

That wasn't the intent of the article even if it is the outcome. The intent, as in much Tax Justice Network work, was to raise the issues of injustice that tax havens create, which is precisely that they are designed to do. If it so happens this then becomes a feature in the US presidential campaign, so be it.