I was interested in a headline in the Jersey Evening Post yesterday that read:
THE Island's financial industry is arguably more transparent than those in the UK and the US and offshore centres like Jersey help to boost international investment, a report published by an accomplished economist has claimed.
Diego Zuluaga, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, based in Washington DC, has published a paper called Offshore Bet defending the role of offshore finance centres, such as Jersey, which are often criticised and labelled ‘tax havens'.
Now, I admit I have ever never heard of the accomplished person in question. But I have most certainly heard of the Cato Institute: it is a far right market fundamentalist think tank that has much regard for Trump but, I suspect, really thinks him a left winger. And the JEP notes:
The report says that offshore centres are often wrongly accused of the illegal activity of tax evasion and adds that they play an important economic role.
And how independent was this finding? Not very:
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Your last paragraph needs a re-write in my view. Jersey does share tax information with law enforcement and tax authorities of legitimately elected governments. They think not to would be a bad thing.
You think I rewrite for anonymous trolls?
I see the Cato Institute (a product of, inter alios, Charles Koch, of the infamous Koch brothers), purports to have taken its name indirectly from Cato the Younger, an implacable foe of Julius Caesar, who opposed Caesar’s assault on stern Roman Republican values.
It’s easy to see how this plays to the self image of the Cato Institute as a guardian of Founding Fathers’ rectitude, but I’d be willing to guess that, in essence and objectives, the Cato Institute is much closer to Cato the Younger’s illustrious forebear, Cato the Elder, who livesud 200 years before Cato the Younger, and who ended every speech in the Senate with the words:
“Carthago delenda est” = “Carthage must be destroyed”.
And true to their promise, when the Romans did finally beat the Carthaginians in the Third Punic War (149-146 BCE), they tore down Carthage, stone by stone, ploughed the land and sowed it with salt to make it infertile.
Not much magnanimity towards opponents and rivals there, as I suspect there’d be very little clemency and magnanimity towards forces and movements that the Cato Institute sees as enemies. Total obliteration, rather.
Cato Institute is drafting a model free trade deal for the US and UK for Daniel Hannan’s IFT.
http://ifreetrade.org/event/ideal_fta_launch
The list of sponsors suggests, very strongly, that there are powerful forces trying to orchestrate a right wing domination of both countries with the least possible exposure to electoral processes.