- Even the IMF now advocates wealth taxes to combat inequality, yet governments around the world — most recently President Macron of France — are going in the opposite direction despite all the evidence that it's a bad idea
- We discuss how Russia and the US are now world leaders in inequality
- And good news — the European Commission has ordered Luxembourg to claim back $293 million in taxes from Amazon in another ruling on illegal state aid.
This Taxcast is dedicated to the memory of Daphne Caruana Galizia, Malta's best-known investigative journalist who was murdered by a car bomb, a cowardly attack on all those who refuse to accept the corruption and state capture of our institutions and democracies by dirty money and financial secrecy. Our statement on the loss of this great citizen is here.
Featuring: Journalist and author Oliver Bullough (his book on passports and residency for sale ‘Moneyland' is due out in 2018 and is published by Profile Books), senior policy advisor at Oxfam Novib Francis Weyzig and John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network. Produced and presented by Naomi Fowler.
Selling citizenship is just an interesting iteration of offshore, because essentially, all you're doing is selling your sovereignty…The due diligence is outsourced. The marketing is outsourced. The country just puts its name on the passport and takes the cash. Every person they turn away on due diligence grounds is a person whose money they are not going to get.”
Journalist and author Oliver Bullough
The IMF have come to this huge shift in their policy advisories…what we're witnessing here is a really important sea change in the global tax consensus…”
John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network
Want more Taxcasts? The full playlist is here (our new Taxcast library) and here. Or here.
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An interesting observation from Jim Rickards ‘, whose name cropped up on this site the other week:
He reckons that serious amounts of money are sitting on ( a highly overpriced) Wall Street biding their time in the hope of tax cuts. The tax cuts could trigger a major withdrawal of funds to cash, that would benefit from the reduced taxation levels, precipitating a serious and sudden ‘market correction’.
As I observed previously, Mr Rickards makes Cassandra look positively bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but as I also remarked, ‘he ain’t stoopid’.
Damned if they do and damned if they don’t. ?
As ever chaos in the US will ripple out worldwide.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/18/mnuchin-tax-bill-markets-tank-243890
I don’t offer financial advice other than to say it might be timely to get the tin hat off the top of the wardrobe. One day when I say that I’ll be right. !
I believe that down side is imminent