Gordon Brown is apparently stalking Europe, attempting to persuade G20 leaders that global action needs to be taken on clamping down on so-called ‘tax-havens’. This course of action is understandable as the bills for the bailouts mount up and the income from tax revenues falls there will be a deficit. From Switzerland to the Cayman Islands the money is out there and it is this wealth that has escaped the clutches of the parasitic classes that Brown, Obama et al are setting their sights on.
Recent campaigns by the Guardian*, the Tax Justice Network and an edition of Panorama have highlighted a problem: they can’t get their hands on all of the wealth that has been created. Dennis MacShane raises an interesting fact, relating to privacy in banking in the Guardian, “This is not a wicked scheme to get the world's dirty money but dates from 1934, when German Jews fleeing the Nazis wanted to get their money out as well as their families." Indeed the Panorama programme, and the TJN revered the Liechtenstein banker who breached contract and divulged secrets of depositors at the LGT Bank.
A new mode of plundering needs to be found to fund the fulsome promises pronounced by politicians. Rather than chasing money across the globe that politicians wrongly believe is theirs, they should be producing policies that attract wealth to a country, not cause it to take flight. They need to be in competition with these nations, but alas they believe that what is mine is in fact theirs. Until that mindset changes there are many states across the world who’s sovereignty will be sorely tested over the coming years.
*And for insight in how The Guardian avoids paying taxes click here.
