Panama Papers DT16-020

Panama Papers prove inequalities

are a worsening global problem

 

By John Twigg

These are dark days we are into now, and they're probably going to get darker.

The latest proof of that is the so-called Panama Papers, which prove beyond a shadow of doubt that many very wealthy and influential political leaders and many corrupt business people and even criminals have been routinely hiding billions or maybe trillions of dollars worth of cash and securities in various tax havens, some of it legal but immoral and hypocritical, and some of it illegal tax-dodging and criminal money-laundering.

The leak to journalists by unidentified sources of millions of pages of confidential documents from a heretofore obscure law firm in Panama (Mossack Fonseca) was quickly called "the biggest leak in the history of data journalism" by Wikileaker Edward Snowden whose 2013 dump of damning documents from the U.S. National Security Agency was the previous champion leak (see biography on Wikipedia).

Why is that Panama leak a new proof of a darkening cloud in world affairs? Wouldn't its rays of sunshine be something to celebrate? Well no, because the incident reveals there has been and still is a great deal of corruption and deceit and hypocrisy among the very wealthiest elites in the world and that now-more-obvious truth will surely feed an even greater backlash against those elites than the ones we have already been seeing in various global movements and especially in the U.S. Presidential campaigns of Republican hopeful Donald Trump and Democrat Bernie Sanders, both of whom have been attacking the excessive self-serving actions of Wall Street corporate insiders and gaining votes by doing so.

Interestingly, Sanders had warned against Panama specifically back in 2011, as seen in the Tweet of a link to a video about the Panama fiasco and some Canadians such as Green Party leader Elizabeth May did so too (more below).

Leaks prove elites' corruption is widespread

Whereas Snowden's information proved that the United States government and its Five Eyes partners were routinely spying on all citizens, which ranges from defensible through questionable to plain wrong depending on the circumstances, the Panama Papers instead prove there was widespread willful wrongdoing by hypocritical leaders whose apparent tax evasions have deprived their home governments of huge sums of much-needed revenue.


“This is not just about a few names, a few individuals. It’s about a system. It’s about how the wealthy and powerful use the offshore system,” said Michael Hudson, senior editor at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which published the documents.

The team of about a dozen staffers soon learned the papers shed light on an underground economy in which powerful people were hiding cash in offshore havens around the world, so they enlisted the help of more than 370 journalists in more than 70 countries from more than 100 news organizations to dig through the data, and used a double-password and encrypted website to share documents and discuss findings.


The information about a few world leaders that was leaked Sunday is only the beginning of what insiders say will be hundreds more examples of corruption and hypocrisy to be revealed in coming weeks and months including about some 300 Canadians now being researched by the CBC, which was an early participant in a long-clandestine exercise in investigative journalism, and apparently various taxation bodies including the Canada Revenue Agency also will be beginning probes.

Tax havens found around world

And Panama is only one of dozens or even hundreds of such tax havens around the world, many of them very old and established (e.g. Switzerland, British Virgin Islands) and many of them new and edgy or iffy, such as Panama, also known as a key conduit for cocaine and maybe other drugs and drug money from Colombia. (For a profile of such tax havens, see this Google search here .)

The Panama Papers quickly caused the resignation of Iceland's embattled prime minister, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, after it became apparent he had negotiated a government bailout of a bank while secretly owning shares in it, but there probably will be many more casualties, perhaps even British Prime Minister David Cameron whose family was found in the papers to have holdings in tax havens run through Panama though Cameron said he personally did not have any such holdings.

While it should be acknowledged that shell companies and holding companies can be quite legal and acceptable, such as used by soccer star Lionel Messi, the new leaks reveal that many of the users of such funds involve corrupt people hiding money away from their governments' reaches, and that's a big problem for the world going forward.

Leaks could influence Brexit vote

The case of the United Kingdom is especially relevant in part because PM Cameron is trying to persuade citizens to vote to stay in the European Union in a referendum scheduled for June (also known as Brexit) but now his already-dubious credibility has been further weakened and the voices of populist pro-exit leaders have been strengthened, which could destabilize world affairs and restructure who really runs Europe.

But much more than that is involved, especially that the Panama Papers example could fuel renewed calls to break down the so-called City of London which is a tax-free and under-regulated business district whose controversial autonomy goes back centuries and whose denizens have long been suspected of corruption. (see copy of profile at link above and bottom of this essay)

That is more or less what the www.AbelDanger.net website on April 5 alleged are sordid betting games engaged in by members of White's Club inside the City and probably by other old-money interests in London and from around the world:


.      Abel Danger (AD) claims that the late Ian (‘Panama Papa’) Cameron taught his son David Cameron how to run a tax-haven money-laundering service by providing death-pool bettors with the future times of death of victims or the weight of carbon to be saved at mass-casualty events.

2.      AD alleges that in 1994, Ian Cameron – the former Chairman of White’s Club – ordered his son to leave Treasury and help Serco sell NPL cesium-fountain clock data on snuff-film or mass-casualty events to shareholders including Saudi Arabia and the Cameron drug-hub banker, HSBC.

3.      AD claims that White’s uses Serco-mentored 8(a) clocks and Clinton Foundation's donors including the government of Saudi Arabia, as a “cut out” death-pool bookmaker to spot-fix the times and weight of carbon saved at mass-casualty events and attribute attacks to ISIS.

Snowden briefed SFU event

Coincidentally Snowden on Tuesday told a public meeting in Vancouver (done by Skype from Russia) that the key point in the Panama leaks is that they reveal a culture of corruption among world leaders. He participated in a 90-minute question-and-answer public meeting with a full audience in Vancouver's Queen Elizabeth Theatre which was organized and also video-streamed by Simon Fraser University's Public Square program ( info here ) with the support of  SFU president Andrew Petter.

A similar theme was seen in remarks by SFU professor Lindsay Meredith on GlobalBC TV Tuesday morning ( viewable here ), predicting that "things are going to heat up a whole bunch" and noting that the Panama case "is the tip of an iceberg" and that the problem is ubiquitous.

"We're in a new trend of looking for jurisdictions where the 1% can hide money," said Meredith, an economist who frequently is quoted by Vancouver media, explaining that such people sometimes will hide money behind a double firewall, meaning that an account in Panama could lead to another one in BVI.

Meredith also mocked the efforts of the Canada Revenue Agency, alleging the way it tracks down tax avoidance has become a joke after its staff was gutted by the Harper Conservatives a few years ago.

Name withheld of offending bank

That ties in with news that FINTRAC, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, had just levied its first fine in 16 years against a Canadian bank, which it did not identify, for failing to report suspicious transactions; it levied a $1.1-million penalty for failing to report a suspicious transaction and various money transfers.

Though that was billed as a warning to thousands of other businesses to be more vigilant against cash flows possibly linked to terrorism, money laundering and other crimes, the failure to even name the institution raises the question of just who is being protected and suggests the government realizes that naming participants might also encourage even fewer voluntary disclosures from banks, insurance companies, securities dealers, money service businesses, real estate brokers, casinos and others under the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act.

.

“The reporting to us is absolutely critical. Without those reports, Fintrac is out of business,” spokesman Darren Gibb told the media on Tuesday, promising that FINTRAC will be extra-diligent going forward.

Backlashes of Biblical proportions?

There is more good background below, generally showing that this problem is not new, but what IS new is the proof that such tax avoidance is both real and widespread, and the backlashes against the wealthy could be vicious and eventually cause wealthy people to throw their gold and silver into the streets and thereby fullfil Bible prophecies in Lamentations 4:1, Ezekiel 7:19, Zephaniah 1:18, Zechariah 9:3 and James 5:3.

As a longtime Bible student I had often wondered how such dire circumstances would come about and I presumed it would be because all forms of money would become worthless in a post-apocalypse world but now I realize it may become a defensive tactic by the rich to rid themselves of things sought by marauding hordes and thereby maybe save their own lives rather than die trying to protect their hoarded wealth.

Would mobs of starving humans really become so animalistic? Maybe so, judging from a Tweet posted by Vancouver Sun religions writer Doug Todd noting that a survey done for The Association of Religion Data Archives or theARDA.com @ReligionData found that "Nearly two-thirds of Americans say #inequality exists because it benefits the rich and powerful." http://bit.ly/1SNcplH

In other words, many ordinary people were already angry at the way the rich have been arranging things so they could keep getting richer while the rest struggle ever harder and now the Panama Papers probably will increase their anger.

Solution seen in creation of money

So what should be done instead?

Senator Bernie Sanders recently Tweeted that "Americans deserve a Federal Reserve that works for the middle class. To get there, we must close the Wall Street-Washington revolving door." and while probably that would be helpful I don't think it addresses the root of the problem, namely that it wouldn't break the big-banks-and-old-money monopoly on the creation of currency, but that could be done in America by restoring the power of Congress to issue currency outside of the bankster-owned Federal Reserve system - something that President Jack Kennedy was in the process of doing until he was assassinated in Dallas.

Canada interestingly is one of the very few nations in the world not controlled by the global banking cartel, because the Bank of Canada has the power to issue currency - except that former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau agreed under pressure from those banks in about 1974 to cease issuing fiat currency and instead join the club of nations buying their money and their bonds from private-sector money-lenders and money creators.

Justin Trudeau eyes new bank for infrastrucure

That sounds like a simple enough fix but history teaches that anyone daring to challenge the global money cartel soon gives up or comes to a bitter end. Nonetheless Prime Minister Justin Trudeau - Pierre's son! - has been openly musing about reversing his father's mistake, perhaps initially by empowering the Bank of Canada to finance new infrastructure projects, which would be a great start and a good thing.

And British Columbia on its own account could do a similar thing by reviving the Bank of B.C. and empowering it to issue a new parallel currency, which is something I have been advocating for years but which no political parties so far have had the courage to adopt.

Perhaps some readers still here this far will still be skeptical of such seemingly outlandish claims but really it shouldn't seem strange because it is a very old problem that goes back hundreds and thousands of years, past the British imperialists selling drugs in Hong Kong and Shanghai in the 1800s and all the way back to Jesus overturning the tables of the money-changers in the Jerusalem temple about 2000 years ago, as reported in Matthew 21:12, Mark 11:15 and John 2:15.

In fact the charging of interest or usury is anathema in The Bible, at least for lending between Israelites, as seen in Exodus 22:25, Lev. 25:35-37, Deut. 23:19-20, Psalm 112:5, Ezek. 18:8, Matt. 5:42 and Luke 6:34-38. But nowadays excessive interest costs are ubiquitous, the anger of the payers is rising and now they have the Panama Papers to prove that the problem is vile and wrong.

Below is more background on this general theme:

comments welcome below or in feedback to John@JohnTwigg.com

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Panama Papers Foretold

By Crawford Killian on The Tyee April 5

But why bother to buy a scrapbook of ancient columns when you can read Capital in the Twenty-First Century? For one very good reason.

(snip) 

The world's greatest economic detective

Because Thomas Piketty follows the money. He goes into the tax archives of the last two centuries, and he has become the greatest economic detective the world has ever known. He has tracked the wealth of the rentier class since Napoleon -- the families of the "independently wealthy" who live off the income paid them because they own moneymaking enterprises and land.
In one column, published five years ago on April 5, 2011, Piketty offers what is almost a throw-away line: "... at the world level, the net financial position is negative over-all, which is logically impossible unless we assume that on average we're owned by the planet Mars. More likely, this contradiction suggests that a nonnegligible share of financial assets held in tax havens and by nonresidents is not correctly reported as such."
In other words, every country in the world is losing money, and therefore losing tax revenue. The implication is that every country is making up for the loss either by taxing its poorer residents more than they should be, or by cutting social services.
Five years later, almost to the day, the Guardian and the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung broke a major global scandal: the Panama Papers.


( Full article )


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By Don Melvin on CNN

There may be one more victim of the Panama Papers scandal -- the old order. Politicians like Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, and the U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, among others, have been telling receptive audiences that the system is rigged. It favors the wealthy, they say.

The message is that what the wealthy are doing is not illegal, but it should be.

And it appears that the body politic, or a significant portion of it, is boiling mad. Hearing that many rich people take advantage of legal tax avoidance techniques that are not available to the hoi polloi may not sit well

If the revelations appear to confirm that the system is rigged, that it unfairly benefits the wealthy, that anger could grow and the numbers of disenchanted voters could increase.

The Independent newspaper in Britain ran an article Tuesday headlined, "The Panama Papers could hand Bernie Sanders the keys to the White House."

That may seem fanciful, and Sanders is still a mighty long way from the Oval Office.

But the larger point is well taken: At least some people these days are fed up with the old order. And these revelations will not make them any happier.

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From the BBC April 5:

#MossackFonseca The fallout starts: #Iceland #PM Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson #resigns http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35966412 … is this the first of many?

Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson resigned on Tuesday. Gunnlaugsson had been under pressure to step down since leaked documents hacked from a Panamanian law firm revealed his links to an offshore company, triggering protests.

Now the question who's is next? How far will the damage spread?

The answer could be, quite far. This is the biggest leak in history -- one that dwarfs the amount of data released by Wikileaks in 2010. Reports say that 12 current or former heads of state are mentioned.

The more than 11 million documents, which date back four decades, are allegedly connected to Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reports that the law firm helped establish secret shell companies and offshore accounts for global power players.

A second question is to what extent, in an era of rising middle-class discontent, this will fuel further anger among those who see themselves as carrying a disproportionate share of the burden in supporting a system that seems to them unfair.

Among those who could be affected:

British Prime Minister David Cameron

Cameron is already in a bit of trouble. His gambit about guaranteeing a referendum in which voters could choose to leave the European Union has split his Conservative Party, and he may yet wind up on the losing side of that vote.

And, in an ea of slim budgets and calls for ordinary people to tighten their belts, he is viewed by some as posh and privileged.

Now come reports that, according to the ICIJ, Cameron's late father, Ian, used the services of the Mossack Fonseca law firm to avoid having his investment fund, Blairmore Holdings Inc., pay any UK taxes.

For a leader who has called on ordinary people to tighten their belts because government does not have the tax revenue delivery everything it used to, the revelation -- while not including any allegation of wrongdoing by the Prime Minister -- is unwelcome, to say the least.

When asked about the reports, the Prime Minister said, "I own no shares, no offshore trusts, no offshore funds, nothing like that. And so that, I think, is a very clear description."

Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko

According to the ICIJ, in August 2014, as Russian troops were rolling into Eastern Ukraine, Poroshenko became the sole shareholder of Prime Asset Partners Limited, which Mossack Fonseca set up in the British Virgin Islands.

A Cyprus law firm representing the newly acquired company described it as a "holding company of Cyprus and Ukrainian companies of the Roshen Group, one of the largest European manufacturers of confectionery products."

The previous president, Viktor Yanukovych, was reviled for having used government money to build a palace on 350 acres or riverfront land, complete with a shooting range, an equestrian venue, a tennis court, and a pier for yachts.

The problem for Poroshenko potentially hiding his holdings and avoiding taxes -- even if he did so legally -- is that when you replace a kleptocrat you are supposed to be a man of the people.

Besides, Ukraine needs tax revenue; the country is perpetually asking other countries for financial help.

A spokesman for Poroshenko said that creation of the trust and related corporate structures had no relation to political and military events in Ukraine.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif

Three of the Prime Minister's children have been named in the documents as linked to offshore companies that owned properties in London, according to local news organizations.

Some opposition leaders have called for Sharif to be investigated regardiing his family's "wealth stashed abroad." The Pakistani newspaper The News has reported that Sharif's sons Hussain and Hasan, and his daughter Maryam, were linked to several offshore companies.

Hussain has said all the business affairs were legal.

But legality may not be the point. For the leader of a country where the average income is less than $5,000 a year -- a country that badly needs inward investment -- having money stashed abroad probably sends the wrong signal.

Russian President Vladimir Putin

The Guardian newspaper in Britain is reporting that "a network of secret offshore deals and vast loans worth $2 billion has laid a trail to Russia's president, Vladimir Putin."

Although Putin's name is not specifically mentioned, allegedly involved are many members of his inner circle, who have become, the Guardian said, "fabulously wealthy." And the documents suggest that the Putin's family has benefited, the newspaper reported.

So is Putin in trouble? You must be kidding. He is exception that proves the rule.

The all-purpose, and generally effective, response has already be trotted out: The Kremlin called the allegations "a series of fibs" aimed at discrediting Putin ahead of elections.

"Putin, Russia, our country, our stability and the upcoming elections are the main target, specifically to destabilize the situation," said a Kremlin spokesman, claiming many of the journalists involved in combing through the Panama Papers are former officers from the U.S. State Department, the CIA and special services.

Celebrities, movie stars and sports heroes

Those caught up in the controversy include not only politicians but film and sports stars, as well. Among those mentioned are soccer star Lionel Messi, according to reports.

The European football club Barcelona has promised to give Messi legal and financial support as the Argentine international star considers whether to sue over the leak.

But here -- more than for politicians -- the idea that nothing illegal has been done may save the day. Politicians owe their countries. They ask sacrifices of their citizens.

Star athletes over the years have frequently declared themselves residents of tax havens, without losing any popularity.

Many tennis luminaries, for example, have declared themselves residents of Monaco. One cannot help but wonder whether Monaco's lack of an income tax plays a role.

Still, the high incomes of top actors and sports starts are essentially a transfer of wealth from from people of generally modest means, who buy tickets or products endorsed by the stars, to people who are in general wealthier than they are. It remains to be seen how much patience the public will have for financial shenanigans, even legal ones.

The old order

There may be one more victim of the Panama Papers scandal -- the old order. Politicians like Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, and the U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, among others, have been telling receptive audiences that the system is rigged. It favors the wealthy, they say.

The message is that what the wealthy are doing is not illegal, but it should be.

And it appears that the body politic, or a significant portion of it, is boiling mad. Hearing that many rich people take advantage of legal tax avoidance techniques that are not available to the hoi polloi may not sit well

If the revelations appear to confirm that the system is rigged, that it unfairly benefits the wealthy, that anger could grow and the numbers of disenchanted voters could increase.

The Independent newspaper in Britain ran an article Tuesday headlined, "The Panama Papers could hand Bernie Sanders the keys to the White House."

That may seem fanciful, and Sanders is still a mighty long way from the Oval Office.

But the larger point is well taken: At least some people these days are fed up with the old order. And these revelations will not make them any happier.

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TIME.com ‏@TIME 21m21 minutes ago

#PanamaPapers revelations have only just begun, investigative editor says http://ti.me/1q4IETM

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Diane Francis ‏@dianefrancis1 33m33 minutes ago

Why Are We Letting Tax Cheats Rob Canada? http://ow.ly/10kFDP

Diane Francis Retweeted

  Vancouver Observer ‏@VanObserver Apr 4

"Offshore and taxation lobby is the most powerful in this country”: @dianefrancis1 http://bit.ly/natobspanamap  #cdnpoli

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3. Raffi Cavoukian ‏@Raffi_RC 53m53 minutes ago

   on #panamapapers fiasco: Harper, Hillary were all for it. Bernie warned against. #FeelTheBern #WaveOfDemocracy

   
   
5.   Chris Aikman ‏@ChrisAikman2 44m44 minutes ago

   Chris Aikman Retweeted Green Party Canada

   @Raffi_RC Also Elzabeth May's warning:

   Chris Aikman added,

   
   

   
   

   Green Party Canada @CanadianGreens
   

   Elizabeth May, raising a red flag on Panama as a tax haven… back in 2012. (2:20 mark) 

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http://www.globalresearch.ca/money-laundering-and-the-city-of-londons-crime-scene-haven-of-tax-havens-for-the-mega-wealthy/5513335

Money Laundering and the City of London’s “Crime Scene”: Haven of Tax Havens for the Mega-Wealthy

By Graham Vanbergen

Global Research, April 05, 2016

truepublica.org.uk

First published in March 2016
When it comes to The City of London, the term ‘tax haven’ is not describing all that it should. It doesn’t just shield the mega-wealthy from paying their fair dues it goes further and offers a departure from the rule of law as you would know it. Secrecy is its raison d’être. These secrecy laws do not benefit the local people living in its jurisdiction but only those individuals and corporations with enough money and with something to hide.
The reality is that the City of London caters for those above the law, it operates on the basis of bypassing democratic society as a whole. This has come about over time where an extraordinary ‘gentlemens agreement’ has stood the test of time. The head of state and his/her governments have the need of large loans for wars and the like, the City, in exchange for such commodity has extracted certain privileges the rest of the population do not enjoy. The end result over the centuries is that it now has its own financial jurisdiction to do pretty much as it pleases.

A ‘watchman’ sits at the high table of parliament and is its official lobbyist sitting in seat of power right next to the Speaker of the House who is “charged with maintaining and enhancing the City’s status and ensuring that its established rights are safeguarded.” The job is to maintain order and seek out political dissent against the City.
The City of London has its own private funding and will ‘buy-off’ any attempt to erode its powers; any scrutiny of its financial affairs are put beyond external inspection or audit.
For over a hundred years the Labour party tried in vain to abolish the City of London and its accompanying financial corruption. In 1917, Labour’s new rising star Herbert Morrison, the grandfather of Peter Mandelson made a stand and failed, calling it the “devilry of modern finance.” And although attempt after attempt was made throughout the following decades, it was Margaret Thatcher who succeeded by abolishing its opponent, the Greater London Council in 1986.
Tony Blair went about it another way and offered to reform the City of London in what turned out to be a gift from god. He effectively gave the vote to corporations which swayed the balance of democratic power away from residents and workers. It was received by its opponents as the greatest retrograde step since the peace treaty of 1215, Magna Carta. The City won its rights through debt financing in 1067, when William the Conqueror acceded to it and ever since, governments have allowed the continuation of its ancient rights above all others.
The City effectively now stands as money launderer of the world, the capital of global crime. It is the heart and engine of the offshore haven, with Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man its european collection centres, the caribbean and others hoovering up billions of American dollars from all over the globe. Whilst there are good and legal reasons for offshore accounts, It has a dark and shadowy client list; terrorists, drug barons, arms dealers, politicians, corporations and companies, millionaires, billionaires  – most with something to hide.
The Independent newspaper reported last July that The City of London is the money-laundering centre of the world’s drug trade, according to an internationally acclaimed crime expert. In addition, every notable financial expert now agrees that due to incredibly lax financial laws by the British government, the London property market is built largely on the laundered money of crime from all over the world involving hidden tax havens, most of which are British.
Her Majesty’s British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies make up around 25 per cent of the world’s tax havens, which are now blacklisted by the European Commission and now ranked as the most important player in the financial secrecy world.
Tax havens featured on the EC’s blacklist of June last year include Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands to name just a few and each is inextricably linked to the City of London’s crime offices.
The consequence of its operations is that money laundering is now at such levels and so widespread that the authorities have recently admitted defeat in its battle of attrition by stating openly it has been completely overwhelmed and lost control. Keith Bristow Director-General of the UK’s National Crime Agency said just six months ago that the sheer scale of crime and its subsequent money laundering operations was “a strategic threat” to the country’s economy and reputation and that “high-end money laundering is a major risk”.
In the meantime, the City of London remains politically immune and acts with criminal impunity as it sucks up what is now understood to be trillions in illicit and ill-gotten gains. Bankers and hedge-fund operators dodge the authorities with particular skill sets honed over a millennia, especially HMRC.
It is of no coincidence that this small area of britian, just 1.2 square miles has the highest pay in the land and the third lowest council tax for property anywhere in the United Kingdom. A £20 million mansion costs less than £1,000 a year in council tax.
At the last census, its population stood at just 7,325, its employees stand at 414,600, nearly 40 per cent of them in financial services. Nearly 17,000 businesses are registered there, 2,700 are finance and insurance based and just over 45 per cent are foreign owned entities. HSBC’s organisation is the ninth largest bank in the world following four Chinese and four American banks located down the road in Canary Wharf.
This tiny island haven, with its own borders and police force sits within the Isles of Britain as an international hub, the tax haven of all tax havens. Make no mistake, the banks use offshore business organisations to escape regulation and the grip these organisations have over an ever weakened and corrupt political class is utterly astounding. The Conservative party is literally bankrolled by bankers and hedge funds. Half of the wealthiest hedge fund managers in the land pay millions each year to the Tories – what do they expect back from their investment? Perhaps the hundreds of millions of stamp duty exemptions and taxes hedge funds no longer have to pay. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
This is neoliberalism out of control. The legislators have capitulated to its power. Democracy is systematically deconstructed in favour of the corporations. In the legislators place, people powered organisations emerge such as Tax Justice Network, Democratic Audit, New Economics Foundation to name a few who operate in an arena of social justice in an attempt not to stifle capitalism, but to level the playing field a bit.
Graham Vanbergen 

The original source of this article is truepublica.org.uk

Copyright © Graham Vanbergen, truepublica.org.uk, 2016