At the Center for Public Integrity, Michael Hudson writes
Push against offshore secrecy an uphill battle:
In June 2000, international groups rolled out blacklists targeting offshore refuges that shelter tax dodging and money laundering. Some observers predicted “the death of tax havens.”
By 2002 the campaign had, as one tax analyst put it, “dissolved into a series oftoothless pronouncements.”
In 2009, offshore centers faced new attacks as the United States pursued an investigation of Swiss banks and nations hit by economic crisis sought to boost tax revenues. “Tax havens and bank secrecy are finished,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared.
By 2010 it was clear the offshore industry had once more survived mostly unscathed.
Now offshore havens are under attack again in the wake of exposés by theInternational Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other news outlets.
Britain has vowed to lift the secrecy covering the Cayman Islands and other financial sanctuaries operating under its flag. Dozens of rich nations have agreed—in an unprecedented example of global cooperation on offshore issues — to begin swapping information about assets stashed in foreign accounts. Another French president— François Hollande—has promised to “eradicate” tax havens.
“Looks like the offshore party is over,” the Chicago Tribune said recently.
Will this time be different?
Many financial crime fighters are skeptical.
They fear the new initiatives mostly target small and medium tax scofflaws but allow other offshore clients—ultra-rich tax dodgers, white collar fraudsters, terrorism funders and tax-phobic corporations—to continue much as they always have. [...]
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Fred Hampton: 1948-1969, R.I.P.
Forty-four years ago, on this date in 1969, Fred Hampton, the 21-year-old chairman of the Chicago Black Panther Party, was shot to death in a pre-dawn raid by Chicago police along with fellow Panther Mark Clark. Authorities claimed that the Panthers had opened fire first and the police had merely defended themselves. But evidence soon emerged that the FBI, through CoIntelPro, the tactical unit of the State's Attorney's Office in Cook County and the Chicago Police Department had conspired to assassinate Hampton. An infiltrator had drugged Hampton so he wouldn't wake up during the raid. Police initially claimed they had encountered a firestorm of gunshots, but it was later proved forensically that they had fired 98 rounds while Hampton had fired one, which was determined to have been a reflex from his being shot in the head. That was the only shot fired by the Panthers.
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2008—More Smears From John Ziegler:
Nate Silver's favorite punching bag makes fun of himself again, telling Alan Colmes that he thinks it's "rational" to believe Barack Obama is a Muslim.
We all know Barack Obama is Christian, but it's important to also say that it wouldn't matter if he were Muslim, or Jewish, or any other religion, because in this country, we don't impose religious tests.
At the same time, it's a smear to maliciously claim someone holds a religious faith other than their own, and to defend believing those smears as "rational" says more about how McCain nearly managed to get 46% of the vote than it does about anything else John Ziegler might choose to whine about.
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Tweet of the Day:
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show: Third Way is terrible. I say so.
Greg Dworkin says so. And
Joan McCarter says so. So that's three ways. Greg rounds up healthcare.gov numbers, Obama running away from Obamacare by giving a speech about Obamacare, how ACA journamalisms is awful, and how Tom Edsall says "The Center Cannot Hold." He tried to reassure us there wouldn't be another gov't shutdown, but we hung up on him. So, we asked Joan about that instead! And about the non-i-word hearing, the Detroit bankruptcy, and the recycling of the "Medicare cuts" talking point. Later: the VA special election to fill Mark Herring's seat, and some critical background from Demos on Detroit.
High Impact Posts. Top Comments. Overnight News Digest.