I don't know how credible this is, but if this is true, it seems like it will be a big deal in the near future. This ought to get more national attention, considering that one of our presidential candidates may benefit from this. It's hard to know for sure, but could this be the thing lurking in his background which could sink his entire campaign? Here's a small excerpt:
Mr Henry said that the super-rich move money around the globe through an "industrious bevy of professional enablers in private banking, legal, accounting and investment industries.
"The lost tax revenues implied by our estimates is huge. It is large enough to make a significant difference to the finances of many countries.
I don't care how much money Mitt Romney has. Worrying about how much he has is not something that will change anyone's life for the better. Of course, that is not the real reason why people want to see his tax returns.
The real issue is tax havens, whose sole purpose is to hide their money from the legal obligations of their wealthy patron. If Mitt Romney does have a great deal of money shielded from taxation, he's avoiding his duty as a patriot to pay back into the system from which he benefits.
If Mitt Romney has been underpaying his taxes in years which he did not know he would run for president, then he would have first-hand experience knowing that the economic system is broken. We can't expect someone who breaks our system to fix the problems they exploit.
If there's really twenty-one trillion dollars stashed away in tax havens worldwide, then tax havens ARE a problem that ought to be fixed. And not only that, it's a world-wide problem, like another recent scandal.
With the recent libor scandal, hiding money from governments shouldn't really be surprising news either. Wealthy people have more resources, and if some begin doing questionable activities and get away with it, others will follow.
Again, I am a bit skeptical of the size of this number, and would be interested to see how credible this is and if the report can be verified. But if deficits are such a huge problem in the world right now, how about a global crackdown on tax havens?
