Opinion: Bailed-out banks facilitate $21tn offshore cash hoard

By Nick Mathiason, Bureau of Investigative JournalismInvestigative economist James Henry exhaustively trawled through financial information held by the IMF, World Bank, Bank for International Settlements, central banks and national treasuries to come up with the most definitive report ever written on the super-rich and offshore wealth.Henry’s Price of Offshore Revisited report, commissioned by Tax Justice Network (TJN), shows:between $21 trillion and $32 trillion of financial assets is owned by High Net Worth...

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David Cameron wants to turn the UK into a tax haven

$21 trillion (£13tn) worth of assets are being 'hidden' by a global super-rich to avoid tax. The recent report by the Tax Justice Network, penned by James Henry (a former chief economist at the consultancy McKinsey), got widespread coverage. George Osborne says it’s time to put a stop to it. David Cameron says it’s time we got a slice of that cake (actually, a bigger slice than we already have). We invited Richard Murphy to explain:By Richard MurphyAdviser to the Tax Justice Network and the TUC on taxation and economic issues. He is also...

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Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 26th July)

$21trillion (£13tn) worth of assets 'hidden' by tax dodging global super-rich A global super-rich elite had at least $21 trillion hidden in secret tax havens by the end of 2010, according to a major study by a former chief economist at the consultancy McKinsey. BBC NEWS(Taxmen around the world want to know where it's hidden - and so do some former spouses)UK economy on its knees as shock growth figures show disastrous 0.7% plunge in outputFigures fuel criticism that Chancellor George Osborne's austerity measures are choking off the recovery. The...

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Don’t be ripped off by a Parliamentary Inquiry into bankers. Only a full Judicial Inquiry will do

By Ann Pettifor Fellow of the New Economics Foundation.[Click here to sign the e-Petition.]Power corrupts, and financial market power has corrupted financial and other markets. It has done worse. It has corrupted politics. That is why Britain will be ripped off by a Parliamentary Inquiry into banking. It will go nowhere, lack both credibility and teeth, and will inevitably be discredited. Above all, it is most unlikely to rein in bankers. That is why we launched our  e-Petition the very day the Barclays LIBOR scandal broke on...

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US Senate catches HSBC laundering money for rogue states, terrorists.. and drug lords

Chris should be proud of another world beating British b...

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Corporate culture - are we culturally a nation of looters?

The summer of 2011 saw the London riots in full view of local, national, and closed circuit television. Heedless of their audience ordinary Britons smashed and grabbed. Over the ensuing months thousands of convictions and punishments were handed out to citizens who had never faced a magistrate before and will probably never do so again. It takes an extreme hooligan to kick in a shop window. But once the window has been kicked in, it seems there are thousands of us who would step through and snatch stuff.Corporate Britain saw the windows kicked...

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Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 19th July)

NHS pays £1,600 a day for nurses as agency use soars to cope with rising staff shortagesExperts said the disclosures show how hospitals' attempts to improve their efficiency have backfired. Jobs are being cut, only for temporary staff to be hired at vastly inflated rates - with private agencies receiving more than seven times the rate paid to nurses on the pay roll. TELEGRAPH Miliband slams pension fees 'rip-off'At present, some people are paying up to 4% or 5% in fees and charges on their pension schemes, which could swallow up as...

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Record numbers of shops have started their sales early

KJ sticks to the oldest sales trick in the book...

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What's the difference between a banker and Rumpelstiltskin?

Having explained how 'interest rate swaps' work in a previous post, we asked Honestly Banking to explain why they were sold.The best fairytales are not just empty whimsies. The best ones seek to educate us about the hazards of greed, gluttony, pride, lust and all the other stuff we’d really like to do but probably oughtn’t. The Bully-Banks guest post on this blog compared their ripped-off situation to Little Red Riding Hood in the clutches of the wolf. Their situation also brought to our mind another salutary fairytale: Rumpelstiltskin. In...

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G4S Olympic security shambles

Chris, Fee and KJ find a silver lining to having G4S involved in the Olympic Ga...

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Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 12th July)

 SHOCK NEWS! British Bankers Association summer party is cancelled!!!!!Their statement said “We regret the short notice but our industry needs to think long and hard about its collective behaviour” BLOOMBERG Original details were:Date & Time: 4th July 2012, 18:30 - 20:30Venue: College Garden, Westminster Abbey, London, SW1P 3PADress Code: Business Wear(They forgot to add... Ethical Code: Optional)UK Government departments cut spending by £6.7bn more than they had planned in the year to MarchThe government...

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An elected House of Lords? That's just not fair!

Chris, Fee and KJ on the consequences of House of Lords ref...

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