The U.K. is hosting an anti-corruption summit of which over 300 economists are urging mainly U.K. and U.S. leaders to combat corruption including Thomas Piketty. Jeffrey Sachs, another prominent economist, stated:
"We see from the Panama Papers these are simply conduits for massive illegality, corruption, tax evasion and many other nefarious deeds."
Despite this huge rally against what most see as problematic, many attending the summit are convinced that big money will win towards the end of the talks. What are your thoughts? How does this relate to Piketty's ever-present statement of wealth inequality? Here's the link (this one should work):
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/09/tax-havens-have-no-economic-justification-say-top-economists
I think that it is so funny how we reacted to the Panama Papers being released. We very much had the mind set of - "of course we know this is happening, why is this a surprise." I think that this problem will not end with this conference. Big businesses and big money have been doing this tax evasion for years now because of the constantly increasing tax rates and double taxation rates on business and personal income in the United States and it wont change until tax rates lower.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Brian I think the we reacted to the release of the Panama Papers is funny yet worrisome, because it is such a well known issue. Personally I do not think this problem will ever be solved and big money and big businesses will always win. In the words of Dr. Moffit "cash is king" and it always will be because they have the resources and will find ways to decrease their taxes.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Bharath, it's going to be very hard to actually cause change to occur when people are so influenced by money. Hopefully politicians capable of making these changes will be influenced by this summit.
DeleteThe IMF is very clear about their position on tax havens. Tax havens are extremely harmful to developing countries because they take away from important public spending on infrastructure.
ReplyDeleteI don't think these talks will solve the problem either. It's simply human nature to try and keep as much of your own money as possible. No one wants to pay taxes, so of course there will always be those who try and avoid taxes through tax havens and other loopholes.
ReplyDeleteThis just reminds me of the video we watched in the very first class about these rich people hiding their money overseas, especially in Switzerland, to avoid taxes. I agree with Anthony that tax havens probably are more detrimental in developing countries, as those evaded taxes would have had bigger impact on the low-income class than it would have been in developed countries.
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