The big story of the day, of course, is the story of the gigantic release of secret correspondence between a Panamanian law firm and its ultra-wealthy clients. If you haven’t been following it here’s the opening of the ICIJ’s article on the release:
A massive leak of documents exposes the offshore holdings of 12 current and former world leaders and reveals how associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly shuffled as much as $2 billion through banks and shadow companies.
The leak also provides details of the hidden financial dealings of 128 more politicians and public officials around the world.
The cache of 11.5 million records shows how a global industry of law firms and big banks sells financial secrecy to politicians, fraudsters and drug traffickers as well as billionaires, celebrities and sports stars.
These are among the findings of a yearlong investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and more than 100 other news organizations.
We don’t know right now what impact this release will have. I suspect it will be years before we know the whole story if ever. Eleven and half million records is a lot of documents.
At its most superficial the story should just confirm what any observant person should at least suspect: that the ultra-wealthy remain ultra-wealthy by engaging in practices which are either illegal, unethical, immoral or give the appearance of one or more of those.
One gauge of who’s the most at risk from the disclosures is who’s doing the most damage control. Never believe anything until it’s been officially denied. At this point that appears to be Putin’s inner circle and the Swiss banks. Putin is taking the position that it’s all disinformation. One of the hazards of being a liar is that you come to believe that everybody else is a liar, too. The Russians are probably the world’s heavyweight champions at disinformation so it’s not particularly surprising that they’d claim that any bad news is disinformation.
The Swiss banks are responding with a Clintonian “it’s old news”, they’ve made all the reforms necessary already, etc. We’ll see how well that flies.
I was amused by François Hollande’s response. His take was that the leak was tremendously good news for France because the French government would be in for a lot of additional revenue which sounds a lot like he’s making lemonade to me.
At this point there don’t seem to be any present American politicans on the Scheisse list but that could change at any time. Stay tuned.
These are just the records from one law firm in Panama? Calling this the tip of the iceberg is vastly underselling it.
My understanding is that Panama has sort of become the Wal-Mart of off-shore accounts.
The ultra wealthy will always find a way to stash funds — somewhere — out of harms way from oversight, taxation etc.. This includes liberal corporations and billionaires such as Warren Buffet, Google and so on. It especially includes dictators such as Putin, and the Castro Brothers who so many American leftists view as this side of “wonderful.”
It’s also kind of amusing to see the fanfare over Bernie Sanders campaign by the youth. They are doing emotional summersaults, transfixed by his share-the-wealth bombast without seriously considering where much of the wealth will go. In most cases it’s the government elites of a socialistic state who reap the rewards, not the peons who vote them in. Becoming serfs to a system that reshuffles opportunity away from them and into the hands of their rulers just doesn’t seem to exist in the critical analysis of most inexperienced minds.
Jan:
Is there evidence that Warren Buffett is hiding money off-shore?
Michael,
I didn’t say Buffett was hiding his assets in off shore accounts. Who knows! However, people like the beloved Warren Buffett, much like the hated Donald Trump, are both savvy and hypocritical in how they are able to avoid (defer) paying their “fair share” of taxes, legally. Most common people don’t have the sophistication, money, or hubris to engage in what these kind of high-rollers (liberal and conservative) are able to do.
Jan:
Well, so far there is zero evidence that Buffett is doing any such thing, to the best of my knowledge. In fact, Buffett is the guy behind the effort to get billionaires to agree to give at least half their wealth to charity.
I could probably manage to hide money, after all I make a substantial portion of my income overseas in the UK, Ireland, ANZ, France, Brazil, etc… I don’t do that because I am not an asshole. (Or at least not that kind of asshole.) I foolishly believe that it is my obligation as an American to support my country.
Not everyone does this sort of thing. And we should not let cynicism empower these people – that’s the path to becoming Greece or Italy. If it were up to me I would strip the citizenship from anyone who hides money overseas to avoid taxes and deport them to Antarctica, where I don’t believe they’d have to pay any taxes at all.
I have no evidence whatsoever that Buffet is hiding money. But I know first hand he is a crony capitalist and monopolist. And confidentiality requires I spill no beans, but he’s a no good son of a bitch given to other shady practices. His public statements impress me more for hubris and media manipulation than altruism.
“They are doing emotional summersaults, transfixed by his share-the-wealth bombast without seriously considering where much of the wealth will go.”
To Panama, apparently. (Or the Caymans or whatever spot is preferred.)
Steve