#85 Oligopoly Capitalism - Tax Justice Network podcasts

#154 How to spend 14 billion

The life-changing, life-saving, transformational nature of tax - for people and planet. Ireland's got a tax windfall of about €14 billion - that's roughly $15 billion. What are they going to do with it? We don't do enough about blue sky thinking on how tax can transform our lives. This is our chance to unlock our imaginations. It's also time for Ireland to rethink its tax haven model and for many countries, not just Ireland, to ask who it's economy is serving.

Apr 29

#153 Criminalising journalists

The Taxcast looks at the battle for freedom of the press in Switzerland and the implications for the rest of the world. Investigative journalists like Bastian Obermayer risks arrest, fines and imprisonment if he sets foot in Switzerland again, and Swiss journalists are having to turn away strong public interest stories - for fear of not just rich and powerful people coming after them, but also the Swiss state. Switzerland's always been famous for its banking secrecy laws and it's never been the friendliest place for investigative journalists. Now the situation threatens to get even worse.

Mar 28

#152 The Chinese Phantom

How easy is it to get filthy rich selling arms to anyone who'll pay? There may be sanctions, there may be laws, but even though he's the FBI's most wanted fugitive, a Chinese arms dealer and manufacturer has evaded arrest for two decades. Who could be better to investigate one of the world’s most dangerous men and tell this story than Panama Papers journalists? What does their investigation tell us about sanctions and financial secrecy at a time of rising autocracy and global insecurity?

Feb 27

#151 Ending US financial secrecy

The rollercoaster story of the battle in the US (the world's biggest global financial secrecy offender) over the implementation of a beneficial ownership register, the attempts to stop it & the (many) lessons learned from the UK's registers.

Jan 31

#150 Al-Assad and Guernsey

A Syrian kleptocrat and alleged war criminal, and the British Crown Dependency of Guernsey. Plus: on day one of his presidency, Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the OECD's global minimum tax deal. So what now?

Dec 18

2024

#149 $6.2 million banana

A world where someone pays $6.2 million for a banana duct-taped to a wall is a world that needs wealth taxes. But unsubstantiated spin and myth making dominates the debate. We look at the Tax Justice Network's modest wealth tax proposal which could help governments increase their national budgets by 7 percent a year, a potential global revenue of more than 2 trillion US dollars annually. And we discuss what research really says about so-called 'tax flight' by the very wealthy because of tax reforms.