OECD & Tax Havens

[Brad DeLong]

>The Treasury statement was dictated by Larry Lindsey
>& the WH.  They overruled the T dept, and particularly
>the #2 over there, Mark Weinberger.  Tells you the
>pecking order . . . Bush/Cheney, Lindsey, Secy O'Neill,
>forest rangers, and Weinberger.
>
>The statement was utter demagogy.  The OECD initiative
>is not about harmonization but about curbing tax evasion.
>The Euro's are most worried about their citizens shifting
>financial assets into places where they can't be tracked
>by the tax authorities.  The Swiss are major culprits,
>what with bank secrecy laws.
>
>Transfer pricing is not a major dimension in this context.
>That's not evasion, it's avoidance.  Politically the issue
>is the facilitation of illegality by the WH, which parallels
>the shift of the IRS audits away from upper-income persons
>and towards EITC claimants.  The fact that the tax havens
>also host drug money is just icing on the cake.  As usual
>the Dems were asleep at the switch.
>
>mbs

Wow.

Brad DeLong