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The Panama Papers: Oozing Slime
by Robert Hunziker / April 8th, 2016
The Panama Papers, a one-year investigation by over 100 reporters worldwide (The International Consortium of Investigative Journalism) of offshore money hiding/laundering/taxation avoidance, is a cause célèbre of underhandedness seldom, if ever, revealed to the world’s public. It is comparable to lifting a rotting log in the woods and finding an active nest of millipedes, red worms, and cockroaches scampering about to escape the bright sunlight. They can’t stand the sunlight because darkness is their life.
The Panama Papers, containing info on thousands of shell companies set up to avoid taxes and hide assets for over four decades from 1977 to 2015, are all about millionaires and billionaires and the politically connected “sticking it to” average citizens of the world by hiding money from fellow countrymen’s taxation policies and/or theft of state funds and laundering money. It is outrageously heinous and deserving of criminal incrimination and/or tarring and feathering whilst run out of town on a rail. It also begs the question of how many more rich pillagers are out there.
It’s the biggest leak in history, dwarfing the data released by the Wikileaks organization in 2010. For context, if the amount of data released by Wikileaks was equivalent to the population of San Francisco, the amount of data released in the Panama Papers is the equivalent to that of India. (BBC News, April 5th).
The Panama Papers, containing info on thousands of shell companies set up to avoid taxes and hide assets for over four decades from 1977 to 2015, are all about millionaires and billionaires and the politically connected “sticking it to” average citizens of the world by hiding money from fellow countrymen’s taxation policies and/or theft of state funds and laundering money. It is outrageously heinous and deserving of criminal incrimination and/or tarring and feathering whilst run out of town on a rail. It also begs the question of how many more rich pillagers are out there.
Neoliberalism is the legal equivalent of the Panama Papers.
It robs the public legally by changing regulations, trade policy, and taxation to enrich the wealthy class at the expense of the middle/lower. For example, America’s “15% carried-interest” taxation rate available to people like Mitt Romney but not available to his gardener. This is joylessly known as “reverse Robin Hood economics,” or taking from the poor to enrich the rich, and it works miracles. Just look at how rich Mitt has become and at how his gardener’s wages suck dust.
The NAFTA trade agreement is another example of stealing from the lower/middle to enrich the rich by automatically undercutting America’s unions. “The A.F.L.-C.I.O. released a report excoriating Nafta and highlighting its deleterious effects on the labor market… Nafta increased corporate profits while depressing wages.”4
NAFTA has been hollowing out unions since 1994.
Effectively, NAFTA jump-shifts labor’s wages to dividends and capital gains and CEO bonuses. Presto! Labor magically turns into dividends.
Neoliberal policies are legally as heinous as the Panama Papers are illegally disgusting. One is legal robbery, the other illegal theft. Both achieve the same end result, taking from the lower and middle classes to enrich the wealthy. There are endless examples of how this slight-of-hand is legally constructed by Congress, worthy of a 200-page thesis.
And, Bernie Sanders knows all about it. His popularity is largely based upon exposing the tricks of the trade of the plutocrats. Citizens United essentially put a “for sale” sign up in front of the nation’s capitol.
It robs the public legally by changing regulations, trade policy, and taxation to enrich the wealthy class at the expense of the middle/lower. For example, America’s “15% carried-interest” taxation rate available to people like Mitt Romney but not available to his gardener. This is joylessly known as “reverse Robin Hood economics,” or taking from the poor to enrich the rich, and it works miracles. Just look at how rich Mitt has become and at how his gardener’s wages suck dust.
The NAFTA trade agreement is another example of stealing from the lower/middle to enrich the rich by automatically undercutting America’s unions. “The A.F.L.-C.I.O. released a report excoriating Nafta and highlighting its deleterious effects on the labor market… Nafta increased corporate profits while depressing wages.”4
NAFTA has been hollowing out unions since 1994.
Effectively, NAFTA jump-shifts labor’s wages to dividends and capital gains and CEO bonuses. Presto! Labor magically turns into dividends.
Neoliberal policies are legally as heinous as the Panama Papers are illegally disgusting. One is legal robbery, the other illegal theft. Both achieve the same end result, taking from the lower and middle classes to enrich the wealthy. There are endless examples of how this slight-of-hand is legally constructed by Congress, worthy of a 200-page thesis.
And, Bernie Sanders knows all about it. His popularity is largely based upon exposing the tricks of the trade of the plutocrats. Citizens United essentially put a “for sale” sign up in front of the nation’s capitol.
Full article: http://dissidentvoice.org/2016/04/the-panama-papers-oozing-slime/