Financial Transparency Coalition

January 3rds’ indictment of three Swiss bankers by a US court on tax evasion charges, shows that robust action against offshore centres can succeed. This underlines the terrible deal the populations of Germany, Britain and Greece will be getting if their governments conclude one sided tax deals, known as Rubik, with the Swiss Government.

I’ve long argued for the contention in the title of this blog. I am convinced legal limited liability is a privilege - after all, if people sign a piece of paper to form a company they no longer have to accept full responsibility for their debts. That’s an extraordinary state of affairs, and a massive privilege. But I have said that, like all responsibilities, this one comes at a price. The price is to say who you are i.e. to disclose who really owns the company and who really runs it, as well as to say what you do...

As you probably are already aware, it seems Mitt Romney can’t make up his mind on a lot of issues. He has been able to make his mind on one thing, though—quite clearly and quite decisively, mind you. That one thing is that Mitt Romney doesn’t like paying taxes. After much several months hemming, hawing, and waffling on the issue, Mitt finally bowed to mounting pressure on Monday to release his tax returns. But Mitt isn’t going to keep us waiting in suspense he finally decides to hand over his returns. While talking to reporters, he gave us a sneak...

This Saturday marks the two-year anniversary of Citizen's United v. Federal Election Commission, the decision which opened the door in the United States for unlimited corporate contributions to campaigns and political action committees, a practice that had long been forbidden. Most organizations which engage in political advocacy, including campaigns, are forced to disclose who donated how much money to their group.