Financial Transparency Coalition

Last week as the UBS settlement was announced and (metaphorically speaking) copious amounts of bourbon were drunk in panic at many of the 4,450 homes where U.S. account holders rest their heads (for now), a producer for a well known news program called to ask if I would appear to discuss the issue. After noting that I would, he wondered if I knew of anyone who might take a view opposite of mine. I gave the producer two leads but was told later that neither panned out and, since they could not provide a balanced view of...

Richard Murphy has pointed out that Switzerland has signed its second tax information exchange agreement with... Luxembourg. That's right, Switzerland is now 1/6 of the way to being squeaky-clean because it signed an agreement (and a weak one at that) with another tax haven. As Richard says, this amounts to: "You look one way and I’ll look the other." From Swissinfo:

Switzerland on Tuesday signed a revised double taxation agreement with Luxembourg, easing the restrictions on the exchange of tax information between the two countries.

It is...