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Icelandic Prime Minister Resigns After Panama Data Leak (bloomberg.com)
Omar Valdimarsson, reporting for Bloomberg: The Panama secrecy leak claimed its first scalp after Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson resigned following revelations about his personal finances. The decision was announced in parliament after the legislature had been the focus of street protests that attracted thousands of Icelanders angered by the alleged tax evasion of their leader. Gunnlaugsson, who will step down a year before his term was due to end, gave in to mounting pressure from the opposition and even from corners of his own party. The Panama documents leak, printed in newspapers around the world, showed that the 41-year-old premier and his wife had investments placed in the British Virgin Islands, which included debt in Iceland's three failed banks. An article on The Guardian sheds more light on this: The leaked documents from the Mossack Fonseca law firm show Gunnlaugsson and his wife, Anna Sigurlaug Palsdottir, bought a British Virgin Islands-based offshore company, Wintris Inc, in December 2007 to invest her share of the proceeds of the sale of her father's business, Iceland's only Toyota importer. Gunnlaugsson sold his 50% stake to his wife for a symbolic $1 at the end of 2009, eight months after he was elected to parliament as an MP for the centre-right Progressive party. He failed, however, to declare an interest in the company either then or when he became prime minister in 2013. His office has said his shareholding was an error due simply to the couple having a joint bank account and that it had "always been clear to both of them that the prime minister's wife owned the assets." The transfer of ownership was made as soon as this was pointed out, a spokesman said. The prime minister denies he was required to declare an interest.
The difference between a "joint checking" and separated accounts is merely a formality and not one of any real significance. Pretending it is enough separation is functionally idiotic.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
It's becoming clear now that by the end of the year Trump will have become President-Elect Trump, and early next year he will be President Trump.
Although he has been extensively vilified by the media and the political establishment, he is the one who the people of America have chosen.
The part that really scares the political elite is how he has managed to cross existing political boundaries.
He appeals to those on the right. He appeals to centrists. He even appeals to many of those on the left.
His stance on immigration actually wins him a lot of support within the legal immigrant communities, because they're the ones who are wronged and punished the most when illegal aliens are given amnesty, despite having avoided the legal immigration process.
His stance on the economy is also correct, as the free trade experiments of the past quarter century have been a disaster, and the American public knows this all too well.
Out of all of the political candidates that we've seen not only in this election, but in every election going back decades, Trump is the first one to be a real leader with truly progressive ideas.
Trump is exactly the leader that America needs, at exactly the right time to restore America to greatness.
Trump won't get the nod. Even if they have to bring in Romney as an attempted at a controlled landing (as opposed to a complete crash), they won't let Trump on the ballot.
The GOP knows it won't win the White House in November. That ship has sailed with Cruz and Trump as the leading contenders. Now it's about preserving the party against the inevitable Trump/anti-Trump wars that will follow Trump's departure.
For fuck's sake, even Sanders would beat Trump.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Tax shelters have probably been around forever. They are more sophisticated these days simply because financial systems are more complex, and reporting requirements far greater than they were in the past. Like any scam, tax dodges have to invoke more and more misdirection as investigators gain better powers.
There is a case to be made, however, that these tax shelters are a symptom of the rule makers working in their own self-interest, and creating taxation rules that benefit them. And that's why leaks like this are so important, because in the case of systemic fraud, about the only way you close the holes is by generating a lot of outrage.
Look at Switzerland, whose banking industry was notorious for decades for helping everyone from despots to drug cartels hide cash. For chrissake, even the Nzis were stowing gold they'd stolen from the Jews they were marching off to the gas chambers in Swiss banks. It was only after sustained pressure from international agencies and governments like the US that Switzerland finally began to close the loopholes. And it wouldn't surprise if that's why these tax shelters have become more popular. As the older means of hiding your cash from the taxman (or in some cases, the police) dried up, more sophisticated rackets were formulated.
For me, as bad as it is that rich and powerful people are doing this, the real target here should be the bankers, lawyers and accountants of dozens of countries who set up these schemes. While it will doubtless please the mob that a few politicians and international types fall over this, I'd like to see murky investment scheme organizations like Mossack Fonseca & Co. torn wide open. Otherwise, the people that create these dodges and shelters will just regroup and build some new schemes.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.