Human beings seem to enjoy conspiracy theories.
When all else fails in explaining some major event, such as the 9-11 terror attacks, an assassination, or especially events involving lots of money or alleged corruption, people always seem ready to blame "them" -- whoever "them" may be. There must be, we are told, some secret, unlawful, or evil purpose behind the surreptitious plan du jour formulated in secret by the unknown few.
The X-Files, currently the subject of another new movie, was a popular U.S. television show a few years ago that followed the investigations of two intrepid FBI agents, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, who were sometimes assisted by a group of conspiracy theorists known as "The Lone Gunmen."
Many of the episodes dealt with a plot for alien invasion overseen by secret elements of the U.S. government and an even more mysterious international "syndicate". The famous tag line of the series, "The Truth Is Out There" can be interpreted as reference to the illusive nature we humans expect of all conspiracies.
Tell It Like It Is
But what about situations in which clear factual, explanations are offered for horrific events. Read Adolf Hitler's Mein Kempf (still in print) and you will find a detailed description of the horror that eventually engulfed Nazi Germany and the world.
There are others that have made clear their nefarious plans to curtail freedom.
For well over a decade various and sundry ultra-leftist groups and individuals have detailed plainly their worldwide goals to destroy all financial privacy, impose uniformly high taxes and crush tax havens.
Writing in the July 22 issue of The Nation, ("Attack of the Global Pirate Bankers") James S. Henry, identified as "a New York-based investigative journalist who has written widely on the problems of tax havens," lays out what he perceives to be the stark horrors of tax havens, all of them no more than festering sores on the global body politic, economic boils to be lanced and cauterized by forceful government action.
Henry notes the participants in this long-running anti-tax haven crusade and praises them for organizing "a global alliance" against offshore banks and tax havens, including suspect groups such as "..Tax Justice International, Oxfam GB, Friends of the Earth, Global Witness and Christian Aid...converging on a new global campaign around the issue of havens and offshore tax evasion. They've been enlisting support for this effort from countries like Norway, Chile, Brazil, Spain and France, organizations like the UNDP, the World Bank and even the International Monetary Fund," he claims.
Bankers and Bribes
What has given fresh impetus to the war against financial privacy has been the stupidity of UBS private bankers who may have advised a select few wealthy Americans on how to evade taxes, the official German bribery of a criminal Liechtenstein bank employee in order to obtain a stolen list of foreign account holders, and a series of noisy, demagogic anti-tax haven hearings in the Democrat controlled U.S. Senate.
Oh -- throw in a compliant leftist media that loves to sensationalize, but not authenticate, the wildest of anti-tax haven charges.
"Cui bono?"
Another epistemological "rule of thumb" that seems to be a feature of human consciousness can be applied to almost any mystery involving other humans. That is asking the question: "Cui bono?" "Who stands to gain?" This reaction to the hidden motives of others appears to be universal.
So who stands to gain from the ultimate destruction of financial privacy, the right to transfer funds and invest freely?
Of course the major beneficiaries are the free spending, power seeking, leftist politicians of the world and their official tax collectors, the IRS certainly included.
According to The Nation's indignant article: "In the last thirty years, fueled by the globalization of financial services, lousy lending, capital flight and mind boggling corruption, a relatively small number of major banks, law firms, accounting firms, asset managers, insurance companies and hedge funds have come to launder and conceal at least $10 trillion to $15 trillion of private untaxed anonymous cross-border wealth."
Ultimate Libertarian Pipe Dream?
As in the case of Hitler's Mein Kempf, be forewarned.
The Nation's Mr. Henry goes on to issue his clarion call: "Rich people the world over, including tens of thousands of wealthy Americans, are now free to opt in to this sophisticated, secretive, utterly unprincipled global private banking industry. They can become, in effect, residents of nowhere for tax purposes, citizens of a brave new virtual country, which offers its inhabitants unprecedented freedom from the taxes, regulations and moral restraints that the rest of us take for granted. They wield enormous political influence even without paying taxes, merely by making contributions, threatening to withhold them--or better yet, threatening to abscond with their capital unless certain conditions are met. In a sense, this is the ultimate libertarian pipe dream: representation without taxation. But it is a nightmare for the rest of us, and we must design and organize our way around it."
We beg to disagree -- but then you already knew that.
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