EU Observer – The Financial Times is carrying an important and fascinating story about the tax haven of Ireland. It focuses on a particular issue which is dear to my heart, and the subject of a whole chapter of Treasure Islands.
This is, at heart, a story about how small financial centres become entirely ‘captured’ by financial services interests, with the deliberate removal of democratic checks and balances and carte blanche given to financial services interests to write laws in secret. This is exactly why I call offshore the ‘smoke-filled room,’ where gentleman arrange the world’s financial affairs over cognac and cigars.
