Where the Money Lives

For media or voters assessing character of US presidential candidates, no detail is too small: education and career choices and the ability provide public service and global leadership with inspiration, intelligence, humor, empathy and compassion. Given the intricate linkages among offshore banking, tax havens and the US economy, those foreign connections have emerged as subject of election coverage. The career of Republican candidate Mitt Romney paralleled the financial industry’s rapid globalization of the past three decades. So far, he’s limited the release of details on his wealth to required disclosure forms, his 2010 income tax return and the 2011 estimate, returns filed long after he planned on running for president. Nicholas Shaxson, for Vanity Fair, scrutinizes the releases and finds a Romney-linked blind trust, a hedge fund that purchases debt in struggling economies and then sues for repayment, and an offshore investment firm set up for tax avoidance. “One cannot properly understand Wall Street’s size and power without appreciating the central role of offshore tax havens,” Shaxson writes. Since the 1960s, the US has become a tax haven for foreign investors. The tax-dodging machinations, all legal, have caught many Americans by surprise, especially as the country struggles with a heavy debt burden. – YaleGlobal