Juncker

Now getting into the book by Shaxson first noticed at reference 1. Typical of a book by a journalist in that it is well outside a journalist's comfort zone of two or three pages in the Economist or the Guardian. Typical of a book by a lefty in that it is a bit glib and rabid. Nevertheless, there is some wheat among the tares. Or perhaps the chaff.

I offer a sample.

Shaxson gets quite steamed up about the doings of Jean-Claude Juncker, vaguely a lefty himself, during his time as Prime Minister of Luxembourg, a tax haven in the heart of Europe, with a population made up of a quarter of a million locals plus a quarter of a million foreigners, many of whom work the tax haven side of things.

His wheeze was to open up shop for dodgy money. Money hiding from the tax man, money of dubious of provenance, money from drugs. Lots of shell companies to protect said money from nosey parkers. A police force mainly interested in parking fines and shoplifters. You pay me a percentage and I won't ask any questions - and I will do my best to make sure no one else does either. He then recycled the percentages into welfare for his voters, voters who, in consequence, thought he was the business. Never mind where he got the money from, he got it. He is also alleged to be rather into his booze and fags, rather into saloon bar bonhomie - which some of the more stuffy European leaders are not that keen on.

Worked hard with the governments of the UK and Switzerland to snuff out any legislation which might bear down on tax havens. Worked hard with PwC here in the UK on tax evasion schemes.

I remember that Cameron, the Prime Minister on watch the day that the present Brexit mess was hatched, tried hard, but clumsily, to block the elevation of Juncker to the Presidency of Europe. Not sure what his beef with Juncker was, objectionable though he may have been: he had only succeeded at doing just what a lot of the Tory boys would like to be doing a lot more of themselves.

PS: hard core leavers please note: there is not enough money in this tax haven lark to make a country the size of the UK rich. There is only so much cake and it only works for small countries with small populations to feed. But it might make a few city boys even richer than they are already.

Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/11/city-boys.html.