The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens
Author: Gabriel Zucman File Type: pdf We are well aware of the rise of the 1% as the rapid growth of economic inequality has put the majority of the worlds wealth in the pockets of fewer and fewer. One much-discussed solution to this imbalance is to significantly increase the rate at which we tax the wealthy. But with an enormous amount of the worlds wealth hidden in tax havensin countries like Switzerland, Luxembourg, and the Cayman Islandsthis wealth cannot be fully accounted for and taxed fairly. No one, from economists to bankers to politicians, has been able to quantify exactly how much of the worlds assets are currently hiddenuntil now. Gabriel Zucman is the first economist to offer reliable insight into the actual extent of the worlds money held in tax havens. And its staggering. In The Hidden Wealth of Nations, Zucman offers an inventive and sophisticated approach to quantifying how big the problem is, how tax havens work and are organized, and how we can begin to approach a solution. His research reveals that tax havens are a quickly growing danger to the world economy. In the past five years, the amount of wealth in tax havens has increased over 25%there has never been as much money held offshore as there is today. This hidden wealth accounts for at least $7.6 trillion, equivalent to 8% of the global financial assets of households. Fighting the notion that any attempts to vanquish tax havens are futile, since some countries will always offer more advantageous tax rates than others, as well the counter-argument that since the financial crisis tax havens have disappeared, Zucman shows how both sides are actually very wrong. In The Hidden Wealth of Nations he offers an ambitious agenda for reform, focused on ways in which countries can change the incentives of tax havens. Only by first understanding the enormity of the secret wealth can we begin to estimate the kind of actions that would force tax havens to give up their practices. Zucmans work has quickly become the gold standard for quantifying the amount of the worlds assets held in havens. In this concise book, he lays out in approachable language how the international banking system works and the dangerous extent to which the large-scale evasion of taxes is undermining the global market as a whole. If we are to find a way to solve the problem of increasing inequality, The Hidden Wealth of Nations is essential reading. We are well aware of the rise of the 1% as the rapid growth of economic inequality has put the majority of the worlds wealth in the pockets of fewer and fewer. One much-discussed solution to this imbalance is to significantly increase the rate at which we tax the wealthy. But with an enormous amount of the worlds wealth hidden in tax havensin countries like Switzerland, Luxembourg, and the Cayman Islandsthis wealth cannot be fully accounted for and taxed fairly. No one, from economists to bankers to politicians, has been able to quantify exactly how much of the worlds assets are currently hiddenuntil now. Gabriel Zucman is the first economist to offer reliable insight into the actual extent of the worlds money held in tax havens. And its staggering. In The Hidden Wealth of Nations, Zucman offers an inventive and sophisticated approach to quantifying how big the problem is, how tax havens work and are organized, and how we can begin to approach a solution. His research reveals that tax havens are a quickly growing danger to the world economy. In the past five years, the amount of wealth in tax havens has increased over 25%there has never been as much money held offshore as there is today. This hidden wealth accounts for at least $7.6 trillion, equivalent to 8% of the global financial assets of households. Fighting the notion that any attempts to vanquish tax havens are futile, since some countries will always offer more advantageous tax rates than others, as well the counter-argument that since the financial crisis tax havens have disappeared, Zucman shows how both sides are actually very wrong. In The Hidden Wealth of Nations he offers an ambitious agenda for reform, focused on ways in which countries can change the incentives of tax havens. Only by first understanding the enormity of the secret wealth can we begin to estimate the kind of actions that would force tax havens to give up their practices. Zucmans work has quickly become the gold standard for quantifying the amount of the worlds assets held in havens. In this concise book, he lays out in approachable language how the international banking system works and the dangerous extent to which the large-scale evasion of taxes is undermining the global market as a whole. If we are to find a way to solve the problem of increasing inequality, The Hidden Wealth of Nations is essential reading. **
Author: Sun Shuyun
File Type: pdf
Ten Thousand Miles Without a Cloud is a beautifully written account of Sun Shuyuns journey to retrace the steps of one of the most popular figures in Chinese history - the monk Xuanzang, who travelled to India searching for true Buddhism. Xuanzang should be known as one of the worlds great heroes. His travels across Asia to bring true Buddhism back to China are legendary, and his own book provides a unique record of the history and culture of his time. Yet he is unknown to most of us and even to most Chinese, whose knowledge of Buddhist history has been eradicated by decades of Communist rule. Sun Shuyun was determined to follow in his footsteps, to discover more about Xuanzang and restore his fame. She decided to retrace his journey from China to India and back, an adventure that in the 8th century took Xuanzang eighteen years and led him across 118 kingdoms, an adventure that opened up the east and west of Asia to each other - and to us. A man of great faith and determination, Xuanzang won the hearts of kings and robbers with his teaching, his charm and his indomitable will. Against all odds he persuaded the Confucian emperors to allow Buddhism to flourish in China. At the heart of the book lies Sun Shuyuns own personal journey towards understanding the Buddhist faith of her grandmother, recognising the passionate idealism of the communist beliefs of her own family and discovering her own ideological and personal path through life.ReviewPacked with erudition and perception...it is also honest, sensitive, entirely without ego...ultimately, a meditation on the human condition. Evening Standard Sun Shuyun records her feelings and those of others with spontaneous simplicity, almost innocence, as if she were still the child seeking her grandmothers solution. Colin Thubron, Sunday Telegraph Wild Swans meets The Alchemist. Conde Nast Traveller About the AuthorSun Shuyun was born in China in the 1960s. She graduated from Beijing University and won a scholarship to Oxford. She is a film and television producer and has made documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4 and international broadcasters. For the past decade she has divided her time between Beijing and London.
Author: Donald A. Mackenzie
File Type: epub
Book Description This is Donald Mackenzies able retelling of the Northern mythological cycle. He weaves a coherent narrative from the Eddas, the Niebelunglied, the Volsung Saga, Beowulf, the primordial Hamlet myths, and Medieval German tales of chivalry. MacKenzie also wrote Egyptian Myth and Legend and Myths of Crete and Pre-Hellenic Europe. (Quote from sacred-texts.com) Table of Contents Publishers Preface Preface Introduction Story Of Creation The Nine Worlds The Deeds Of Odin How Evil Entered Asgard The Winter War Triumph Of Love The Lost Sword Of victory Fall Of Asgard The Gods Reconciled Lokes Evil Progeny Thors Great Fishing The City Of Enchantments Thor In Peril The Great Stone Giant Balder The Beautiful The Binding Of Loke The Dusk Of The Gods The Coming Of Beowulf Conflict With Demons Beowulf And The Dragon Hother And Balder The Traditional Hamlet Hamlets Storm-mill Land Of The Not-dead And Many Marvels The Doom Of The Volsungs How Sigmund Was Avenged Helgi Hundingsbane Sigurd The Dragon Slayer Brynhild And Gudrun The Last Of The Volsungs Gudruns Vengeance Siegfried And The Nibelungs The Promise Of Kriemhild How Brunhild And Kriemhild Were Won The Betrayal Of Siegfried The Nibelungen Tragedy Dietrich Of Bern The Land Of Giants The Wonderful Rose Garden virginal, Queen Of The Mountains Dietrich In Exile The Kings Homecoming About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, Esoteric and Mythology. www.forgottenbooks.org Forgotten Books is about sharing information, not about making money. All books are priced at wholesale prices. We are also the only publisher we know of to print in large serif font, which is proven to make the text easier to read and put less strain on your eyes. **About the Author About the Author Donald A. MacKenzie was born in Cromarty in 1873. (Interestingly the famous Scottish geologist and folklorist Hugh Miller was also born in Cromarty.) Between 1903 and 1910 he owned and edited The North Star in Dingwall, and then moved to the Peoples Journal in Dundee. From 1916 he represented the Glasgow paper, The Bulletin, in Edinburgh. (Quote from theweeweb.co.uk)
Author: Nicholas Heron
File Type: pdf
Is Christianity exclusively a religious phenomenon, which must separate itself from all things political, or do its concepts actually underpin secular politics? To this question, which animated the twentieth-century debate on political theology, Liturgical Power advances a third alternative. Christian anti-politics, Heron contends, entails its own distinct conception of politics. Yet this politics, he argues, assumes the form of what today we call administration, but which the ancients termed economics. The books principal aim is thus genealogical it seeks to understand our current conception of government in light of an important but rarely acknowledged transformation in the idea of politics brought about by Christianity. This transformation in the idea of politics precipitates in turn a concurrent shift in the organization of power an organization whose determining principle, Heron contends, is liturgy--understood in the broad sense as public service. Whereas until now only liturgys acclamatory dimension has made the concept available for political theory, Heron positions it more broadly as a technique of governance. What Christianity has bequeathed to political thought and forms, he argues, is thus a paradoxical technology of power that is grounded uniquely in service. **
Author: Richard Hunter
File Type: pdf
This is a series of innovative studies in the textual and literary criticism of Latin literature, exploring how these two branches of the discipline are mutually supportive. The contributors include many leading scholars in the field. Individual essays are devoted to Catullus, Cicero, Horace, Lucretius, Ovid, Tacitus and Virgil, and there are also essays on the Renaissance reception of Virgil and on principles of editorial practice. The collection celebrates the extraordinary contribution which Michael Reeve has made and continues to make to Latin studies. **Book Description A series of innovative studies in the textual and literary criticism of Latin literature, exploring how these two branches of the discipline are mutually supportive. The contributors include many leading scholars in the field. Individual essays are devoted to Catullus, Cicero, Horace, Lucretius, Ovid, Tacitus and Virgil. About the Author Richard Hunter is Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Trinity College. S. P. Oakley is Kennedy Professor of Latin at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Emmanuel College.
Author: Kenneth Turan
File Type: epub
The images and memories that matter most are those that are unshakeable, unforgettable. Kenneth Turans fifty-four favorite films embrace a century of the worlds most satisfying romances and funniest comedies, the most heart-stopping dramas and chilling thrillers. Turan discovered film as a child left undisturbed to watch Million Dollar Movie on WOR-TV Channel 9 in New York, a daily showcase for older Hollywood features. It was then that he developed a love of cinema that never left him and honed his eye for the most acute details and the grandest of scenes. Not to be Missed blends cultural criticism, historical anecdote, and inside-Hollywood controversy. Turans selection of favorites ranges across all genres. From All About Eve to Seven Samurai to Sherlock Jr., these are all timeless filmsclassic and contemporary, familiar and obscure, with big budgets and smalleach underscoring the truth of director Ingmar Bergmans observation that no form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight room of the soul.**
Author: Gottfried Benn
File Type: epub
Gottfried Benn ranks among the most significant German poets of the twentieth century. His early work, with its shockingly graphic depictions of human suffering and degradation, was associated with the Expressionist movement the overriding theme of his later work was the isolation and fragmentation of the human being adrift in a nihilistic world. David Paisey here presents two selections, of verse and prose respectively, from Benns large oeuvre, ordered chronologically to enable readers to perceive the developments of Benns art and thought. The original German text of the poems is also included. In an important biographical introduction, Paisey tackles the difficult question of Benns compliance with the Nazi regime and its impact on his life and work.**
Author: Philip Ivanhoe
File Type: pdf
Zhang Xuecheng (17381801) has primarily been read as a philosopher of history. This volume presents him as an ethical philosopher with a distinctive understanding of the aims and methods of Confucian self-cultivation. Offered in English translation for the first time, this collection of Zhangs essays and letters should challenge our current understanding of this Qing dynasty philosopher. On Ethics and History also contains translations of three important essays written by Tang-dynasty Confucian Han Yu and shows how Zhang responded to Hans earlier works. Those with an interest in ethical philosophy, religion, and Chinese thought and culture will find still relevant much of what Zhang argued for in his own day.**
Author: Bob Alexander
File Type: pdf
Captain Frank Jones, a famed nineteenth-century Texas Ranger, said of his companys top sergeant, Baz Outlaw (18541894), A man of unusual courage and coolness and in a close place is worth two or three ordinary men. Another old-time Texas Ranger declared that Baz Outlaw was one of the worst and most dangerous because he never knew what fear was. But not all thought so highly of him. In Whiskey River Ranger, Bob Alexander tells for the first time the full story of this troubled Texas Ranger and his losing battle with alcoholism. In his career Baz Outlaw wore a badge as a Texas Ranger and also as a Deputy US Marshal. He could be a fearless and crackerjack lawman, as well as an unmanageable manic. Although Baz Outlaws badge-wearing career was sometimes heroically creditable, at other times his self-induced nightmarish imbroglios teased and tested Texas Ranger managements resoluteness. Baz Outlaws true-life story is jam-packed with fellows owning well-known names, including Texas Rangers, city marshals, sheriffs, and steely-eyed mean-spirited miscreants. Baz Outlaws tale is complete with horseback chases, explosive train robberies, vigilante justice (or injustice), nighttime ambushes and bushwhacking, and episodes of scorching six-shooter finality. Baz met his end in a brothel brawl at the hands of John Selman, the same gunfighter who killed John Wesley Hardin. **Review Can someone write nonfiction, make it sound like Zane Greys fiction, and get away with it? Well, Bob Alexander can. He can take the otherwise bland Ranger Monthly Reports and turn them into a tale, without betraying the actual facts of the circumstances. The dry accounting of chases and arrests is turned into an adventure that leaves the reader wanting more.Paul N. Spellman, author of Captain John H. Rogers, Texas Ranger and Captain J. A. Brooks, Texas Ranger Bob Alexander has become a noted Wild West writer and a devotee of outlaw-lawmen history. He has put together a well-researched biography of one of the more controversial Texas Rangers, Bazzell Lamar Baz Outlaw. Alexander should be praised for his balanced treatment of Outlaw as a good-bad Ranger.Harold J. Weiss, Jr., author of Yours to Command The Life and Legend of Texas Ranger Captain Bill McDonald Bob Alexander presents a long awaited and tragic biography of Texas Ranger Baz Outlaw unjustly characterized as a violent predator. Outlaws descent into alcoholism ultimately destroyed this ranger. He was, as Alexander clearly demonstrates in this well documented history, far more than what has been portrayed in the past, acting as mentor for such rangers as John R. Hughes.Dave Johnson, author of The Mason County Hoo Doo War, 1874-1902 About the Author BOB ALEXANDER began a policing career in 1965 and retired as a special agent with the U.S. Treasury Department. He is the author of Rawhide Ranger, Ira Aten (winner of WWHA Best Book Award) Six-Shooters and Shifting Sands, Bad Company and Burnt Powder, Riding Lucifers Line, and Winchester Warriors, all published by UNT Press. He lives in Maypearl, Texas.