How much Money is in Tax Havens ?

HOW MUCH money is in Tax Havens?

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Some people have stated that the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers hold as much as $100-200 Trillion between them, and much of it is in secret offshore accounts. Not all say that, but I am interested in looking into how realistic these claims might be.

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In the SCMP today, Oxfam is quoted as saying that: "the rich have hidden at least US$18.5 trillion in tax havens around the globe, causing the loss of more than US$156 billion in tax revenue."

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Where is it?

Oxfam thinks two-thirds of it is "hidden in European tax havens such as Luxembourg," ... and a "third of offshore wealth is sitting in tax havens linked to Britain, such as the BVI and the Cayman Islands, undeclared and untaxed."

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European leaders are now talking about "a year-end deadline to do away with banking secrecy."

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BTW, Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook estimates that the world's "net financial wealth totalled US$94.7 trillion last year, excluding property."

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(By comparison, If we believe the Official estimates of 175,000 tonnes of gold, at $1400, it is worth only $8.64 Trillion.).


*What's "All the Gold in the world" worth:

175K mt x 2204 = 385.7mn lb

385.7mn x 16 = 6.17 Bn Oz

6.17 Bn x $1,400 = $8.64 Trillion

$8.64 Trillion / 7 billion = $1,234 / person

Or, just under One Gold Oz. per person

What is the relationship between tax havens and the value of the gold in the world, in your post?


Anyway, will bank shares drop if these tax havens disappear? They will have less money (as more money will go to governments).

I am researching some claims about the scale of wealth held by so-called members of the Illuminati - and some reports that have been put out about how much wealth might be "handed back to the people."


They seem wild, and wrong by many orders of multitude.


If ALL the wealth mention in the article, plus the Gold was seized, it would come to:


+ Financial Wealth : $18.5 Tr.

+ Gold Wealth ---- : $ 8.6

+ Secret Wealth -- : $27.1 Tr. (FW in Offshore + GW)


If this was then split amongst 7 Billion people,

it would come to $ 3,871 per person


Not the $6 Million (or even $6 Billion) per person claimed by some.


I also often ponder:

Where can "hidden wealth" be kept:

If it is held in bank accounts at Big Banks, then it should show up in their financial statements. If in stocks, we will see it as part of global stock market Market Capitalisation.


The frustrating thing is that people make wild claims, and then never bother to see how feasible their claims are. Detail-guys like me bother to do the research, and can easily refute them.

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I expect that others here may be interested in knowing something about the Amount of Wealth that exists in the World, who holds it, and where?

"Will bank shares drop if these tax havens disappear?"


Sure.

Because the business done in Tax Havens is very profitable for the banks

Frankly, the whole "rich guys horde wealth" hysteria is completely "bass ackwards."


Imagine we are on an island with 100 people and 100,000 gold coins, initially evenly distributed among the people. Lets then imagine that 1 of the 99 is highly industrious and creates all sorts of goods and services that the other 99 like such as tree huts, coconut milk drinks and seafood dinners. Over years of service Mr. Industrious has acquired 90,000 of the initial 100,000 gold coins, leaving only about 100 coins per other person.


Then Mr Industious decides to retire to the other side of the beach and build himslf a big rock fort. He and his money are rarely ever seen from again except for when he comes into town and shells out big bucks for luxury goods.


Does having a rich guy horde 90% of the island's money make the remaining 99 guys worse off? I do not see how. His gold coins have no direct utility - he cannot eat them, sleep in them or wear them. All they represent is a claim on future production, in essence they are an IOU. Having a rich guy horde IOUs does not make us worse off, if anything it makes us better off because he has decided to never cash in his IOUs - he has provided goods and services for us in exchange for IOUs, then decided to vanish to the other side of the island without requiring us to actually perform work to repay him.


Since Mr. Industrious has 90% of the money he has 90% if the island's purchasing power. But since he has squirreled his money away the market rarely ever actually sees the influence of his purchasing power. Because his vast coin horde is not being used in the market to bid away goods from us, its as if he has no purchasing power and the remaining 99 have it all. The only time his purchasing power overwhelms the other 99 is when Mr Industrious decides he would like a new piece of ugly abstract art, another ridiculous French bag, or a poorly made Italian sportscar. His gold coins will always outbid everyone else to obtain those few luxury goods - but who cares? Those items are of little utility and fully unnecessary in order to live. His purchasing power is never used to bid away food from the 99.


It is beyond clear that having his money hidden away is not only not harmful, but in general is a boon to society (because he made for us goods of real utility and never forced us to repay him with services in kind - free stuff is great). The only harm done by Mr Industrious moving away is that he is no longer producing goods and services for the other 99. But in reality this is not what really happens - when a rich guy moves to Luxemberg he does not shut down his business and cease producing goods. His business will continue on to make goods and services for the world, and all the rich guy wants in return are some shiny diamonds and ugly European fashion items.


As usual, the general public has a horrid understanding of economics and money. Rich people squirrel their money away? An entirely irrelevant matter. Most people would think that it is some nefarious action that harms us all but it is precisely the exact opposite - it has been a great benefit to society as a whole. To think otherwise would be to think that having the rich come back with all of their purchasing power and buy everything away from us is somehow better than what they currently do (which is to only buy rare stones and beach villas in geographic locations we've never even heard of).

It is not about the Money - It is about the Power the money can buy.


The rich and their corporations have bought control of the US Congress. And there has been nothing benign about that !


Freedoms have been lost, and the ability to earn a decent livelihood has declined.


Whether the rich hoard their billions offshore (in an untaxed state) or invest them directly in the country may have some bearing on the taxes that the rest of Americans pay. But their ability to get Congress to write tax laws that favor them, and deploy the US military in ways that benefit them will matter more.


I think power should be devolved back towards the states. And more decisions should be made at local level, where you have a better chance of seeing some genuine democracy.

Well said, OTP.

OTP,


What you are really saying is not that the rich hording their wealth is harmful to society, but that the power of the government is harmful to society. What if the government was nothing more than a court system, minor police force and basic defensive military? How then could the rich use their wealth to force others to do things for them? Only the government has the ability to force others to do things they do not voluntarily want to do, and they do it with the force that comes out of the barrel of a gun.


Remove the power of the government and you remove the ability for uber wealthy to buy power via Congress.

If we extract our money from "their" big banks and the big Wall Street securities firms, and invest our capital in the community around them, we have a better chance of not being enslaved by the Global elites.


Catherine Austin-Fitts has done some interesting interviews about this approach to developing local communities

John Stoessel says: "Strip down government!"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M918dufGqS0