Nov 18, 2022
In this episode, Taxcast host Naomi Fowler discusses sovereignty, the 'boomerang effect' and the relevance of the 'Third World Movement' today to our global economic system, with Dr Kojo Koram, author of Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire. "Decolonisation, from the 1950s and 1970s, was quite simply the greatest multiplication of democratic power that the world has ever seen"
Plus, we look at two big failures this month:
- the collapse of crypto exchange company FTX (secrecy jurisdictions, enablers, investigations...)
- the Tax Justice Network writes an open letter to alert the G20 to the failings of the OECD as global tax rule-setter, as they miss another deadline.
A transcript of the podcast is available here: (Some is automated) https://taxjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/The-Taxcast-transcript-Nov-22-1.pdf
"The kind of loss of feeling of control in the United Kingdom, that loss of feeling of sovereignty, that loss of feeling of democratic accountability is connected to the erosion of sovereignty and erosion of democratic accountability that was allowed to happen to the former colonies of particularly the British Empire but all empires. What happens in the colonies doesn't simply stay there, but it comes back on the homeland and it starts to impact how its economy, its society, and its politics operates. And I think that's a lot of what we see in Britain right up until today.”
Featuring:
- Dr Kojo Koram of Birkbeck, University of London and author of Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire.
- Alex Cobham, Tax Justice Network
- Professor Nouriel Roubini speaking in the UAE
- Taxcast host and producer, Naomi Fowler, Tax Justice Network
Further reading:
- Kojo Koram's book Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire is published by John Murray Press: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/uncommon-wealth-britain-and-the-aftermath-of-empire/9781529338621
- Governments can recover billions from tax havens by publishing withheld transparency data https://taxjustice.net/press/governments-can-recover-billions-from-tax-havens-by-publishing-withheld-transparency-data/
- UN Secretary General signals support for UN tax convention: https://taxjustice.net/press/un-secretary-general-signals-support-for-un-tax-convention/
- Tax Justice Network's Open letter to G20 on OECD failure to deliver on G20 mandates https://taxjustice.net/2022/11/15/open-letter-to-g20-oecd-failure-to-deliver-on-g20-mandates/
- Why Didn't the Government Stop the Crypto Scam? by Matt Stoller: https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/why-didnt-the-government-stop-the
- The World Series of Crypto Rackets, by Judd Legum: https://t.co/wEh4TihGYz
- Seven politicians are returning FTX's tainted money — others are keeping quiet, by Judd Legum and Rebecca Crosby: https://popular.info/p/seven-politicians-are-returning-ftxs
WATCH ~ BOOMERANG: Empire and Britain's economy (featuring Kojo Koram): https://youtu.be/kmOK4tNc31A