While the main focus in the financial crisis has been on the banks, the cost to us all of offshore banking has escaped attention. Most people regard tax havens as being relevant only to celebrities, crooks and spivs, and mistakenly believe that the main offshore problems are money laundering and terrorist financing. However, the offshore system has been (discreetly) responsible for the greatest ever shift of wealth from poor to rich, undermining democracy by offering the wealthiest members of society escape routes from tax, financial regulation and other normal democratic controls. Journalist and author of Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men who Stole the World, Nicholas Shaxson, exposes the deep corruption that has an impact on our daily lives.

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