The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens

“Zucman’s work on tax havens is the first serious economic research in this area. His evaluation of the share of global household wealth that is located in tax havens has become the standard in the profession. Most importantly, this is the first work offering credible estimates of the kind of economic sanctions that would make tax havens give up the financial opacity that allows them to prosper. The conclusions are powerful.”

“Zucman seems to have little ambivalence about how to interpret the data, as his book is subtitled The Scourge of Tax Havens. He acknowledges that some view tax havens as perfectly legal and legitimate. But whatever the politics, for anyone who cares about understanding the economy, it’s clear a dramatic shift is under way.”

“With his book, The Hidden Wealth of Nations, Zucman is positioning himself as this year’s Piketty, whose opus renewed a debate about inequality last year. . . . There has never been as much wealth sitting in tax havens as there is today, Zucman says, whether it’s Apple Inc. funneling billions in profits through a tiny Irish unit or a French cabinet minister using secret accounts to cheat on his taxes. . . . What is to be done? Zucman said there needs to be a central global register of the owners of the world’s wealth, similar to various registries for real estate holdings. Such a database doesn’t have to be public, but it must be available to regulators.”

“Zucman has built his career remarkably quickly, and in the process has made a place for himself among the most influential economists working today. . . . Stitching together data sets that chronicle roughly a century of offshore banking, Zucman shows how wealth in tax havens has grown to account for roughly 8% of total global household financial wealth, or roughly $7.6 trillion in 2014. . . . Armed with those figures, he makes the case that tax avoidance and evasion are at the core of the issues such as inequality and financial stability.”

“A short and lively investigation into the global effects of tax avoidance. . . . As Zucman argues, ‘Financial secrecy—like greenhouse gas emissions—has a costly impact on the entire world, which tax havens choose to ignore.”

“A provocative new book. . . . In Piketty’s forward, he urges all those interested in inequality, global justice and the future of democracy to read the book. The wealthy among them might want to take particular note. Attacking tax havens is a crucial first step to ratcheting up taxation on the rich. The more information there is about offshore assets, the harder they will be to defend.”

“Tax havens are by design secretive and opaque. The entire point of their existence is to conceal the wealth hidden within them. And a new book by Zucman, The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens, reveals, as never before, the extent of their role in the global economy. . . . If we are ever to combat inequality effectively, truly progressive taxation will have to be a part of the policy mix. But unless we eliminate tax havens now, we are likely to find that we lack the ability to implement it.”

“Zucman writes crisply and is forthright in his scorn for tax fraud. He also briefly addresses solutions to corporate tax manipulation, whereby multinationals shift income to tax havens. . . . Zucman’s eye-opening study will be of interest to all readers concerned about growing wealth disparity and is a fitting supplement to Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty.”

“Zucman is a sometime co-author with Thomas Piketty and his new book The Hidden Wealth of Nations is set to do for tax havens what his colleague’s did for wealth inequality: define and popularize the problem.”

“One of the most thorough books on the topic.”