, Columnist
Offshore Havens Show Policy Failures at Home
The Paradise Papers provide more evidence of how tax havens corrupt both the developed and the developing world.
Taking the wind out of reform drives back home.
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The release of the so-called Paradise Papers may produce a few disparate scandals, as the publication of the Panama Papers did. But a more radical approach to offshore havens is needed.
The work of University of California, Berkeley economist Gabriel Zucman -- who estimates that the equivalent of about 10 percent of global gross domestic product is held as offshore wealth -- explains it best. The core problem is twofold: Multinationals use offshore jurisdictions to hide profits from taxation, and the corrupt elites of developing countries outsource justice and property rights there, plundering their home countries and ruining incentives to reform.