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Taxcast: Staggering Expense of Finance Sectors, Brexit

Posted on March 25, 2017 by Yves Smith

Originally published at the Tax Justice Network

In our March 2017 Taxcast: the high price were paying for our nance sectors we look at staggering statistics
showing how theUS nance sector is a net drag on their economy.

Also, as the British government initiates Brexit divorce negotiations to leave the EU, we discuss something they
ought to know, but obviously dont theyre actually in a very weak position. Could it mean the beginning of the
end of the nance curse gripping the UK economy?

Featuring:John ChristensenandAlex Cobhamof the Tax Justice Network, andProfessor of Economics Gerald
Epstein of the University of Masachusetts Amhurst, author ofOvercharged: The High Cost of High Finance.
Produced and presented byNaomi Fowlerfor the Tax Justice Network.

Professor Gerald Epstein:

If you look at particular nance centres, say London and New York, the problem is that the net cost of this
system is quite signicant, it imposes a cost not only on people who use nance but for the whole
economy. So, what we need to think about is what are the more productive activities that ought to be
substituted for these excessive aspects of nance?

John Christensen, Tax Justice Network on Britains weak position in Brexit negotiations:
 We might be seeing the start of the end of Britains grip by the Finance Curse

The Taxcast, Edition 63, March 2017

Download the mp3 to listen ofine anytime on your computer, mobile/cell phone or handheld device by right
clickinghereand selecting save link as.

Want more Taxcasts?The full playlist ishere.

Want to subscribe?Subscribe via email by contacting the Taxcast producer on naomi [at] taxjustice.net OR
subscribe to the Taxcast RSS feedhereOR subscribe to our youtube channel,Tax Justice TVOR nd us oniTunes

0 0 2 1 0

This entry was posted in Banking industry, Brexit, Guest Post, Taxes on March 25, 2017 by Yves Smith.

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6 COMMENTS SUBSCRIBE TO POST COMMENTS

skippy
March 25, 2017 at 3:01 am
Drag = Rentier = bottle neck economics which in the end becomes a death spiral due to lack of demand and jobs
quality.
Reply
Si
March 25, 2017 at 3:45 am
It is a cleverly worked out system for wealth transfer. Complex laws, political backing and protection even if you
break the law.
At least in the old days when you got robbed you had the signal of having a pistol pointed at you. The modern
version, with all the insider media psyops, leaves those who are preyed upon feeling that they are the ones to
blame.
The business model is straight out of the Cosa Nostra playbook except there is media, political and legal
backing.
Genius.
Reply
Hayek's Heelbiter
March 25, 2017 at 6:14 am
As an Italian friend of mine (who rarely goes north of 14th Street) once remarked, The difference between
the Maa and bankers is that the Maa always leaves a few crumbs on the table.
Reply

Watt4Bob
March 25, 2017 at 11:00 am
Wouldnt you rather give me my money, that you have in your pocket, rather than force me to take the
pistol out of my pocket, and point it at you, and rob you, and become a criminal?

As you can clearly see, the logic is awless, we are all much better off acquiescing to the reasonable demands of
the FIRE sector, the only alternative being an admission that were in the clutches of a deeply organized criminal
element.
Reply
susan the other
March 25, 2017 at 11:44 am
thanks for this Taxcast, very to the point. Did I hear that right the private nance sector will have cost us (in the
US) 23Tr$ by 2020. And from 1990 to 2005 big nance cost us (already) 14Tr in fees, pay, fraud, misallocation and
lost productivity. Yet we continue to deregulate even though all governments know how destructive deregulated
nance is. And we know that the US is the biggest and most secret tax haven of them all The rst part of Taxcast
speculated that Brexit will actually free the UK from the stranglehold of big nance and the country will be able to
move on to more productive economic activity. So let us hope the US comes to its senses just as the EU has
nally isolated the rot of UK nance, maybe the rest of the world will isolate us. Regulation seems to be hand-in-
glove with national sovereignty. Whereas globalized nance might have escaped national regulation bec. there
was always a safe haven for banksters, now with a backlash of indignant people all over the world there will be re-
regulation at national levels. Since there is no global authority that can do that yet. Anyway, now that economies
are trashed, there is way too much hot money to nd good investments. It has already become absurd.
Reply
Colonel Smithers
March 25, 2017 at 11:51 am
Thank you, Susan.
I would not be so hasty thinking that the EU(27) has nally isolated the rot of UK nance. Much of that
nance was not UK, but using the UK. The EU(27) is no less corrupt than the UK and as susceptible to big
nances charms.
I worked as a lobbyist in Brussels (and Basel and DC) for years.
Reply

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