Читать книгу The Wealth Hoarders - Chuck Collins - Страница 14

Researchers estimate that some ten to twelve percent of the world’s wealth – trillions of dollars – is now hidden through a combination of tax-haven secrecy jurisdictions, shell companies, opaque trusts, and other mechanisms. The exact amount of hidden wealth is difficult to measure because … it is hidden. At the low end, researchers estimated in 2014 that eight percent of the world’s private wealth is hidden, over $7.6 trillion.³ Economist Gabriel Zucman, who wrote the 2016 book, The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens, estimated that between 2010 and 2015, the amount of wealth in tax havens increased over 25 percent.

But global wealth has increased substantially since 2014. According to the Credit Suisse 2019 Wealth Report, total global wealth is US $360 trillion. Eight percent of this would be $28 trillion.⁴ Researchers from the global Tax Justice Network argue that these estimates grossly underestimate the amount of hidden wealth. They estimated in 2015 that hidden wealth ranged as high as $24 trillion to $32 trillion if non-financial assets such as real estate, yachts, art, and gold are included.⁵ John Christensen and James Henry write:

Many assets are not unrecorded but misrecorded in the names of trustees or nominee directors, not beneficial owners. Since there is a recorded owner, there is no mismatch, hence Zucman omits this missing wealth. He also ignores some $5–10 trillion in offshore non-financial assets like real estate, art, yachts, and gold.⁶

A recent study by the International Monetary Fund estimates that globally 40 percent of foreign direct investment – about $15 trillion – “passes through empty corporate shells” with “no real business activities.”⁷ All participants to this exercise agree with two basic facts: the pace of wealth hiding is increasing, and the amounts of money are staggering. To update the famous quote by Senator Everett Dirksen, “A trillion here, a trillion there, and pretty soon you are talking about real money.”⁸