Podcast: Iceland – Offshorisation, Collapse and Recovery. What Are the Lessons?

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Originally published at Tax Justice Network

In the October 2016 Tax Justice Network podcast: we look at the offshorisation of Iceland’s economy, its collapse and recovery. What are the lessons? Also, Brazil adds Ireland to its tax haven black list and Panama threatens anyone who dares call it a tax haven with a new law…plus more scandal and unique analysis you won’t find anywhere else. Produced by Naomi Fowler for the Tax Justice Network and featuring Sigrun Davidsdottir, journalist, blogger and podcaster, journalist Ingólfur Sigfússon and John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network.

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Iceland didn’t do what Europe has been doing, lingering in a limbo and not really tackling the big issues, we can see that every so often the European banking sector is struggling now with Italian banks, with Deutsche bank and so on, and this is very much down to the fact the painful things have been avoided and I often say that Iceland shows that a quick stab is better than a lingering pain. Iceland took the quick stab, it was extremely painful at the time but at least things have and are being slowly cleared out and that makes a huge difference compared to the so many European countries where the lingering pain is still there.

Sigrun Davidsdottir, journalist, blogger and podcaster www.uti.is

Panama is not just a major secrecy jurisdiction, it is a politically delinquent secrecy jurisdiction…they are moving away from a democratic country where civil society can interact freely…to an increasingly autocratic model and Panama now deserves to have strong international sanctions imposed upon it to make sure it doesn’t proceed down this highly autocratic highly secretive, highly non-cooperative model because the only people who’ll benefit from that are the criminals

John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network

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4 comments

  1. JTMcPhee

    Iceland has “recovered?” Really? What does “recovered” mean, then? Let’s see, 74 years of total sentences for 26 “bankers” comes out to an average of 2.85 years in what is nothing like a US privatized “Supermax” hellhole. And the IMF says Iceland the economic entity is doing just great! at the metrics the IMF cares about — http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2015/car031315a.htm

    Where did all that money and debt go, then? Is “Fortress Iceland” still in the double-entry hole to “creditors?” Maybe this is old news, but http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-20452019

    Here’s hoping that the island nation’s rulers can escape the perpetual pressure to loot and join in the corruption — maybe physical isolation can help, even though all those undersea cables and fiber optics and radio links still “lend corruption lighter wings to fly…”

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