How is it that the world's most powerful country has become the best place to hide money?

Last year, the latest edition of the Financial Secrecy Index, a ranking by the Tax Justice Network of the world's best countries for hiding money, was released. The United States was in first place, thus being called the world's largest tax haven for the first time. But why is that, really? The country is neither a small island state like the Cayman Islands nor a giant bank vault like Switzerland.

In this interview from another episode of Pengeland, we are visited by Lukas Hakelberg, who is a postdoctoral researcher at the Free University of Berlin. He has written the book 'The Hypocritical Hegemon', which explains just this.

The United States is the world's most powerful country, has the world's largest financial market, and has the greatest influence in international processes, such as in the OECD. At the same time, the US Congress is dominated by a super strong financial lobby, which means that even ambitious presidential administrations do not get their policies passed. Lukas explains how this has led to the United States emerging as the best place in the world to hide money, while through the OECD, it has put obstacles in the way for countries that want to follow suit. Thus, the world's most powerful country is now the world's largest tax haven.

'The Hypocritical Hegemon' is available in Open Access here: https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501748035/the-hypocritical-hegemon/#bookTabs=1

Hosts: Jonas Veland and Ingrid Hjertaker

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