What makes this story particularly relevant is that it was partly predicted by Bernie Sanders when the Obama administration signed the Panama free trade agreement in 2011.
At the time, Sanders gave a prescient speech warning of the exact kind of scandal exposed by the Panama Papers. As Congress was debating the deal, Sanders said on the House floor: “Panama is a world leader when it comes to allowing wealthy Americans and large corporations to evade US taxes by stashing their cash in offshore tax havens. And the Panama free trade agreement would make this bad situation much worse.” (The speech is
now going viral on Facebook.)
The Panama free trade agreement, of course, ended up being implemented, in large part due to strong support by Barack Obama and then secretary of state Hillary Clinton. As David Sirota has reported, the emails of a Clinton aide show that the State Department knew of the concerns that Panama would become even more of a tax haven that it already was but continued to push for the deal anyway.
[...]
The Justice Department is reportedly reviewing the leak for any potential leads.
Guardian
Or any potential scandals that need to be hushed? Because...
As Vox’s Matt Yglesias wrote on Monday: “Incorporating your hedge fund in a country with no corporate income tax even though all your fund’s employees and investors live in the United States is perfectly legal. So is, in most cases, setting up a Panamanian shell company to own and manage most of your family’s fortune.”
[...]
In every election, there is vague talk of “closing” tax loopholes and ending offshore tax hideouts. Soon afterward, however, those issues are conveniently forgotten. This time it should be different – not least because there is a candidate campaigning to be president who warned of exactly this scenario.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
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