Headlong flight and false solutions
1) Quick to denounce Germany which had purchased customer lists from an IT specialist from the LGT bank – its president Pierre Mirabaud had even spoken of “Gestapo” before retracting – the Swiss Banking Association (ASB) remains silent when the United States promulgated, in 2007, a law financially rewarding tax denunciation (LT of 1.07.2008). She did not react further when the report of the Senate subcommittee (US) revealed that more than 500 Swiss travelers were tracked by the Department of Homeland Security to spot bankers visiting their clients. (Le Temps 07/19/2008)
2) A statement released Thursday morning by the small state of Liechtenstein triggered a cascade of reactions across Europe. The government of the principality will recognize the standards of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in terms of transparency and exchange of information relating to taxation. “Cooperation”, “transparency” and “exchange of information” were the key words of the press conference held on Thursday in Vaduz. Under pressure for several years, the tiny state confined between eastern Switzerland and the Austrian border has been on the OECD’s blacklist of “non-cooperative” countries since 2000. Last year, the financial scandal involving several German leaders further increased pressure on the principality. Concretely, the government of Liechtenstein is proposing to interested states to conclude bilateral cooperation agreements relating to cases of fraud but also tax evasion. (…) What does Liechtenstein hope for in exchange for the concessions offered? By complying with OECD standards, the principality wants to ensure the legal security of its financial center, while preserving the protection of the private sphere and banking secrecy. (Le Temps, 03/13/2009).
In short… the pressure first exerted by the German State on Lichtenstein is now extended to all European States offering banking secrecy. Other states, including the French state, have since joined this new crusade. What happened ? In Europe and the United States, hard-pressed governments, faced with immense deficits, are seeking to get their hands on sums that escape them and which we guess are considered considerable (according to one estimate, they would be of the order of 10 billion euros annually for Belgium alone).
There is an error in diagnosis, whether intended or not, about the causes of the present situation: “tax havens” are not responsible for the crisis in financial stocks. Let us not forget the facts: the global crash is, above all, due to the slippage of the American mortgage markets. The amalgamation between the crisis of banking stocks and tax havens, which reflects a populism of mediocre inspiration, is in reality the pretext for strengthening state controls.
However, banking secrecy results from a right that people and organizations who entrust their money to a bank have to see the latter respect the confidentiality of their data – and maintain perfect neutrality with regard to any third party. , instead of being subservient to this or that. Why should these establishments give information about their customers to any government, especially foreign ones? Banking secrecy has always served to legitimately protect the private sphere of citizens.
As for the role of the OECD in this matter, he does not plead in favor of this institution. Using economic science in an apparently neutral way, adorning oneself with the rigorous legitimacy of the latter, to then enact “norms” to combat tax evasion – presented, without real analysis, as an economic scourge… – is a behavior which calls into question the seriousness and independence of this institution.
Everything is happening as if governments were running headlong. Instead of seeking to resolve the crisis, they are taking advantage of it to take revenge for the limitations imposed on them by neoliberalism. But this approach will not last long: massive interventions by States in the productive system and society, in almost all areas of economic and social life, have already shown their limits and their perverse effects.
