New research from UK think tank InfluenceMap identifies the 50 companies most influential in shaping climate and energy policy around the world. Some of these (like ExxonMobil) are in opposition while others (like Apple and Unilever) are championing ambitious national-level policy to support their decarbonization plans. All, as major corporations, play a major role…
Transcript AARON MATE: It’s The Real News. I’m Aaron Mate. The consumer credit reporting giant Equifax is in hot water after one of the largest data breaches in years. Equifax says hackers have gained access to the personal information of more than 143 million people. That’s just under half the entire U.S. population. The compromised…
Exxon Misled the Public on Climate Change, Study Says As ExxonMobil responded to news reports in 2015 that said that the company had spread doubt about the risks of climate change despite its own extensive research in the field, it urged the public to “read the documents” for themselves. Now two Harvard researchers have done just that, reviewing nearly 200…
Courtesy of The Tax Justice Blog.
According to Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Executive Director Matt Gardner,
“On paper, at least, the Cayman Islands is an economic powerhouse. The latest data from the Internal Revenue Service show that U.S.-based corporations claim that their subsidiaries earn $51 billion a year there, an astonishing figure for an island nation that has a population of just 59,000.
But official statistics peg the size of the entire Caymans economy at just $3 billion a year. Put another way, for every $1 of economic activity that occurs in the Caymans, American corporations are telling the IRS that they earn $16.
The only visible indicators of handsome corporate profits are a number of low-slung, nondescript buildings that dot the country’s small capital, George Town. Seldom more than a few stories high, these modern buildings have virtually no in-and-out traffic, giving the impression that all are closed for an extended holiday. The most infamous of these is Ugland House, the building in Grand Cayman where 18,000 corporations claim they have subsidiaries. President Barack Obama drew attention to it in 2009, when he joked that it was either ‘The largest building in the world or the largest tax scam in the world.’
Just a stone’s throw away from these Potemkin office buildings, in which Bank of America alone disclosed basing 143 subsidiaries in its 2013 annual report, chickens casually wander across unpaved streets lined with broken-down cars.” Read at the source.
Courtesy of Citizens for Tax Justice, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, and the Tax Justice Blog.
On Nov. 30, 1965, “Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile” was published. The book began, “For over half a century the automobile has brought death, injury and the most inestimable sorrow and deprivation to millions of people.” Seatbelts, airbags & antilock breaks have saved countless lives, including the Raucous Rooster’s.…
Pfizer’s $155bn takeover of Allergan set to prompt tax row – The Guardian Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Allergan have announced a record-breaking $155bn (£100bn) deal that looks sure to prompt an international row over corporate tax avoidance. The deal, which would create the world’s biggest drugmaker by sales, is the latest in a series of…
via the Center for Media and Democracy CMD Submits Evidence of Exxon Mobil Funding ALEC’s Climate Change Denial to New York Attorney General Published on Nov 17, 2015 – 9:46:29 AM By: Center for Media and Democracy MADISON, WI, Nov. 17, 2015 – The Center for Media and Democracy, a national watchdog group exposing corporate…
From the Tax Justice Blog: After Failed Attempt to Become British, the Pfizer Corp. Now Wants to be Irish to Avoid U.S. Taxes by Matt Gardner, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy How do you say Viagra in Gaelic? That’s an internal question the Pfizer Corporation may have to deal with if it’s successful in…
