Russia’s wealthiest 0.01% (the top 1% of the top 1%) have taken about half their wealth, around $200 billion, out of Russia and stashed it in the UK and other havens.
At the same time, America’s wealthiest 0.01% have taken around $1.2 trillion out of the United States, principally to avoid paying taxes. So, in terms of magnitude, American plutocrats match every dollar that Russian plutocrats stash abroad to escape scrutiny with $10 of their own.
So, if non-Russian billionaires are also oligarchs, does the exclusive emphasis in the West on Russians mean that “our” oligarchs, and those nurtured by our allies, are in some sense better? Here we are treading on treacherous ethical ground.
Since the US Supreme Court’s 2010 decision affording corporations the right to donate to politicians as if they were persons, America’s richest 0.01% accounted for 40% of all campaign contributions.
It has proved to be an excellent investment in wealth preservation, writes Yanis Varoufakis, former finance minister of Greece and Professor of Economics at the University of Athens at Project Syndicate.
Billionaire Oligarchs: Is it by chance that in the years since the “deregulation” of campaign financing, American billionaires have obtained the lowest tax rate in over a generation, and the lowest among all wealthy countries?
Is it an accident that the US Internal Revenue Service is starved of resources? According to an authoritative empirical study of the US legislative record, none of this is an accident: the correlation between what Congress enacts and what most Americans prefer is not significantly greater than zero.
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No sooner had Roman Abramovich, newly targeted by the United Kingdom’s sanctions on Russian oligarchs, announced that he was selling Chelsea Football Club than the feeding frenzy began.
An athletics icon, City grandees, and even a respected Times columnist, each representing different American multi-billionaires, descended on London in a race to buy the club. Read the full article here.
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