The "Panama Papers" = Financial meltdown of 2008

[Bread and Circus]

The financial meltdown of 2008 was a defining crystallizing moment of the 2008 Presidential Election cycle.

The "Panama Papers" is a defining crystallizing moment of the 2016 Presidential Democratic nomination and Election cycle.

It's the moment when the Emerald Curtain is pulled back for all of us to see the corruption and greed writ large nakedly displayed where there can be no mistake.

There is one candidate on the wrong side of that curtain: Hillary Clinton.

There is one candidate on the right side of that curtain: Bernie Sanders.

[DanTex]

1. LOL.

[Bread and Circus]

3. You think greed and corruption is funny? I pay $55,000 a year in taxes. How much do you pay?

Do you think it's funny I've had to work hard and pay taxes for 20+ years and all these rich assholes avoid taxes in these bullshit tax havens that are further aided and abetted by these bullshit trade agreements?

[DanTex]

5. It's funny that people are trying to blame the Panama thing on Clinton.

BTW, if you pay $55K per year in taxes, I'm pretty sure you qualify as rich.

[Bread and Circus]

6. She is just part of the problem. That's the point. But you seem to think corruption is a joke.

[DanTex]

8. I think that the accusations of "corruption" against Clinton are a joke.

And trying to tie her to this Panama thing is a great illustration of that.

[Bread and Circus]

9. Well, then you are naive and gullible.

[DanTex]

10. Ad hominem, huh?

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Perhaps you missed this thing about her being SOS when the FTA

was passed, and critics warned it would facilitate these practices. You know what else facilitates them? The TPP the european equivalent.

[DanTex]

13. You mean the FTA that had nothing to do with the Panama Papers?

Also, the TPP deals with Asia, not Europe. It stands for Trans Pacific Partnership.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Yes, you should read the banking services chapters for both

when you try to discuss these things in any way intelligently.

[DanTex]

16. If you even read the title, it would be a big step forward.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. What can I say? You are fine with corruption

and evasion. I told you how HRC is related to this shit called PANAMA, which was known BEFORE the FTA and BEFORE 2008 as a tax heaven with pretty sketchy practices.

Here is a simplified explanation of that chapter in the PANAMA FTA

http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2011/03/us-panama-fta-would-allow-offshore-companies-to-attack-us-anti-tax-haven-regulations-meanwhile-panam.html

Have a nice day.

[DanTex]

19. You can say "Europe is not in the Pacific" for starters.

And you're right, tax havens like Panama existed long before the FTA. Which is what makes the argument that FTA somehow produced them all the more absurd. But the DU rules are that everything wrong in the world somehow needs to be caused by Hillary.

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. Actually I blame Dubya and Obama for it as well

those FTAs had stalled before Obama took over. And by the way, the thing you are incapable of understanding is that certain policies shall continue regardless of who occupies the lever of power. Those related to the American empire go triple so. Promoting FTAs and making these havens life easier is part of it. In case you wonder we have three in the US, Nevada, Wyoming and Delaware.

I know this will be shocking to you, hyper partisan that you are, I do not expect any of this to change if we had Jesus himself elected to the White House. But that explanation would take a lot of reading, which I personally doubt you are willing to do. Long live the Empire, in neo-liberal form, no matter who or what mascot occupies the WH.

[DanTex]

21. You realize that if the tax havens existed long before the FTAs were signed, then

the argument that the FTAs caused them has a pretty serious problem, right? Is this too complicated?

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. Point where I said they caused them

they are making their lives that much easier. You are capable of understanding these qualifiers?

[DanTex]

23. Tax havens were doing just fine without them, and continue to do just fine in

lots of countries where there is no FTA in place. The relationship between the two, if any, is tiny (also, I'm not sure if you're aware, but it's not just Americans that use these tax havens).

The whole reason people are trying to link them is to somehow blame Hillary for it all. The OP even compared the Panama Papers to the 2008 financial crisis. Remember that crisis? The one the plunged the entire world into a deep recession? A ludicrous comparison.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. Ok slowly, since you are obvlously having a hard time

the FTAs are making it easier and RELAXING REGULATIONS.

Are you having that much of a problem? Don't bother answering, serious. It was a rhetorical question.

And as I said, yes she is responsible as far as she was SOS, so is George Bush his secretary of state, and President Obama. Historians will not be kind.

[DanTex]

25. Not in any meaningful way, when it comes to tax havens.

Seems this is (yet another) topic you don't know much about. What makes tax havens tax havens are the laws of the country that is serving as a tax haven. Those laws were in place before the Panama FTA, and there are other countries that don't have FTAs with us that serve as tax havens.

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. Again, go read the damn chapters

really.

Or not.

[JackRiddler]

15. Oh golly, now you win. But wait...

I notice your new avatar, DanTex. (I haven't changed mine since 2002.) Are you in any way from New York City? Or are you just trying to briefly exploit our fine town, pump us for votes and then blow out again? We don't take kindly to that sort of thing.

By the way, as I write this I am literally across the street from the building you are now trying on as your avatar. I'm seeing it out the window. Right now! Tonight's colors are just the standard white lights, by the way.

[DanTex]

17. Thank you. And I live in NYC now, have for a while.

[desmiller]

2. but but but Hillary said it was the homeowners that caused the crashed!!!!!

I DON'T KNOW WTF IS GOING ON ANYMORE!!!!!!!

[Joe the Revelator]

4. Hillary is going to go to Panama and tell them to cut it out...

don't worry, she's on the case.

[morningfog]

7. Fat Chance! Bernie said he used a token!

[BernieforPres2016]

12. I agree. I think this moves ahead of the FBI/email issue as the potential shoe to drop.

This is the big issue that can drop on the establishment of both parties. Obama is on the wrong side of it along with Hillary, and as you say Bernie is on the right side of it. There is already a report linking Tony Podesta, bundler for Hillary and brother of her campaign manager John Podesta, to this scandal via a Russian client.

This scandal is going to demonstrate that the 1% versus 99% Bernie has been running on is not just a U.S. issue, it is a worldwide issue. And I think it is virtually certain we will see a lot of names that connect to the Clinton Foundation.

[Lint Head]

27. There is a drip, drip, drip happening and every day will

be another revelation. This is per the German news guys who started the ball rolling and the news consortium. It is a yeoman's task to sift through 11 million documents. There are CEO's and everything from major corporations to heads of state who are sweating bullets right now.