- published: 08 Oct 2012
- views: 15882
- author: khanacademy
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- Ancient Greece
- Andorra
- Asset protection
- Athens
- ATTAC
- Bahamas
- Balance sheet
- Bank secrecy
- Barbados
- Beirut
- Bermuda
- Black market
- Blacklist
- Blackmail
- Borneo
- British Empire
- Campione d'Italia
- Capital gains
- Capital gains tax
- Cayman Islands
- Channel Islands
- China
- Cinque Ports
- City-state
- Civil war
- Consumption tax
- Corporate haven
- Corporate inversion
- Corporate tax
- Costa Rica
- Cross-border assets
- Customs
- Cyprus
- Declaration (law)
- Delaware
- Denmark
- Der Spiegel
- Direct tax
- Dividend tax
- Doggart, Caroline
- Dollarization
- Double taxation
- Due process
- Duty (economics)
- Euro
- European Union
- Excess profits tax
- Excise
- Exclave
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- FATCA
- FATF Blacklist
- Fiscal policy
- Fiscal year
- Fixed exchange rate
- Flag of convenience
- Flat tax
- France
- Free economic zone
- Free port
- Free trade
- Free trade zone
- French President
- FTSE 100 Index
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- Gift tax
- Good governance
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- Guatemala
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- Hong Kong
- Hongkong
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- Interest group
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Andorra
Andorra (
i/ænˈdɔrə/; Catalan pronunciation: [ənˈdorə], locally: [anˈdɔra]), officially the Principality of Andorra (Catalan: Principat d'Andorra), also called the Principality of the Valleys of Andorra, (Catalan: Principat de les Valls d'Andorra), is a small landlocked country in southwestern Europe, located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain and France. It is the sixth smallest nation in Europe having an area of 468 km2 (181 sq mi) and an estimated population of 84,082 in 2009. Its capital, Andorra la Vella, is the highest capital city in Europe, at an elevation of 1,023 metres (3,356 ft) above sea level. The official language is Catalan, although Spanish, Portuguese, and French are also commonly spoken.
The Principality was formed in 1278. The role of monarch is exercised jointly by the two co-princes, the Catalan Bishop of Urgell and the President of France (the whole state is a part of Diocese of Urgell).
Andorra is a prosperous country mainly because of its tourism industry, which services an estimated 10.2 million visitors annually, and also because of its status as a tax haven. It is not a member of the European Union, but the euro is the de facto currency. The people of Andorra have the 4th highest human life expectancy in the world — 82 years at birth.
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Bahamas
The Bahamasi/bəˈhɑːməz/, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is a country consisting of more than 3,000 islands, cays, and islets. It is located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti), northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States (nearest to the state of Florida). Its land area is 13,939 km2 (5,382 sq mi), with a population of 353,658. Its capital is Nassau. Geographically, the Bahamas lie in the same island chain as Cuba, Hispaniola and the Turks and Caicos Islands; the designation of Bahamas refers normally to the Commonwealth and not the geographic chain.
Originally inhabited by the Lucayans, a branch of the Arawakan-speaking Taino people, the Bahamas were the site of Columbus' first landfall in the New World in 1492. Although the Spanish never colonized the Bahamas, they shipped the native Lucayans to slavery in Hispaniola. The islands were mostly deserted from 1513 to 1648, when English colonists from Bermuda settled on the island of Eleuthera.
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Barbados
Coordinates: 13°10′N 59°33′W / 13.167°N 59.55°W / 13.167; -59.55
Barbados (i/bɑrˈbeɪdɒs/ or /bɑrˈbeɪdoʊs/) is a sovereign island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is 34 kilometres (21 mi) in length and up to 23 kilometres (14 mi) in width, covering an area of 431 square kilometres (166 sq mi). It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres (62 mi) east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about 168 kilometres (104 mi) east of the islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and 400 kilometres (250 mi) north-east of Trinidad and Tobago. Barbados is outside of the principal Atlantic hurricane belt.
Barbados was initially visited by the Spanish around the late 1400s to early 1500s and first appears on a Spanish map from 1511. The Spanish explorers may have plundered the island of whatever native peoples resided therein to become slaves. The Portuguese visited in 1536, but they too left it unclaimed, with their only remnants being an introduction of wild hogs for a good supply of meat whenever the island was visited. The first English ship, the Olive Blossom, arrived in Barbados in 1624. They took possession of it in the name of the British king James I. Two years later in 1627 the first permanent settlers arrived from England and it became an English and later British colony.
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Beirut
Coordinates: 33°53′13″N 35°30′47″E / 33.88694°N 35.51306°E / 33.88694; 35.51306
Beirut (Arabic: بيروت Bayrūt, Greek: Βηρυττός, Latin: Berytus, French: Beyrouth, Hebrew: ביירות Beyrut) is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. As there has been no recent population census, the exact population is unknown; estimates in 2007 ranged from slightly less than 1 million to slightly more than 2 million. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coast, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport. The Beirut metropolitan area consists of the city and its suburbs. The first mention of this metropolis is found in the ancient Egyptian Tell el Amarna letters, dating from the 15th century BC. The city has been inhabited continuously since then.
Beirut is Lebanon's seat of government and plays a central role in the Lebanese economy, with many banks and corporations based in its city centre, Hamra Street, Rue Verdun and Ashrafieh. The city is the focal point of the region's cultural life, renowned for its press, theatres, cultural activities and nightlife. After the destructive Lebanese Civil War, Beirut underwent major reconstruction, and the redesigned historic city centre, marina, pubs and nightlife districts have once again made it a tourist attraction. Beirut was named the top place to visit by The New York Times in 2009, and as one of the ten liveliest cities in the world by Lonely Planet in the same year.
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Bermuda
Bermuda (
/bɜrˈmjuːdə/), officially the Bermudas or Somers Islands, is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about 1,030 kilometres (640 mi) to the west-northwest. It is about 1,373 kilometres (853 mi) south of Halifax, Nova Scotia and 1,770 kilometres (1,100 mi) northeast of Miami, Florida, USA. Its capital city is Hamilton.
Bermuda was discovered in 1505 by Spanish sea captain Juan de Bermúdez, after whom the islands are named. Apparently uninhabited, he claimed them for the Spanish Empire. Although he paid two visits to the archipelago, Bermúdez was persuaded never to set foot on any of the islands by the dangerous reef surrounding them. Subsequent Spanish or other visitors are believed to have released the feral pigs that were abundant on the island when settlement began. In 1609, the Virginia Company, which had established Virginia and Jamestown on the American continent two years earlier, established a settlement on behalf of the English colonial empire. Initially, it was administered as an extension of Virginia by the Company until 1614, before its successor, the Somers Isles Company, took over until 1684. Bermuda then became a British colony following the 1707 unification of the Kingdom of England with the Kingdom of Scotland to create the unified Kingdom of Great Britain. After Newfoundland became part of Canada in 1949, Bermuda became the oldest (and, since the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997, the most populous) remaining British overseas territory. Its first capital, St George's, was established in 1612 and is the oldest continuously-inhabited English town in the Americas.
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British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1922 the British Empire held sway over about 458 million people, one-fifth of the world's population at the time, and covered more than 33,700,000 km2 (13,012,000 sq mi), almost a quarter of the Earth's total land area. As a result, its political, linguistic and cultural legacy is widespread. At the peak of its power, it was often said that "the sun never sets on the British Empire" because its span across the globe ensured that the sun was always shining on at least one of its numerous territories.
During the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overseas empires. Envious of the great wealth these empires generated, England, France and the Netherlands began to establish colonies and trade networks of their own in the Americas and Asia. A series of wars in the 17th and 18th centuries with the Netherlands and France left England (and then, following union between England and Scotland in 1707, Great Britain) the dominant colonial power in North America and India. The loss of the Thirteen Colonies in North America in 1783 after a war of independence deprived Britain of some of its oldest and most populous colonies.
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Campione d'Italia
Campione d'Italia is an Italian comune (municipality) of the Province of Como in the Lombardy region, being an Italian exclave within the Swiss canton of Ticino, separated from the rest of Italy by Lake Lugano and mountains. The enclave is less than 1 km at the shortest point from the rest of Italy, but the hilly terrain requires a journey by road of over 14 km to reach the nearest Italian town, Lanzo d'Intelvi, and over 28 km to reach the city of Como.
In the first century BC the Romans founded the garrison town of Campilonum to protect their territories from Helvetii invasions.
In 777 Toto of Campione, a local Lombard lord, left his inheritance to the archbishopric of Milan. Ownership was transferred to the abbey of Sant’Ambrogio. In 1521 the surrounding area of Ticino was transferred from the ownership of the bishop of Como to Switzerland by Pope Julius II, as thanks for support in the Wars of the Holy League. However, the abbey maintained control over what is now Campione d'Italia and some territory on the western bank of Lake Lugano.
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Cayman Islands
The Cayman Islands ( /ˈkeɪmən/ or /keɪˈmæn/) is a British Overseas Territory located in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman, located south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica. The Cayman Islands are considered to be part of the geographic Western Caribbean Zone as well as the Greater Antilles. The territory is a major world offshore financial centre.
The Cayman Islands were first logged as sighted by Christopher Columbus on 10 May 1503 during his fourth and final voyage to the New World. He named the islands Las Tortugas after the large number of sea turtles observed there. The first recorded English visitor to the islands was Sir Francis Drake in 1586. He subsequently named the islands "Cayman" after caiman, a Neo-Taino word for "alligator".
The Cayman Islands remained largely uninhabited until the 17th century. While there is no archaeological evidence for an indigenous people on the islands, a variety of settlers from various backgrounds made their home on the islands, including pirates, refugees from the Spanish Inquisition, shipwrecked sailors, and deserters from Oliver Cromwell's army in Jamaica.
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China
China (i/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area, and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.
The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Its capital city is Beijing. The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.
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Costa Rica
Costa Rica is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and the Caribbean Sea to the east.
Costa Rica, which means "Rich Coast", constitutionally abolished its army permanently in 1949. It is the only Latin American country included in the list of the world's 22 older democracies. Costa Rica has consistently been among the top Latin American countries in the Human Development Index (HDI), ranked 69th in the world in 2011. Also was cited by the UNDP in 2010 as one of the countries that have attained much higher human development than other countries at the same income levels, and in 2011 was highlighted by UNDP for being a good performer on environmental sustainability, and better record on human development and inequality than the median of their region. It was also the only country to meet all five criteria established to measure environmental sustainability. The country is ranked fifth in the world, and first among the Americas, in terms of the 2012 Environmental Performance Index.
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Cyprus
Cyprusi/ˈsaɪprəs/ (Greek: Κύπρος, Kýpros, IPA: [ˈcipɾos]; Turkish: Kıbrıs, IPA: [ˈkɯbɾɯs]), officially the Republic of Cyprus (Greek: Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία, Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía, IPA: [cipɾiaˈci ðimokɾaˈtia]; Turkish: Kıbrıs Cumhuriyeti, IPA: [ˈkɯbɾɯs dʒumhuɾijeˈti]), is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria, Lebanon, northwest of Israel and north of Egypt. Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and the Republic of Cyprus is a member state of the European Union.
The earliest known human activity on the island dates back to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this period include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia, which has been declared a World Heritage Site with an "enhanced protection" status in the event of armed conflict by UNESCO, along with the archaeological sites of Paphos and the Painted Churches of the Troodos Region. Cyprus is home to some of the oldest water wells in the world.
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Delaware
Delaware (i/ˈdɛləwɛər/ DEL-ə-wair) is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, to the northeast by New Jersey, and to the north by Pennsylvania. The state takes its name from Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, an English nobleman and Virginia's first colonial governor, after whom what is now called Cape Henlopen was originally named.
Delaware is located in the northeastern portion of the Delmarva Peninsula and is the second least extensive, the sixth least populous, but the sixth most densely populated of the 50 United States. Delaware is divided into three counties. From north to south, these three counties are New Castle, Kent, and Sussex. While the southern two counties have historically been predominantly agricultural, New Castle County has been more industrialized.
The history of the state's economic and industrial development is closely tied to the impact of the Du Pont family, founders and scions of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, one of the world’s largest chemical companies.
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Denmark
The Kingdom of Denmark (Danish: Kongeriget Danmark, pronounced [ˈkɔŋəʁiːəð ˈdanmɑɡ̊] (
listen)) is a constitutional monarchy and sovereign state consisting the country of Denmark in northern Europe and two autonomous constituent countries, the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic and Greenland in North America. The kingdom is a unitary state with some power being devolved from Denmark proper to Greenland and the Faroe Islands; this polity is referred to as the Danish Realm. Denmark proper is the hegemonial area, where judicial, executive, and legislative power resides. The Faroe Islands are defined to be a community of people within the kingdom, and the Greenlandic people are defined as a separate people with the right to self-determination.
Denmark is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, located southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. The country consists of a large peninsula, Jutland and many islands, most notably Zealand, Funen, Lolland, Falster and Bornholm, as well as hundreds of minor islands often referred to as the Danish Archipelago.
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France
France (Englishi/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] ( listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km2 (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km2 / 4,383,000 sq mi).
Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America and Southeast Asia; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest colonial empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.
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Guatemala
Guatemala (i/ˌɡwɑːtəˈmɑːlə/ GWAH-tə-MAH-lə), officially the Republic of Guatemala (Spanish: República de Guatemala [reˈpuβlika ðe ɣwateˈmala]), is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast. Its area is 108,890 km2 (42,043 mi2) with an estimated population of 13,276,517.
A representative democracy, its capital is Guatemala de la Asunción, also known as Guatemala City. Guatemala's abundance of biologically significant and unique ecosystems contributes to Mesoamerica's designation as a biodiversity hotspot. The former Mayan civilization was a Mesoamerican civilization, which continued throughout the Post-Classic period until the arrival of the Spanish. The Mayas live in Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, the southern part of Mexico and northern parts of El Salvador.
Guatemala became independent from Spain in 1821, joining the Mexican Empire. After it became an independent country in its own right, it was ruled by a series of dictators, assisted by the United Fruit Company. The late 20th century saw Guatemala embroiled in a 36-year-long civil war. Following the war, Guatemala has witnessed both economic growth and successful democratic elections. In the most recent election, held in 2011, Otto Pérez Molina of the Patriotic Party, won the presidency.
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Guernsey
Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey ( /ˈɡɜrnzi/ GURN-zee; French: Bailliage de Guernesey, IPA: [bajaʒ də ɡɛʁnəzɛ]), is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.
The Bailiwick of Guernsey embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, and Lihou. Furthermore, the Bailiwick includes Alderney and Sark, which each has its own parliament.
Although its defence is the responsibility of the United Kingdom, the Bailiwick of Guernsey is not part of the UK; and while it participates in the Common Travel Area, it is not part of the European Union.
The Bailiwick of Guernsey is included (along with the Bailiwick of Jersey) in the grouping known as the Channel Islands.
The name of Guernsey, as well as that of neighbouring Jersey, is of Old Norse origin. The second element of Guernsey (-ey) is the Old Norse for "island". Guern similar to Spanish "Cuerno", French "Coi(r)n", Dutch "Hoorn", Frisian "Hoarn", Swedish "Hörn", Swiss "Gorn" means "Corner". - Corner Island.
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Hong Kong
Coordinates: 22°16′42″N 114°09′32″E / 22.27833°N 114.15889°E / 22.27833; 114.15889
Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港) is one of two special administrative regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is known for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour. With a land mass of 1,104 km2 (426 sq mi) and a population of seven million people, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Hong Kong's population is 95 percent ethnic Chinese and 5 percent from other groups. Hong Kong's Han Chinese majority originate mainly from the cities of Guangzhou and Taishan in the neighbouring Guangdong province.
Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War (1839–42). Originally confined to Hong Kong Island, the colony's boundaries were extended in stages to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and then the New Territories in 1898. It was occupied by Japan during the Pacific War, after which the British resumed control until 1997, when China resumed sovereignty. The region espoused minimum government intervention under the ethos of positive non-interventionism during the colonial era. The time period greatly influenced the current culture of Hong Kong, often described as "East meets West", and the educational system, which used to loosely follow the system in England until reforms implemented in 2009.
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Hongkong
Coordinates: 22°16′42″N 114°09′32″E / 22.27833°N 114.15889°E / 22.27833; 114.15889
Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港) is one of two special administrative regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is known for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour. With a land mass of 1,104 km2 (426 sq mi) and a population of seven million people, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Hong Kong's population is 95 percent ethnic Chinese and 5 percent from other groups. Hong Kong's Han Chinese majority originate mainly from the cities of Guangzhou and Taishan in the neighbouring Guangdong province.
Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War (1839–42). Originally confined to Hong Kong Island, the colony's boundaries were extended in stages to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and then the New Territories in 1898. It was occupied by Japan during the Pacific War, after which the British resumed control until 1997, when China resumed sovereignty. The region espoused minimum government intervention under the ethos of positive non-interventionism during the colonial era. The time period greatly influenced the current culture of Hong Kong, often described as "East meets West", and the educational system, which used to loosely follow the system in England until reforms implemented in 2009.
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Isle of Man
The Isle of Man ( /ˈmæn/; Manx: Ellan Vannin, pronounced [ˈɛlʲən ˈvanɪn]), otherwise known simply as Mann (Manx: Mannin, IPA: [ˈmanɪn]), is a self-governing Crown Dependency of the United Kingdom, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is represented by a Lieutenant Governor. The island is not part of the United Kingdom, but its foreign relations and defence are the responsibility of the UK Government. Although the United Kingdom does not usually interfere in the island's domestic matters, its "good government" is ultimately the responsibility of the Crown (that is, in practice, the Government of the United Kingdom).
The island has been inhabited since before 6500 BC. Gaelic cultural influence began in the 5th century AD, and the Manx language, a branch of the Gaelic languages, gradually emerged. In the 9th century, the Norse began to settle there. A Norse-Gaelic culture arose and the island came under Norse control. In 1266, the island became part of Scotland as formalised by the Treaty of Perth. After a period of alternating rule by the kings of Scotland and England, the island came under the feudal overlordship of the English Crown in 1399. The lordship revested into the British Crown in 1764 but the island never became part of Great Britain or its successor the United Kingdom and retained its status as an internally self-governing Crown dependency.
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Italy
Italyi/ˈɪtəli/ (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic or the Republic of Italy (Italian: Repubblica italiana), is a unitary parliamentary republic in south-central Europe. To the north, it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia along the Alps. To the south, it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia–the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea–and many other smaller islands. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers some 301,338 km2 (116,347 sq mi) and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 60.6 million inhabitants, it is the fifth most populous country in Europe, and the 23rd most populous in the world.
Rome, the capital of Italy, was for centuries a political and religious centre of Western civilisation as the capital of the Roman Empire and site of the Holy See. After the decline of the Roman Empire, Italy endured numerous invasions by foreign peoples, from Germanic tribes such as the Lombards and Ostrogoths, to the Byzantines and later, the Normans, among others. Centuries later, Italy became the birthplace of Maritime republics and the Renaissance, an immensely fruitful intellectual movement that would prove to be integral in shaping the subsequent course of European thought.
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Japan
Japan
i/dʒəˈpæn/ (Japanese: 日本 Nihon or Nippon; formally 日本国 
Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku, literally the State of Japan) is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun".
Japan is an archipelago of 6,852 islands. The four largest islands are Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū and Shikoku, together accounting for ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area. Japan has the world's tenth-largest population, with over 127 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the de facto capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents.
Archaeological research indicates that people lived in Japan as early as the Upper Paleolithic period. The first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other nations followed by long periods of isolation has characterized Japan's history. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since adopting its revised constitution in 1947, Japan has maintained a unitary constitutional monarchy with an emperor and an elected parliament called the Diet.
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Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, French: Bailliage de Jersey ( /ˈdʒɜrzi/, French: [ʒɛʁzɛ]; Jèrriais: Jèrri), is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and other rocks and reefs.
Jersey is a self-governing parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy, with its own financial, legal and judicial systems.
The island of Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands. Although the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey are often referred to collectively as 'the Channel Islands', they are not a constitutional or political unit. Jersey has a separate relationship to the British Crown from the other Crown Dependencies of Guernsey and the Isle of Man. It is not part of the United Kingdom, and has an international identity separate from that of the UK but the United Kingdom is constitutionally responsible for the defence of Jersey. Jersey is not a part of the European Union but has a special relationship with it, being treated as part of the European Community for the purposes of free trade in goods.
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Labuan
Labuan ( /ləˈbuːən/) is a federal territory in East Malaysia. It is an island off the coast of the state of Sabah. Labuan's capital is Victoria and is best known as an offshore financial centre offering international financial and business services via Labuan IBFC since 1990 as well as being an offshore support hub for deepwater oil and gas activities in the region. It is also a tourist destination for people traveling through Sabah, nearby Bruneians and scuba divers. The name Labuan derives from the Malay word labuhan meaning anchorage.
The Federal Territory of Labuan comprises Labuan Island (87.52 km²) and six other smaller islands (Pulau Burung, Pulau Daat, Pulau Kuraman, Pulau Papan, Pulau Rusukan Kecil, and Pulau Rusukan Besar), which have a combined total area of 91.64 km². The islands lie 8 km off the coast of Borneo, adjacent to the Malaysian state of Sabah and the independent state of Brunei Darussalam, on the northern edge of Brunei Bay facing the South China Sea. Labuan Island is mainly flat and undulating and the highest point is only 85 meters. Over 70% of the island is still covered with vegetation. Victoria, also Bandar Labuan in Malay, is the major town and faces Brunei Bay; access is via ferry service to Brunei and Kota Kinabalu, as well as Labuan Airport
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Liberia
Liberiai/laɪˈbɪəriə/, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Ivory Coast on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open to a plateau of drier grasslands. The country possesses 40% of the remaining Upper Guinean rainforest. Liberia has a hot equatorial climate, with significant rainfall during the May to October rainy season and harsh harmattan winds the remainder of the year. Liberia covers an area of 111,369 km2 (43,000 sq mi) and is home to about 3.7 million people. English is the official language, while over 30 indigenous languages are spoken within the country.
Along with Ethiopia, Liberia is one of the two modern countries in Sub-Saharan Africa without roots in the European colonization of Africa. Beginning in 1820, the region was colonized by freed American slaves with the help of the American Colonization Society, a private organization that believed ex-slaves would have greater freedom and equality in Africa. Slaves freed from slave ships were also sent there instead of being repatriated to their countries of origin. In 1847, these colonists founded the Republic of Liberia, establishing a government modeled on that of the United States and naming the capital city Monrovia after James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States and a prominent supporter of the colonization. The colonists, known as Americo-Liberians, led the political and economic sectors of the country.
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Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein, officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (i/ˈlɪktənstaɪn/ LIK-tən-styn; German: Fürstentum Liechtenstein, German pronunciation: [ˈfʏʁstn̩tuːm ˈlɪçtn̩ʃtaɪn]) is a doubly landlocked alpine country in Central Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and by Austria to the east. Its area is just over 160 square kilometres (62 sq mi), and it has an estimated population of 35,000. Its capital is Vaduz. The biggest town is Schaan. Liechtenstein has the highest gross domestic product per person in the world when adjusted by purchasing power parity, and has the world's lowest external debt. Liechtenstein also has the second lowest unemployment rate in the world at 1.5% (Monaco is first).
Liechtenstein is the smallest yet the richest (by measure of GDP per capita) German-speaking country in the world and the only country to lie entirely within the Alps. It is known as a principality as it is a constitutional monarchy headed by a prince. Liechtenstein is divided into 11 municipalities. Much of its terrain is mountainous, making it a winter sports destination. Many cultivated fields and small farms characterize its landscape both in the south (Oberland, upper land) and in the north (Unterland, lower land). The country has a strong financial sector located in the capital, Vaduz, and has been identified as a tax haven. It is a member of the European Free Trade Association and part of the European Economic Area, the Schengen Area but not of the European Union.
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Luxembourg
Luxembourg (i/ˈlʌksəmbɜrɡ/ LUKS-əm-burg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (Luxembourgish: Groussherzogtum Lëtzebuerg, French: Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, German: Großherzogtum Luxemburg, Dutch: Groothertogdom Luxemburg), is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland ("good country") in the south. Luxembourg has a population of over half a million people in an area of approximately 2,586 square kilometres (998 sq mi). A representative democracy with a constitutional monarch, it is ruled by a grand duke. It is now the world's only remaining sovereign grand duchy. The country has a highly developed economy, with the world's highest GDP (nominal) per capita according to the IMF. Its historic and strategic importance dates back to its founding as a Roman era fortress site and Frankish count's castle site in the Early Middle Ages. It was an important bastion along the Spanish Road when Spain was the principal European power influencing the whole western hemisphere and beyond in the 16th–17th centuries.
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Macao
Coordinates: 22°10′N 113°33′E / 22.167°N 113.55°E / 22.167; 113.55
Macau (Chinese: 澳門), also spelled Macao ( /məˈkaʊ/), is one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China, the other being Hong Kong. Macau lies on the western side of the Pearl River Delta across from Hong-Kong which is to the east, bordering Guangdong province to the north and facing the South China Sea to the east and south.
The territory's economy is heavily dependent on gambling and tourism, but also includes manufacturing.
Macau is a former Portuguese colony, and is both the first and last European colony in China. Portuguese traders first settled in Macau in the 16th century and subsequently administered the region until the handover on 20 December 1999. The Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration and the Basic Law of Macau stipulate that Macau operates with a high degree of autonomy until at least 2049, fifty years after the transfer. Macau was first lent by the Chinese empire as a trading port in the 16th century, and had to administer the city under Chinese authority and sovereignty. In 1887, Macau became a colony of the Portuguese empire and its sovereignty transferred to the Portuguese.
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Macau
Coordinates: 22°10′N 113°33′E / 22.167°N 113.55°E / 22.167; 113.55
Macau (Chinese: 澳門), also spelled Macao ( /məˈkaʊ/), is one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China, the other being Hong Kong. Macau lies on the western side of the Pearl River Delta across from Hong-Kong which is to the east, bordering Guangdong province to the north and facing the South China Sea to the east and south.
The territory's economy is heavily dependent on gambling and tourism, but also includes manufacturing.
Macau is a former Portuguese colony, and is both the first and last European colony in China. Portuguese traders first settled in Macau in the 16th century and subsequently administered the region until the handover on 20 December 1999. The Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration and the Basic Law of Macau stipulate that Macau operates with a high degree of autonomy until at least 2049, fifty years after the transfer. Macau was first lent by the Chinese empire as a trading port in the 16th century, and had to administer the city under Chinese authority and sovereignty. In 1887, Macau became a colony of the Portuguese empire and its sovereignty transferred to the Portuguese.
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Malaysia
Malaysia (i/məˈleɪʒə/ mə-LAY-zhə or i/məˈleɪsiə/ mə-LAY-see-ə) is a federal constitutional monarchy in Southeast Asia. It consists of thirteen states and three federal territories and has a total landmass of 329,847 square kilometres (127,350 sq mi) separated by the South China Sea into two similarly sized regions, Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo. Land borders are shared with Thailand, Indonesia, and Brunei, and maritime borders exist with Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. In 2010 the population exceeded 27.5 million, with over 20 million living on the Peninsula.
Malaysia has its origins in the Malay Kingdoms present in the area which, from the 18th century, became subject to the British Empire. The first British territories were known as the Straits Settlements, whose establishment was followed by the Malay kingdoms becoming British protectorates. The territories on Peninsular Malaysia were first unified as the Malayan Union in 1946. Malaya was restructured as the Federation of Malaya in 1948, and achieved independence on 31 August 1957. Malaya united with Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore on 16 September 1963, with si being added to give the new country the name Malaysia. However, less than two years later in 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation. Since independence, Malaysia has had one of the best economic records in Asia, with GDP growing an average 6.5% for almost 50 years. The economy has traditionally been fuelled by its natural resources, but is expanding in the sectors of science, tourism, commerce and medical tourism.
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Monaco
Monacoi/ˈmɒnəkoʊ/, officially the Principality of Monaco (French: Principauté de Monaco; Monégasque: Principatu de Múnegu; Italian: Principato di Monaco; Occitan: Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city state, located on the French Riviera in Western Europe. Bordered by France on three sides, with one side bordering the Mediterranean Sea, its center is about 16 km (9.9 mi) from Italy, and is only 15 km (9.3 mi) north east of Nice, France. It has an area of 1.98 km2 (0.76 sq mi), and a population of 35,986, making Monaco the second smallest and the most densely populated country in the world. Monaco has a land border of only 4.4 km (2.7 mi), a coastline of 4.1 km (2.5 mi), and a width that varies between 1.7 km (1.1 mi) and 349 metres (382 yards). The highest point in the country is a narrow pathway named Chemin des Révoires on the slopes of Mont Agel, in the Les Révoires district, which is 161 metres (528 feet) above sea level. Monaco's most populated Quartier is Monte Carlo, and the most populated Ward is Larvotto/Bas Moulins. After a recent expansion of Port Hercules, Monaco's total area is 2.05 km2 (0.79 sq mi), with new plans to extend the district of Fontvieille, with land reclaimed from the Mediterranean Sea.
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Montserrat
Coordinates: 16°45′N 62°12′W / 16.75°N 62.2°W / 16.75; -62.2
Montserrat ( /mɒntsəˈræt/) is an island that is a British overseas territory located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies. This island measures approximately 16 km (9.9 mi) long and 11 km (6.8 mi) wide, giving 40 kilometres (25 mi) of coastline. Montserrat is nicknamed the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean both for its resemblance to coastal Ireland and for the Irish ancestry of some of its inhabitants.
Montserrat's Georgian era historic capital city of Plymouth was destroyed and two-thirds of the island's population was forced to flee because of an eruption of the previously dormant Soufriere Hills volcano that began on July 18, 1995. The eruption continues today on a much reduced scale, the damage being confined to the area around Plymouth, including its docking facilities, and also the area around the former W. H. Bramble Airport on the eastern side of the island, the remnants of which were buried by flows from volcanic activity on February 11, 2010.
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Morocco
Morocco (Arabic: المغرب al-Maghrib ; Berber: ⵍⵎⴻⵖⵔⵉⴱ / ⴰⵎⴻⵔⵔⵓⴽElmeɣrib / Amerruk), officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of about 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², including the disputed region of the Western Sahara, seen by and mostly administered by Morocco as the Southern Provinces. Morocco is part of the Maghreb region, in addition to Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania, and Libya, with which it shares cultural, historical and linguistic ties.
Morocco is a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament. The King of Morocco holds vast executive powers, including the power to dissolve the parliament. Executive power is exercised by the government but more importantly by the king himself. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament, the Assembly of Representatives and the Assembly of Councillors. The king can also issue decrees called dahirs which have the force of law. The latest Parliamentary elections were held in November 25, 2011, and were considered by some neutral observers to be mostly free and fair. Voter turnout in these elections was estimated to be 43% of registered voters, but only about 25% of Moroccan adult citizens actually voted. The rest either chose not to vote or they were not registered as voters. The political capital is Rabat, but the largest city is Casablanca; other main cities include Marrakesh, Tetouan, Tangier, Salé, Fes, Agadir, Meknes, Oujda, Kenitra, and Nador.
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Nauru
Coordinates: 0°31′38″S 166°56′12″E / 0.527288°S 166.936724°E / -0.527288; 166.936724
Nauru (Englishi/nɑːˈuːruː/ nah-OO-roo), officially the Republic of Nauru and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country in Micronesia in the South Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in Kiribati, 300 kilometres (186 mi) to the east. Nauru is the world's smallest republic, covering just 21 square kilometres (8.1 sq mi). With just over 9,322 residents, it is the second least-populated country after Vatican City.
Settled by Micronesian and Polynesian people, Nauru was annexed and claimed as a colony by the German Empire in the late 19th century. After World War I, Nauru became a League of Nations mandate administered by Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. During World War II, Nauru was occupied by Japanese troops, who were bypassed by the Allied advance across the Pacific. After the war ended, it entered into trusteeship again. Nauru gained its independence in 1968.
Throughout the first half of the 20th century, Nauru was a "rentier state". Nauru is a phosphate rock island, with rich deposits close to the surface, which allow for simple strip mining operations; moreover, it has some phosphate reserves which are presently (as of 2011) not economically viable for extraction. Nevertheless, this island was a major exporter of phosphate starting in 1907, when the Pacific Phosphate Company began mining there, through the formation of the British Phosphate Commission in 1919, and continuing after independence. This returned to Nauru full control of its minerals under the Nauru Phosphate Corporation, until the deposits ran out during the 1980s. For this reason, Nauru briefly boasted the highest per-capita income enjoyed by any sovereign state in the world during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
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Netherlands
The Netherlands (i/ˈnɛðərləndz/; Dutch: Nederland [ˈneːdə(r)lɑnt] or [ˈneɪ̯də(r)lɑnt] (
listen); West Frisian: Nederlân; Papiamento: Hulanda) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with some islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders with Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom. It is a parliamentary democracy organised as a unitary state. The country capital is Amsterdam and the seat of government is The Hague. The Netherlands in its entirety is often referred to as Holland, although North and South Holland are actually only two of its twelve provinces (a case of pars pro toto; see terminology of "the Netherlands").
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Netherlands Antilles
The Netherlands Antilles (Dutch: Nederlandse Antillen [ˈneːjərlɑntsə ˈɑntɪlə(n)] ( listen), Papiamentu: Antia Hulandes), also referred to informally as the Dutch Antilles, was an autonomous Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, consisting of two groups of islands in the Lesser Antilles: Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao (ABC islands), in the Leeward Antilles just off the Venezuelan coast; and Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint Eustatius (SSS islands) in the Leeward Islands southeast of the Virgin Islands.
Aruba seceded in 1986 as a separate country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the rest of the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved on 10 October 2010, resulting in two new constituent countries, Curaçao and Sint Maarten, with the other islands joining the Netherlands as "special municipalities", officially public bodies.
The name 'Netherlands Antilles' is still sometimes used to indicate the Caribbean islands which are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Dutch Caribbean islands.
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Nevada
Nevada (i/nəˈvædə/ or /nəˈvɒdə/) is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. Nevada is the 7th most extensive, the 35th most populous, and the 9th least densely populated of the 50 United States. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in one single county, Clark County, which contains the Las Vegas–Paradise metropolitan area, where the state's three largest incorporated cities are located. Nevada's capital is Carson City.
Nevada is largely desert and semiarid, with much of it located within the Great Basin. Areas south of the Great Basin are located within the Mojave Desert, while Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada mountains lie on the western edge. Approximately 86% of the state's land is owned by the US government under various jurisdictions, both civilian and military.
The name Nevada is derived from the nearby Sierra Nevada mountains, which means "snow-capped mountain range" in Spanish. The land comprising the modern state was inhabited by Native Americans of the Paiute, Shoshone, and Washoe tribes prior to European contact. It was subsequently claimed by Spain as a part of Alta California until the Mexican War of Independence brought it under Mexican control. The United States gained the territory in 1848 following its victory in the Mexican-American War and the area was eventually incorporated as part of Utah Territory in 1850. The discovery of silver at the Comstock Lode in 1859 led to a population boom that was an impetus to the creation of Nevada Territory out of western Utah Territory in 1861. Nevada became the 36th state on October 31, 1864.
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Niue
Niue ( /ˈnjuːeɪ/ NEW-ay; Niuean: Niuē) is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean. It is commonly known as the "Rock of Polynesia", and inhabitants of the island call it "the Rock" for short. Niue is 2,400 kilometres (1,500 mi) northeast of New Zealand in a triangle between Tonga to the southwest, the Samoas to the northwest, and the Cook Islands to the southeast. The land area is 260 square kilometres (100 sq mi) with about 1,400 people who are predominantly Polynesian.
Though self-governing, Niue is in free association with New Zealand, and lacks full sovereignty. All Niueans are New Zealand citizens and Queen Elizabeth II is Niue's head of state in her capacity as Queen of New Zealand. Most diplomatic relations are conducted by New Zealand on Niue's behalf. 90-95% of Niuean people live in New Zealand, along with about 70% of the speakers of the Niuean language.[citation needed]
In 2003, Niue became the world's first "WiFi nation", in which free wireless Internet access is provided throughout the country by The Internet Users Society-Niue.
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Panama
Panama (i/ˈpænəmɑː/ PAN-ə-mah; Spanish: Panamá), officially the Republic of Panama (Spanish: República de Panamá [reˈpuβlika ðe panaˈma]), is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The capital is Panama City. Explored and settled by the Spanish in the 16th century, Panama broke with Spain in 1821 and joined a union of Nueva Granada, Ecuador, and Venezuela, named the Republic of Gran Colombia.When Gran Colombia the dissolved in 1831, Panama and Nueva Granada remained joined. Nueva Granada later became the Republic of Colombia.
With the backing of the United States, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, allowing the Panama Canal to be built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1904 and 1914. In 1977, an agreement was signed for the complete transfer of the Canal from the United States to Panama by the end of the century.
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Russia
Russiai/ˈrʌʃə/ or /ˈrʊʃə/ (Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijə] ( listen)), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨjə] ( listen)), is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both via Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also has maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the US state of Alaska by the Bering Strait. At 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the eighth most populous nation with 143 million people. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning nine time zones and incorporating a wide range of environments and landforms. Russia has the world's largest reserves of mineral and energy resources and is the largest producer of oil and natural gas globally. Russia has the world's largest forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world's fresh water.
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San Marino
San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino (i/sæn məˈriːnoʊ/ san-mə-REE-noh; Italian: Repubblica di San Marino) and also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino (Italian: Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino), is a state situated on the Italian Peninsula on the eastern side of the Apennine Mountains. It is an enclave surrounded by Italy. Its size is just over 61 km2 (24 sq mi) with an estimated population of over 30,000. Its capital is the City of San Marino. San Marino has the smallest population of all the members of the Council of Europe.
San Marino is the oldest surviving sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world, as the continuation of the monastic community founded on 3 September 301, by stonecutter Marinus of Rab. Legend has it that Marinus left Rab, then the Roman colony of Arba, in 257 when the future emperor, Diocletian, issued a decree calling for the reconstruction of the city walls of Rimini, which had been destroyed by Liburnian pirates.
The constitution of San Marino, enacted in 1600, is the world's oldest constitution still in effect. The country's economy mainly relies on finance, industry, services and tourism. It is one of the wealthiest countries in the world in terms of GDP (per capita), with a figure comparable to some of the more developed Italian regions, such as Lombardy and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. San Marino is considered to have a highly stable economy, with one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe, no national debt and a budget surplus.
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Seychelles
Seychelles (i/seɪˈʃɛlz/ say-SHELZ; French: [sɛʃɛl]), officially the Republic of Seychelles (French: République des Seychelles; Creole: Repiblik Sesel), is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some 1,500 kilometres (932 mi) east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar.
Other nearby island countries and territories include Zanzibar to the west, Mauritius, Rodrigues, Agalega and Réunion to the south, Comoros and Mayotte to the southwest. Seychelles, with an estimated population of 86,525, has the smallest population of any African state. It also has the highest Human Development Index in Africa.
Scholars assume that Austronesian seafarers, and later Maldivian and Arab traders were the first to visit the uninhabited Seychelles. Remains of Maldivian mariner presence from the 12th century were found in Silhouette Island. The earliest recorded sighting by Europeans took place in 1502 by the Portuguese Admiral Vasco da Gama, who passed through the Amirantes and named them after himself (islands of the Admiral).
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Switzerland
Switzerland (German: die Schweiz[ˈʃvaɪts]; French: Suisse [sɥis(ə)]; Italian: Svizzera [ˈzvit͡sːɛra]; Romansh: Svizra [ˈʒviːtsrɐ] or [ˈʒviːtsʁːɐ]), in its full name the Swiss Confederation (Latin: Confoederatio Helvetica, hence its abbreviation CH), is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western Europe, where it is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to the south, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east.
Switzerland is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2 (15,940 sq mi). While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, the Swiss population of approximately 8 million people is concentrated mostly on the Plateau, where the largest cities are to be found. Among them are the two global cities and economic centres of Zurich and Geneva.
The Swiss Confederation has a long history of armed neutrality—it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815—and did not join the United Nations until 2002. It pursues, however, an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. Switzerland is also the birthplace of the Red Cross and home to a large number of international organizations, including the second largest UN office. On the European level, it is a founding member of the European Free Trade Association and is part of the Schengen Area – although it is notably not a member of the European Union, nor the European Economic Area.
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Tangier
Tangier, also Tangiers (Berber: Tanja, ⵜⴰⵏⵊⴰ, archaic Berber name: Tingi, Arabic: طنجة Ṭanjah, Spanish: Tánger, French: Tanger), is a city in northern Morocco with a population of about 700,000 (2012 estimates). It lies on the North African coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. It is the capital of the Tangier-Tetouan Region and of the Tangier-Asilah prefecture of Morocco.
The history of Tangier is very rich due to the historical presence of many civilizations and cultures starting from the 5th century BC. Between the period of being a Berber settlement and then a Phoenician town to the independence era around the 1950s, Tangier was a refuge for many cultures. In 1923, Tangier was considered as an international status by foreign colonial powers, and became a destination for many European and American diplomats, spies, writers and businessmen.
The city is currently undergoing rapid development and modernization. Projects include new 5-star hotels along the bay, a modern business district called Tangier City Center, a new airport terminal and a new football stadium. Tangier's economy is also set to benefit greatly from the new Tanger-Med port.
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United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emiratesi/juːˌnaɪtɨd ˌærəb ˈɛmɪrɨts/ (Arabic: دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة, Al Imārāt al ‘Arabīyah al Muttaḥidah), sometimes simply called the Emirates or the UAE, is a country situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman to the east and Saudi Arabia to the south, as well as sharing sea borders with Qatar to the west and Iran to the north.
The UAE is a federation of seven emirates (equivalent to principalities), each governed by a hereditary emir, with a single national president. The constituent emirates are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain. The capital is Abu Dhabi, which is also the state's center of political, industrial, and cultural activities.
Prior to independence in 1971, the UAE was known as the Trucial States or Trucial Oman, in reference to a 19th-century truce between the local sheikhs, hereditary rulers of the territories, and the United Kingdom. The term Pirate Coast was also used by some to refer to the emirates from the 18th to the early 20th century, owing to the preponderance of pirates operating from Emirati ports.
wn.com/United_Arab_Emirates -
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.
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United States
The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.
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Uruguay
Uruguayi/ˈjʊərəɡwaɪ/, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; (Spanish: República Oriental del Uruguay pronounced: [re̞ˈpuβ̞lika o̞ɾje̞n̪ˈt̪al̪ d̪e̞l uɾuˈɰwai̯]) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to 3.3 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area. An estimated 88% of the population are of European ancestry.
Except for the recent union of Timoteo Domínguez Island and Argentina's Martín García Island, Uruguay's only land border is with Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, to the north. To the west lies the Uruguay River and the estuary of the Río de la Plata to the southwest. To the southeast lies the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean. With an area of approximately 176,000 square kilometres (68,000 sq mi), Uruguay is the second-smallest nation in South America by area, after Suriname.
Colonia del Sacramento, one of the oldest European settlements in the country, was founded by the Portuguese in 1680. Montevideo was founded by the Spanish in the early 18th century as a military stronghold. Uruguay won its independence in 1811–28 following a three-way struggle between the claims of Spain, Argentina and Brazil. It is a constitutional democracy, with a president who is both the head of state and the head of government.
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Vanuatu
Vanuatu (Englishi/ˌvɑːnuːˈɑːtuː/ vah-noo-AH-too or /vænˈwɑːtuː/ van-WAH-too; Bislama IPA: [vanuaˈtu]), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (French: République de Vanuatu, Bislama: Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some 1,750 kilometres (1,090 mi) east of northern Australia, 500 kilometres (310 mi) northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea.
Vanuatu was first inhabited by Melanesian people. The first Europeans to visit the islands were the members of a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Fernandes de Queirós who arrived in Espiritu Santo in 1605. In the 1880s France and the United Kingdom claimed parts of the country, and in 1906 they agreed on a framework for jointly managing the archipelago as the New Hebrides through a British–French Condominium. An independence movement arose in the 1970s, and the Republic of Vanuatu was created in 1980.
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Wyoming
Wyoming (i/waɪˈoʊmɪŋ/) is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. Wyoming is the 10th most extensive, but the least populous and the 2nd least densely populated of the 50 States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High Plains. Cheyenne is the capital and the most populous city of Wyoming with a population of nearly 60,000 people within its city proper.
As specified in the designating legislation for the Territory of Wyoming, Wyoming's borders are lines of latitude, 41°N and 45°N, and longitude, 104°3'W and 111°3'W (27° W and 34° W of the Washington Meridian), making the shape of the state a latitude-longitude quadrangle. Wyoming is one of only three states (along with Colorado and Utah) to have borders along only straight latitudinal and longitudinal lines, rather than being defined by natural landmarks. Due to surveying inaccuracies during the 19th century, Wyoming's legal border deviates from the true latitude and longitude lines by up to half of a mile (.8 km) in some spots, especially in the mountainous region along the 45th parallel. Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho. It is the ninth largest state in the United States in total area, containing 97,818 square miles (253,350 km2) and is made up of 23 counties. From the north border to the south border it is 276 miles (444 km); and from the east to the west border is 365 miles (587 km) at its south end and 342 miles (550 km) at the north end.
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China
China (i/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area, and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.
The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Its capital city is Beijing. The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.
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Great War
World War I (WWI), which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939 (World War II), and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. It involved all the world's great powers, which were assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (based on the Triple Entente of the United Kingdom, France and Russia) and the Central Powers (originally centred around the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy; but, as Austria–Hungary had taken the offensive against the agreement, Italy did not enter into the war). These alliances both reorganised (Italy fought for the Allies), and expanded as more nations entered the war. Ultimately more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history. More than 9 million combatants were killed, largely because of enormous increases in lethality of weapons, thanks to new technology, without corresponding improvements in protection or mobility. It was the sixth-deadliest conflict in world history, subsequently paving the way for various political changes such as revolutions in the nations involved.
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Hong Kong
Coordinates: 22°16′42″N 114°09′32″E / 22.27833°N 114.15889°E / 22.27833; 114.15889
Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港) is one of two special administrative regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is known for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour. With a land mass of 1,104 km2 (426 sq mi) and a population of seven million people, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Hong Kong's population is 95 percent ethnic Chinese and 5 percent from other groups. Hong Kong's Han Chinese majority originate mainly from the cities of Guangzhou and Taishan in the neighbouring Guangdong province.
Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War (1839–42). Originally confined to Hong Kong Island, the colony's boundaries were extended in stages to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and then the New Territories in 1898. It was occupied by Japan during the Pacific War, after which the British resumed control until 1997, when China resumed sovereignty. The region espoused minimum government intervention under the ethos of positive non-interventionism during the colonial era. The time period greatly influenced the current culture of Hong Kong, often described as "East meets West", and the educational system, which used to loosely follow the system in England until reforms implemented in 2009.
wn.com/Hong_Kong -
Hongkong
Coordinates: 22°16′42″N 114°09′32″E / 22.27833°N 114.15889°E / 22.27833; 114.15889
Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港) is one of two special administrative regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is known for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour. With a land mass of 1,104 km2 (426 sq mi) and a population of seven million people, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Hong Kong's population is 95 percent ethnic Chinese and 5 percent from other groups. Hong Kong's Han Chinese majority originate mainly from the cities of Guangzhou and Taishan in the neighbouring Guangdong province.
Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War (1839–42). Originally confined to Hong Kong Island, the colony's boundaries were extended in stages to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and then the New Territories in 1898. It was occupied by Japan during the Pacific War, after which the British resumed control until 1997, when China resumed sovereignty. The region espoused minimum government intervention under the ethos of positive non-interventionism during the colonial era. The time period greatly influenced the current culture of Hong Kong, often described as "East meets West", and the educational system, which used to loosely follow the system in England until reforms implemented in 2009.
wn.com/Hongkong -
Jean-Claude Juncker
Jean-Claude Juncker (Luxembourgish: [ʒ̊ɑːŋ kloːd ˈjʊŋkɐ]; born 9 December 1954) is a Luxembourg politician, 23rd and current Prime Minister of Luxembourg since 20 January 1995. He is the longest-serving head of government of any European Union state, and the longest-serving democratically elected current head of any government in the world. He has been President of the Euro Group, the political control over the euro currency, since the creation of a semi-permanent position in 2005.
Elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the Christian Social People's Party in 1984, Juncker was immediately promoted to Jacques Santer's cabinet as Minister for Work. He was Luxembourg's Minister for Finances from 1989 to 2009, and became Prime Minister when Santer became President of the European Commission in 1995. In his capacity of Prime Minister, he also served two six-month terms as President of the European Council, in 1997 and 2005.
Juncker was born in Redange and spent most of his childhood in Belvaux. His father had fought in World War II after being forcibly recruited into the Wehrmacht, and was a steelworker and a member of the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions. Juncker studied at Clairefontaine in Belgium before returning to Luxembourg to attain his baccalaureate in the Lycée Michel Rodange. Around that time, in 1974, he joined the Christian Social People's Party. Juncker went on to study law at the University of Strasbourg, attaining a Master of Law degree in 1979. Although he was sworn in to the Luxembourg Bar Council in 1980, he never practised as a lawyer.
wn.com/Jean-Claude_Juncker -
Kristian Jensen
Kristian Jensen (born May 21, 1971) is a Danish politician, a spokesperson for the Liberal Party Venstre. He was the Minister for Taxation from 2004 to 2010 and has been a member of parliament (Folketinget) since March 11, 1998. During his time as Tax Minister, Kristian Jensen was a keen proponent of a "tax freeze."
Jensen was the Venstre party's spokesman on information technology and sports from 1998 to 2001 and became its spokesman on finance policy, as well as Vice-Chairman of the Financial Affairs Committee, in 2001.
At the liberal party's congress the 17th of May 2009, Kristian Jensen was elected vice president of the liberal party, without any other candidates running for the post.
wn.com/Kristian_Jensen -
Macao
Coordinates: 22°10′N 113°33′E / 22.167°N 113.55°E / 22.167; 113.55
Macau (Chinese: 澳門), also spelled Macao ( /məˈkaʊ/), is one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China, the other being Hong Kong. Macau lies on the western side of the Pearl River Delta across from Hong-Kong which is to the east, bordering Guangdong province to the north and facing the South China Sea to the east and south.
The territory's economy is heavily dependent on gambling and tourism, but also includes manufacturing.
Macau is a former Portuguese colony, and is both the first and last European colony in China. Portuguese traders first settled in Macau in the 16th century and subsequently administered the region until the handover on 20 December 1999. The Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration and the Basic Law of Macau stipulate that Macau operates with a high degree of autonomy until at least 2049, fifty years after the transfer. Macau was first lent by the Chinese empire as a trading port in the 16th century, and had to administer the city under Chinese authority and sovereignty. In 1887, Macau became a colony of the Portuguese empire and its sovereignty transferred to the Portuguese.
wn.com/Macao -
Macau
Coordinates: 22°10′N 113°33′E / 22.167°N 113.55°E / 22.167; 113.55
Macau (Chinese: 澳門), also spelled Macao ( /məˈkaʊ/), is one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China, the other being Hong Kong. Macau lies on the western side of the Pearl River Delta across from Hong-Kong which is to the east, bordering Guangdong province to the north and facing the South China Sea to the east and south.
The territory's economy is heavily dependent on gambling and tourism, but also includes manufacturing.
Macau is a former Portuguese colony, and is both the first and last European colony in China. Portuguese traders first settled in Macau in the 16th century and subsequently administered the region until the handover on 20 December 1999. The Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration and the Basic Law of Macau stipulate that Macau operates with a high degree of autonomy until at least 2049, fifty years after the transfer. Macau was first lent by the Chinese empire as a trading port in the 16th century, and had to administer the city under Chinese authority and sovereignty. In 1887, Macau became a colony of the Portuguese empire and its sovereignty transferred to the Portuguese.
wn.com/Macau -
Najib Razak
Dato' Sri Haji Mohammad Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak (born 23 July 1953) is a Malaysian politician who has been the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia since 2009. He previously held the post of Deputy Prime Minister from 7 January 2004 until he succeeded Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as Prime Minister on 3 April 2009. Najib is President of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). He is the son of Malaysia's second prime minister, Tun Abdul Razak and the nephew of Malaysia's third prime minister, Tun Hussein Onn. Najib is also the Minister of Finance.
Najib succeeded Abdullah at a time after his ruling coalition, the Barisan Nasional, lost its long held two-thirds majority in parliament to the opposition led by former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in the 2008 parliamentary election. Since then Najib has tried to build a moderate image for himself and the UMNO through the 1Malaysia campaign.
Born 23 July 1953, in Kuala Lipis, Pahang, Najib is the eldest of Prime Minister Abdul Razak's six sons, and the nephew of Hussein Onn, Malaysia’s third Prime Minister. His younger brother, Dato' Seri Mohd Nazir Abdul Razak, runs the country's second-largest lender, Bumiputra-Commerce Holdings Bhd. Najib is also one of the Four Noblemen of the Pahang Darul Makmur (Royal Court) by virtue of his inherited title as the Orang Kaya Indera Shahbandar. He received his primary and secondary education at St. John's Institution, Kuala Lumpur. He later attended Malvern College in Worcestershire, England, and subsequently went to the University of Nottingham, where he received a bachelor's degree in industrial economics in 1974. Najib Razak returned to Malaysia in 1974 and entered the business world, serving briefly in Bank Negara (Central Bank) and later with Petronas (Malaysia's national oil company) as a public affairs manager.
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Nicholas Shaxson
Nicholas Shaxson (*1966) is a British author, journalist, and an Associate Fellow of Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London). He is best known for his investigative books Poisoned Wells (2007) and Treasure Islands (2011). He is a full-time writer and researcher for the Tax Justice Network, an expert-led group focused on the harmful impacts of tax avoidance, tax competition and tax havens.
Shaxson was born in Malawi and has lived at various times in India, Brazil, England, Lesotho, Spain, Angola, South Africa, Germany and the Netherlands. Since 1993 he has written on global business and politics for the Financial Times, Reuters, the Economist and its sister publication the Economist Intelligence Unit, International Affairs, Foreign Affairs, American Interest, the BBC, Africa Confidential, African Energy, and others.
Shaxson currently lives with his partner and their two children in Zürich, Switzerland.
wn.com/Nicholas_Shaxson -
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register (it became The Times on 1 January 1788). The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times (founded in 1821) are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News International, itself wholly owned by the News Corporation group headed by Rupert Murdoch. The Times and The Sunday Times do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1967.
The Times is the first newspaper to have borne that name, lending it to numerous other papers around the world, including The Times of India (1838), The Straits Times (1845), The New York Times (1851), The Irish Times (1859), the Los Angeles Times (1881), The Seattle Times (1891), The Daily Times (Malawi) (1900), The Canberra Times (1926), and The Times (Malta) (1935). For distinguishing purposes it is therefore sometimes referred to, particularly in North America, as the "London Times" or "The Times of London".
wn.com/The_Times -
World War I
World War I (WWI), which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939 (World War II), and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. It involved all the world's great powers, which were assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (based on the Triple Entente of the United Kingdom, France and Russia) and the Central Powers (originally centred around the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy; but, as Austria–Hungary had taken the offensive against the agreement, Italy did not enter into the war). These alliances both reorganised (Italy fought for the Allies), and expanded as more nations entered the war. Ultimately more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history. More than 9 million combatants were killed, largely because of enormous increases in lethality of weapons, thanks to new technology, without corresponding improvements in protection or mobility. It was the sixth-deadliest conflict in world history, subsequently paving the way for various political changes such as revolutions in the nations involved.
wn.com/World_War_I
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Transfer Pricing and Tax Havens
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:47
- Updated: 17 Dec 2012
How a corporation can set up a tax haven and use it through transfer pricing (best experienced on www.khanacademy.org).
http://wn.com/Transfer_Pricing_and_Tax_Havens
How a corporation can set up a tax haven and use it through transfer pricing (best experienced on www.khanacademy.org).
Inside Story - Taking on the tax havens
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 25:05
- Updated: 04 Dec 2012
A new report has now revealed that some of the world's richest people have more than $30 trillion stashed in offshore assets, having exploited gaps in cross-border tax rules to move money overseas. Research commissioned by the campaign group Tax Justice Network says the value is as much as the gross domestic products of the US and Japan combined. Should tax havens be allowed to exist? Guests: Jean-Pierre Diserens, Myret Zaki, Sony Kapoor.
http://wn.com/Inside_Story_Taking_on_the_tax_havens
A new report has now revealed that some of the world's richest people have more than $30 trillion stashed in offshore assets, having exploited gaps in cross-border tax rules to move money overseas. Research commissioned by the campaign group Tax Justice Network says the value is as much as the gross domestic products of the US and Japan combined. Should tax havens be allowed to exist? Guests: Jean-Pierre Diserens, Myret Zaki, Sony Kapoor.
- published: 24 Jul 2012
- views: 3685
- author: AlJazeeraEnglish
The new tax havens
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 13:47
- Updated: 09 Dec 2012
American companies are finding new overseas tax havens to legally protect some of their profits from the US tax rate of 35 percent, among the highest in the world. Lesley Stahl reports.
http://wn.com/The_new_tax_havens
American companies are finding new overseas tax havens to legally protect some of their profits from the US tax rate of 35 percent, among the highest in the world. Lesley Stahl reports.
- published: 15 Aug 2011
- views: 10228
- author: CBSNewsOnline
Nicholas Shaxson on Tax Havens, the Banking system & UK Uncut
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 25:34
- Updated: 18 Dec 2012
Nicholas Shaxson, journalist, writer, consultant, and author of Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole the World, gives an insight into his book, Tax Havens, the UK Banking system, UK Uncut and the mechanics of Tax avoidance. 97 percent owned Director, Michael Oswald, & Producer, Mike Horwath, help bring this interview to life. www.facebook.com/97percentowned
http://wn.com/Nicholas_Shaxson_on_Tax_Havens,_the_Banking_system_UK_Uncut
Nicholas Shaxson, journalist, writer, consultant, and author of Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole the World, gives an insight into his book, Tax Havens, the UK Banking system, UK Uncut and the mechanics of Tax avoidance. 97 percent owned Director, Michael Oswald, & Producer, Mike Horwath, help bring this interview to life. www.facebook.com/97percentowned
- published: 26 Mar 2011
- views: 6556
- author: QueuePolitely
Tax Havens: Myths vs. Facts
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:56
- Updated: 09 Dec 2012
The Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation has produced videos showing the economic and moral benefits of so-called tax havens. This final video in the three-part series addresses some of the most common myths put forth by politicians from high-tax nations. Using academic research and data from international organizations, the video shows that the most common attacks made against low-tax jurisdictions are empty demagoguery.
http://wn.com/Tax_Havens_Myths_vs_Facts
The Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation has produced videos showing the economic and moral benefits of so-called tax havens. This final video in the three-part series addresses some of the most common myths put forth by politicians from high-tax nations. Using academic research and data from international organizations, the video shows that the most common attacks made against low-tax jurisdictions are empty demagoguery.
- published: 01 Dec 2008
- views: 37726
- author: afq2007
Tax Havens and US Corporations
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:47
- Updated: 28 Nov 2012
How US Corporations set-up global operations using tax havens, to reduce tax burden.
http://wn.com/Tax_Havens_and_US_Corporations
How US Corporations set-up global operations using tax havens, to reduce tax burden.
- published: 09 Oct 2012
- views: 62
- author: InvestOffshore
Mitt Romney's Offshore Tax Havens
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:56
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
Share this: OFA.BO Tweet this: OFA.BO Mitt Romney has millions of dollars invested in offshore tax havens. He says having his money overseas doesn't mean he's avoiding US taxes.
http://wn.com/Mitt_Romney's_Offshore_Tax_Havens
Share this: OFA.BO Tweet this: OFA.BO Mitt Romney has millions of dollars invested in offshore tax havens. He says having his money overseas doesn't mean he's avoiding US taxes.
- published: 02 Oct 2012
- views: 23024
- author: BarackObamadotcom
Tax Havens: The Men Who Stole The World
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:31
- Updated: 23 Nov 2012
PLEASE SUBSCRIBE and check out our other videos! www.operationmaple.com http twitter.com
http://wn.com/Tax_Havens_The_Men_Who_Stole_The_World
PLEASE SUBSCRIBE and check out our other videos! www.operationmaple.com http twitter.com
- published: 11 Apr 2012
- views: 742
- author: OperationMaple
It's Time to Tackle Tax Havens
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:35
- Updated: 08 Dec 2012
www.tackletaxhavens.com is a global campaign designed to raise public awareness of tax havens: what they are, the damage they do and how we can tackle them together. Taxes are the most efficient and sustainable means of supporting vital public services like education, healthcare, a legal framework, police force, public transport networks, welfare and much, much more. But the wealthy can escape their responsibilities to the societies on which they and their wealth depend - by hiding their money in tax havens. Visit www.tackletaxhavens.com to get involved.
http://wn.com/It's_Time_to_Tackle_Tax_Havens
www.tackletaxhavens.com is a global campaign designed to raise public awareness of tax havens: what they are, the damage they do and how we can tackle them together. Taxes are the most efficient and sustainable means of supporting vital public services like education, healthcare, a legal framework, police force, public transport networks, welfare and much, much more. But the wealthy can escape their responsibilities to the societies on which they and their wealth depend - by hiding their money in tax havens. Visit www.tackletaxhavens.com to get involved.
- published: 16 Nov 2011
- views: 9959
- author: TackleTaxHavens
Tax Haven and Black Money - Part 1
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 30:01
- Updated: 11 Nov 2012
Vishwa Adhyayan Kendra (VAK) celebrated the 6th Universal Brotherhood Day (UB Day 2011) on Friday 19th August 2011. The function was held at the Swatantraveer Savarkar Auditorium, Shivaji Park, Mumbai.from 6 to 8.30 pm. The Keynote Address was given by Prof. R. Vaidyanathan -- Prof. IIM Bangaluru. The topic was 'Tax Havens and Black Money -- India should provide leadership for the emerging markets'. The program was presided over by Shri Motilal Oswal, CMD of Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd. About 300 distinguished guests participated. www.iimb.ernet.in/~vaidya/ www.vakmumbai.org
http://wn.com/Tax_Haven_and_Black_Money_Part_1
Vishwa Adhyayan Kendra (VAK) celebrated the 6th Universal Brotherhood Day (UB Day 2011) on Friday 19th August 2011. The function was held at the Swatantraveer Savarkar Auditorium, Shivaji Park, Mumbai.from 6 to 8.30 pm. The Keynote Address was given by Prof. R. Vaidyanathan -- Prof. IIM Bangaluru. The topic was 'Tax Havens and Black Money -- India should provide leadership for the emerging markets'. The program was presided over by Shri Motilal Oswal, CMD of Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd. About 300 distinguished guests participated. www.iimb.ernet.in/~vaidya/ www.vakmumbai.org
- published: 20 Aug 2011
- views: 2648
- author: vak mumbai
Tax haven use prompts call for action
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:55
- Updated: 01 Aug 2012
With more than 70 of the top 100 Australian companies using tax havens, there are growing calls to crack down on 'secret' jurisdictions.
http://wn.com/Tax_haven_use_prompts_call_for_action
With more than 70 of the top 100 Australian companies using tax havens, there are growing calls to crack down on 'secret' jurisdictions.
- published: 31 Jul 2012
- views: 98
- author: NewsOnABC
Willard Mitt Romney The 'Tax Haven' Candidate
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:34
- Updated: 27 Aug 2012
Cayman & Swiss Acrobatics: Where Willard Mitt Romney's Money Lives: www.politicalarticles.net
http://wn.com/Willard_Mitt_Romney_The_'Tax_Haven'_Candidate
Cayman & Swiss Acrobatics: Where Willard Mitt Romney's Money Lives: www.politicalarticles.net
- published: 12 Jul 2012
- views: 374
- author: politicalarticles
Trillion Dollar Tax Havens, Inequality and Recession
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 13:11
- Updated: 14 Nov 2012
James Henry Pt2: Vast amounts of money avoid taxes and productive investment
http://wn.com/Trillion_Dollar_Tax_Havens,_Inequality_and_Recession
James Henry Pt2: Vast amounts of money avoid taxes and productive investment
- published: 08 Aug 2012
- views: 2671
- author: TheRealNews
The Media and Politics of Offshore Tax Havens
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:46
- Updated: 09 Dec 2012
James Henry PT 3: Politicians demand debt reduction but the media rarely connects billions of unpaid taxes on offshore accounts to the issue More news at therealnews.com
http://wn.com/The_Media_and_Politics_of_Offshore_Tax_Havens
James Henry PT 3: Politicians demand debt reduction but the media rarely connects billions of unpaid taxes on offshore accounts to the issue More news at therealnews.com
- published: 12 Aug 2012
- views: 2705
- author: TheRealNews
Major Banks Help Clients Hide Trillions in Offshore Tax Havens
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 14:13
- Updated: 19 Dec 2012
James Henry: US media and politicians mostly ignore massive untaxed wealth that big banks help rich move to tax havens
http://wn.com/Major_Banks_Help_Clients_Hide_Trillions_in_Offshore_Tax_Havens
James Henry: US media and politicians mostly ignore massive untaxed wealth that big banks help rich move to tax havens
- published: 03 Aug 2012
- views: 8790
- author: TheRealNews
"Exposing The TRUTH About Romney's Cayman Islands Tax Havens" - MOC #178
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:26
- Updated: 07 Dec 2012
I and a small team went all the way to the Cayman Islands to get to the bottom of Mitt Romney's tax havens. But it's not just Romney - It's Apple and Google and literally thousands of other people and corporations. [more at LeeCamp.net]
http://wn.com/Exposing_The_TRUTH_About_Romney's_Cayman_Islands_Tax_Havens_MOC_178
I and a small team went all the way to the Cayman Islands to get to the bottom of Mitt Romney's tax havens. But it's not just Romney - It's Apple and Google and literally thousands of other people and corporations. [more at LeeCamp.net]
- published: 15 Oct 2012
- views: 6769
- author: LeeCamp2
$21 Trillion Hidden In Tax Havens
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:47
- Updated: 17 Dec 2012
We often hear from the right that class warfare is being waged by democrats and the poor, but new information shows that it's a war that's been going on for years and it's being waged by the rich. Twitter: twitter.com Facebook: www.facebook.com
http://wn.com/21_Trillion_Hidden_In_Tax_Havens
We often hear from the right that class warfare is being waged by democrats and the poor, but new information shows that it's a war that's been going on for years and it's being waged by the rich. Twitter: twitter.com Facebook: www.facebook.com
- published: 24 Jul 2012
- views: 1242
- author: TheAlyonaShow
Dan Mitchell Debunking Anti-Tax Haven Demagoguery on CNN
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:50
- Updated: 21 Aug 2012
http://wn.com/Dan_Mitchell_Debunking_Anti-Tax_Haven_Demagoguery_on_CNN
Exposing the Cayman Island Tax Scandal - CODEPINK & The Nation take on Corporate Fat Cats
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:30
- Updated: 20 Dec 2012
On Thursday, December 13, over 100 Americans with CODEPINK and The Nation Magazine marched to the Ugland House, the location where some 18000 corporations hide their tax dollars, to demand that corporations pay their fair share of taxes. Take action at: www.operationcaymans.com The demonstrators held signs saying "Bring our tax dollars home" and "We want our money back" and sang a parody song to Harry Belafonte's "Day-O" with the refrain "Tax evaders time to bring the money home." Four of them were dressed as billionaires, waving their money in the air in a theatrical show of corporate greed. Many US companies use the Cayman Islands as a tax haven so they can cheat the US people out of much-needed tax dollars. There are more registered corporations in Grand Cayman than there are people. President Obama referred to Ugland House as "either the biggest building in the world or the biggest tax scam in the world." The protesters were traveling with the weekly magazine The Nation, and the protest was organized by the activist group CODEPINK. This focus on tax shelters took place at a time when US officials are engulfed in a tug-of-war over what budget cuts to make to avoid what they are calling the "fiscal cliff." "The US deficit could be solved with the $150 billion a year that could be recovered from these offshore tax shelters," said CODEPINK cofounder Jodie Evans. "The American people, exposed to the issue of tax cheaters during Romney's presidential bid, believe that ...
http://wn.com/Exposing_the_Cayman_Island_Tax_Scandal_CODEPINK_The_Nation_take_on_Corporate_Fat_Cats
On Thursday, December 13, over 100 Americans with CODEPINK and The Nation Magazine marched to the Ugland House, the location where some 18000 corporations hide their tax dollars, to demand that corporations pay their fair share of taxes. Take action at: www.operationcaymans.com The demonstrators held signs saying "Bring our tax dollars home" and "We want our money back" and sang a parody song to Harry Belafonte's "Day-O" with the refrain "Tax evaders time to bring the money home." Four of them were dressed as billionaires, waving their money in the air in a theatrical show of corporate greed. Many US companies use the Cayman Islands as a tax haven so they can cheat the US people out of much-needed tax dollars. There are more registered corporations in Grand Cayman than there are people. President Obama referred to Ugland House as "either the biggest building in the world or the biggest tax scam in the world." The protesters were traveling with the weekly magazine The Nation, and the protest was organized by the activist group CODEPINK. This focus on tax shelters took place at a time when US officials are engulfed in a tug-of-war over what budget cuts to make to avoid what they are calling the "fiscal cliff." "The US deficit could be solved with the $150 billion a year that could be recovered from these offshore tax shelters," said CODEPINK cofounder Jodie Evans. "The American people, exposed to the issue of tax cheaters during Romney's presidential bid, believe that ...
- published: 17 Dec 2012
- views: 259
- author: codepinkaction
Panorama 2012-12-18 - The Tax Haven Twins - Part 2/3
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:48
- Updated: 19 Dec 2012
www.pixotube.com Extra tags: Panorama 2012-12-18 - The Tax Haven Twins - Part 2/3 Panorama 2012-12-18 Full Episode Panorama 2012-12-18 Promo Panorama 2012-12-18 Panorama 2012-12-18 Panorama The Tax Haven Twins Various mold multiplying good grounds within the dwelling comprise of beneath the house and rest room sink, along the baseboard regarding that washing machine, and the corners within the bath room close to the shower room. The moment getting a siding product absolutely vital to help dependable siding technicians that discover how to work with your substances.
http://wn.com/Panorama_2012-12-18_The_Tax_Haven_Twins_Part_2_3
www.pixotube.com Extra tags: Panorama 2012-12-18 - The Tax Haven Twins - Part 2/3 Panorama 2012-12-18 Full Episode Panorama 2012-12-18 Promo Panorama 2012-12-18 Panorama 2012-12-18 Panorama The Tax Haven Twins Various mold multiplying good grounds within the dwelling comprise of beneath the house and rest room sink, along the baseboard regarding that washing machine, and the corners within the bath room close to the shower room. The moment getting a siding product absolutely vital to help dependable siding technicians that discover how to work with your substances.
- published: 19 Dec 2012
- author: CrazyKite999
Mitt Romney and Offshore Tax Havens
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:44
- Updated: 31 Aug 2012
For more check out Citizens for Tax Justice at www.ctj.org ABC News investigative reporter Brian Ross discusses Bain Capital and Mitt Romney's potential use of tax havens with Citizens for Tax Justice Senior Counsel Rebecca Wilkins. Mitt Romney: The Wealth Factor Can voters relate to a candidate with a quarter-billion-dollar fortune? 12/19/2011
http://wn.com/Mitt_Romney_and_Offshore_Tax_Havens
For more check out Citizens for Tax Justice at www.ctj.org ABC News investigative reporter Brian Ross discusses Bain Capital and Mitt Romney's potential use of tax havens with Citizens for Tax Justice Senior Counsel Rebecca Wilkins. Mitt Romney: The Wealth Factor Can voters relate to a candidate with a quarter-billion-dollar fortune? 12/19/2011
- published: 21 Dec 2011
- views: 1527
- author: Citizens4TaxJustice
60 Minutes - New Tax Haven
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 13:24
- Updated: 06 Nov 2012
60 Minutes Report on Switzerland as a New Tax Haven
http://wn.com/60_Minutes_New_Tax_Haven
60 Minutes Report on Switzerland as a New Tax Haven
- published: 17 Jun 2011
- views: 7698
- author: collegefinance
Cayman Islands tax haven under pressure - 05 May 09 - Hot Latest News
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:51
- Updated: 05 Nov 2012
Barack Obama, the US president, is taking new steps to crack down on offshore tax havens. One target is the Cayman Islands, which have become one of the world's top destinations for hidden money. Al Jazeera's Sebastian Walker reports from the islands' capital, George Town - Hot Latest News - Watch more on fastlatestnews.com
http://wn.com/Cayman_Islands_tax_haven_under_pressure_05_May_09_Hot_Latest_News
Barack Obama, the US president, is taking new steps to crack down on offshore tax havens. One target is the Cayman Islands, which have become one of the world's top destinations for hidden money. Al Jazeera's Sebastian Walker reports from the islands' capital, George Town - Hot Latest News - Watch more on fastlatestnews.com
- published: 16 Jul 2012
- views: 52
- author: HotLatestNews
photo: AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
19 Dec 2012
WASHINGTON. US President Barack Obama backs a new bill to revive an assault weapons ban and other new gun laws, the White House said Tuesday, fleshing out his nascent response to a shocking school massacre. Obama also called an ardently pro-gun senator who has shifted his position on firearms laws since Friday's carnage in Connecticut and has begun meeting top cabinet officials to consider his options, his spokesman Jay Carney said ... ....(size: 4.9Kb)
photo: AP / Charles Krupa
18 Dec 2012
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. "Most people reason dramatically, not quantitatively." -Oliver Wendell Holmes. On the same day that a 20-year-old, described as brilliant but remote, walked into an elementary school in Connecticut and massacred 26 children and adults, the school where I teach went on "lock-down." Four students with a handgun were arrested ... That morning before school, he had posted on Twitter and Facebook....(size: 14.0Kb)
photo: Creative Commons / Joachim Huber
18 Dec 2012
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. When a Stanford geneticist, Gerald Crabtree, published a provocative and controversial new view on evolutionary change, namely that humans are actually getting dumber, he should have also added that humans are still developing an extermination gene ... Paleontologist Tim Flannery would more than likely agree with Crabtree ... Strange strings of gravel also overlaid some bones ... (1) Kane, Alex ... 195....(size: 9.4Kb)
photo: AP / Narciso Contreras
19 Dec 2012
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations appealed on Wednesday for $1.5 billion (920.1 million pounds) to provide life-saving aid to Syrians suffering from a "dramatically deteriorating" humanitarian situation ... "The magnitude of this humanitarian crisis is indisputable," said Radhouane Nouicer, U.N ... Inside Syria, U.N ... ....(size: 1.5Kb)
photo: AP / Mohammad Hannon
19 Dec 2012
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said she accepts the findings of an independent panel that faulted the State Department over the deadly September attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya. An inquiry into the attack on the US mission, which saw the US ambassador and three other US citizens killed, found that the State Department security arrangements there were "grossly inadequate" ... 390 Source. ... Share ... Jaws ... Anaheim....(size: 19.2Kb)
Huffington Post
20 Dec 2012
The AMT is a levy designed to ensure that high-income taxpayers pay a minimum tax ... Inaction by Congress on the AMT has left IRS unsure which taxpayers will need to pay the AMT tax ... Offshore Tax Havens ... Treasury Department estimates that it loses about <a href=""http.//www.ctj.org/pdf/stopact.pdf"" target="_hplink">$100 billion a year</a> in revenue due to offshore tax haven abuses ... Carbon Tax....(size: 13.7Kb)
Irish Times
20 Dec 2012
Facebook Ireland Holdings is owned by Facebook companies in the Cayman Islands and it would be surprising if it does not make substantial payments to those companies, the express purpose of the whole system being to guide the flow of profits from markets around the world through Dublin, and onwards to the Caribbean tax haven, avoiding as much tax as possible on the way....(size: 7.8Kb)
The Guardian
20 Dec 2012
DAVID McFADDEN ... Gov. Duncan Taylor said O'Connor-Connolly was supported by a majority of governing party lawmakers and he was satisfied she could form a "stable, functioning government." ... He has not been charged and insists he has done nothing wrong. O'Connor-Connolly joined in the 11-3 no-confidence vote that ended Bush's role as head of government in the famed Caribbean tax haven, which is the world's sixth largest financial center....(size: 9.8Kb)
Business Day
19 Dec 2012
China accounted for almost half the $858.8bn in "tainted" or illegally obtained money that flowed into tax havens and western banks in 2010, more than eight times the amounts for runners-up Malaysia and Mexico ... "Astronomical sums of dirty money continue to flow out of the developing world and into offshore tax havens and developed country banks," said GFI director Raymond Baker....(size: 3.3Kb)
Business Day
19 Dec 2012
China accounted for almost half the $858.8bn in "tainted" or illegally obtained money that flowed into tax havens and western banks in 2010, more than eight times the amounts for runners-up Malaysia and Mexico ... "Astronomical sums of dirty money continue to flow out of the developing world and into offshore tax havens and developed country banks," said GFI director Raymond Baker....(size: 3.3Kb)
Deccan Chronicle
19 Dec 2012
“Astronomical sums of dirty money continue to flow out of the developing world and into offshore tax havens and developed country banks,” said GFI’s director Raymond Baker. With an illegal capital outflow of $420 billion, China accounted for almost half of the dirty money that flowed into tax havens and Western banks in 2010....(size: 3.1Kb)
Business Insider
19 Dec 2012
Investors should be scared off by restrictive labor laws, high income-tax rates, high cost of labor, and now the mud-wrestling bouts over nationalizing some industrial plants [Nationalizations Take Off In France] ... Among other strategies, they rely on subsidiaries in Ireland, the Netherlands, and then offshore tax havens to shift revenues and income away from France....(size: 7.4Kb)
Newsvine
19 Dec 2012
citizens avoid paying taxes ... government has since been pushing Switzerland to loosen its rules on banking secrecy and has been trying to shed its image as a tax haven, signing deals with the United States, Germany and Britain to provide greater assistance to foreign tax authorities seeking information on their citizens' accounts....(size: 3.9Kb)
Newsvine
19 Dec 2012
citizens avoid paying taxes ... government has since been pushing Switzerland to loosen its rules on banking secrecy and has been trying to shed its image as a tax haven, signing deals with the United States, Germany and Britain to provide greater assistance to foreign tax authorities seeking information on their citizens' accounts....(size: 3.9Kb)
CBC
19 Dec 2012
citizens avoid paying taxes ... government has since been pushing Switzerland to loosen its rules on banking secrecy and has been trying to shed its image as a tax haven, signing deals with the United States, Germany and Britain to provide greater assistance to foreign tax authorities seeking information on their citizens' accounts....(size: 4.0Kb)
BBC News
19 Dec 2012
Parliament in the Cayman Islands has passed a vote of no confidence in Premier McKeeva Bush, who is facing corruption allegations ... The Cayman Islands is a major financial centre and a global tax haven. ....(size: 1.4Kb)
Philadelphia Daily News
19 Dec 2012
Education Minister Rolston Anglin told The Associated Press that a majority of Bush's elected caucus has requested that he step down and allow the police investigations to continue in the Caribbean tax haven without any real or perceived appearance of conflict, but the premier has rejected all calls to resign and described the police investigations part of a "very vindictive" political plot to destroy his reputation and career....(size: 18.9Kb)
Seattle Post
19 Dec 2012
... tax evasion probes ... citizens avoid paying taxes ... government has since been pushing Switzerland to loosen its rules on banking secrecy and has been trying to shed its image as a tax haven, signing deals with the United States, Germany and Britain to provide greater assistance to foreign tax authorities seeking information on their citizens' accounts....(size: 5.5Kb)
A tax haven is a state or a country or territory where certain taxes are levied at a low rate or not at all while offering due process, good governance and a low corruption rate.[1]
Individuals and/or corporate entities can find it attractive to move themselves to areas with reduced or nil taxation levels. This creates a situation of tax competition among governments. Different jurisdictions tend to be havens for different types of taxes, and for different categories of people and/or companies.
States that are sovereign or self-governing under international law have theoretically unlimited powers to enact tax laws affecting their territories, unless limited by previous international treaties.
There are several definitions of tax havens. The Economist has tentatively adopted the description by Geoffrey Colin Powell (former economic adviser to Jersey): "What ... identifies an area as a tax haven is the existence of a composite tax structure established deliberately to take advantage of, and exploit, a worldwide demand for opportunities to engage in tax avoidance." The Economist points out that this definition would still exclude a number of jurisdictions traditionally thought of as tax havens.[2] Similarly, others have suggested that any country which modifies its tax laws to attract foreign capital could be considered a tax haven.[3] According to other definitions,[4] the central feature of a haven is that its laws and other measures can be used to evade or avoid the tax laws or regulations of other jurisdictions.
In its December 2008 report on the use of tax havens by American corporations,[5] the U.S. Government Accountability Office was unable to find a satisfactory definition of a tax haven but regarded the following characteristics as indicative of a tax haven:
- nil or nominal taxes;
- lack of effective exchange of tax information with foreign tax authorities;
- lack of transparency in the operation of legislative, legal or administrative provisions;
- no requirement for a substantive local presence; and
- self-promotion as an offshore financial center.
Contents |
History[link]
The use of differing tax laws between two or more countries to try to mitigate tax liability is probably as old as taxation itself. In Ancient Greece, some of the Greek Islands were used as depositories by the sea traders of the era to place their foreign goods to thus avoid the two-percent tax imposed by the city-state of Athens on imported goods. It is sometimes suggested that the practice first reached prominence through the avoidance of the Cinque ports and later the staple ports in the twelfth and fourteenth centuries respectively. In 1721, American colonies traded from Latin America to avoid British taxes.
Various countries claim to be the oldest tax haven in the world. For example, the Channel Islands claim their tax independence dating as far back as Norman Conquest, while the Isle of Man claims to trace its fiscal independence to even earlier times. Nonetheless, the modern concept of a tax haven is generally accepted to have emerged at an uncertain point in the immediate aftermath of World War I.[6] Bermuda sometimes optimistically claims to have been the first tax haven based upon the creation of the first offshore companies legislation in 1935 by the newly created law firm of Conyers Dill & Pearman.[7] However, the Bermudian claim is debatable when compared against the enactment of a Trust Law by Liechtenstein in 1926 to attract offshore capital.[8]
Most economic commentators suggest that the first "true" tax haven was Switzerland, followed closely by Liechtenstein.[9] Swiss banks had long been a capital haven for people fleeing social upheaval in Russia, Germany, South America and elsewhere. However, in the early part of the twentieth century, in the years immediately following World War I, many European governments raised taxes sharply to help pay for reconstruction efforts following the devastation of World War I. By and large, Switzerland, having remained neutral during the Great War, avoided these additional infrastructure costs and was consequently able to maintain a low level of taxes. As a result, there was a considerable influx of capital into the country for tax related reasons. It is difficult, nonetheless, to pinpoint a single event or precise date which clearly identifies the emergence of the modern tax haven.
Until the 1950s, tax havens were used to avoid personal taxation[citation needed] but since then jurisdictions have come to focus on attracting companies with low or no corporate tax. Centres which focus on providing financial services to corporations rather than private wealth management are more often known as offshore financial centres.
This strategy generally relied on double taxation treaties between large jurisdictions and the tax haven, allowing corporations to structure group ownership through the smaller jurisdiction to reduce tax liability. Although some of these double tax treaties survive,For example a double taxation treaty still exists between Barbados and Japan, and another between Cyprus and Russia.
In the early to mid-1980s, most tax havens changed the focus of their legislation to create corporate vehicles which were "ring-fenced" and exempt from local taxation (although they usually could not trade locally either). These vehicles were usually called "exempt companies" or "International Business Corporations". However, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the OECD began a series of initiatives aimed at tax havens to curb the abuse of what the OECD referred to as "unfair tax competition". Under pressure from the OECD, most major tax havens repealed their laws permitting these ring-fenced vehicles to be incorporated, but concurrently they amended their tax laws so that a company which did not actually trade within the jurisdiction would not accrue any local tax liability.[10]
Money and exchange control[link]
Most tax havens have a double monetary control system which distinguish residents from non-resident as well as foreign currency from the domestic one. In general, residents are subject to monetary controls but not non-residents. A company, belonging to a non-resident, when trading overseas is seen as non-resident in terms of exchange control.
It is possible for a foreigner to create a company in a tax haven to trade internationally; the company’s operations will not be subject to exchange controls as long as it uses foreign currency to trade outside the tax haven.
Tax havens usually have currency easily convertible or linked to an easily convertible currency. Most are convertible to US dollars, euro or to pounds sterling.
Methodology[link]
At the risk of gross oversimplification, it can be said that the advantages of tax havens are viewed in four principal contexts:[11]
- Personal residency. Since the early 20th century, wealthy individuals from high-tax jurisdictions have sought to relocate themselves in low-tax jurisdictions. In most countries in the world, residence is the primary basis of taxation – see Tax residence. In some cases the low-tax jurisdictions levy no, or only very low, income tax. But almost no tax haven assesses any kind of capital gains tax, or inheritance tax. Individuals who are unable to return to a high-tax country in which they used to reside for more than a few days a year are sometimes referred to as tax exiles.
- Asset holding. Asset holding involves utilizing a trust or a company, or a trust owning a company. The company or trust will be formed in one tax haven, and will usually be administered and resident in another. The function is to hold assets, which may consist of a portfolio of investments under management, trading companies or groups, physical assets such as real estate or valuable chattels. The essence of such arrangements is that by changing the ownership of the assets into an entity which is not resident in the high-tax jurisdiction, they cease to be taxable in that jurisdiction. Often the mechanism is employed to avoid a specific tax. For example, a wealthy testator could transfer his house into an offshore company; he can then settle the shares of the company on trust (with himself being a trustee with another trustee, whilst holding the beneficial life estate) for himself for life, and then to his daughter. On his death, the shares will automatically vest in the daughter, who thereby acquires the house, without the house having to go through probate and being assessed with inheritance tax.[12] (Most countries assess inheritance tax (and all other taxes) on real estate within their jurisdiction, regardless of the nationality of the owner, so this would not work with a house in most countries. It is more likely to be done with intangible assets.)
- Trading and other business activity. Many businesses which do not require a specific geographical location or extensive labor are set up in tax havens, to minimize tax exposure. Perhaps the best illustration of this is the number of reinsurance companies which have migrated to Bermuda over the years. Other examples include internet based services and group finance companies. In the 1970s and 1980s corporate groups were known to form offshore entities for the purposes of "reinvoicing". These reinvoicing companies simply made a margin without performing any economic function, but as the margin arose in a tax free jurisdiction, it allowed the group to "skim" profits from the high-tax jurisdiction. Most sophisticated tax codes now prevent transfer pricing scams of this nature.
- Financial intermediaries. Much of the economic activity in tax havens today consists of professional financial services such as mutual funds, banking, life insurance and pensions. Generally the funds are deposited with the intermediary in the low-tax jurisdiction, and the intermediary then on-lends or invests the money (often back into a high-tax jurisdiction). Although such systems do not normally avoid tax in the principal customer's jurisdiction, it enables financial service providers to provide multi-jurisdictional products without adding an additional layer of taxation. This has proved particularly successful in the area of offshore funds.[13] This type of methodology has been used by google and came to light in the year 2010 when it was reported that Google uses techniques called the "Double Irish" and "Dutch Sandwich" to reduce its corporate income tax to 2.4%, by funnelling its corporate income through Ireland and from there to a shell in the Netherlands where it can be transferred to Bermuda, which has no corporate income tax. The search engine is using Ireland as a conduit for revenues that end up being costed to another country where its intellectual property (the brand and technology such as Google's algorithms) is registered. In Google's case this country is Bermuda.In the year 2009, the internet giant made a gross profit of €5.5bn, but reported an operating profit of €45m after "administrative expenses" of €5.467bn were stripped out. Administrative expenses largely refer to royalties (or a licence fee) Google pays it Bermuda HQ for the right to operate. Google has uncovered a highly efficient tax structure across six territories that meant Google paid just 2.4% tax on operations outside the US. [14]
The OECD and tax havens[link]
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) identifies three key factors in considering whether a jurisdiction is a tax haven:[15]
- Nil or only nominal taxes. Tax havens impose nil or only nominal taxes (generally or in special circumstances) and offer themselves, or are perceived to offer themselves, as a place to be used by non-residents to escape high taxes in their country of residence.
- Protection of personal financial information. Tax havens typically have laws or administrative practices under which businesses and individuals can benefit from strict rules and other protections against scrutiny by foreign tax authorities. This prevents the transmittance of information about taxpayers who are benefiting from the low tax jurisdiction.
- Lack of transparency. A lack of transparency in the operation of the legislative, legal or administrative provisions is another factor used to identify tax havens. The OECD is concerned that laws should be applied openly and consistently, and that information needed by foreign tax authorities to determine a taxpayer’s situation is available. Lack of transparency in one country can make it difficult, if not impossible, for other tax authorities to apply their laws effectively. ‘Secret rulings’, negotiated tax rates, or other practices that fail to apply the law openly and consistently are examples of a lack of transparency. Limited regulatory supervision or a government’s lack of legal access to financial records are contributing factors.
However the OECD found that its definition caught certain aspects of its members' tax systems (some countries have low or zero taxes for certain favored groups). Its later work has therefore focused on the single aspect of information exchange. This is generally thought to be an inadequate definition of a tax haven, but is politically expedient because it includes the small tax havens (with little power in the international political arena) but exempts the powerful countries with tax haven aspects such as the USA and UK.[16]
In deciding whether or not a jurisdiction is a tax haven, the first factor to look at is whether there are no or nominal taxes. If this is the case, the other two factors – whether or not there is an exchange of information and transparency – must be analyzed. Having no or nominal taxes is not sufficient, by itself, to characterize a jurisdiction as a tax haven. The OECD recognizes that every jurisdiction has a right to determine whether to impose direct taxes and, if so, to determine the appropriate tax rate.
Anti-avoidance[link]
To avoid tax competition, many high tax jurisdictions have enacted legislation to counter the tax sheltering potential of tax havens. Generally, such legislation tends to operate in one of five ways:
- attributing the income and gains of the company or trust in the tax haven to a taxpayer in the high-tax jurisdiction on an arising basis. Controlled Foreign Corporation legislation is an example of this.
- transfer pricing rules, standardization of which has been greatly helped by the promulgation of OECD guidelines.
- restrictions on deductibility, or imposition of a withholding tax when payments are made to offshore recipients.
- taxation of receipts from the entity in the tax haven, sometimes enhanced by notional interest to reflect the element of deferred payment. The EU withholding tax is probably the best example of this.
- exit charges, or taxing of unrealized capital gains when an individual, trust or company emigrates.
However, many jurisdictions employ blunter rules. For example, in France securities regulations are such that it is not possible to have a public bond issue through a company incorporated in a tax haven.[17]
Also becoming increasingly popular is "forced disclosure" of tax mitigation schemes. Broadly, these involve the revenue authorities compelling tax advisors to reveal details of the scheme, so that the loopholes can be closed during the following tax year, usually by one of the five methods indicated above.[18] Although not specifically aimed at tax havens, given that so many tax mitigation schemes involve the use of offshore structures, the effect is much the same.
Anti-avoidance came to prominence in 2010/2011 as NGOs and politicians in the leading economies looked for convenient scapegoats for their governments' spending cuts.[19] The International Financial Centres Forum (IFC Forum) has asked for a balanced debate on the issue of tax avoidance and an understanding of the role that the tax neutrality of small international financial centres plays in the global economy.[20]
Incentives[link]
There are several reasons for a nation to become a tax haven. Some nations may find they do not need to charge as much as some industrialized countries in order for them to be earning sufficient income for their annual budgets. Some may offer a lower tax rate to larger corporations, in exchange for the companies locating a division of their parent company in the host country and employing some of the local population. Other domiciles find this is a way to encourage conglomerates from industrialized nations to transfer needed skills to the local population. Still yet, some countries simply find it costly to compete in many other sectors with industrialized nations and have found a low tax rate mixed with a little self-promotion can go a long way to attracting foreign companies.
Many industrialized countries claim that tax havens act unfairly by reducing tax revenue which would otherwise be theirs. Various pressure groups also claim that money launderers also use tax havens extensively,[21] although extensive financial and KYC regulations in tax havens can actually make money laundering more difficult than in large onshore financial centers with significantly higher volumes of transactions, such as New York City or London.[22] In 2000, the Financial Action Task Force published what came to be known as the "FATF Blacklist" of countries which were perceived to be uncooperative in relation to money laundering; although several tax havens have appeared on the list from time to time (including key jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands, Bahamas and Liechtenstein), no offshore jurisdictions appear on the list at this time.
Examples[link]
See also: List of offshore financial centres and Tax rates around the world
The U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research has suggested that roughly 15% of countries in the world are tax havens, that these countries tend to be small and affluent, and that better governed and regulated countries are more likely to become tax havens, and are more likely to be successful if they become tax havens.[23]
No two commentators can generally agree on a "list of tax havens", but the following countries are commonly cited as falling within the "classic" perception of a sovereign tax haven.
Non-sovereign jurisdictions commonly labelled as tax havens include:
- Bermuda (United Kingdom)
- British Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
- Campione d'Italia an Italian exclave (Italy)
- Cayman Islands (United Kingdom)
- The Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey (United Kingdom)
- Delaware (United States)
- The Isle of Man (United Kingdom)
- Jebel Ali Free Zone in the United Arab Emirates
- Labuan, a Malaysian island off Borneo
- Netherlands Antilles (Netherlands)
- Nevada (United States)
- Turks and Caicos Islands (United Kingdom)
- United States Virgin Islands (United States)
- Wyoming (United States)
Some tax havens including some of the ones listed above do charge income tax as well as other taxes such as capital gains, inheritance tax, and so forth. Criteria distinguishing a taxpayer from a non-taxpayer can include citizenship and residency and source of income.
Former tax havens[link]
- Beirut formerly had a reputation as the only tax haven in the Middle East. However, this changed after the Intra Bank crash of 1966,[24] and the subsequent political and military deterioration of Lebanon dissuaded foreign use as a tax haven.
- Liberia had a prosperous ship registration industry. The series of violent and bloody civil wars in the 1990s and early 2000s severely damaged confidence in the jurisdiction. The fact that the ship registration business still continues is partly a testament to its early success, and partly a testament to moving the national Shipping Registry to New York City.
- Tangier had a brief but colorful existence as a tax haven in the period between the end of effective control by the Spanish in 1945 until it was formally reunited with Morocco in 1956.
- A number of Pacific based tax havens have ceased to operate as tax havens in response to OECD demands for better regulation and transparency in the late 1990s. Vanuatu's Financial Services commissioner announced in May 2008 that his country would reform its laws so as to cease being a tax haven. "We've been associated with this stigma for a long time and we now aim to get away from being a tax haven."[25]
Extent[link]
While incomplete, and with the limitations discussed below, the available statistics nonetheless indicate that offshore banking is a very sizeable activity. IMF calculations based on BIS data suggest that for selected OFCs (Offshore Financial Centres), on balance sheet OFC cross-border assets reached a level of US$4.6 trillion at end-June 1999 (about 50 percent of total cross-border assets), of which US$0.9 trillion in the Caribbean, US$1 trillion in Asia, and most of the remaining US$2.7 trillion accounted for by the IFCs (International Financial Centers), namely London, the U.S. IBFs, and the JOM (Japanese Offshore Market).[26]
A 2006 academic paper indicated that: "in 1999, 59% of U.S. firms with significant foreign operations had affiliates in tax haven countries",[27] although they did not define "significant" for this purpose.
A January 2009 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report said that the GAO had determined that 83 of the 100 largest U.S. publicly traded corporations and 63 of the 100 largest contractors for the U.S. federal government were maintaining subsidiaries in countries generally considered havens for avoiding taxes. The GAO did not review the companies' transactions to independently verify that the subsidiaries helped the companies reduce their tax burden, but said only that historically the purpose of such subsidiaries is to cut tax costs.[28]
Currently the Caribbean Banking Centers which include Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Netherlands Antilles, and Panama hold almost two trillion dollars in United States debt.[29]
Lost tax revenue[link]
In October 2009, research commissioned from Deloitte for the Foot Review of British Offshore Financial Centres indicated that much less tax had been lost to tax havens than previously had been thought. The report indicated "We estimate the total UK corporation tax potentially lost to avoidance activities to be up to £2 billion per annum, although it could be much lower." The report also dissected an earlier report by the TUC, which had concluded that tax avoidance by the 50 largest companies in the FTSE 100 was depriving the UK Treasury of approximately £11.8 billion. The TUC's analysis had looked at the reported profits of the companies and the amount of tax paid, which created a gap in tax revenues which was mostly due to differences in the accounting treatment of profit for taxation purposes, which were intended under the UK's tax rules.[30] The report also stressed that British Crown Dependencies make a "significant contribution to the liquidity of the UK market". In the second quarter of 2009, they provided net funds to banks in the UK totalling $323 billion (£195 billion), of which $218 billion came from Jersey, $74 billion from Guernsey and $40 billion from the Isle of Man.
Tax Justice Network, an anti-tax haven pressure group, suggests that global tax revenue lost to tax havens exceeds US$255 billion per year, although those figures are not widely accepted. Estimates by the OECD suggest that by 2007 capital held offshore amounts to somewhere between US$5 trillion and US$7 trillion, making up approximately 6–8% of total global investments under management. Of this, approximately US$1.4 trillion is estimate to be held in the Cayman Islands alone.[31]
The Center for Freedom and Prosperity disputes claims about forgone tax revenue. Academic researchers also have found that tax havens actually boost prosperity in neighboring jurisdictions by creating tax-efficient platforms for economic activity – much of which would not occur if subject to onerous taxes if controlled by a domestic entity. Some support for this is found in academic studies which suggest that the tax elasticity of investment is approximately −0.6.[32]
Modern developments[link]
Proposed U.S. legislation[link]
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) was initially introduced to target those who evade paying U.S. taxes by hiding assets in undisclosed foreign bank accounts. With the strong backing of the Obama Administration, Congress quickly drafted the FATCA legislation and slipped it into the vaguely related Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (HIRE) signed into law by President Obama in March 2010.
An unintended but serious problem with FATCA is that compliance is so expensive for non-US banks that they are refusing to serve American investors.[33]
Key provisions of FATCA[link]
FATCA requires foreign financial institutions (FFI) of broad scope – banks, stock brokers, hedge funds, pension funds, insurance companies, trusts – to report directly to the IRS all clients who are U.S. Persons. Starting January 1, 2013 (later delayed to 2014), FATCA will require FFIs to provide annual reports to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on the name and address of each U.S. client, as well as the largest account balance in the year and total debits and credits of any account owned by a U.S. person.[34] If an institution does not comply, the U.S. will impose a 30% withholding tax on all its transactions concerning U.S. securities, including the proceeds of sale of securities.
In addition, FATCA requires any foreign company not listed on a stock exchange or any foreign partnership which has 10% U.S. ownership to report to the IRS the names and tax I.D. number (TIN) of any U.S. owner.
FATCA also requires U.S. citizens and green card holders who have foreign financial assets in excess of $50,000 to complete a new Form 8938 to be filed with the 1040 tax return, starting with fiscal year 2010). [35] See FATCA for details.
The delay is indicative of a controversy over the feasibility of implementing the legislation as evidenced in this paper from the renowned Peterson Institute for International Economics. [36]
Proposed German legislation[link]
In January 2009, Peer Steinbrück, the German financial minister, announced a plan to amend fiscal laws. New regulations would disallow that payments to companies in certain countries that shield money from disclosure rules be declared as operative expenses. The effect of this would make banking in such states unattractive and expensive.[37]
Liechtenstein banking scandal[link]
Main article: 2008 Liechtenstein tax affair
In February 2008, Germany announced that it had paid €4.2 million to Heinrich Kieber,[38] a former data archivist of LGT Treuhand, a Liechtenstein bank, for a list of 1,250 customers of the bank and their accounts' details. Investigations and arrests followed relating to charges of illegal tax evasion. The German authorities shared the data with U.S. tax authorities, but the British government paid a further £100,000 for the same data.[39] Other governments, notably Denmark and Sweden, refused to pay for the information regarding it as stolen property.[40] The Liechtenstein authorities subsequently accused the German authorities of espionage.[41]
However, regardless of whether unlawful tax evasion was being engaged in, the incident has fuelled the perception amongst European governments and press that tax havens provide facilities shrouded in secrecy designed to facilitate unlawful tax evasion, rather than legitimate tax planning and legal tax mitigation schemes. This in turn has led to a call for "crackdowns" on tax havens.[42] Whether the calls for such a crackdown are mere posturing or lead to more definitive activity by mainstream economies to restrict access to tax havens is yet to be seen. No definitive announcements or proposals have yet been made by the European Union or governments of the member states.
G20 tax havens blacklist[link]
At the London G20 summit on 2 April 2009, G20 countries agreed to define a blacklist for tax havens, to be segmented according to a four-tier system, based on compliance with an "internationally agreed tax standard."[43] The list as per April 2nd of 2009 can be viewed on the OECD Data [44] After a great progress the four tiers are now:
- Those that have substantially implemented the standard (includes most countries but China still excludes Hongkong and Macao).
- Tax havens that have committed to – but not yet fully implemented – the standard (includes Montserrat, Nauru, Niue, Panama, and Vanuatu)
- Financial centres that have committed to – but not yet fully implemented – the standard (includes Guatemala, Costa Rica and Uruguay).
- Those that have not committed to the standard (an empty category)
Those countries in the bottom tier were initially classified as being 'non-cooperative tax havens'. Uruguay was initially classified as being uncooperative. However, upon appeal the OECD stated that it did meet tax transparency rules and thus moved it up. The Philippines took steps to remove itself from the blacklist and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak had suggested earlier that Malaysia should not be in the bottom tier.[45] On April 7, 2009, the OECD, through its chief Angel Gurria, announced that Costa Rica, Malaysia, the Philippines and Uruguay have been removed from the blacklist after they had made "a full commitment to exchange information to the OECD standards."[46]
Despite calls from the former French President Nicolas Sarkozy for Hong Kong and Macau to be included separately from China on the list, they are as of yet not included independently, although it is expected that they will be added at a later date.[43]
Government response to the crackdown has been broadly supportive, although not universal.[47] Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker has criticised the list, stating that it has "no credibility", for failing to include various states of the U.S.A. which provide incorporation infrastructure which are indistinguishable from the aspects of pure tax havens to which the G20 object.[48]
Foot report[link]
In November 2009 Sir Michael Foot delivered a report on the British Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories for HM Treasury.[49] The report indicated that whilst many of the territories "had a good story to tell", others needed to improve in detection and prevention of financial crime. It also stressed the view that narrow tax bases presented long term strategic risks, and that the economies should seek to diversify and broaden their own tax bases. The report also indicated that tax revenue lost by the United Kingdom government appeared to be much smaller than had previously estimated (see above under Lost tax revenue), and also stressed the importance of the liquidity provided by the territories to the United Kingdom. The Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories broadly welcomed the report,[50] but the pressure group Tax Justice Network, unhappy with the findings, commented "[a] weak man, born to be an apologist, has delivered a weak report."[51]
See also[link]
- Asset protection
- Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions and for Citizens' Action
- Bank secrecy
- Corporate haven
- Corporate inversion
- Free port
- Free economic zone
- International business company
- International taxation
- Money laundering
- Offshore bank
- Offshore company
- Offshore financial centre
- Offshore trust
- Tax avoidance and tax evasion
- Tax exile
- Tax exporting
- Tax Justice Network
- Tax shelter
Notes[link]
- ^ Dharmapala, Dhammika und Hines Jr., James R. (2006) Which Countries Become Tax Havens?
- ^ Doggart, Caroline. 2002. Tax Havens and Their Uses (originally published 1970), Economist Intelligence Unit, ISBN 0-86218-163-1
- ^ Davidson, Sinclair (2007-10-15). "The Truth About Tax Havens - retrieved 28 December 2007". Melbourne: Theage.com.au. http://www.theage.com.au/news/business/here-is-the-truth-about-tax-havens/2007/10/15/1192300685572.html. Retrieved 2011-03-22.
- ^ "The Truth About Tax Havens - retrieved 28 December 2007" (PDF). http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/upload/pdf/Identifying_Tax_Havens_Jul_07.pdf. Retrieved 2011-03-22.
- ^ "International Taxation: Large U.S. Corporations and Federal Contractors with Subsidiaries in Jurisdictions Listed as Tax Havens or Financial Privacy Jurisdictions GAO:GAO-09-157". Government Accountability Office. December 18, 2008. http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-157. Retrieved 2009-01-21.
- ^ "[T]he tax haven is a creature of the twentieth century, and began to be used extensively because of the high levels of tax which prevailed after the First World War" at para 26.1, Tolley's International Tax Planning (2002), ISBN 0-7545-1339-4
- ^ See generally Introduction to Tolley's International Initiatives Affecting Financial Havens (2001), ISBN 0-406-94264-1
- ^ The Personen- und Gesellschaftsrecht of 20 January 1926
- ^ Tolley's Tax Havens (2000), ISBN 0-7545-0471-9
- ^ For example, the British Virgin Islands repealed the International Business Companies Act (Cap 291) (which had prohibited such companies from trading locally) and enacted the BVI Business Companies Act 2004 (which permitted this) in its place. Contemporaneously it varied its tax laws by amending the Income Tax Act (Cap 206) which amended the rate of income tax for individuals and corporations to zero, and the Payroll Taxes Act 2004 which imposed a (new) payroll tax on person employed by businesses within the British Virgin Islands.
- ^ Tolley's Offshore Service (2006), ISBN 1-4057-1568-5
- ^ This is a simplistic example; in most sophisticated tax codes there are extensive provisions for catching "gifts" (such as a declaration of trust) made for a specified time preceding death.
- ^ It has been estimated over 75% of the world's hedge funds (probably the riskiest form of collective investment vehicle) are domiciled in the Cayman Islands, with nearly $1.1 trillion US AUM - Institutional Investor, 15 May 2006, although statistics in the hedge fund industry are notoriously speculative.
- ^ Drucker J. (2010). The Tax Haven That's Saving Google Billions. Business Week.
- ^ "Tax Haven Criteria - retrieved 26 February 2008 Tax Haven Criteria". Oecd.org. http://www.oecd.org/document/63/0,3343,en_2649_37427_30575447_1_1_1_37427,00.html. Retrieved 2011-03-22.
- ^ Hay, Towards a level playing field - regulating corporate vehicles in cross border transactions, [1]
- ^ Companies incorporated in tax havens are often used as bond issuing vehicles in securitisations for tax reasons.
- ^ The United Kingdom is one country that has strict forced disclosure rules. - http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/aiu/index.htm
- ^ "Tax Dodgers - Big Society Revenue & Customs. UK Uncut". http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/targets/tax-dodgers. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
- ^ "Statement on tax avoidance debate. IFC Forum". http://www.ifcforum.org/files/IFC_Forum_holding_statement_on_tax_avoidance.pdf. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
- ^ Such as ATTAC and the Tax Justice Network. See for example: Offshore watch
- ^ See for example the views expressed in The Guardian in 2001.
- ^ Working paper 12802, [2]. The paper implicitly adopts the "smaller" tax haven approach, ie. disregarding larger countries which have either low taxes rates (for example, Russia), or systems of taxation which permit them to be used to structure tax avoidance schemes (for example, the United Kingdom). It also excludes non-sovereign tax havens (for example, Delaware or Labuan).
- ^ "Election Under Fire". Time Magazine. 1976-05-17. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,945606-1,00.html. Retrieved 2006-12-23.
- ^ "Vanuatu to ditch tax haven", Anthony Klan, The Australian, May 6, 2008
- ^ "Offshore Financial Centers", International Monetary Fund background paper, June 23, 2000
- ^ Desai, Foley and Hines, "The demand for tax haven operations", Journal of Public Economics 90 (2006), page 514.
- ^ Carol D. Leonnig (January 16, 2009). "Report Finds Major U.S. Companies Have Offshore Tax Havens". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/16/AR2009011602602.html?hpid=topnews.
- ^ "U.S. Banking Liabilities to Foreigners.". Treasury.gov. http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Pages/ticliab.aspx. Retrieved 2011-03-22.
- ^ The Times (2009-10-30). "Tax haven report lays emphasis on vital role of Crown Dependencies". London. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article6896141.ece. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
- ^ "Places in the sun", The Economist, February 22, 2007
- ^ Hines, Lessons from behavioral responses to international taxation, (1999) 52 National Tax Journal, pp. 305–322
- ^ Spiegel Online (2011-12-14). "European banks stop serving American customers" (in english). http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,803742,00.html. Retrieved 2011-21-31.
- ^ U.S. Internal Revenue Service (2011-07-14). "Treasury and IRS Issue Guidance Outlining Phased Implementation of FATCA Beginning in 2013" (in English). http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=242164,00.html. Retrieved 2011-08-25.
- ^ U.S. Internal Revenue Service (2012-01-25). "Do I need to file Form 8938, “Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets”?" (in English). http://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/article/0,,id=251217,00.html. Retrieved 2012-05-24.
- ^ "Gary Clyde Hufbauer: The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act: Imperial Overreach" (in English). 2011-07-22. http://www.piie.com/realtime/?p=2276. Retrieved 2011-08-25.
- ^ Der Spiegel (2009-01-17). "Steinbrück forciert Kampf gegen Steuerparadiese" (in German). http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,601859,00.html. Retrieved 2009-01-17.
- ^ Mr Kieber seems to be an unlikely hero for law enforcement authorities. A convicted fraudster, reports indicate that after initially stealing the information, he blackmailed the Liechtenstein authorities into reducing and dropping criminal charges against him relating to property fraud in Spain. However, before returning the disks he made copies which he later sold to foreign governments after he left the country. Further reports indicate that he now lives under a new name in Australia.[3]
- ^ The Guardian, 2 March 2008; The Daily Telegraph, 27 February 2008; Der Spiegel, 25 February 2008
- ^ Denmark's tax minister, Kristian Jensen, said: "I think it's a moral problem to reward a criminal for some information that he stole... I don't like this and I don't think this ethic is the best way to ensure that taxes are paid correctly."
- ^ By Harry de Quetteville 12:01AM GMT 20 Feb 2008 (2008-02-20). "''The Daily Telegraph'', 26 February 2008". London: Telegraph.co.uk. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/20/wliech120.xml. Retrieved 2011-03-22.
- ^ Accountancy Age, 3 March 2008; The Times, 9 March 2008; The Guardian, 5 March 2008
- ^ a b G20 declares door shut on tax havens, The Guardian, April 2, 2009
- ^ "OECD List as per 2009-04-02" (PDF). http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/38/14/42497950.pdf. Retrieved 2011-03-22.
- ^ "OECD names and shames tax havens". BBC News. 2009-04-03. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7980848.stm. Retrieved 2009-04-04.
- ^ BBC (2009-04-07). "OECD removes tax havens from list". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7987417.stm. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
- ^ Butler, Eamonn (2009-04-12). "Save the tax havens – we need them". London: The Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6078115.ece. Retrieved 2009-04-14.
- ^ Clark, Andrew (2009-04-10). "Welcome to tax-dodge city, USA". London: The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/apr/10/tax-havens-blacklist-us-delaware. Retrieved 2009-04-14.
- ^ "Michael Foot publishes final report". HM Treasury. 2009-10-29. http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/press_98_09.htm. Retrieved 2009-11-05.
- ^ "Governor and Premier Welcome Michael Foot Review Conclusions". 2009-10-30. http://www.bviplatinum.com/news.php?section=article&source=1256939117. Retrieved 2009-11-05. [dead link]
- ^ "The Foot Report: a setback". Tax Justice Network. 2009-10-29. http://taxjustice.blogspot.com/2009/10/foot-report.html. Retrieved 2009-11-05.
Further reading[link]
- Baker, Raymond W. (August 2005). Capitalism's Achilles' Heel: Dirty Money, and How to Renew the Free-Market System. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-471-64488-0.
- Henry, James S. (October 2003). The Blood Bankers: Tales from the Global Underground Economy. New York, NY: Four Walls Eight Windows. ISBN 978-1-56858-254-2.
- Morriss, Andrew P. (2010). Offshore Financial Centers and Regulatory Competition. Washington: The AEI Press. ISBN 978-0-8447-4324-0.
- Scevola, Carlo; Sneiderova, Karina (January 2010). Offshore Jurisdictions Guide. Geneva, Switzerland: CS&P Fiduciaire. ISBN 978-1-60594-433-3.
- Shaxson, Nicholas (April 2011). Treasure Islands: Uncovering the Damage of Offshore Banking and Tax Havens. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-10501-0.
External links[link]
- International Financial Centres Forum (IFC Forum)
- Offshore Banking directory of providers
- IMF - Offshore Banking and Financial Centers
- Offshore Financial Centers -- IMF Background Paper
- Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding tax havens
- Tax Justice Network
- Treasure Islands - Nicholas Shaxson's book on tax havens
- Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, OECD
- Global Financial Integrity
- Task Force on Financial Integrity & Economic Development
- An OECD Proposal To Eliminate Tax Competition Would Mean Higher Taxes and Less Privacy – Heritage Foundation: Washington D.C.
- The Moral Case for Tax Havens
- The Economic Case for Tax Havens
- "Why tax havens are a blessing" – the Cato Institute
- "Profiting from corruption: The role and responsibility of financial institutions" - U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
 |
Look up haven in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Haven(s) or The Haven(s) may refer to:
- Harbor, a place where ships may shelter from the weather or are stored
- Sanctuary, a consecrated area or a place of safety
|
Literature[link]
- Haven (Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter), a fictional character in Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter novels
- Haven (Artemis Fowl), a place in the Artemis Fowl series
- Haven (comics), a villain in the X-Men comics
- Republic of Haven, a star nation in David Weber's Honorverse series
- Haven, a fictional town in Stephen King's novel The Tommyknockers
- Haven, a character in the 1987 comic book Fusion
- Haven, a city in the Dragonlance series
- Haven, a planet in the War World series by Jerry Pournelle
- Haven, a minor planet in the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov
- Haven, the capital city of Valdemar, in the fictional world of Velgarth, in the novels of Mercedes Lackey
- Haven: The Dramatic Story of 1000 World War II Refugees and How They Came to America, a book by Ruth Gruber, basis for the 2001 TV miniseries
- Haven, a fictional character in the novel Evermore by Alyson Noel
- Haven, a fictional prison city that is home to the DC Comics group The Alliance
Games[link]
- Haven: Call of the King, a video game for PlayStation 2
- Haven: City of Violence, a paper and pencil role-playing game
- Haven, a "prison book" in the video game Myst IV: Revelation
- Haven, a political entity in the fantasy role-playing game Earthdawn
- Haven, a planet in the role-playing game Shatterzone
Music[link]
- Haven (band), an English indie rock band
- Haven (American band), a Christian metal band
- Haven (Dark Tranquillity album), or the title song
- Haven (Flook album)
People[link]
Places[link]
- Haven, Victoria, Australia
- Haven, Kansas, US
- Haven, New York, US
- Haven, Wisconsin, US
- Haven Township, Sherburne County, Minnesota, US
- Haven ports, a group of five docks on the East Coast of England
- The Haven, Boston, the tidal river of the Port of Boston, Lincolnshire, England
- The Haven, West Sussex, a small hamlet in West Sussex, England
- The Havens, Pembrokeshire, a community, and an electoral ward, in Pembrokeshire, Wales
Schools[link]
- Haven High Technology College, a secondary school in Boston, Lincolnshire, England
- Haven Institute, a residential learning centre in the Gulf Islands, British Columbia, Canada
- Haven Middle School, Evanston, Illinois, US
Ships[link]
- MT Haven, an oil tanker that exploded at sea in 1991
- Haven class hospital ship, a class of U.S. Navy hospital ships
- USS Haven (AH-12), the lead ship of that class
Television, film, and theatre[link]
- Haven (film), a 2004 movie starring Orlando Bloom and Zoë Saldaña
- Haven (TV miniseries), a 2001 American television miniseries starring Natasha Richardson
- Haven (TV series), a 2010 American supernatural drama series
- Haven, Maine, a fictional town in the series
- "The Haven" (The Outer Limits), an episode
- "Haven" (Star Trek: The Next Generation), an episode
- "Haven" (Transformers episode)
- "Haven" (Dark Angel), an episode of the television series Dark Angel
- Haven, a planet in the Firefly/Serenity universe, from the 2005 film Serenity
Other uses[link]
- Haven (graph theory), a strategy for the evader in graph-based pursuit-evasion games
- Haven Holidays, a company that runs holiday parks in the United Kingdom
- HavenCo, a data hosting services company
- Whitehaven RLFC, nicknamed Haven, a Cumbrian rugby league club
See also[link]
- Corporate haven
- Data haven
- Tax haven
- New Haven (disambiguation)
- Safe haven (disambiguation)
- East Haven (disambiguation)
- West Haven (disambiguation)
- North Haven (disambiguation)
- South Haven (disambiguation)
- Fairhaven (disambiguation)
- Refuge (disambiguation)
 |
This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. |
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| Nicholas Shaxson | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1966-00-00) December 0, 1966 (age 46) Malawi |
| Occupation | Author |
| Nationality | British |
| Notable work(s) | Poisoned Wells, Treasure Islands |
Nicholas Shaxson (*1966) is a British author, journalist, and an Associate Fellow of Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London). He is best known for his investigative books Poisoned Wells (2007) and Treasure Islands (2011). He is a full-time writer and researcher for the Tax Justice Network, an expert-led group focused on the harmful impacts of tax avoidance, tax competition and tax havens.[1][2]
Contents |
Biography[link]
Shaxson was born in Malawi and has lived at various times in India, Brazil, England, Lesotho, Spain, Angola, South Africa, Germany and the Netherlands. Since 1993 he has written on global business and politics for the Financial Times, Reuters, the Economist and its sister publication the Economist Intelligence Unit, International Affairs, Foreign Affairs, American Interest, the BBC, Africa Confidential, African Energy, and others.[1]
Shaxson currently lives with his partner and their two children in Zürich, Switzerland.[1]
Awards and honors[link]
- 2012 Bread and Roses Award, shortlist, Treasure Islands.[3]
Bibliography[link]
- Shaxson, Nicholas (2008-05-13). Poisoned Wells: The Dirty Politics of African Oil. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-60532-9.
- Shaxson, Nicholas (2011-01-06). Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men who Stole the World. Bodley Head. ISBN 978-1-84792-110-9.
References[link]
- ^ a b c The Author: Nicholas Shaxson, treasureislands.org, November 19, 2010
- ^ Shaxson, Nicholas, The truth about tax havens, The Guardian, January 8, 2011
- ^ "New prize for radical writing announces shortlist". 6 March 20. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/06/bread-and-roses-shortlist-announced. Retrieved May 2, 2012.
External links[link]
- Treasure Islands's website
- "The City of London and its Tax Haven Empire": presentation by Nicholas Shaxson and Maurice Glasman at the LSE, 1 February 2011. Shaxson begins speaking approximately 2 min into the recording, and jointly answers questions after the 54 min mark.
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Shaxson, Nicholas |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | 1966 |
| Place of birth | Malawi |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Nicholas_Shaxson
Related pages:
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"Romney" redirects here. For other uses, see Romney (disambiguation).
| Mitt Romney | |
|---|---|
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| 70th Governor of Massachusetts | |
| In office January 2, 2003 – January 4, 2007 |
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| Lieutenant | Kerry Healey |
| Preceded by | Jane Swift (Acting) |
| Succeeded by | Deval Patrick |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Willard Mitt Romney (1947-03-12) March 12, 1947 (age 65) Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Ann Romney (m. 1969) «start: (1969)»"Marriage: Ann Romney to Mitt Romney" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Mitt_Romney) |
| Children | Taggart (b. 1970) Matthew (b. 1971) Joshua (b. 1975) Benjamin (b. 1978) Craig (b. 1981) |
| Residence | Belmont, Massachusetts Wolfeboro, New Hampshire San Diego, California |
| Alma mater | Brigham Young University (BA) Harvard University (MBA, JD) |
| Religion | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) |
| Positions | Co-founder, Bain Capital (1984–1999) CEO, Bain & Company (1991–1992) CEO, 2002 Winter Olympics Organizing Committee (1999–2002) |
| Signature |  |
| Website | MittRomney.com |
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This article is part of a series about Mitt Romney |
Mitt Romney
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2012 Presidential campaign |
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Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party for President of the United States in the 2012 election. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts (2003–07).
The son of Lenore and George W. Romney (Governor of Michigan, 1963–69), he was raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. In 1966, after one year at Stanford University, he left the United States to spend thirty months in France as a Mormon missionary. In 1969, he married Ann Davies, and the couple had five children together. In 1971, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Brigham Young University and, in 1975, a joint Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration from Harvard University as a Baker Scholar. He entered the management consulting industry, which in 1977, led to a position at Bain & Company. Later serving as Chief Executive Officer, he helped bring the company out of financial crisis. In 1984, he co-founded the spin-off Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm that became highly profitable and one of the largest such firms in the nation. His net worth is estimated at $190–250 million, wealth that has helped fund his political campaigns. Active in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he served as Ward Bishop and later Stake President in his area near Boston. He ran as the Republican candidate in the 1994 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, losing to long-time incumbent Ted Kennedy. In 1999, he was hired as President and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics and Paralympics; and he helped turn the fiscally troubled games into a success.
He was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 2002 but did not seek re-election in 2006. During his term he presided over a series of spending cuts and increases in fees that eliminated a projected $1.5 billion deficit. He also signed into law the Massachusetts health care reform legislation, the first of its kind in the nation, which provided near-universal health insurance access via state-level subsidies and individual mandates.
Romney ran for the Republican nomination in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, winning several primaries and caucuses but losing the nomination to John McCain. In the following years, he gave speeches and raised campaign funds on behalf of his fellow Republicans. In June 2011, he announced that he would seek the 2012 Republican presidential nomination; as of May 2012, he has won enough caucuses and primaries to become the party's presumptive nominee.
Early life and education[link]
See also: Romney family
Heritage and youth[link]
Willard Mitt Romney[1] was born at Harper Hospital in Detroit, Michigan,[2] the youngest child of George W. Romney, a self-made man who by 1948 had become an automobile executive, and Lenore Romney (née LaFount), an aspiring actress turned homemaker.[3][4][5] His mother was a native of Logan, Utah, and his father was born in a Mormon colony in Chihuahua, Mexico, to American parents.[6][7] He is of primarily English descent, and also has more distant Scottish and German ancestry.[8][9][10] He is a fifth-generation member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).[11][12] A great-great-grandfather, Miles Romney, converted to the faith in its first decade, and another great-great-grandfather, Parley P. Pratt, was an early leader in the church during the same time.[13]
He was preceded in birth by three siblings: Margo Lynn, Jane LaFount, and G. Scott. Mitt followed after a gap of nearly six years. He was named after family friend, hotel magnate J. Willard Marriott, and his father's cousin Milton "Mitt" Romney, a former quarterback for the Chicago Bears.[14][nb 1] In 1953, the family moved from Detroit to the affluent suburb of Bloomfield Hills.[16] In 1954, his father became the chairmen and CEO of American Motors, a company he helped avoid bankruptcy, and return to profitability.[16] By the time Mitt was twelve, his father had become a nationally known figure in print and on television,[17] and Mitt idolized him.[18]
He attended public elementary schools[15] until the seventh grade, when he began commuting to Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, a traditional private boys' preparatory school where he was one of only a few Mormons and where many students came from backgrounds even more privileged than he.[19][20] He was not particularly athletic and at first did not excel academically.[18] During his sophomore year he participated in the 1962 campaign in which his father was elected Governor of Michigan.[nb 2] When his parents moved to the state capitol as part of George Romney taking office, Mitt took up residence at Cranbrook's Stevens Hall.[19] George Romney was re-elected twice; Mitt worked for him as an intern in the governor's office, and was present at the 1964 Republican National Convention when his moderate father battled conservative party nominee Barry Goldwater over issues of civil rights and ideological extremism.[18][22] During these years, Romney had a steady set of chores and summer jobs, including working as a security guard at a Chrysler plant.[23]
At Cranbrook he was a manager for the ice hockey team and a member of the pep squad,[19] and during his final year joined the cross country running team.[15] He belonged to eleven school organizations and school clubs, and started the Blue Key Club boosters group.[19] During his final year at Cranbook, Romney improved academically, but was still not a star pupil.[18][20] He won an award for those "whose contributions to school life are often not fully recognized through already existing channels".[20] Romney was involved in many pranks.[nb 3]
In March of his senior year, he began dating Ann Davies, two years his younger, whom he had first met in elementary school; she attended the private Kingswood School, the sister school to Cranbrook.[27][20] The two informally agreed to marriage around the time of his June 1965 graduation.[18]
University, France mission, marriage and children: 1965–1975[link]
Romney attended Stanford University for a year,[18][nb 4] where he worked as a night security guard in order to pay for trips home to see Ann.[28] Although the campus was becoming radicalized with the beginnings of 1960s social and political movements, he kept a well-groomed appearance and participated in pre-Big Game actions designed to protect the Stanford Axe.[18] In May 1966, he was part of a counter-protest against a group staging a sit-in in the university administration building in opposition to draft status tests.[18][29]
"As you can imagine, it's quite an experience to go to Bordeaux and say, 'Give up your wine! I've got a great religion for you!'"
—Mitt Romney in 2002 reflecting upon his missionary experience.[30]
In July 1966, he left for a thirty-month stay in France as a Mormon missionary,[18][31] a traditional rite of passage that his father and many other relatives had volunteered for.[nb 5] He arrived in Le Havre with ideas about how to change and promote the French Mission, while facing physical and economic deprivation in their cramped quarters.[33][13] Rules against drinking, smoking, and dating were strictly enforced.[13] Most individual Mormon missionaries do not gain many converts,[35] and Romney was no exception:[33] he later estimated ten to twenty for his entire mission.[36] The nominally Catholic but secular, wine-loving French people were especially resistant to a religion that prohibits alcohol.[18][13][30] He became demoralized, and later recalled it as the only time when "most of what I was trying to do was rejected."[33] In Nantes, he suffered a bruised jaw while defending two female missionaries who were being bothered by a group of local rugby players.[13] He continued to work hard; having grown up in Michigan rather than the more insular Utah world, Romney was better able to interact with the French than other missionaries.[37][13] He was promoted to zone leader in Bordeaux in early 1968, then in the spring of that year became assistant to the mission president in Paris, the highest position for a missionary.[33][13][38] In the Mission Home in Paris he enjoyed palace-like accommodations.[38] Romney's support for the U.S. role in the Vietnam War was only reinforced when the French greeted him with hostility over the matter and he debated them in return.[13][33] He witnessed the May 1968 general strike and student uprisings and was upset by the breakdown in social order.[39]
In June 1968, an automobile he was driving in southern France was hit by another vehicle, seriously injuring him and killing one of his passengers, the wife of the mission president.[nb 6] Romney, who was not at fault in the accident,[nb 6] became co-acting president of a mission demoralized and disorganized by the May civil disturbances and by the car accident.[37] He rallied and motivated the others and they met an ambitious goal of 200 baptisms for the year, the most for the mission in a decade.[37] By the end of his stint in December 1968, he was overseeing the work of 175 fellow members.[33][40] Romney developed a lifelong affection for France and its people, and speaks French.[42] The experience in the country instilled in him a belief that life is fragile and that he needed seriousness of purpose.[18][37][13] It also represented a crucible, after having been an indifferent Mormon growing up: "On a mission, your faith in Jesus Christ either evaporates or it becomes much deeper ... For me it became much deeper."[33]
While he was away, Ann Davies had converted to the Mormon faith, guided by George Romney, and had begun attending Brigham Young University (BYU).[18] Mitt was nervous that she had been wooed by others while he was away, and she had indeed started dating popular campus figure Kim S. Cameron and had sent Romney in France a "Dear John letter", greatly upsetting him; he wrote to her to in an attempt to win her back.[43][15] At their first meeting following Romney's return they reconnected, and decided to get married immediately but agreed to wait three months to appease their parents.[44] At Ann's request, Romney began attending Brigham Young too, in February 1969.[43][nb 4] The couple were married on March 21, 1969, in a civil ceremony at Ann's family's home in Bloomfield Hills that was presided over by a church elder.[46][47][48] The following day, the couple flew to Utah for a wedding ceremony at the Salt Lake Temple.[46][47]
Romney had missed much of the tumultuous American anti-Vietnam War movement while away, and was surprised to learn that his father had turned against the effort during his unsuccessful 1968 presidential campaign.[33] Regarding the military draft, Romney had initially received a student deferment, then, like most Mormon missionaries, a ministerial deferment while in France, and then a student deferment.[33][49] When those ran out, his high number in the December 1969 draft lottery (300) ensured he would not be selected.[33][49][50]
At culturally conservative BYU, he remained isolated from much of the upheaval of the era, and did not join in protests against the war, or the LDS Church's policy at the time of denying full membership to blacks.[24][33][43] He became president of, and an innovative fundraiser for, the all-male Cougar Club booster organization and showed a new-found discipline in his studies.[33][43] In his senior year, he took leave to work as driver and advance man for his mother Lenore Romney's eventually unsuccessful 1970 campaign for U.S. Senator from Michigan.[24][46] He earned a Bachelor of Arts in English with highest honors in 1971,[43] and gave commencement addresses to both the College of Humanities and to the whole of BYU.[nb 7]
The Romneys' first son, Taggart, was born in 1970[46] while they were undergraduates at Brigham Young[52] and living in a basement apartment.[33][43] Ann subsequently gave birth to Matt (1971), Josh (1975), Ben (1978), and Craig (1981).[46] Her work as a homemaker would enable her husband to pursue his career.[53]
Romney still wanted to pursue a business path, but his father, by now serving in President Richard Nixon's cabinet as U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, advised him that a law degree would be valuable to his career.[54][55] Thus he became one of only fifteen students to enroll at the recently created joint Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration four-year program coordinated between Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School.[56] Fellow students considered him guilelessly optimistic, noting his solid work ethic and buttoned-down demeanor and appearance.[56][57] He readily adapted to the business school's pragmatic, data-driven case study method of teaching, participated in class well, and led a study group whom he pushed to get all A's.[55] He had a different social experience from most of his classmates, since he lived in a Belmont, Massachusetts, house with Ann and two children.[46][55] He was non-ideological and did not involve himself in the political or social issues of the day.[46][55] He graduated in 1975 cum laude from the law school, in the top third of that class, and was named a Baker Scholar for graduating in the top five percent of his business school class.[51][56]
Business career[link]
Management consulting[link]
Romney was recruited by several firms and chose to remain in Massachusetts to work for Boston Consulting Group (BCG), reasoning that working as a management consultant to a variety of companies would better prepare him for a future position as a chief executive.[54][58][nb 8] He was part of a 1970s wave of top graduates who chose to go into consulting rather than join a major company directly.[60] His legal and business education proved useful in his job[54] while he applied BCG principles such as the growth-share matrix.[61] He was viewed as having a bright future there.[54][62]
In 1977, he was hired away by Bain & Company, a management consulting firm in Boston that had been formed a few years earlier by Bill Bain and other former BCG employees.[61][54][63] Bain would later say of the thirty-year-old Romney, "He had the appearance of confidence of a guy who was maybe ten years older."[64] With Bain & Company, Romney learned what writers and business analysts have dubbed the "Bain way",[54][63][65] which consisted of immersing the firm in each client's business,[54][64] and not just issuing recommendations but staying with the company until changes were put into place.[61][63][66] Romney became a vice president of the firm in 1978,[15] and worked with clients such as the Monsanto Company, Outboard Marine Corporation, Burlington Industries, and Corning Incorporated.[58] Within a few years, he was one of Bain & Company's best consultants and was sought after by clients over more senior partners.[54][67]
Private equity[link]
File:Bain Capital.png
Logo of Bain Capital, the private equity firm Romney co-founded in 1984
Romney was restless for a company of his own to run, and in 1983, Bill Bain offered him the chance to head a new venture that would buy into companies, have them benefit from Bain techniques, and then reap higher rewards than consulting fees.[54][61] He initially refrained from accepting the offer, and Bain re-arranged the terms in a complicated partnership structure so that there was no financial or professional risk to Romney.[54][64][68] Thus, in 1984, Romney left Bain & Company to co-found the spin-off private equity investment firm, Bain Capital.[66] In the face of skepticism from potential investors, Bain and Romney spent a year raising the $37 million in funds needed to start the new operation, which had fewer than ten employees.[58][64][69] As general partner of the new firm, Romney spent little money on costs such as office appearance, and saw weak spots in so many potential deals that by 1986, few had been done.[54] At first, Bain Capital focused on venture capital opportunities.[54] Their first big success was a 1986 investment to help start Staples Inc., after founder Thomas G. Stemberg convinced Romney of the market size for office supplies and Romney convinced others; Bain Capital eventually reaped a nearly sevenfold return on its investment, and Romney sat on the Staples board of directors for over a decade.[54][69][70]
Romney soon switched Bain Capital's focus from startups to the relatively new business of leveraged buyouts: buying existing firms with money mostly borrowed against their assets, partnering with existing management to apply the "Bain way" to their operations (rather than the hostile takeovers practiced in other leverage buyout scenarios), and selling them off in a few years.[54][64] Existing CEOs were offered large equity stakes in the process, owing to Bain Capital's belief in the emerging agency theory that CEOs should be bound to maximizing shareholder value rather than other goals.[70] Bain Capital lost most of its money in many of its early leveraged buyouts, but then started finding deals that made large returns.[54] The firm invested in or acquired Accuride, Brookstone, Domino's Pizza, Sealy Corporation, Sports Authority, and Artisan Entertainment, as well as lesser-known companies in the industrial and medical sectors.[54][64][71] He ran Bain Capital for fourteen years, during which time the firm's average annual internal rate of return on realized investments was 113 percent.[58] Much of this profit was earned from a relatively small number of deals; Bain Capital's overall success–to–failure ratio was about even.[nb 9]
Less an entrepreneur than an executive running an investment operation,[67][72] Romney was skilled at presenting and selling the deals the company made.[68] The firm initially gave a cut of its profits to Bain & Company, but Romney persuaded Bain to give that up.[68] Within Bain Capital, Romney spread profits from deals widely within the firm to keep people motivated, often keeping less than ten percent for himself.[73] Viewed as a fair manager, he received considerable loyalty from the firm's members.[70] Romney's wary instincts were still in force at times, and he was generally data-driven and averse to risk.[54][70] He wanted to drop a Bain Capital hedge fund that initially lost money, but other partners prevailed and it eventually gained billions.[54] He also personally opted out of the Artisan Entertainment deal, not wanting to profit from a studio that produced R-rated films.[54] Romney was on the board of directors of Damon Corporation, a medical testing company later found guilty of defrauding the government; Bain Capital tripled its investment before selling off the company, and the fraud was discovered by the new owners (Romney was never implicated).[54] In some cases, Romney had little involvement with a company once acquired.[69]
"Sometimes the medicine is a little bitter but it is necessary to save the life of the patient. My job was to try and make the enterprise successful, and in my view the best security a family can have is that the business they work for is strong."
—Mitt Romney in 2007, commenting on job losses at companies that Bain Capital executed leveraged buyouts of.[68]
Bain Capital's leveraged buyouts sometimes led to layoffs, either soon after acquisition or later after the firm had left.[61][68][69] How jobs added compared to those lost due to these investments and buyouts is unknown, due to a lack of records and Bain Capital's penchant for privacy on behalf of itself and its investors.[74][75][76] In any case, maximizing the value of acquired companies and the return to Bain's investors, not job creation, was the firm's fundamental goal, as it was for most private equity operations.[69][77] Bain Capital's acquisition of Ampad exemplified a deal where it profited handsomely from early payments and management fees, even though the subject company itself ended up going into bankruptcy.[54][70][77] Dade Behring was another case where Bain Capital received an eightfold return on its investment, but the company itself was saddled with debt and laid off over a thousand employees before Bain Capital exited (the company subsequently went into bankruptcy, with more layoffs, before recovering and prospering).[74] Bain was among the private equity firms that took the most fees in such cases.[64][70]
In 1990, Romney was asked to return to Bain & Company, which was facing financial collapse.[66] He was announced as its new CEO in January 1991[78][79] but drew only a symbolic salary of one dollar.[66] He managed an effort to restructure the firm's employee stock-ownership plan, real-estate deals and bank loans, while rallying the firm's thousand employees, imposing a new governing structure that included Bain and the other founding partners giving up control, and increasing fiscal transparency.[54][58][66] Within about a year, he had led Bain & Company through a turnaround and returned the firm to profitability without further layoffs or partner defections.[58] He turned Bain & Company over to new leadership and returned to Bain Capital in December 1992.[54][79][80]
Romney took a leave of absence from Bain Capital in February 1999 to serve as the President and CEO of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games Organizing Committee.[54][81] By that time, Bain Capital was on its way to being one of the top private equity firms in the nation,[68] having increased its number of partners from 5 to 18, with 115 employees overall, and $4 billion under its management.[64][69] Bain Capital's approach of applying consulting expertise to the companies it invested in became widely copied within the private equity industry.[25][69] Economist Steven Kaplan would later say, "[Romney] came up with a model that was very successful and very innovative and that now everybody uses."[70]
Personal wealth[link]
In August 2001, Romney announced that he would not return to Bain Capital.[81] He transferred his ownership to other partners and negotiated an agreement that allowed him to receive a passive profit share as a retired partner in some Bain Capital entities, including buyout and investment funds.[73][82] Because the private equity business continued to thrive, this deal brought him millions of dollars in annual income.[73] As a result of his business career, by 2007, Romney and his wife had a net worth of between $190 and $250 million, most of it held in blind trusts since 2003.[82] In 2012, it was estimated that he had amassed twice the net worth of the last eight presidents combined,[83] and would rank among the four richest in American history if elected.[83][84]
An additional blind trust existed in the name of the Romneys' children and grandchildren that was valued at between $70 and $100 million as of 2007.[85] The couple's net worth remained in the same range as of 2011, and was still held in blind trusts.[86] In 2010, Romney and his wife received $21.7 million in income, almost all of it from investments, of which about $3 million went to federal income taxes (a rate of 13.9 percent, based upon the beneficial rate accorded investment income by the U.S. tax code) and almost $3 million to charity, including $1.5 million to the LDS Church.[87] Romney has always tithed to the church, including stock from Bain Capital holdings.[13][88][89] In 2010, the Romney family's Tyler Charitable Foundation gave out about $650,000, with some of it going to organizations that fight specific diseases such as cystic fibrosis and multiple sclerosis.[90]
Local LDS Church leadership[link]
During his years in business, Romney also served in the local lay clergy (consisting of all Mormon men over the age of 12).[13] Around 1977, he became a counselor to the president of the Boston Stake.[91] He later served as bishop of the ward (leader of the congregation) at Belmont, Massachusetts, from 1981 to 1986, acting as the ecclesiastical and administrative head of his congregation.[92][93] As such, in addition to home teaching, he also formulated Sunday services and classes using LDS scriptures to guide the congregation.[94] He forged bonds with other religious institutions in the area when the Belmont meetinghouse was destroyed by a fire of suspicious origins in 1984; the congregation rotated its meetings to other houses of worship while it was rebuilt.[88][93]
From 1986 to 1994, he presided over the Boston Stake, which included more than a dozen wards in eastern Massachusetts with about 4,000 church members altogether.[67][94][95] He organized a team to handle financial and management issues, sought to counter anti-Mormon sentiments, and tried to solve social problems among poor Southeast Asian converts.[88][93] An unpaid position, his local church leadership often took 30 or more hours a week of his time,[94] and he became known for his tireless energy in the role.[67] He generally refrained from overnight business travel owing to his church responsibilities.[94]
He took a hands-on role in general matters, helping in maintenance efforts in- and outside homes, visiting the sick, and counseling troubled or burdened church members.[92][93][94] A number of local church members later credited him with turning their lives around or helping them through difficult times.[88][93][94] Some others were rankled by his leadership style and desired a more consensus-based approach.[93] Romney tried to balance the conservative dogma insisted upon by the church leadership in Utah with the desire of some Massachusetts members to have a more flexible application of doctrine.[67] He agreed with some modest requests from the liberal women's group Exponent II for changes in the way the church dealt with women, but clashed with women whom he felt were departing too much from doctrine.[67] In particular, he counseled women not to have abortions except in the rare cases allowed by LDS doctrine, and also in accordance with doctrine, encouraged prospective mothers who were not in successful marriages to give up children for adoption.[67] Romney later said that the years spent as an LDS minister gave him direct exposure to people struggling in economically difficult circumstances, and empathy for those going through problematic family situations.[96]
1994 U.S. senatorial campaign[link]
Main article: United States Senate election in Massachusetts, 1994
By 1993, Romney had been thinking about entering politics, partly based upon Ann's urging and partly to follow in his father's footsteps.[46] He decided to challenge incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, who was seeking re-election for the sixth time. Kennedy was potentially vulnerable that year – in part because of the unpopularity of the Democratic Congress as a whole, and in part because this was Kennedy's first election since the William Kennedy Smith trial in Florida, in which Kennedy had suffered some negative public relations regarding his character.[97][98][99] Romney changed his affiliation from Independent to Republican in October 1993 and formally announced his candidacy in February 1994.[46] He took a leave of absence from Bain Capital in November 1993, and stepped down from his church leadership role during 1994, due to the campaign.[100][94]
Radio personality Janet Jeghelian took an early lead in polls among candidates for the Republican nomination for the Senate seat, but Romney proved the most effective fundraiser.[101][102] He won 68 percent of the vote at the May 1994 Massachusetts Republican Party convention; businessman John Lakian finished a distant second and Jeghelian was eliminated.[103] Romney defeated Lakian in the September 1994 primary with over 80 percent of the vote.[15][104]
In the general election, Kennedy faced the first serious re-election challenger of his career in the young, telegenic, and well-funded Romney.[97] Romney ran as a fresh face, as a businessperson who stated he had created ten thousand jobs, and as a Washington outsider with a solid family image and moderate stances on social issues.[97][105] When Kennedy tried to tie Romney's policies to those of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, Romney responded, "Look, I was an independent during the time of Reagan-Bush. I'm not trying to take us back to Reagan-Bush."[106] Romney stated: "Ultimately, this is a campaign about change."[107] After two decades out of public view, his father George re-emerged during the campaign.[108][109]
Romney's campaign was effective in portraying Kennedy as soft on crime, but had trouble establishing its own positions in a consistent manner.[110] By mid-September 1994, polls showed the race to be approximately even.[97][111][112] Kennedy responded with a series of attack ads, which focused on Romney's seemingly shifting political views on issues such as abortion and on the treatment of workers at the Ampad plant owned by Romney's Bain Capital.[97][113][114] The latter was effective in blunting Romney's momentum.[70] Kennedy and Romney held a widely watched late October debate without a clear winner, but by then, Kennedy had pulled ahead in polls and stayed ahead afterward.[115] Romney spent $3 million of his own money in the race and more than $7 million overall.[116][nb 10] In the November general election, despite a disastrous showing for Democrats overall, Kennedy won the election with 58 percent of the vote to Romney's 41 percent,[54] the smallest margin in Kennedy's eight re-election campaigns for the Senate.[119]
2002 Winter Olympics[link]
Romney returned to Bain Capital the day after the election, but the loss had a lasting effect; he told his brother, "I never want to run for something again unless I can win."[46][120] When his father died in 1995, Mitt donated his inheritance to BYU's George W. Romney Institute of Public Management and joined the board and was vice-chair of the Points of Light Foundation (which had incorporated his father's National Volunteer Center).[45][81] His mother died in 1998. Romney felt restless as the decade neared a close; the goal of simply making more money was losing its appeal to him.[46][120] He no longer had a church leadership position, although he still taught Sunday School.[92] During the long and controversial approval and construction process for the $30 million Mormon temple in Belmont, he feared that as a political figure who had opposed Kennedy, he would become a focal point for opposition to the structure.[93] He thus kept to a limited, behind-the-scenes role in attempts to ease tensions between the church and local residents, but locals nonetheless sometimes referred to it as "Mitt's Temple".[88][92][93]
Ann Romney was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998; Mitt described watching her fail a series of neurological tests as the worst day of his life.[46] After two years of severe difficulties with the disease, she found while living in Park City, Utah (where the couple had built a vacation home) a mixture of mainstream, alternative, and equestrian therapies that gave her a lifestyle mostly without limitations.[53] When the offer came for him to take over the troubled 2002 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, to be held in Salt Lake City in Utah, she urged him to take it, and eager for a new challenge, he did.[120][121] On February 11, 1999, Romney was hired as the president and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games of 2002.[122]
Before Romney came on, the event was running $379 million short of its revenue benchmarks.[122] Plans were being made to scale back the Games to compensate for the fiscal crisis, and there were fears the Games might be moved away entirely.[123] The Games had also been damaged by allegations of bribery involving top officials, including prior Salt Lake Olympic Committee president and CEO Frank Joklik. Joklik and committee vice president Dave Johnson were forced to resign.[124] Romney was chosen by Utah figures looking for someone with expertise in business and law and with connections to the state and the LDS Church.[125] The appointment faced some initial criticism from non-Mormons, and fears from Mormons, that it represented cronyism or gave the Games too Mormon an image.[30]
Romney ran the planning for the Games like a business.[126] He revamped the organization's leadership and policies, reduced budgets, and boosted fundraising, alleviated the concerns corporate sponsors and recruited many new ones.[120][125] He appealed to Utah's citizenry with a message of optimism that helped restore confidence in the effort.[120][126] He worked to ensure the safety of the Games following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks by coordinating a $300 million security budget.[121] Overall, he oversaw a $1.32 billion budget, 700 employees, and 26,000 volunteers.[122] The federal government provided between approximately $400 million[125][127][128] and $600 million[126][129] of that budget, much of it a result of Romney's having aggressively lobbied Congress and federal agencies.[129][130][131] It would prove to be a record level of federal funding for the staging of a U.S. Olympics, a fact Romney would cite as a selling point during his campaign for the Massachusetts governorship.[128][130] An additional federal $1.1 billion was spent on indirect support in the form of highway and transit projects.[132]
Romney emerged as the public face of the Olympic effort, appearing in photographs, news stories and Olympics pins.[120] Robert H. Garff, the chair of the organizing committee, later said that "It was obvious that he had an agenda larger than just the Olympics,"[120] and that Romney wanted to use the Olympics to propel himself into the national spotlight and a political career.[125][133] Garff believed the initial budget shortfall was not as bad as Romney portrayed, given there were still three years to reorganize.[125] Utah Senator Bob Bennett said that much of the needed federal money was already in place and an analysis by The Boston Globe stated that the committee already had nearly $1 billion in committed revenues.[125] Olympics critic Steve Pace, who led Utahns for Responsible Public Spending, thought Romney exaggerated the initial fiscal state in order to lay the groundwork for a well-publicized rescue.[133] Kenneth Bullock, another board member of the organizing committee and also head of the Utah League of Cities and Towns, often clashed with Romney at the time, and later said that Romney deserved some credit for the turnaround but not as much as he claimed:[120] Bullock said: "He tried very hard to build an image of himself as a savior, the great white hope. He was very good at characterizing and castigating people and putting himself on a pedestal."[125]
Despite the initial fiscal shortfall, the Games ended up clearing a profit of $100 million.[134] His performance as Olympics head was rated positively by 87 percent of Utahns.[135] Romney and his wife contributed $1 million to the Olympics, and he donated to charity the $1.4 million in salary and severance payments he received for his three years as president and CEO.[136]
Romney was widely praised for his efforts with the 2002 Winter Olympics[121] including by President George W. Bush,[25] and it solidified his reputation as a turnaround artist.[125] Harvard Business School taught a case study based around his actions.[61] He wrote a book about his experience titled Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games, published in 2004. The role gave Romney experience in dealing with federal, state, and local entities, a public persona he had previously lacked, and the chance to re-launch his political aspirations.[120] He was mentioned as a possible candidate for statewide office in both Massachusetts and Utah, and also as possibly joining the Bush administration.[121][137][138]
Governor of Massachusetts[link]
2002 gubernatorial campaign[link]
Main article: Massachusetts gubernatorial election, 2002
In 2002, Republican Acting Governor Jane Swift's administration was plagued by political missteps and personal scandals.[135] Many Republicans viewed her as a liability and considered her unable to win a general election.[139] Prominent party figures – as well as the White House – wanted Romney to run for governor,[137][140] and the opportunity appealed to him for its national visibility.[141] One poll taken at that time showed Republicans favoring Romney over Swift by more than 50 percentage points.[142] On March 19, 2002, Swift announced she would not seek her party's nomination, and hours later Romney declared his candidacy,[142] for which would face no opposition in the primary.[143] In June 2002, Massachusetts Democratic Party officials contested Romney's eligibility to run for governor, citing residency issues involving his time in Utah for the Olympics.[144] That same month, the bipartisan Massachusetts State Ballot Law Commission unanimously ruled that he was an eligible candidate.[145]
He again ran as a political outsider,[135] saying he was "not a partisan Republican" but rather a "moderate" with "progressive" views.[146] Supporters of Romney hailed his business success, especially with the Olympics, as the record of someone who would be able to bring a new era of efficiency into Massachusetts politics.[143] The campaign was the first to use microtargeting techniques, in which fine-grained groups of voters were reached with narrowly tailored messaging.[147] Nevertheless, Romney initially had difficulty connecting with voters and fell behind his Democratic opponent, Massachusetts State Treasurer Shannon O'Brien, in polls before rebounding.[148] During the election he contributed over $6 million – a state record at the time – to the nearly $10 million raised for his campaign overall.[149][150] Romney was elected governor on November 5, 2002, with 50 percent of the vote to O'Brien's 45 percent.[151]
Tenure, 2003–2007[link]
Main article: Governorship of Mitt Romney
When Romney was sworn in as the 70th governor of Massachusetts on January 2, 2003, [152] both houses of the Massachusetts state legislature held large Democratic majorities.[153] He picked his cabinet and advisors more on managerial abilities than partisan affiliation.[23] Upon entering office in the middle of a fiscal year, he faced an immediate $650 million shortfall and a projected $3 billion deficit for the next year.[138] Unexpected revenue of $1.0–1.3 billion from a previously enacted capital gains tax increase and $500 million in unanticipated federal grants decreased the deficit to $1.2–1.5 billion.[154][155] Through a combination of spending cuts, increased fees, and removal of corporate tax loopholes,[154] the state ran surpluses of around $600–700 million for the last two full fiscal years Romney was in office, although it began running deficits again after that.[nb 11]
Romney supported raising various fees by more than $300 million, including those for driver's licenses, marriage licenses, and gun licenses.[138][154] He increased a special gasoline retailer fee by two cents per gallon, generating about $60 million per year in additional revenue.[138][154] (Opponents said the reliance on fees sometimes imposed a hardship on those who could least afford them.)[154] Romney also closed tax loopholes that brought in another $181 million from businesses over the next two years and over $300 million for his term.[138][160] Romney did so in the face of conservative and corporate critics that considered them tax increases.[160]
The state legislature, with Romney's support, also cut spending by $1.6 billion, including $700 million in reductions in state aid to cities and towns.[161] The cuts also included a $140 million reduction in state funding for higher education, which led state-run colleges and universities to increase tuition by 63 percent over four years.[138][154] Romney sought additional cuts in his last year as governor by vetoing nearly 250 items in the state budget, but all were overridden by the heavily Democratic legislature.[162]
The cuts in state spending put added pressure on localities to reduce services or raise property taxes, and the share of town and city revenues coming from property taxes rose from 49 to 53 percent.[138][154] The combined state and local tax burden in Massachusetts increased during Romney's governorship but remained below the national average.[138]
Romney sought to bring near-universal health insurance coverage to the state. This came after Staples founder Stemberg told him at the start of his term that doing so would be the best way he could help people,[163][164][165] and after the federal government, owing to the rules of Medicaid funding, threatened to cut $385 million in those payments to Massachusetts if the state did not reduce the number of uninsured recipients of health care services.[23][163][166] Although he had not campaigned on the idea of universal health insurance,[165] Romney decided that because people without insurance still received expensive health care, the money spent by the state for such care could be better used to subsidize insurance for the poor.[164][165]
After positing that any measure adopted not raise taxes and not resemble the previous decade's failed "Hillarycare" proposal, Romney formed a team of consultants from diverse political backgrounds.[23][163][166] Beginning in late 2004, they came up with a set of proposals more ambitious than an incremental one from the Massachusetts Senate and more acceptable to him than one from the Massachusetts House of Representatives that incorporated a new payroll tax.[23][163][166] In particular, Romney pushed for incorporating an individual mandate at the state level.[21] Past rival Ted Kennedy, who had made universal heath coverage his life's work and who, over time, had developed a warm relationship with Romney,[167] gave the plan a positive reception, which encouraged Democratic legislators to cooperate.[163][166] The effort eventually gained the support of all major stakeholders within the state, and Romney helped break a logjam between rival Democratic leaders in the legislature.[163][166]
"There really wasn't Republican or Democrat in this. People ask me if this is conservative or liberal, and my answer is yes. It's liberal in the sense that we're getting our citizens health insurance. It's conservative in that we're not getting a government takeover."
—Mitt Romney upon passage of the Massachusetts health reform law in 2006.[163]
On April 12, 2006, Romney signed the resulting Massachusetts health reform law, commonly called "Romneycare", which requires nearly all Massachusetts residents to buy health insurance coverage or face escalating tax penalties, such as the loss of their personal income tax exemption.[168] The bill also establishes means-tested state subsidies for people who do not have adequate employer insurance and whose income is below a threshold, with funds that were previously used to compensate for the health costs of the uninsured.[169][170][171] He vetoed eight sections of the health care legislation, including a controversial $295-per-employee assessment on businesses that do not offer health insurance and provisions guaranteeing dental benefits to Medicaid recipients.[168][172] The legislature overrode all eight vetoes, but the governor's office said the differences were not essential.[172] The law was the first of its kind in the nation and became the signature achievement of Romney's term in office.[166][nb 12]
At the beginning of his governorship, Romney opposed same-sex marriage and civil unions, but advocated tolerance and supported some domestic partnership benefits.[166][174][175] Faced with the dilemma of choosing between same-sex marriage or civil unions after the November 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision legalizing same-sex marriages (Goodridge v. Department of Public Health), Romney reluctantly backed a state constitutional amendment in February 2004 that would have banned same-sex marriage but still allow civil unions, viewing it as the only feasible way to ban same-sex marriage in Massachusetts.[176] In May 2004, Romney instructed town clerks to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but citing a 1913 law that barred out-of-state residents from getting married in Massachusetts if their union would be illegal in their home state, no marriage licenses were to be issued to out-of-state same-sex couples not planning to move to Massachusetts.[174][177] In June 2005, Romney abandoned his support for the compromise amendment, stating that the amendment confused voters who oppose both same-sex marriage and civil unions.[174] Instead, Romney endorsed a petition effort led by the Coalition for Marriage & Family that would have banned same-sex marriage and made no provisions for civil unions.[174] In 2004 and 2006, he urged the U.S. Senate to vote in favor of the Federal Marriage Amendment.[178][179]
In 2005, Romney revealed a change of view regarding abortion, moving from the "unequivocal" pro-choice position expressed during his 2002 campaign to a pro-life one in opposition to Roe v. Wade.[166] He subsequently vetoed a bill on pro-life grounds that would expand access to emergency contraception in hospitals and pharmacies[180] (the veto was overridden by the legislature).[181]
Romney generally used the bully pulpit approach towards promoting his agenda, staging well-organized media events to appeal directly to the public rather than pushing his proposals in behind-doors sessions with the state legislature.[166] Romney dealt with a public crisis of confidence in Boston's Big Dig project – that followed a fatal ceiling collapse in 2006 – by wresting control of the project from the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.[166]
During 2004, Romney spent considerable effort trying to bolster the state Republican Party, but it failed to gain any seats in the state legislative elections that year.[138][182] He was given a prime-time appearance at the 2004 Republican National Convention, and was already being discussed as a potential 2008 presidential candidate.[183] Midway through his term, Romney decided that he wanted to stage a full-time run for president,[184] and on December 14, 2005, announced that he would not seek re-election for a second term.[185][186] As chair of the Republican Governors Association, Romney traveled around the country, meeting prominent Republicans and building a national political network;[184] he spent part or all of more than 200 days out of state during 2006, preparing for his run.[187]
He had a 61 percent job approval rating in public polls after his initial fiscal actions in 2003, but it began to sink after that.[188] His frequent out-of-state travel contributed to a decline in his approval rating towards the end of his term;[189][188] at 34 percent in November 2006, his rating level ranked 48th of the 50 U.S. governors.[190] Dissatisfaction with Romney's administration and the weak condition of the Republican state party were among several factors that led to Democrat Deval Patrick's lopsided win over Republican Kerry Healey, Romney's Lieutenant Governor, in the 2006 Massachusetts gubernatorial election.[191][189]
Romney filed to register a presidential campaign committee with the Federal Election Commission on his penultimate day in office as governor.[192] His term ended January 4, 2007.
2008 presidential campaign[link]
Main article: Mitt Romney presidential campaign, 2008
Romney formally announced his candidacy for the 2008 Republican nomination for president on February 13, 2007, at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.[193] In his speech, he frequently invoked his father and his own family and stressed experiences in the private, public, and voluntary sectors that had brought him to this point.[193][194] He said, "Throughout my life, I have pursued innovation and transformation,"[194] and casting himself as a political outsider, said, "I do not believe Washington can be transformed from within by a lifelong politician."[195]
Romney's campaign initially emphasized his résumé of a highly profitable career in the business world and his stewardship of the Olympics.[184][196][nb 13] He also had political experience as governor, together with a political pedigree courtesy of his father, and had a reputation for a strong work ethic and energy level.[184][196][65] Ann Romney, who had become an outspoken advocate for those with multiple sclerosis,[199] was in remission and would be an active participant in his campaign,[200] helping to soften his political personality.[65] Moreover, a number of commentators noted that with his square jaw and ample hair graying at the temples, the 6-foot-2-inch (1.88 m)[201] Romney – referred to as handsome in scores of media stories[202] – physically matched one of the common images of what some believed a president should look like.[66][203][204][205] Romney's liabilities included having run for senator and served as governor in one of the nation's most liberal states, having taken some positions there that were opposed by the party's conservative base, and subsequently shifting those positions.[184][196][200] His religion was also viewed with suspicion and skepticism by some in the Evangelical portion of the party.[206]
Romney assembled for his campaign a veteran group of Republican staffers, consultants, and pollsters.[196][207] He was little-known nationally, though, and stayed around the 10 percent range in Republican preference polls for the first half of 2007.[184] He proved the most effective fundraiser of any of the Republican candidates;[208] his Olympics ties helped him with fundraising from Utahns and from sponsors and trustees of the games.[136] He also partly financed his campaign with his own personal fortune.[196] These resources, combined with the mid-year near-collapse of nominal front-runner John McCain's campaign, made Romney a threat to win the nomination and the focus of the other candidates' attacks.[209] Romney's staff suffered from internal strife and the candidate himself was indecisive at times, constantly asking for more data before making a decision.[196][210]
During all of his political campaigns, Romney has generally avoided speaking publicly about specific Mormon doctrines, referring to the U.S. Constitution prohibition of religious tests for public office.[211] But persistent questions about the role of religion in Romney's life in this race, as well as Southern Baptist minister and former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee's rise in the polls based upon an explicitly Christian-themed campaign, led to the December 6, 2007, "Faith in America" speech.[212] He said should neither be elected nor rejected based upon his religion,[213] and echoed Senator John F. Kennedy's famous speech during his 1960 presidential campaign in saying, "I will put no doctrine of any church above the plain duties of the office and the sovereign authority of the law."[212] Instead of discussing the specific tenets of his faith, he said that he would be informed by it and that, "Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone."[212][213] Academics would later study the role religion had played in the campaign.[nb 14]
In the January 3, 2008, Iowa Republican caucuses, the first contest of the primary season, Romney received 25 percent of the vote and placed second to the vastly outspent Huckabee, who received 34 percent.[216][217] Of the 60 percent of caucus-goers who were evangelical Christians, Huckabee was supported by about half of them while Romney by only a fifth.[216] Two days later, Romney won the lightly contested Wyoming Republican caucuses.[218]
At a Saint Anselm College debate, Huckabee and McCain pounded away at Romney's image as a flip flopper.[216] Indeed, this label would stick to Romney through the campaign[196] (but was one that Romney rejected as unfair and inaccurate, except for his acknowledged change of mind on abortion).[65][219] Romney seemed to approach the campaign as a management consulting exercise, and showed a lack of personal warmth and political feel; journalist Evan Thomas wrote that Romney "came off as a phony, even when he was perfectly sincere."[65][220] Romney's staff would conclude that competing as a candidate of social conservatism and ideological purity rather than of pragmatic competence had been a mistake.[65]
Romney finished in second place by 5 percentage points to the resurgent McCain in the next-door-to-his-home-state New Hampshire primary on January 8.[216] Romney rebounded to win the January 15 Michigan primary over McCain by a solid margin, capitalizing on his childhood ties to the state and his vow to bring back lost automotive industry jobs which was seen by several commentators as unrealistic.[nb 15] On January 19, Romney won the lightly contested Nevada caucuses, but placed fourth in the intense South Carolina primary, where he had effectively ceded the contest to his rivals.[225] McCain gained further momentum with his win in South Carolina, leading to a showdown between him and Romney in the Florida primary.[226][227]
For ten days, Romney campaigned intensively on economic issues and the burgeoning subprime mortgage crisis, while McCain repeatedly, and inaccurately, asserted that Romney favored a premature withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.[nb 16] McCain won key last-minute endorsements from Florida Senator Mel Martinez and Governor Charlie Crist, which helped push him to a 5 percentage point victory on January 29.[226][227] Although many Republican officials were now lining up behind McCain,[227] Romney persisted through the nationwide Super Tuesday contests on February 5. There he won primaries or caucuses in several states, including Massachusetts, Alaska, Minnesota, Colorado, and Utah, but McCain won more, including large states such as California and New York.[229] Trailing McCain in delegates by a more than two-to-one margin, Romney announced the end of his campaign on February 7 during a speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.[229]
Altogether, Romney had won 11 primaries and caucuses,[230] received about 4.7 million total votes,[231] and garnered about 280 delegates.[232] He spent $110 million during the campaign, including $45 million of his own money.[233]
Romney endorsed McCain for president a week later.[232] He became one of the McCain campaign's most visible surrogates, appearing on behalf of the GOP nominee at fundraisers, state Republican party conventions, and on cable news programs.[234] His efforts earned McCain's respect and the two developed a warmer relationship; he was on the nominee's short list for the vice presidential running mate slot, where his economic expertise would have balanced one of McCain's weaknesses.[235] McCain, behind in the polls, opted instead for a high-risk, high-reward "game changer", and selected Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.[236] McCain lost the election to Democratic Senator Barack Obama.
Activity between presidential campaigns[link]
Following the election, Romney paved the way for a possible 2012 presidential campaign by using his Free and Strong America political action committee (PAC) to raise money for other Republican candidates and to pay his existing political staff's salaries and consulting fees.[237][238] An informal network of former staff and supporters around the nation were eager for him to run again.[239] He continued to give speeches and raise funds for Republicans,[240] but turned down many potential media appearances, fearing overexposure.[219] He also spoke before business, educational, and motivational groups.[241] He served on the board of directors of Marriott International from 2009 to 2011 (having earlier served on it from 1993 to 2002).[242]
In 2009, the Romneys sold their primary residence in Belmont and their ski chalet in Utah, leaving them an estate along Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, and an oceanfront home in the La Jolla district of San Diego, California, which they had bought the year before.[219][243][244] The San Diego home was beneficial in location and climate for Ann Romney's multiple sclerosis therapies and for recovering from her late 2008 diagnosis and lumpectomy for mammary ductal carcinoma in situ.[243][245][246] Both it and the New Hampshire location were near some of their grandchildren,[243] who by 2011 numbered sixteen.[247] Romney maintained his voting registration in Massachusetts, however, and bought a smaller condominium in Belmont during 2010.[245][248][nb 17] In February 2010, Romney had a minor altercation with LMFAO member Skyler Gordy, known as Sky Blu, on an airplane flight.[nb 18]
Romney's book, No Apology: The Case for American Greatness, was released in March 2010; an 18-state book tour was undertaken.[255] The book, which debuted atop The New York Times Best Seller list,[256] avoided anecdotes about his personal or political life in favor of a presentation of his economic and geopolitical views.[257][258] Earnings from the book were donated to charity.[86]
In nationwide opinion polling for the 2012 Republican Presidential primaries, Romney led or placed in the top three with Palin and Huckabee. A January 2010 National Journal survey of political insiders found that a majority of Republican insiders, and a plurality of Democratic insiders, predicted Romney would be the party's 2012 nominee.[259] Romney campaigned heavily for Republican candidates in the 2010 midterm elections,[260] raising more money than the other prospective 2012 Republican presidential candidates.[261] Beginning in early 2011, Romney presented a more relaxed visual image, including rarely wearing a necktie.[262][263]
2012 presidential campaign[link]
Main article: Mitt Romney presidential campaign, 2012
See also: Republican Party presidential primaries, 2012 , Results of the 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries, and Republican Party vice presidential candidates, 2012
On April 11, 2011, Romney announced in a video taped outdoors at the University of New Hampshire that he had formed an exploratory committee for a run for the Republican presidential nomination.[264][265] A Quinnipiac University political science professor stated, "We all knew that he was going to run. He's really been running for president ever since the day after the 2008 election."[265]
Romney stood to gain from the Republican electorate's tendency to nominate candidates who had previously run for president and appeared to be "next in line" to be chosen.[239][266][267] The early stages of the race found him as the apparent front-runner in a weak field, especially in terms of fundraising prowess and organization.[268][269][270] Perhaps his greatest hurdle in gaining the Republican nomination was party opposition to the Massachusetts health care reform law that he had shepherded five years earlier.[263][265][267] As many potential Republican candidates decided not to run (including Mike Pence, John Thune, Haley Barbour, Mike Huckabee, and Mitch Daniels), Republican party figures searched for plausible alternatives to Romney.[268][270]
On June 2, 2011, he formally announced the start of his campaign. Speaking on a farm in Stratham, New Hampshire, he focused on the economy and criticized President Obama's handling of it.[271] He said, "In the campaign to come, the American ideals of economic freedom and opportunity need a clear and unapologetic defense, and I intend to make it – because I have lived it."[267]
Romney raised $56 million during 2011, far more than any of his Republican opponents,[272] and refrained from spending any of his own money on his campaign.[273] He initially ran a low-key, low-profile campaign.[274] Michele Bachmann staged a brief surge in polls, then by September 2011, Romney's chief rival in polls was a recent entrant, Texas Governor Rick Perry.[275] Perry and Romney exchanged sharp criticisms of each other during a series of debates among the Republican candidates.[276] The October 2011 decisions of Chris Christie and Sarah Palin not to run finally settled the field.[277][278] Perry faded after poor performances in those debates, while Herman Cain's long-shot bid gained popularity until allegations of sexual misconduct derailed him.[279][280]
Romney continued to seek support from a wary Republican electorate; at this point in the race, his poll numbers were relatively flat and at a historically low level for a Republican frontrunner.[277][281][282] After the charges of flip-flopping that marked his 2008 campaign began to accumulate again, Romney declared in November 2011 that "I've been as consistent as human beings can be."[283][284][285] In the final month before voting began, Newt Gingrich enjoyed a major surge, taking a solid lead in national polls and in most of the early caucus and primary states,[286] before settling back into parity or worse with Romney following a barrage of negative ads from Restore Our Future, a pro-Romney Super PAC.[287]
In the initial 2012 Iowa caucuses of January 3, Romney was announced as the victor on election night with 25 percent of the vote, edging out a late-gaining Rick Santorum by eight votes (with an also-strong Ron Paul finishing third),[288] but sixteen days later, Santorum was certified as the winner by a 34-vote margin.[289] Romney decidedly won the New Hampshire primary the following week with a total of 39 percent; Paul finished second and Jon Huntsman third.[290]
In the run-up to the South Carolina Republican primary, Gingrich launched attack ads criticizing Romney for causing job losses while at Bain Capital, Perry referred to Romney's role there as "vulture capitalism", and Sarah Palin questioned whether Romney could prove his claim that 100,000 jobs were created during that time.[291][292] Many conservatives rallied in defense of Romney, rejecting what they inferred as criticism of free-market capitalism.[291] However, during two debates, Romney fumbled questions about releasing his income tax returns, while Gingrich gained support with audience-rousing attacks on the debate moderators.[293][294] Romney's double-digit lead in state polls evaporated and he lost to Gingrich by 13 points in the January 21 primary.[293] Combined with the delayed loss in Iowa, Romney's admitted bad week represented a lost chance to end the race early, and he decided to release his tax returns quickly.[293][295] The race turned to the Florida Republican primary, where in debates, appearances, and advertisements, Romney unleashed a concerted, unrelenting attack on Gingrich's past record and associations and current electability.[296][297] Romney enjoyed a big spending advantage from both his campaign and his aligned Super PAC, and after a record-breaking rate of negative ads from both sides, Romney won Florida on January 31, gaining 46 percent of the vote to Gingrich's 32 percent.[298]
There were several caucuses and primaries during February, and Santorum won three in a single night early in the month, propelling him into the lead in national and some state polls and positioning him as Romney's main rival.[299] Romney won the other five, including a closely fought contest in his home state of Michigan at the end of the month.[300][301] In the Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses of March 6, Romney won six of ten contests, including a narrow victory in Ohio over a greatly outspent Santorum, and although he failed to win decisively enough to end the race, still held a more than two-to-one edge over Santorum in delegates.[302] Romney maintained his delegate margin through subsequent contests,[303] and Santorum stopped his campaign on April 10.[304] Following a sweep of five more contests on April 24, the Republican National Committee put its resources behind Romney as the party's presumptive nominee.[305] Romney clinched a majority of the delegates with a win in the Texas primary on May 29.
Political positions and public perceptions[link]
For more details on specific Romney positions on many issues, see Political positions of Mitt Romney.
For much of his business career, Romney did not take public political positions.[306][307] While he had kept abreast of national politics during college,[33] and the circumstances of his father's presidential campaign loss would irk him for decades,[24] his early philosophical influences were often non-political, as during his missionary days when he read Napoleon Hill's pioneering self-help tome Think and Grow Rich, and encouraged his colleagues to do the same.[13][61] Until his 1994 U.S. Senate campaign, he was registered as an Independent.[46] In the 1992 Democratic Party presidential primaries, he voted for the Democratic former senator from Massachusetts, Paul Tsongas.[306][308]
In the 1994 Senate race, Romney aligned himself with Republican Massachusetts Governor William Weld, saying "I think Bill Weld's fiscal conservatism, his focus on creating jobs and employment and his efforts to fight discrimination and assure civil rights for all is a model that I identify with and aspire to."[309] As a gubernatorial candidate in 2002, and then initially as Governor of Massachusetts, he generally operated in the mold established by Weld and followed by Weld's two other Republican successors, Paul Cellucci and Jane Swift: restrain spending and taxing, be tolerant or permissive on social issues, protect the environment, be tough on crime, try to appear post-partisan.[308][310]
Later during his time as governor, Romney's position on abortion changed in conjunction with a similar change of position on stem cell research.[166][nb 19] Also during that time, his position or choice of emphasis on some aspects of gay rights,[nb 20] and some aspects of abstinence-only sex education,[nb 21] moved in a more conservative direction. The change in 2005 on abortion was the result of what he described as an epiphany experienced while investigating stem cell research issues.[166] He later said, "Changing my position was in line with an ongoing struggle that anyone has that is opposed to abortion personally, vehemently opposed to it, and yet says, 'Well, I'll let other people make that decision.' And you say to yourself, but if you believe that you're taking innocent life, it's hard to justify letting other people make that decision."[166]
This increased alignment with traditional conservatives on social issues coincided with Romney's becoming a candidate for the 2008 Republican nomination for President.[317][318] He joined the National Rifle Association and portrayed himself as a lifelong hunter.[nb 22] He downplayed the Massachusetts health care law,[21][308][318] became a convert on signing an anti-tax pledge,[61][21] and backed away from further closings of corporate tax loopholes.[160] There was a display of aggressiveness on foreign policy matters, such as wanting to double the number of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.[318] Skeptics, including some Republicans, charged Romney with opportunism and having a lack of core principles.[166][196][308] The fervor with which Romney adopted his new stances and attitudes contributed to the perception of inauthenticity which hampered that campaign.[61][262]
While there have been many biographical parallels between the lives of George and Mitt Romney,[nb 23] one particular difference is that while George was willing to defy political trends, Mitt has been much more willing to adapt to them.[21][23] Mitt Romney has said that learning from experience and changing views accordingly is a virtue, and that, "If you're looking for someone who's never changed any positions on any policies, then I'm not your guy."[324] Romney responded to criticisms of ideological pandering with the explanation that "The older I get, the smarter Ronald Reagan gets."[200]
Journalist Daniel Gross sees Romney as approaching politics in the same terms as a business competing in markets, in that successful executives do not hold firm to public stances over long periods of time, but rather constantly devise new strategies and plans to deal with new geographical regions and ever-changing market conditions.[308] Political profiler Ryan Lizza notes the same question regarding whether Romney's business skills can be adapted to politics, saying that "while giving customers exactly what they want may be normal in the corporate world, it can be costly in politics".[61] Writer Robert Draper holds a somewhat similar perspective: "The Romney curse was this: His strength lay in his adaptability. In governance, this was a virtue; in a political race, it was an invitation to be called a phony."[65] Writer Benjamin Wallace-Wells sees Romney as a detached problem solver rather than one who approaches political issues from a humanistic or philosophical perspective.[70] Journalist Neil Swidey views Romney as a political and cultural enigma, "the product of two of the most mysterious and least understood subcultures in the country: the Mormon Church and private-equity finance," and believes that has led to the continued interest in a 1983 episode in which Romney kept his family dog on the roof of his car during a long road trip.[nb 24] Political writer Joe Klein views Romney as actually more conservative on social issues than he portrayed himself during his Massachusetts campaigns and less conservative on other issues than his presidential campaigns have represented, and concludes that Romney "has always campaigned as something he probably is not."[328]
Immediately following the March 2010 passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Romney attacked the landmark legislation as "an unconscionable abuse of power" and said the act should be repealed.[329] The antipathy Republicans felt for it created a potential problem for the former governor, since the new federal law was in many ways similar to the Massachusetts health care reform passed during Romney's term; as one Associated Press article stated, "Obamacare ... looks a lot like Romneycare."[329] While acknowledging that his plan was an imperfect work in progress, Romney did not back away from it, and has consistently defended its underpinning state-level health insurance mandate.[329][330] He has focused on its bipartisan support in the state legislature, the absence of Congressional Republican support for Obama's plan,[329] and has contended that it was the right answer to Massachusetts' specific problems at the time.[329][331] While Romney has not explicitly argued for a federally imposed mandate, and as of 2010 explicitly opposes one, during his 1994 Senate campaign he indicated he would vote for an overall health insurance proposal that contained one.[332][333] He suggested during his time as governor and during his 2008 presidential campaign that the Massachusetts plan was a model for the nation and that, over time, mandate plans might be adopted by most or all of the nation.[334][335][336]
Romney's foreign policy views are rooted in a firm belief in American exceptionalism and the need to preserve American supremacy in the world.[257] This parallels the Mormon belief that the United States Constitution is divinely inspired and that the U.S. was selected by God to play a special part in human history.[337] Indeed, Romney's political beliefs regarding a limited role for government, a need for self-reliance, and requirements for welfare recipients, often reflect Mormon tenets adapted for the secular world.[337][338]
Throughout his business, Olympics, and political career, Romney's instinct has been to apply the "Bain way" towards problems.[65][318][339] Romney has said, "There were two key things I learned at Bain. One was a series of concepts for approaching tough problems and a problem-solving methodology; the other was an enormous respect for data, analysis, and debate."[339] He has written, "There are answers in numbers – gold in numbers. Pile the budgets on my desk and let me wallow."[61] Romney believes the Bain approach is not only effective in the business realm but also in running for office and, once there, in solving political conundrums such as proper Pentagon spending levels and the future of Social Security.[318][339] Former Bain and Olympics colleague Fraser Bullock has said of Romney, "He's not an ideologue. He makes decisions based on researching data more deeply than anyone I know."[25] Romney's technocratic instincts have thus always been with him; in his public appearances during the 2002 gubernatorial campaign he sometimes gave PowerPoint presentations rather than conventional speeches.[340] Upon taking office he became, in the words of The Boston Globe, "the state's first self-styled CEO governor".[138] During his 2008 presidential campaign, he constantly asked for data, analysis, and opposing arguments,[318] and has been decribed by Slate magazine as a potential "CEO president".[308]
Awards and honors[link]
Romney has received five honorary doctorates, including one in Business from the University of Utah in 1999,[341] in Law from Bentley College in 2002,[342] in Public Administration from Suffolk University Law School in 2004,[343] in Public Service from Hillsdale College in 2007,[344] and in Humanities from Liberty University in 2012.[345]
People magazine included him in its 50 Most Beautiful People list for 2002,[346] and in 2004, he received the inaugural Truce Ideal Award for his role in the 2002 Winter Olympics.[347] The Cranbrook School gave him their Distinguished Alumni Award in 2005.[19] In 2008 he shared with his wife Ann, the Canterbury Medal from The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, for "refus[ing] to compromise their principles and faith" during the presidential campaign.[348] In 2012 Romney was named to the Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.[349]
Writings[link]
- With Timothy Robinson (2004). Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games. Washington: Regnery Publishing. ISBN 978-0-89526-084-0.
- No Apology: The Case for American Greatness. New York: St. Martin's Press. 2010. ISBN 978-0-312-60980-1.
See also[link]
Notes[link]
- ^ He was called "Billy" until kindergarten, when he indicated a preference for "Mitt".[15]
- ^ Mitt's campaigning for his father included working the phone banks and appearing at county fairs where he manned a booth and exclaimed over a loudspeaker, "You should vote for my father for Governor. He's a truly great person. You've got to support him. He's going to make things better."[21]
- ^ Such pranks included sliding down golf courses on large ice cubes, dressing as a police officer and tapping on the car windows of teenage friends who were making out, and staging an elaborate formal dinner on the median of a busy street.[18][20] The golf course escapade apparently got Romney and Ann Davies arrested, or otherwise detained, by the local police.[24][25] Romney was also arrested in 1981 while at a family outing at Lake Cochituate in Massachusetts. According to Romney, a ranger from Cochituate State Park told him his motorboat had an insufficiently visible license number and he would face a $50 fine if he took the boat onto the lake. Disagreeing about the license and wanting to continue the outing, Romney took it out anyway, saying he would pay the fine. The angry officer then arrested him for disorderly conduct. The charges were dropped several days later after Romney threatened to sue the officer and the state for false arrest.[26]
- ^ a b When initially considering colleges after high school, Romney had not wanted to go to BYU.[43] He later recounted that he had planned to attend BYU to convince Ann to marry him, then the couple planned to transfer together back to Stanford, but in the end, they enjoyed BYU and decided to stay.[45]
- ^ Romney's great-grandfather, grandfather, father, and two uncles had been missionaries,[32] as had his older brother.[33] All five of Romney's sons later served as missionaries as well.[34]
- ^ a b On June 16, 1968, Romney was driving fellow missionaries on dangerous roads in southern France.[18][37][40] As they drove through the village of Bernos-Beaulac, a Mercedes that was passing a truck missed a curve and swerved into the opposite lane hitting the Citroën DS Romney was driving in a head-on collision.[18][41] Trapped between the steering wheel and door, the unconscious and seriously injured Romney had to be pried from the car; a French police officer mistakenly wrote Il est mort in his passport.[18][24][40] The wife of the mission president was killed and other passengers were seriously injured as well.[40] George Romney relied on his friend Sargent Shriver, the U.S. Ambassador to France, to go to the local hospital and discover that his son had survived.[24] Romney, who was not at fault in the accident,[33][40] had suffered broken ribs, a fractured arm, a concussion, and facial injuries, but recovered quickly without needing surgery.[37][40] The French police say that they have no records of the incident because such records are routinely destroyed after 10 years.[40]
- ^ Some sources incorrectly report that Romney graduated BYU as valedictorian. Romney himself has corrected this notion, saying that he was not. While he believes he did have the highest grade point average for his BYU years in the College of Humanities, he did not if his Stanford year was factored in, and he did not among the graduating class university-wide.[51][45]
- ^ Romney sat for the bar exam in his home state of Michigan in July 1975, passed it and was admitted to practice law there, but never worked as a lawyer and only considered in case his business career did not work out.[59]
- ^ One study of 68 deals that Bain Capital made during Romney's time there found that the firm lost money or broke even on 33 of them.[67] Another study that looked at the eight-year period following 77 deals during Romney's time found that in 17 cases the company went bankrupt or out of business, and in 6 cases Bain Capital lost all its investment. But 10 deals were very successful and represented 70 percent of the total profits.[72]
- ^ Kennedy spent $10.5 million overall, including a $1.5 million loan to himself.[117] This was the second-most expensive race of the 1994 election cycle, after the Dianne Feinstein–Michael Huffington Senate race in California.[118]
- ^ Official state figures for fiscal year 2005 (July 1, 2004 – June 30, 2005) declared a $594.4 million surplus.[138][156] For fiscal 2006, the surplus was $720.9 million.[156] During fiscal 2007, Romney cut $384 million in spending that the legislature wanted; in January 2007, midway through the fiscal year, incoming Governor Deval Patrick restored that amount,[157] and also declared that the state faced a "looming budget shortfall" of $1 billion for fiscal 2008.[158] Patrick consequently proposed a budget for fiscal 2008 that included $515 million in spending cuts and $295 million in new corporate taxes.[159] As it happened, the state ended fiscal 2007 with a $307.1 million deficit and fiscal 2008 with a $495.2 million deficit.[156]
- ^ Within four years, the Massachusetts law had achieved its primary goal of expanding coverage: in 2010, 98% of state residents had coverage, compared to a national average of 83%. Among children and seniors the 2010 coverage rate was even higher, 99.8% and 99.6% respectively. Approximately two-thirds of residents received coverage through employers; one-sixth each received it through Medicare or public plans.[173]
- ^ American political opinion periodically looked towards industry for business managers who it was thought could straighten out what was held to be wrong in the nation's capital. The track record of such efforts was at best mixed, with Lee Iacocca declining to run, Romney's father George and Steve Forbes failing to get far in the primaries, and Ross Perot staging one of the more successful third-party runs in American history.[197][198]
- ^ Regarding the role of Romney's religion in the 2008 campaign, one academic study, based upon research conducted throughout the 2008 primaries, showed that a negative perception of Mormonism was widespread during the election, and that perception was often resistant to factual information that would correct mistaken notions about the religion or Romney's relationship to it.[214] The authors concluded that, "For Romney ... religion is the central story."[214] Another study, analyzing a survey conducted during January 2008 (when an African American, a woman, and a Mormon all had realistic chances of becoming the first president from that group), found that voters had internally accepted the notion of black equality, paving the way for Barack Obama's election; had partially established but not fully internalized the notion of gender equality, making Hillary Rodham Clinton's task somewhat more difficult; but had only selectively internalized the notion of religious equality, and in particular not extended it to Mormons, thus making Romney's run significantly more difficult.[215] Those authors concluded that, "for a Mormon candidate, the road to the presidency remains very rough ... The bias against a Mormon candidate is substantial."[215]
- ^ Romney proposed a $20 billion "workout, not a bailout" of the U.S. auto industry. It was termed unrealistic or "pandering" by several news reports.[221][222][223][224]
- ^ Previously, Romney had proposed a private timetable for gradually reducing U.S. forces. McCain's statements regarding this were termed dishonest or misleading by several news reports.[226][227][228]
- ^ Following the August 2009 death of his past rival and sometime ally Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Romney declared that he had no interest in running in the special January 2010 election to replace him.[249] Romney was an early supporter of Scott Brown, the successful Republican candidate in that race. Some of Romney's former aides were used by Brown's campaign and Romney raised funds for Brown.[250][251]
- ^ After having attended the 2010 Winter Olympics, Romney and wife were on board an Air Canada plane waiting to take off on a flight from Vancouver to Los Angeles when he got into a physical altercation with Sky Blu, sitting in front of him, over Sky Blu's seat not being in the upright position. Romney said that Sky Blu became physically violent and that he did not retaliate, while Sky Blu said that Romney gave him a "Vulcan grip" first and that he responded physically to that. Sky Blu was escorted off the aircraft by Canadian police but Romney did not press charges and Sky Blu was released.[252][253][254]
- ^ During his 2002 campaign, Romney expressed support for embryonic stem cell research, and said he would lobby President Bush (who had banned most federal funding for such research) to support it. In early 2005, Romney announced his position on therapeutic cloning, saying he was against it – and vetoing a funding bill for stem cell research because it allowed it – but still in favor of research on unused embryos from fertility treatments. In early 2007, he said he was now against expanded federal funding for such excess embryo research (but still thought private funding for such research was ethical, to the dismay of some conservative Republicans).[311]
- ^ As described. While Romney has consistently rejected same-sex marriage throughout his political career, there was a rhetorical shift in emphasis during his time as governor. The shift culminated in Romney avoiding discussions about the protection of gays from bias and instead characterizing himself as a conservative stalwart in the battle against same-sex marriage and in support of heterosexual families. The shift is even greater if compared to Romney's pledges from his 1994 senatorial campaign.[312][313]
- ^ During his 2002 campaign, Romney said he backed age-appropriate, comprehensive sex education in public schools. In 2005, he accepted federal funding to a faith-based organization to teach abstinence-only education in public schools. Romney said such programs would supplement rather than replace existing ones, while opponents feared that funding pressure would lead to schools dropping comprehensive programs for the freely available abstinence-only ones.[314][315][316]
- ^ Romney joined the National Rifle Association as a life member in August 2006. In December 2007, he cited a past endorsement from them, which he later said was unofficial support.[21][206][319][320] In April 2007, he said, "I've been a hunter pretty much all my life," but then said he had only gone hunting twice and did not own guns, and "I'm not a big-game hunter. I've made that very clear. I've always been a rodent and rabbit hunter. Small varmints, if you will. I began when I was 15 or so and I have hunted those kinds of varmints since then. More than two times."[321]
- ^ Biographical parallels between George and Mitt Romney include: Both served as Mormon missionaries in Europe and considered the experiences formative. Both pursued high school sweethearts singlemindedly until the women agreed to marry them several years later, then had families with four or five children. Both had very successful careers in business and became known for turning around failing companies or organizations. Both presided over a stake in the LDS Church. Both achieved their first elected position at age 55, as Republican governor of a Democratic-leaning state. The two bear a close physical resemblance at similar ages and both have been said to "look like a president". Both staged their first presidential run in the year they turned 60. Both were considered suspect by ideological conservatives within the Republican Party.[21][322] There are also obvious differences in their paths, including that George had a hardscrabble upbringing while Mitt's was affluent, and that Mitt far exceeded George's accomplishments in formal education. Another is that Mitt's personality is more reserved, private, and controlled than his father's was, traits he got from his mother Lenore.[323]
- ^ In summer 1983, Romney and his family embarked on a 12-hour drive from Boston to his parents' cottage on the Canadian side of Lake Huron. Seamus, the family Irish setter, was put up on the station wagon's roof rack, inside a dog carrier with its own attached windshield, but after some hours the dog suffered gastrointestinal distress, evidence of which was readily seen on the rear window. With his five children loudly expressing revulsion, Romney calmly stopped off at a service station, hosed off the dog, carrier, and car, put the dog back in the carrier and completed the journey.[46][325] Since becoming public in 2007, the story has been the source of complaints from animal lovers, a point of psychological study regarding Romney's emotion-free crisis management, an obsession to New York Times columnist Gail Collins, and the occasional target of news stories, talk show hosts and political rivals.[325][206][326][327]
References[link]
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- ^ Page, Susan (February 20, 2012). "Home sweet home? Michigan primary a challenge for Romney". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-02-17/michigan-primary-santorum-romney/53159656/1.
- ^ Kranish; Helman, The Real Romney, pp. 12–13.
- ^ Mahoney, The Story of George Romney, pp. 59–62, 63–65, 94–96, 104, 113, 159.
- ^ Kirkpatrick, David D. (December 18, 2007). "For Romney, a Course Set Long Ago". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/us/politics/18romney.html.
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- ^ "Mitt Romney and the dog on the car roof: one columnist's obsession". PolitiFact.com. September 8, 2011. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/sep/13/gail-collins/mitt-romney-and-dog-car-roof-one-columnists-obsess/.
- ^ Moos, Jeanne (January 13, 2012). "Mitt Romney 'dog-on-the-roof' story appears in Newt Gingrich ad". CNN. KSDK. http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/296683/18/Mitt-Romney-dog-on-the-roof-story-appears-in-Newt-Gingrich-ad.
- ^ Klein, Joe (December 12, 2011). "Where is the Love?". Time: p. 31.
- ^ a b c d e Johnson, Glen (March 26, 2010). "Romneycare may come back to haunt Mitt on health issue". Deseret News. Associated Press (Salt Lake City). http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700019894/Romneycare-may-come-back-to-haunt-Mitt-on-health-issue.html.
- ^ Johnson, Glen (December 15, 2010). "Health Mandate Cases to Loom Over 2012 Romney Run". Associated Press. ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=12405439.
- ^ Issenberg, Sasha (March 30, 2010). "Romney defends Mass. health care law". The Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2010/03/30/romney_defends_massachusetts_health_care_law/.
- ^ Smith, Ben (April 19, 2010). "Blogger: Romney wants repeal, but not of mandate". Politico. http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0410/Blogger_Romney_wants_repeal_but_not_of_mandate.html.
- ^ Viser, Matt (May 12, 2011). "Romney support for individual mandate complicates health care politics". The Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2011/05/romney_support.html.
- ^ Appleby, Julie (July 5, 2005). "Mass. Gov. Romney's health care plan says everyone pays". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2005-07-04-health-insurance-usat_x.htm.
- ^ Romano, Andrew (April 16, 2010). "If the Mitt Fits". Newsweek. http://www.newsweek.com/2010/04/15/if-the-mitt-fits.html.
- ^ Sargent, Greg (May 11, 2011). "Flashback: Mitt Romney hoped for 'a nation that's taken a mandate approach'". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/flashback-mitt-romney-hoped-for-a-nation-with-a-mandate-approach/2011/03/03/AFPqVUqG_blog.html.
- ^ a b Kantor, Jodi (May 19, 2012). "Romney’s Faith, Silent but Deep". The New York Times: p. 1. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/us/politics/how-the-mormon-church-shaped-mitt-romney.html?_r=1&hp&pagewanted=all.
- ^ Bowman, Matthew (February 8, 2012). "President Romney, Compassionate Conservative? How Mormonism May Shape Mitt's Welfare Policies". The New Republic. http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/100490/mormon-romney-poverty-welfare-poor.
- ^ a b c Hewitt, A Mormon in the White House?, pp. 56–58.
- ^ Barone and Cohen, Almanac of American Politics 2004, p. 772.
- ^ Egan, Dan (April 9, 1999). "SLOC Boss Romney Will Give U. Commencement Address". The Salt Lake Tribune: p. B3.
- ^ "Mitt Romney Calls for Bentley College Graduates to 'Be American Heroes'" (Press release). Bentley College. May 1, 2002. http://newsroom.bentley.edu/press-release/mitt-romney-calls-bentley-college-graduates-be-american-heroes-0.
- ^ "Suffolk University to Award Eight Honorary Degrees" (Press release). Suffolk University. May 24, 2004. http://www.suffolk.edu/16089.html.
- ^ "Commencement 2007". Hillsdale College. http://www.hillsdale.edu/images/userImages/cclawson/Page_4889/PC_News_Summer07.pdf. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
- ^ Bible, Mitzi (May 12, 2012). "Commencement 2012: Paying tribute to Liberty’s heritage, God's blessings". Liberty University. http://www.liberty.edu/news/index.cfm?PID=18495&MID=55432.
- ^ "Mitt Romney: Politician". People. May 13, 2002. http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20137022,00.html.
- ^ Pane, Lisa Marie (February 13, 2006). "Romney looks ahead, back in Olympics visit". The Boston Globe. Associated Press. http://www.boston.com/sports/other_sports/olympics/articles/2006/02/13/romney_looks_ahead_back_in_olympics_visit/?page=all.
- ^ Roche, Lisa Riley (May 10, 2008). "Romney honored for 'Defense of Religious Liberty'". Deseret News (Salt Lake City). http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700224763,00.html.
- ^ Mayer, Marissa (April 18, 2012). "The 100 Most Influential People in the World". Time. http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2111975_2111976_2112000,00.html.
Bibliography[link]
- Balz, Dan; Johnson, Haynes (2009). The Battle for America, 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election. New York: Viking Penguin. ISBN 978-0-670-02111-6.
- Barone, Michael; Cohen, Richard E. (2004) (paperback). The Almanac of American Politics 2004. Washington: National Journal Group. ISBN 978-0-89234-106-1.
- Barone, Michael; Cohen, Richard E. (2006). The Almanac of American Politics 2006. Washington: National Journal Group. ISBN 978-0-89234-111-5.
- Barone, Michael; Cohen, Richard E. (2008) (paperback). The Almanac of American Politics 2008. Washington: National Journal Group. ISBN 978-0-89234-116-0.
- Canellos, Peter S. (ed.) and The Team at The Boston Globe (2009). The Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4391-3817-5.
- Clymer, Adam (1999). Edward M. Kennedy: A Biography. New York: Wm. Morrow & Company. ISBN 978-0-688-14285-8.
- Heilemann, John; Halperin, Mark (2010). Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-173363-5.
- Hersh, Burton (1997). The Shadow President: Ted Kennedy in Opposition. South Royalton, Vermont: Steerforth Press. ISBN 978-1-883642-30-3.
- Hewitt, Hugh (2007). A Mormon in the White House?: 10 Things Every American Should Know About Mitt Romney. Washington: Regnery Publishing. ISBN 978-1-59698-502-5.
- Kranish, Michael; Helman, Scott (2012). The Real Romney. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-212327-5.
- Mahoney, Tom (1960). The Story of George Romney: Builder, Salesman, Crusader. New York: Harper & Brothers. OCLC 236830.
- Thomas, Evan (2009). "A Long Time Coming": The Inspiring, Combative 2008 Campaign and the Historic Election of Barack Obama. New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-58648-607-5.
Further reading[link]
- Foster, Craig (2008). A Different God?: Mitt Romney, the Religious Right, and the Mormon Question. Draper, Utah: Greg Kofford Books. ISBN 978-1-58958-117-3.
- Hines, Phillip (2012). Mitt Romney in His Own Words. New York: Threshold Editions. ISBN 978-1-4516-8780-4.
- Scott, Ronald B. (2011). Mitt Romney: An Inside Look at the Man and His Politics. Guilford, Connecticut: Lyons Press. ISBN 978-0-7627-7927-7.
- Turner, Lisa Ray; Field, Kimberly (2007). Mitt Romney: The Man, His Values, and His Vision. Silverton, Idaho: Mapletree Publishing. ISBN 978-1-60065-109-0.
External links[link]
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- Official
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- Biography at WhoRunsGov.com at The Washington Post
- Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
- Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
- Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
- Appearances on C-SPAN programs
- Appearances on Charlie Rose
- Appearances at the Internet Movie Database
- Collected news and commentary at The New York Times
- Collected news and commentary at The Wall Street Journal
- Collected news and commentary at The Guardian
- Works by or about Mitt Romney in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
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- Mitt Romney at the Open Directory Project
| Business positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| New office | Chief Executive Officer of Bain Capital 1984–1999 |
Succeeded by Joshua Bekenstein |
| Preceded by Bill Bain |
Chief Executive Officer of Bain & Company Acting 1991–1992 |
Succeeded by Steve Ellis as Worldwide Managing Director |
| Succeeded by Orit Gadiesh as Chairman of the Board |
||
| Sporting positions | ||
| Preceded by Makoto Kobayashi |
President of Organizing Committee for Winter Olympic Games 2002 |
Succeeded by Valentino Castellani |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Jane Swift Acting |
Governor of Massachusetts 2003–2007 |
Succeeded by Deval Patrick |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Joe Malone |
Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (Class 3) 1994 |
Succeeded by Jack Robinson |
| Preceded by Paul Cellucci |
Republican nominee for Governor of Massachusetts 2002 |
Succeeded by Kerry Healey |
| Preceded by John McCain |
Republican Party presidential candidate Presumptive 2012 |
Most recent |
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Romney, Willard Mitt |
| Alternative names | Romney, Mitt |
| Short description | American politician |
| Date of birth | March 12, 1947 |
| Place of birth | Detroit, Michigan, United States |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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