On Monday 13 May 2019 at 8 pm investigative journalist and author Oliver Bullough discusses his latest book, Moneyland: Why Thieves And Crooks Now Rule The World And How To Take It Back. The event takes place in the Arminius (Museumpark 3, Rotterdam). How is it that big multinational corporations and the world’s super-rich get away with barely paying any taxes? And what are the effects of kleptocratic, footloose capital on our cities?
In Moneyland Bullough depicts the universe inhabited by global money launderers and calls out the Western bankers, lawyers, property brokers and politicians who profit from it. He dives into the alternative political and fiscal reality that allows (corrupt) international elites to get away with almost anything. He reveals loopholes and offshore tax avoidance schemes, shows how crooked capital is flowing in and out of our cities and argues that respectable western democracies have become tax heavens.
Despite recent scandals – from the Panama Papers to ING’s massive money laundering – the structures enabling this have been left relatively untouched. Deregulation and financial creativity have made it easier than ever for international capital to flow, hide, acquire and multiply. It finds its way into our real estate, our soccer clubs and our private schools. And it influences our democratic institutions, critics say.
Bullough call for action is part of a larger movement. Historian Rutger Bregman went viral after he told the world’s financial elite at Davos to stop dodging taxes. More recently, a committee of the European Parliament concluded that seven of the European Union’s own member states — including Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg — behave like tax havens.
How does this global system work? Who are its winners and losers? And what can we do to counter its adverse effects?
With: Oliver Bullough and Sandra Phlippen, Assistant Professor at Erasmus School of Economics and head of Group Economics Netherlands of ABN AMRO.
Additional Informaiton
For tickets click here.
Others on Moneyland:
- ‘Pacy, clever and entertaining… if you still have any illusions about the wonders of liberated capitalism, Moneyland will probably cure you’ – The Guardian
- ‘Deeply Cynical’ – NRC (Dutch)
- ‘You cannot understand power, wealth and poverty without knowing about Moneyland’ – New Statesman
- ‘A biting indictment of an unfair and damaging system’ – Financial Times
This programme is part of the project Research by Debate, kindly supported by the Creative Industries Fund NL and The Municipality of Rotterdam and coproduced by Arminius, Erasmus University Rotterdam and De Dépendance.
