Moneyland

In Moneyland acclaimed investigative journalist Oliver 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 – investigative journalist and author of Moneyland: Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How to Take it Back.
• Sandra Phlippen – assistant professor at Erasmus School of Economics and head of Group Economics Netherlands of ABN AMRO.

Location: Arminius (Museumpark 3, Rotterdam)