FT @kayewiggins + @markvdvd outline another classic case of tax havens being used as a crowbar to open up the tax regimes of countries around the world.
https://www.ft.com/content/3771030c-b8ad-4da6-b0af-0311a8e82ec8
First, threaten to go offshore if you don't get what you want. 1/>>

2. "Mr Lamont blinked first." Government caves in, believing it needs to attract all this "talent"

(They are certainly clever, many of these PE execs. But a talent for what?)

Lobby constantly to keep the gravy train running. Majority of PE riches come from buying healthy business with good cashflows then siphoning wealth out -- but they fund think tanks + schmooze journos to say it's all 'entrepreneurial' + about funding startups, unicorns etc

3. (this is not a sideswipe at FT btw, it's done some of the best reporting on this sector.)

Laugh all the way to the bank, with a basic formula that uses high leverage, insulates the PE moguls from losses, but delivers upwards potentially large gains.

Once you've got what you want, and gorged on the proceeds, reveal that you were never going to run away in the first place.

There's a really simple way to cut through the crap here. If you think PE provides net benefits to the economy, you'll think there's a trade-off between democracy and prosperity. "Tax billionaires too much, they'll run away and we'll all be poorer." This is nonsense.

Anyone - ANYONE - who knows how this sector works (and isn't conflicted) knows that PE is a harmful sector, weakening our economies. Part of the wider Finance Curse.
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2019/01/23/book-review-the-finance-curse-how-global-finance-is-making-us-all-poorer-by-nicholas-shaxson/
And the Finance Curse offers a straightforward way out.

There is no trade-off! Chase these predators out of your country, and your economy will prosper for it. How to chase them out? Tax them and their activities at maximum rates - and also stop all their appalling wealth-extraction tricks: dividend recaps, opco-propco, and so on.

Brexit Britain can help itself by chasing all these PE people to France, by bringing back democracy. Wealth taxes etc etc. Those clever folk that stay will, with the right rules and incentives, turn their talents to doing useful stuff, instead of wealth extraction.

And the most predatory ones will - poof! - be gone. Their chokeholds released, we will all do better.
Simple!