The hypocritical hegemon : how the United States shapes global rules against tax evasion and avoidance /

The alliterative title of this work artfully refers to the power of the United States to demand financial transparency of its trading partners without having to reciprocate. That power extends more generally to determining the rules of the game in global commerce. Enactment of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act in 2010 offers Hakelberg (postdoctoral fellow, Free Univ., Berlin) material for a case study in the exercise of US power. A Democratic administration committed to progressive tax reform demanded financial transparency from global tax havens in pursuit of tax-evading US citizens. On threat of effective exclusion from US markets, foreign tax havens complied. But powerful US financial interests ensured that US banks needn't reciprocate, leaving the US the principal remaining global tax haven. The domestic and international power of multinational corporations left them unscathed by measures promoting financial transparency. As a result, Hakelberg argues, US domestic politics tends to dominate global tax reform efforts. The European Union, with a market comparable in size to that of the US, remains incapable of counterbalancing the US owing to a continued inability to act in unison. Though a unified EU might stand to overcome the US hypocrisy with respect to banking transparency, its actual impact on multinational corporate conduct remains unclear. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. --Roger S. Hewett, emeritus, Drake University