Nick Mathiason

Apple And Microsoft Among US Tech Giants Reaping Interest Payments On Offshore Cash

‘If a US multinational puts its offshore cash into a US bank and uses the money to buy US treasuries, stocks and bonds, those funds ought to be treated as having been repatriated and subject to US tax’
– Senator Carl Levin

Nick Mathiason
By Nick Mathiason
The CIA tool purportedly relies on Microsoft Office to track leaked documents and the whistle-blowers that release them.

The US government makes vast interest payments to technology giants including Apple and Microsoft on the billions of dollars they shelter from tax offshore. A trawl of Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosures shows that Apple, Microsoft, Google and Cisco Systems hold $163 billion in US government debt, earning these companies

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Analysis: Political Donations By Companies Hit Shareholder Returns

Corporate donations to political parties may be bad for democracy. Now it seems they are bad for shareholders too. Fresh research from academics at the Universities of Minnesota and Kansas reveals that between 1991 and 2004, every $10,000 donated by a business led to a commensurate fall in overall returns to investors. The study also […]

Nick Mathiason
By Nick Mathiason
Vice President Dick Cheney and President Bush stand in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington in this Nov. 9, 2006, file photo. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, files)

Corporate donations to political parties may be bad for democracy. Now it seems they are bad for shareholders too. Fresh research from academics at the Universities of Minnesota and Kansas reveals that between 1991 and 2004, every $10,000 donated by a business led to a commensurate fall in overall returns to investors. The study also found

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Analysis: Europe Takes A Step Into The Abyss

The markets are expecting a politically rudderless Greece to exit from the euro within weeks, if not days. An economic storm to make 2008’s bank collapse feel like a mild shower is now increasingly likely. For four years, European leaders have been staring into the abyss. Co-ordinated European spending cuts triggered rampant unemployment in Portugal, […]

Nick Mathiason
By Nick Mathiason
A woman walks past a destroyed building in central Athens on Monday Feb. 13, 2012. (AP Photo/Dimitri Messinis)

The markets are expecting a politically rudderless Greece to exit from the euro within weeks, if not days. An economic storm to make 2008’s bank collapse feel like a mild shower is now increasingly likely. For four years, European leaders have been staring into the abyss. Co-ordinated European spending cuts triggered rampant unemployment in

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City Bank ‘Cheats’ Europe In €600m Tax Avoidance Trading Scheme

  Some of the city of London’s biggest banks are behind a huge tax avoidance trade ‘cheating’ European countries of hundreds of millions of euros a year in a development that sheds fresh light on David Cameron’s decision to wield Britain’s EU veto to protect the Square Mile. A two-month study by the Bureau has […]

Nick Mathiason
By Nick Mathiason

  Some of the city of London’s biggest banks are behind a huge tax avoidance trade ‘cheating’ European countries of hundreds of millions of euros a year in a development that sheds fresh light on David Cameron’s decision to wield Britain’s EU veto to protect the Square Mile. A two-month study by the Bureau has uncovered a discreet $102bn

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