“Throughout the world inequality is soaring to new heights. And the wealth of nations that once provided prosperity for the majority has gone missing. This is the story of powerful forces deepening the divide between the few and the many”. So begins one of the most urgent & informing documentaries you have never heard of (& if you have, congratulations is required). Director Harold Crooks brings his attention to the malady of The City Of London, tax havens, British Common Wealth satellites, offshoring & tax evasion, if not more accurately “tax negation” or some 99.99% equivalent. It’s an astonishing feat composting staggering interviews & testimony from political economists, tax analysts, philosophers, journalists, sociologists, activists & ex-industry experts which include Saskia Sassen, Angus Cameron, Nicholas Shaxon, James Henry, Brigitte Alepen, Thomas Piketty, James Henry, William Taylor, Stuart Fraser, Ronen Palan, Alain Deneault, Daniel Lebeague, John Christensen, Richard Rahn, Pascal Saint Amans, Jaron Lanier, William Barclay, Jack Blum, Nicholas Colin & others. Revealing the history, from William the 1st of Normandy leaving “The City” intact during his invasion (this pseudo secret aberration still exercises anomalous law & status from King Edwards tenure to this very day) to Donald Fleming & Jim McDonalds 1960’s initiative to reave what would become giant financial irrigation flows of covert capital (untaxed or barely so & often utterly filthy from ill gains, no questions asked) into off shore British Common Wealth destinations. In what is effectively legal larceny, with massively disfiguring consequences that are still unfurling in current time, the specialists & pundits expound, untangle & explain the full squalor of this unimaginable concentration of super criminality. But wait…is it a crime? Or have the gears of greed & their political cohorts tailored & toiled to birth a system so heinous, so immoral, so execrable, so corrupt, so damaging that such blatant chronic-colossus-criminality is reduced to “morally dubious” but “legally correct” proceedings? as the title denotes, far from the festering effluence of the actions themselves are the results on the rest of us – that’ll be the backdoor looting of countries & the incineration of the welfare state with civilization & even the planet itself the next thing at the oven-door, with all the concomitant collateral you can eat. Some of the most remarkable footage is from a City representative – Stuart Fraser (stockbroker & previous Chair to The Corporation Of The City Of London’s policy committee). His statements, frankness & honesty on some aspects of this unique monster are absolutely incredible, as are those from vicar William Taylor. In a later chapter entitled “The Cloud Economy And We, The Users”, the secondary hazard & additional abstract vault of the Cloud Economy is examined. Astronomic gush-up, with fewer sucking-proboscis than were ever imaginable on the other end of the plutocrats funnel, it becomes more megalomanic by the second with brilliant critique from both Nicholas Colin & Jaron Lanier struggling to define with language the kind of demigod gargantua that these super abominations are lurching towards. Foul & hideous stuff that’s in the furthest possible species bracket to anything vaguely resembling democracy or accountability in any manner. So much more could be pulled up & expanded on from this incredible’ incredible trove of life-threateningly urgent film. To simplify it – if you live on planet earth, even if you’re the most apolitical gudgeon -watch this & disseminate & share it as far & wide as you can. No physical copies were made & little press or presence is palpable (I wonder why?). It’s pre Panama Papers (I am amazed the City is still standing after such disclosures) but reveals so much about the inner organs & symptoms of the latter. New language needs to be invented to define this breed of unspeakable uber-epic corruption & super criminality.
Director: Harold Crooks
Company: Filmoption International/InformAction
thanks to “R-Cubus”