Are Global Super-Rich Playing a 'Black' Game?

Impact on Developing Nations

The report also highlights the impact of money held in tax havens by rich individuals and their families, on the economy of 139 developing countries. The richest of these countries had amassed $7.3 to $9.3 trillion of ‘unrecorded offshore wealth’, keeping it beyond the reach of local authorities, the report said. This private wealth held offshore, Henry said, would be a huge black hole in the world economy.

In an appendix, the report added that the trend became evident in the late 1980s, as a vast amount of flight capital was pouring out of the developing world. And it is believed that the cumulative value of the capital that has flowed out of their economies since 1970s would be more than enough to pay off their debts to the rest of the world.

6.3 trillion pounds ($9.8 trillion) of assets is owned by only 92,000 people (only 0.001% of the world's population) — a tiny class of the mega-rich who have more in common with each other than those at the bottom of the income scale in their own countries.

John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network said, “These estimates reveal a staggering failure: Inequality is much, much worse than official statistics show, but politicians are still relying on trickle-down to transfer wealth to poorer people."

The report stated that oil-rich states with internationally mobile rich citizens want their wealth deposited into offshore bank accounts instead of being invested at home. The assets of these countries are, thus, held by a small number of wealthy individuals while the debts are shouldered by the ordinary people of these countries through their governments.