"What we have learned FROM THE PARADISE PAPERS is how much the rich and the virtuous have been hiding away and where they’re hiding it. There’s also our favorite actors and singers. Our beloved alma mater, supposedly a charitable institution. Everyone with money seems to be in on it.We’re also learning that maybe we’ve had it backwards all along. Tax havens on some tropical island aren’t some sideshow to western capitalism; they are a central reality. Those hidden billions are like an unseen planet whose gravity is pulling our politics and our economy always in a certain direction. And this week we finally began to understand what that uncharted planet looks like; we started to grasp its mass and its power. "We endure potholes and live in fear of collapsing highway bridges because our leaders wanted these very special people to have an even larger second yacht. "
At www.theguardian.com
