Dear friends, dear interested, Billions of euros have been looted from public coffers through Cum-Ex and co. These tax fraud schemes all involve crooked dealings on the financial markets. To obtain refunds for unpaid dividend taxes, the fraudsters have to trade in shares and derivatives on a grand scale. All these transactions have no other […]
Auditor in the Wirecard case: Fatal incentive structures need reform
An investigation by the Handelsblatt shows that the auditors at EY no longer “believed in the innocence of the management” of Wirecard already in early 2019. Previously, incriminating material had been leaked to the audit firm by a whistleblower. Wirecard’s supervisory board also knew about the auditors’ concerns. But EY caved in: Only weeks later, […]
Brexit letter bears green signature: EU economics lawmakers call for improvements
Dear friends, dear interested, The draft Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and the UK must not open the door to tax avoidance and money laundering. The Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament has reiterated this demand in a joint letter supported by all pro-European political groups. Concretely, we demand that […]
Europe Calling “Deadly Patents?” – How to scale up the production of Covid-19 vaccines globally” – Wed, 10/2, 8pm CET
Recording here: Dear friends, dear interested, Vaccines are the way out of the Covid-19 pandemic. But despite huge public investments, on a global scale far too little vaccine is being produced so far. While the developed countries will have vaccinated most of their population by the end of 2021, developing countries – often more severely […]
Big clash about PRIIPs avoided: EIOPA gives in to demands of the European Parliaments
Dear friends, dear interested, The big clash was avoided only at the last minute: Two days ago, on 3 February 2021, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) adopted a long-awaited regulatory text on the so-called PRIIPS Regulation at the second attempt, thus giving in to demands from the European Commission and the European […]
GameStop frenzy relentlessly exposes inefficiency of stock markets
Dear friends, dear interested, It is a battle between David and Goliath that has been unfolding around the GameStop share for about a week now. On the one side: big players in the financial sector, first and foremost American hedge funds. On the other: a swarm of internet-savvy retail investors who want to beat the […]