Pope attacks tax havens

(Guardian): A hard-hitting Vatican report has laid the blame for the global financial crisis at door of ‘offshore centres’. It is a message sent from on high to the world’s financial and political elite. The Roman Catholic Church is calling for the effective closure of secretive tax havens as a ‘necessary first step’ to restore the global economy to health. In a policy paper from the Holy See, Pope Benedict pins the blame for the international financial crisis largely on ‘offshore centres’, many of which, such as the Channel Islands, are British dependencies. Go to article.