Tax havens are in many ways the liger of the financial world: everyone knows they exist, but few among us have ever seen one. They exist in a realm most of us remain blissfully unaware of, accessed only by the wealthiest in society.

However, fresh off their 15 minutes of fame during Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, tax havens are now being promoted more openly as investment companies try to stoke rich people’s fears and encourage them to avoid paying U.S. taxes.

Exhibit A is an investment company named Buy Belize, whose website appeals to wealthy individuals who “lose sleep over the security of [their] assets & hard-earned money” using right-wing language terminology such as “death taxes,” which they incorrectly list at 55 percent (it’s actually 40 percent). The group encourages people to take their money out of the United States and store it in Belize instead, which they call “one of world’s top tax havens — a truly safe locale for your money.” Buy Belize also offers to set up shell companies — International Business Companies — to “protect investments from taxes as well as legal judgments.”

Buy Belize also advertises on The Glenn Beck Program, appealing to wealthy people who are “frustrated, nervous, and worried about change” to open offshore accounts in Belize, “one of the last tax havens left in the world.”

Listen to the radio ad:

Offshore accounts are a principal mechanism rich people and corporations use to avoid paying taxes in the United States. A study last year found that the super-wealthy around the world are shielding at least $21 trillion in secret offshore tax havens, and the problem has grown significantly in the past few years. And it isn’t just Mitt Romney who stores his wealth in foreign tax havens. In 2012, the 60 largest corporations in America offshored $166 billion, costing American taxpayers billions in lost revenue. As a result, this loss of tax revenue is draining federal and state budgets.

To learn more about offshore accounts, listen to NPR’s Planet Money as they demonstrate opening up a shell company “UnBelizeAble.”

The Volcker Rule — a part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law that is meant to rein in risky bank trading — is on the verge of being delayed, again, as regulators squabble over its exact parameters. Wall Street banks and congressional Republicans, after successfully watering down the Volcker Rule when Dodd-Frank was being debated, have been trying to get rid of what little bits are left ever since.

But Occupy the SEC, an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement that focuses on matters before government regulatory agencies, is suing the federal government in an attempt to speed up the process and get the Volcker Rule in place. The two plaintiffs in the case claim that their deposits are at risk, so long as banks are allowed to engage in risky gambling with federally backed funds:

Plaintiffs suffer the risk of irreparable injury to their deposits by reason of [the government's] non-action. The Plaintiffs’ bank accounts are subject to potential dissipation or liquidation resulting from bank losses occasioned by excessively risky trading activities by those banks. The Volcker Rule would institute structural safeguards insulating depository accounts from banks’ proprietary trading activities, thereby protecting Plaintiffs’ bank accounts. Defendants’ unjustified delay in finalizing the Volcker Rule puts Plaintiffs’ bank accounts at continued risk of financial loss.

This is the first lawsuit challenging regulators to implement, rather than delay, the Volcker Rule. As Public Citizen’s Bart Naylor wrote, the suit is “making the straightforward case that banks shouldn’t gamble with savings because real people may be harmed.”

Currently, less than half of the rules in Dodd-Frank have been finalized. Wall Street, meanwhile, had its second most profitable year ever last year.

Members of Occupy Wall Street — various branches of which have recently been saving families from foreclosure and aiding victims of Hurricane Sandy — have launched a new initiative. Coined the “Rolling Jubilee,” Occupiers are raising money to buy distressed debt from financial firms.

But while purchasers of debt usually hound debtors in order to make a return on their investment, Occupy plans to simply abolish the debt for the lucky individuals whose accounts they grab. As explained on the Rolling Jubilee website:

We buy debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, we abolish it. We cannot buy specific individuals’ debt – instead, we help liberate debtors at random through a campaign of mutual support, good will, and collective refusal.

Organizer David Rees explained further:

OWS is going to start buying distressed debt (medical bills, student loans, etc.) in order to forgive it. As a test run, we spent $500, which bought $14,000 of distressed debt. We then ERASED THAT DEBT. (If you’re a debt broker, once you own someone’s debt you can do whatever you want with it — traditionally, you hound debtors to their grave trying to collect. We’re playing a different game. A MORE AWESOME GAME.)

This is a simple, powerful way to help folks in need — to free them from heavy debt loads so they can focus on being productive, happy and healthy.

Average student debt currently stands at more than $26,000. Nationally, nearly 25 percent of homeowners are underwater, meaning they owe more on their mortgage than their home is currently worth.

Occupy DC, a spin-off of the Occupy Wall Street movement that blanketed the nation’s capital with protests against big banks and corporate and lobbyist influence on government in 2011, celebrated its first anniversary with a “shut down K Street” march through downtown Washington this morning. The protest wound through the city and included stops at the offices of JP Morgan Chase, British Petroleum, corporate food giant Monsanto, and several development companies that have razed low-income housing projects in the city to build expensive condominiums and apartments.

Occupy DC protesters camped at McPherson Square park from October 1, 2011 to February 2012, when they were evicted by National Park Police. The park is still closed for restoration, but Occupy has remained active, protesting wrongful foreclosures on area homeowners.

Today’s protest had a less controversial atmosphere than those around the movement’s eviction earlier this year, as Metro Police supervised but remained largely uninvolved throughout. View pictures of the protest (click to enlarge):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today, protesters took to the streets of New York City to mark the one year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. Already, more than 100 activists have been arrested. Here are some photos from the demonstrations today and over the weekend:

Credit: Associated Press

Credit: Flick user Scott Lynch

Credit: Reuters

Credit: Associated Press

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Today marks the one year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street protests, and activists intend to mark the milestone by holding a new round of demonstrations. Dozens have already been arrested, even before the main protests began.

Occupy Wall Street managed to turn the attention of America’s politicians, at least for a moment, to income inequality, economic mobility, and the dismal state of both in the U.S. Here are some key facts and figures to know as Occupy once again takes to the streets:

1) Income inequality grew in 2011. According to data released last week by the Census Bureau, the gap between the wealthiest Americans and those in the middle grew last year, as all but the richest 20 percent of the country saw their income drop.

2) America’s 1 percent have 288 times as much wealth as the median household. This constitutes a huge increase from 1962, when the ratio was 125-1.

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