Light on cheats

The only two certainties in life are death and taxes,” wrote Mark Twain in the 19th century. He lived in an era before unbridled tax havens and banking secrecy took centrestage to strike off one of these certainties for the privileged. A new pathbreaking expose by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) highlights the unimaginable size and murkiness of the contemporary “offshore” banking services industry.