Interview with Nicholas Shaxson

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Nicholas Shaxson is an author, journalist and investigator. He has been active in the Tax Justice Network, an expert-led lobbying group focused on tax issues. He is the author of the awarded book “Treasure Islands” (Random House UK, 2011). Shaxson lives in Berlin.

To the question “What should the bank employees do?” posed in the film “The Broken Pitcher” Nicholas Shaxson responds by telling the story of international finance and how its rise coincides with the British Empire’s decline. From the Bretton Woods agreement in 1945 to the slow-motion financial explosion starting in the 1970s to the current system of financialisation with offshore tax havens like Ireland, the Cayman Islands, or Cyprus, Shaxson describes how finance – supposedly a utility – has become an end in itself, a predator, and a burden.