Quote of the day: JFK and secrecy

Nick Shaxson

Published:

29 June 2015

Reading time:

< 1

Category:

Financial secrecy ↘

Tags:

JFK

The quote is from John F. Kennedy, speaking in 1961 (hat tip: the Cayman Reporter):

“The very word “secrecy” is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it.”

The context for the quote was not tax but the Cold War and the rivalry between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Still, it expounds a strong set of general principles which multinational firms and wealthy individuals might like to ponder.

The author

Nick Shaxson

Nicholas Shaxson is a journalist and writer on the staff of Tax Justice Network. He is author of the book Poisoned Wells about the oil industry in Africa, published in 2007, and the more recent Treasure Islands: Tax havens and the Men who Stole the World, published by Random House in January 2011. He lives in Berlin.

See author’s full profile