Bermuda:Re
Bermuda Re/insurance . September 2007
Editorial
Bermuda Re/insurance is published quarterly
by Newton Media Limited.
Newton Lodge
15-17 Newton Way
Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth
Few of the thousands of reinsurers meeting at Monte Carlo
NG33 5NR, United Kingdom
Editor: Roger Crombie, FCA this year will have realised that they were supporting a rogue
Email: editorial@newtonmedia.co.uk
Sub-editor: Susan Gault
state. Monaco is one of three remaining countries that have
Editorial advisors:
Bradley Kading
failed to meet the demands of the Organisation for Economic
David Fox
Co-operation and Development (OECD) to improve transparency
Publishers: John Eddington
Nicholas Lipinski
and to establish effective exchange of information in tax matters.
Advertising: John Eddington
Telephone: +44 1476 861 737
Monaco, like Liechtenstein and Andorra, has refused to go along
Email: john@newtonmedia.co.uk
Advertising: Nicholas Lipinski with the OECD’s diktats.
Telephone: +44 2083 133 967
Email: nlipinski@newtonmedia.co.uk
Production and design:
Roger Crombie, FCA—Editor
Strano and Pettigrew Design Associates
67 Mowat Avenue
Suite 239
Toronto, Ontario
M6K 3E3 Canada
We were told, when the OECD witch-hunt with the OECD. Subservience to the whims
Telephone: +1 416 533 7171
began a decade ago, that failure to comply of unelected burghers has failed to damage
Fax: +1 416 535 7526
would mean punishments beyond imagining. So Bermuda’s interests, just as ignoring them has
E-mail: info@stranoandpettigrew.com
frightened were we of the OECD’s drive to raise benefited the European tax havens. The OECD
www.stranoandpettigrew.com
global taxation levels that many countries slavishly is, in this regard as in so many others, revealed
©Newton Media Limited 2007.
did what they were told. Bermuda was a good to be a gigantic, expensive irrelevance.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced,
example. Without demur or public debate, Bermuda
As the OECD’s dirty war dragged on, some
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any agreed to whatever the OECD demanded.
Caribbean countries complained publicly about
form or by any means, electrical, mechanical,
Yet all these years later, the European tax an “uneven playing field”. How vividly the
photocopying, recording or otherwise without the
havens continue to ignore the rules, at no European scofflaws have proved that argument
prior written permission of the publisher.
apparent cost to themselves. No one has talked to have been spot on.
The views expressed in Bermuda Re/insurance
are not necessarily those shared by the publisher,
about banning economic transfers to or from
The OECD should be thoroughly discredited.
Newton Media Limited. Wishing to reflect the those countries—the actions promised for anyone
The “race to the bottom” that it forecast,
true nature of Bermuda, the editor has included
who defied the OECD.
were countries to continue to set their own
articles from a number of sources, and the views
The continued refusal of these three countries to tax policies, has, of course, been shown to
expressed are those of the individual contributors.
No responsibility or liability is accepted by
cave in lays bare the pointlessness of the exercise. be nonsense. High taxes produce low standards
Newton Media Limited for any loss to any person, The OECD’s real mission, of course, was to punish of living.
legal or physical, as a result of any statement, fact
countries that did not subscribe to the European
The bureaucrats who run the OECD believe
or figure contained in Bermuda Re/insurance.
high-tax dogma. Believing that governments know
that, in the words of an infamous European
This publication is not a substitute for advice on a
specific transaction.
best in all things, European politicians allowed the
predecessor, “might makes right”. Well-managed
The publication of advertisements does not
OECD to do their dirty work for them.
economies around the world have proved a
represent endorsement by the publisher. It is too late to say what might have happened different point: economic freedom is the only
Bermuda Re/insurance - ISSN 1749-4508 had Bermuda and the others not gone along basis on which to run a modern country.
Bermuda Re/insurance . September 2007 3
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68