This
weekend over 55 faith communities around the nation will join hands in “Jubilee
for Students” to keep college student interest rates low. On July 1, interest rates for new subsidized Stafford
student loans are set to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. This would
affect over 7 million college students. Student
debt nationwide recently surpassed $1 trillion and doubling interest rates
would cause these students to incur an average of an additional $1,000 in debt annually.12
Last
week, the global Jubilee movement met in Prague to move forward our
agenda to address the root causes of poverty within the current international
financial architecture. Jubilee’s Director, Eric LeCompte spoke to the
international audience of leading civil society groups and academics in the field
of development finance on the need for a sovereign debt workout mechanism and the harmful behavior of vulture funds.
In two weeks, Britain’s Prime
Minister, David Cameron will lead this year’s G8 summit, the annual forum of
the world’s eight wealthiest nations. Cameron made curbing tax avoidance a
priority at this year’s summit noting for leaders to “wake up and smell the
coffee.” [1] The criticism is in light of tax dodging by
Starbucks and Google but the truth is that multinationals’ use of tax dodging
is rampant and it impacts economies of all sizes. Within the developing world, in particular, tax
dodging costs about $160 billion in needed revenue every year.[2]
Around 868 million people
worldwide go to bed hungry. That’s one in every eight people on this planet.[3]
In some portions of the globe, especially in sub-Saharan Africa,
the number of those starving is increasing.
Tax dodging by multinational corporations plays a significant role in
these numbers. Many of these
corporations shift profits out of poor countries into tax havens, where they
pay little to no taxes.[4][5]
Revenue from taxes is vital for economic development, yet multinationals’ use
of tax havens prevents needed revenue from reaching the poor.
If you are familiar
with British actor Bill Nighy, it is most likely through his role in the
popular film Love Actually, in which
Nighy plays an aging rock star who grudgingly but shamelessly turns his hit
song into a Christmas jingle. In a movie
starring Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Keira Knightly and Hugh
Grant, Nighy stands out thanks to his quirky mannerisms and comedic timing.
This year, Nighy is
using his talents for a less glamorous but far more meaningful role: that of
“the Banker” in a YouTube video aimed at advocating for a Financial Transaction
Tax (FTT). The FTT is also known as a
Robin Hood tax because it would charge banks and other financial institutions a
tiny tax for each financial transaction they make and use the money to fund
initiatives aimed at helping the poor.
In “the Banker,” Nighy plays a banker who is not entirely enthusiastic
about this idea:
We still wait for a Federal Court ruling on Argentina
versus the vulture funds, a legal outcome that will significantly impact global
poverty in our lifetimes. As we wait, we are grateful for the leadership of
President Obama, the US Treasury and the Justice Department for working to
protect our economy from these destabilizing forces and for standing up to
hedge funds that exploit the poor.
