So, no US officials are implicated by the Panama Papers?

[stevenleser]

17. Yeah, those are a joke. Here is the deal with that...

These offshore companies have been created for going back 50+ years now.

The allegation is that the 2011 Panamanian trade agreement between the US and Panama somehow made this worse. And since Hillary was our top diplomat, she is responsible for that agreement.

The first thing you have to know is that there is no connection between trade and being able to set up one of these companies and using a bank in, lets say, the Caribbean or Liechtenstein or Switzerland, which is what these companies do now. The 2011 agreement had no impact at all on the creation of these companies.

Some folks are making the charge that the agreement makes it more difficult for the US to try to demand Panama change anything regarding its commerce, banking, financial or other corporate laws. Fact is, the US has been trying to get Panama to change those laws for 40-50 years without success.

The other thing is, do we want the US bullying other countries to change laws that the populace of those countries are happy with? Don't we generally regard that as a bad thing, aside from of course, discrimination laws and the like. Neither Panama, nor anyone else is responsible for American or European or any other people using legal entities in Panama as cover for evading taxes in their own countries. Nor does having one of these entities require you to do so.