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Comment by irrational | Hacker News Reader

My prediction is this will have just as much impact as the Panama Papers. Basically none.

The prime minister of Pakistan was forced to step down bc of the Panama Papers. If there's will in the courts, the leaks will have consequences.

Basically none?

https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/what-happe...

Great that there was an impact, but still its not big enough.

> Basically none

?? secretive, highly competitive and rivalrous insider rings and you saying flatly "no impact" makes it so?

the only thing that did NOT happen was "no impact".. its not public information.. how could cascading side effects be seen or measured?

absolutely need more sleuthing IMO and data dumps -- not by tax bureacrats -- here and elsewhere

"tax bureaucrats" are what took down Al Capone. These days Al would have much better lawyers and layers of shell corporations in various tax havens. He would be untouchable merely because the effort to sleuth out the truth has become much harder. Laws and regulations subdue any advantages transparency tech could bring.

Are we doomed then? Modern day All Capone´s are now richer than ever, above the laws, buying whole social networks, or becoming potus. Is there anything that can be done?

Of course not. Whoever could cause an "impact" either:

1) Benefits from this;

2) Is very close to someone who benefits from this;

3) Has a glass-made roof and doesn't feel precisely confident in throwing rocks at other people's roofs.

Panama Papers had a huge impact in most of the world outside the USA, including many toppled governments.

From what I recall after listening to a podcast (I don't remember which one) on foreign policy, it's said that Putin was extremely angry that it was leaked because it exposed his wealth. It's also said that the Panama Papers helped create sanctions against him.

What did it expose specifically about him?

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