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Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank
271–280 of 491 posts
Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank
#272Earlier quoted context omitted.
It was possible for many empires to tax effectively before modern bookkeeping. Property tax needs very little in the way of financial records to administer.
> modern book-keeping Can you clarify what precisely you mean by this statement? Most empires historically-speaking have had sophisticated book-keeping methods. Chinese empires used to tax anyone who exited a city on the profits they made during their visit. The Romans when they took over Egypt, taxed the hell out of it and for that purpose kept meticulous records on all of the transactions that happened. The notion…
The general principle of a tax which can be levied fairly, equally, clearly, and with low costs of collection or effort, are not new:
The tax which each individual is bound to pay ought to be certain, and not arbitrary. The time of payment, the manner of payment, the quantity to be paid, ought all to be clear and plain to the contributor, and to every other person. Where it is otherwise, every person subject to the tax is put more or less in the power of the tax-gathered, who can either aggravate the tax upon any obnoxious contributor, or extort, by the terror of such aggravation, some present or perquisite to himself. The uncertainty of taxation encourages the insolence and favours the corruption of an order of men who are naturally unpopular, even where they are neither insolent nor corrupt. The certainty of what each individual ought to pay is, in taxation, a matter of so great importance that a very considerable degree of inequality, it appears, I believe, from the experience of all nations, is not near so great an evil as a very small degree of uncertainty.
-- Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Book V, Chapter 2, Part 2: Of Taxes.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations/Book_V/...
Smith's preference was for a tax on land, which is difficult to move off-shore.
Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank
#273Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank
#274Earlier quoted context omitted.
She!
This is not a hill that I am willing to die on, but when was gender decided? Everything I've read up until now has kept it ambiguous: https://mobile.twitter.com/DDoSecrets/status/119621668503812...
Sorry, didn't mean to turn this into a hill at all :) It was called out in the pastebin in the comment originating this chain.
Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
oh, so it's all the global poor who are coordinating their efforts to reduce emissions of companies they don't own or operate? thanks for clearing that up!
The global poor don't get to choose. When the choice is firewood or not being able to cook and stay warm, you use firewood. When the choice is find some way to stay entertained without taking quarterly vacations on CO2 generating flights to expensive getaways or keep polluting somehow no one bats an eyelid.
There aren't enough rich people to compete with commercial airliner's emissions. Cruise ships are HUGE emittors(they even get around emissions control laws) for example but the western middle class is their user not the rich or poor.
Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank
#276After watching The laundromat, I think it's big news. Although I will always be curious why countries are letting those small, insignificant islands and countries manage all this wealth, and why they're trusted to do it. This can't be secure or safe. I'm curious about the diplomacy and the political implications of this. What if their office get robbed? What if the island gets attacked? What if one of those shady ban…
A recent piece in The Guardian argues that South Dakota and other US states are actually becoming the go-to place to store anonymously your illicit cash and make sure that your heirs can inherit it without taxes forever: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/14/the-great-amer... Partly because the US has compelled other countries to provide more transparency without joining that transparency organization itself.…
That Guardian article is weird because it doesn't even mention federal taxes. How does a south dakota state trust help someone legally evade federal taxes?
Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank
#277Earlier quoted context omitted.
> modern book-keeping Can you clarify what precisely you mean by this statement? Most empires historically-speaking have had sophisticated book-keeping methods. Chinese empires used to tax anyone who exited a city on the profits they made during their visit. The Romans when they took over Egypt, taxed the hell out of it and for that purpose kept meticulous records on all of the transactions that happened. The notion…
Not who you replied to, however modern taxation requires lots of information to work. For instance income tax works, because every employer is reporting how much they paid you. Then you report how much money you got paid, then factor in deductions such as specific contributions to charities etc. All of which are reporting to the Government at the same time. Before the advent of computing and auditing it would be hard…
HK raises practically all of its revenue from land and (until China started screwing it up) it was one of the richest, most developed places on Earth.
Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank
#278Earlier quoted context omitted.
By "legally gained cash" I mean that taxes have already been paid for it.
Money is a claim on future production, and you don't get to transfer that claim over other people's work without caveats, whether it's inheritance tax, limits on gifts, or wealth taxes.
That’s certainly a popular view, but it’s not a given by any means. You will find plenty of people that think giving their children $100 should be possible without any government intervention or taxation. Unless you’re against that as well, we’re talking about arbitrary lines for when the government gets to wet its beak.
Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank
#279Earlier quoted context omitted.
Note that in his write-up of how the hack was accomplished (someone pasted a link in another comment) the hacker specifically mentions his attack was on Cayman National Bank of the Isle of Man. From cursory research it appears to be based there, not in the Cayman Islands.
* her -- she refers to herself as a girl multiple times in the writeup edit: or possibly they/them -- I'm seeing conflicting info circulating around
Re: Hacker Publishes 2TB of Data from Cayman National Bank
#280After watching The laundromat, I think it's big news. Although I will always be curious why countries are letting those small, insignificant islands and countries manage all this wealth, and why they're trusted to do it. This can't be secure or safe. I'm curious about the diplomacy and the political implications of this. What if their office get robbed? What if the island gets attacked? What if one of those shady ban…
> Although I will always be curious why countries are letting those small, insignificant islands and countries manage all this wealth
Those small, insignificant islands and countries are current or former british or european colonies. And considering they are primarily located in the caribbean, the chances of them being successfully attacked is zero - good luck going up against the might of the US Navy.
> How do you wire all this money to such a small place
Whether it's $10 or $1000000, it's just a number (a few bytes) on transfer or just a few more digits on a check.
> and how can they trust so few people to hide so much money?
It's easier to trust a few rather than the many.