Renegade Economists Show 412

As broadcast on the 3CR airwaves 5.30 – 6pm Wednesdays.
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Show Notes
Ajay Gupta is a contributing editor at taxnotes.com) and joins to discuss the growing pressure on MNCs to pay their fair share. Gupta moderated a prestigious panel in NY on the topic of tax evasion and gives insights beyond OECD recommendations announced last week.

MNC Tax Avoidance by Renegade Economists on Mixcloud

Related Links
Ajay is a compelling writer, with two insightful pieces on the BEPS issue:
– BEPS – Branding Stasis
– Arms length is still the mantra

OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) recommendations
Arms length principle critiqued

Our DNA cannot be privatised! Congratulations Yvonne D’Arcy on impeding the reach of Myriad Technologies on the enclosure of our genes and BRCA1 (breast cancer gene). This is a great win for the people and those concerned about the growing influence of monopoly rights. Did our new PM Turnbull have a slight influence? In 2010 he penned the op-ed Humanity Fights for Ownership of its Soul. He wrote:

Incredibly, patent offices around the world, including our own, have given patent protection to gene sequences that have been identified and isolated from their environment in nature. As US and British courts observed, this practice offends the most basic principle of patent law, which is designed to protect inventions and encourage innovation and research.

However, an invention is different from a discovery. When we discover something new in nature we cannot claim to have invented it. Newton did not invent gravity any more than Marie Curie invented radium.

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