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One of the glorious joys of the TJN – Shareholder Primacy

One of those little amusements. John Christiensen, as I’ve already pointed out, has left the Tax Justice Network in a huff. Ritchie is equally unhappy:

Richard Murphy says:
August 3 2021 at 3:08 pm
They do not

Nor do they agree on the need for very significant salary hikes in recent years

But the issue is really about what tax justice is about

We did not create a mediocre agency creating indices of little relevance and which now thinks the future for tax justice is all about tax as a feminist issue, important as that might be

We think there are massive issues still to address of a broader nature

And massive issues that as it stands TJN is failing on, including as a consequence if its deliberate alienation of the OECD, with which you do not need to agree to remain at the table, but where TJN now thinks insults work best, but don’t

The difference has become irreconcilable. The existential question is does TJN exist to keep a bunch of researchers with very limited knowledge of tax in employment, or is it seeking to deliver tax justice? I know where I stand

This being what shareholder primacy is all about of course. Those who set up an organisation get to determine what an organisation does. They set it up to do something so that thing it shall do.

Without shareholder primacy you get a vague wandering off into the distance. For there is no one with the power to insist that the organisation do the task it was actually set up for.

This all getting worse when you expand to stakeholder control. One of the stakeholders will be the workforce who will, obviously, be entirely happy to collect very decent salaries (this is a small thinkish tank type of place, they’re spending £1 million a year on 15 salaries) for doing not all that much.

Inside such an undirected mush the insiders get to grow slothful and happy. Which is the entire point of shareholder primacy and not stakeholder. With the one single concentrated interest there is the one single – ultimate – source of power. Which means there is someone out there able to insist that the organisation actually do something.

The complaints from the P³ and Christiensen about the lack of anything happening are exactly what that shareholder primacy they so abhor exists to solve.

7 thoughts on “One of the glorious joys of the TJN – Shareholder Primacy”

  1. £1m between 15 people. Not bad gravy for a bunch of SJW pen pushers.

    This is worker control of an enterprise ain’t it?

    Exactly what the consistently inconsistent P3 is always agitating for.

  2. Dennis, Pointing Out The Obvious

    The existential question is does TJN exist to keep a bunch of researchers with very limited knowledge of tax in employment, or is it seeking to deliver tax justice? I know where I stand

    Says the accountant who (1) knows shit about tax, and (2) is always looking to grift money for “research” that does little more than keep him employed.

    Yet another Great Moment in Lacking Self-Awareness.

  3. TJN are better at fundraising than he is. He wants the grants. It’s as simple as that.

    ‘Keep a bunch of researchers with limited knowledge of tax in employment’

    Christiansen is an economist with no tax background. As for Ritchie….
    The lack of self awareness is unbelievable!

  4. Spud on 19/2/20 In 2009 I directed the first ever iteration of the Tax Justice Network Financial Secrecy Index. It has come a long way since then, in both scope, depth and influence. The latest iteration of the index, in which I now have no involvement, was published today
    Spud on 3/8/21 We did not create a mediocre agency creating indices of little relevance

  5. Yes, it really is extraordinary. Sure, Alex Cobham has fucked up. But you really do need a brass neck to claim that the risks to quality were lower back when Johnny C and Spud made shit up and issued a press release in the same day. The Ragging on Ritchie posts didn’t start because of TJN’s reputation for getting things right…

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