Tax havens? Seriously?

After all of France and Germany's sturm und drang over the need for new financial regulations, it looks like the major regulatory measure that will come out of this week's G-20 summit will be a new crackdown on tax havens.

While not completely irrelevant, in the context of the financial crisis, tax havens seem pretty small-fry compared to hedge funds or credit-rating agencies and it's an issue Germany, in particular, has been keen about for years. Is this really what Nicolas Sarkozy's hardball diplomacy was all for?

The tax haven issue seems tailored to allow Sarkozy and Merkel to claim a political victory without actually enacting the tough new international financial oversight they said they were pushing for, but that the United States objected to.

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