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The Most Powerful Woman on earth, Angela Merkel, is hell bent on challenging the Happiest Countries on Earth, such as Vanuatu, Costa Rica, Columbia, Dominica and Panama. Countries which have always featured high on the Happiest Planet Index, but which are tax havens. In Aug 2008, Forbes Magazine announced their 11th annual list of the top 100 most powerful women in the world. The magazine's criteria for power are based on a composite of public profile, how often the woman were written up by the paparazzi and how much financial sway the women wielded. Woman however, hold only 15% of the top corporate jobs . Less than 3% of USA’s largest companies have women chief executives and only one out of six company directors are women. The magazine has estimated that the women on the list have control of something like $26 trillion dollars. The women appear to be defined by their jobs, rather | quite than by who they are. It is also reported that some collect an annual pay of around $11 million plus. Past career, job title, achievements as well as the sum of money the woman controls, are all taken into account. The magazine drew comparisons between the different financial industries the women operate in, so as to try to assess the women's position on a level playing field. • Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, tops the list in 2008 for the third time in a row • Second was Sheila Bair, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp • PepsiCo's Indra Nooyi came in third, gaining two positions over last year • Angela Braly head of the health insurance WellPoint remained in fourth position, same as last year • Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State came in seventh spot • Ho Chin, Temasek Holdings and wife of the Prime Minister of Singapore, was No. 8, slipping from 3rd place last year • Gail Kelly, head of Australian Wetspac Bank came in No. 11 • Hilary Clinton, with the highest media profile, ranked 28, dropping three places from last year • Oprah Winfrey ranked 36, dropping all the way from 8th position last year • First Lady Linda Bush ranked 44 Angela Merkel has been nicknamed the 'Iron Lady', following in the footsteps of ex British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, even down to having a similar agenda. Vice Premiere of the People's Republic of China, Wu Yi, who held third place last year, is also known as the 'Iron Lady'. Wu Yi, having been in the top rankings since 2004, has dropped from sight this year. Maybe it’s because she resigned her job in March. Angela Merkel is rallying to get the governments of the world to unite in a Tax Cartel, so that a heavy-handed fist can be brought to bear on all tax havens. The latest purchase, by Merkel, of private customers' data of alleged tax evaders, stolen from a Lichtenstein bank, has highlighted Merkel's crusade. It is alleged the Lichtenstein bank sold the same material several times over, netting the bank a tidy profit. As tax havens play an important part in driving the tax rate down in high-taxed countries , Merkel’s crusade might cost the globe more than her crusade is worth. In 1980 OEDD quoted personal income tax as averaging 67%. Top personal taxes now average only 40%. Corporate taxes have gone from 50% in 1980 to a mere 27%. This is due to the influence of tax havens. Without the alternative competition offers through tax havens, taxes would soar. When competition, or opposition is silenced, an unhealthy atmosphere arises, for there comes a lack of balances and checks. While several try to claim that tax havens are an open street for money laundering, the extensive international banking regulations imposed on tax havens can actually make money laundering almost an impossibility.
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