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You can hide ANYTHING with financial engineering. Like off-books liabilities, systemic risk ... anything.

This comment is weird, but typical of HN. Most of the off-balance-sheet shenanigans of pre-2008 world are gone. There is now a global regulator that covers all systemically important financial institutions, that also includes very large insurers. The world of financial engineering is much lower risk and higher transparency than pre-2008.

Must be why every company pays its fair share of taxes right?

What do you mean by 'fair'?

Different jurisdictions have different tax rates.

You say shenanigans don't really happen, I posit they are routine in business and consultants are paid a lot of money to uncover the next shenanigan every day. The law is always lagging the action it is designed to stymie and we certainly don't have a utopia going on outside the window today.

> You say shenanigans don't really happen, [...]

Where did I say that? There are definitely people who straight up break the relevant laws and don't pay their taxes.

Of course, whether someone breaks a law or not, is an issue independent of 'fairness'. But I don't know what you mean by 'fair'.

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