Did you know that as much as $32 trillion in assets is being hidden offshore?

According to a study from the Tax Justice Network as reported by Bloomberg and Forbes, it is. The same study as reported by ABC News and NBC News has it as at least $21 trillion.

What’s the difference?

Paraphrasing and updating the famous quote of the former Sen. Everett Dirksen, R-Ill., “A trillion here and a trillion there. Before you know it, it adds up to some real money.”

Whatever the amount turns out to be, the study claims it is a “huge ‘black hole’ in the world economy.”

I started thinking, that is an awful lot of capital that is so well-hidden in some black hole “offshore” that only the Tax Justice Network could find it.

The study comes from James S. Henry who, it should be noted, is a former economist from McKinsey & Co., a Harvard lawyer, a Harvard economist and an investigative journalist.

His full biography, not mentioned in the study, is much more interesting. Among his notable accomplishments, he is also a former “Nader Raider,” a frequent commentator on Al Jazeera and a member of the board of directors of the Tax Justice Network.

After reading his full bio, somehow the word “ideology” just popped into my mind.

The Tax Justice Network states that among its core beliefs, it supports a level playing field in competitive markets and progressive and equitable taxation and is opposed to tax havens and offshore finance.

It makes sense to me that an organization that is devoted to opposing tax havens and offshore finance should come up with some astounding amount of dollars “hidden in a black hole,” which certainly gives the impression that tax havens and offshore finance are bad.

This is demonstrably untrue.

The United States is the biggest tax haven and secrecy jurisdiction in the world, and for investors, it is still the best place in the world. And without international finance, the United States would not have the capital it needs to prosper.

In fact, all the so-called “developed countries” encourage capital to flow into them by providing tax benefits and a promise of privacy, among other goodies. That’s how they became “developed.”

Obviously, the supporters of the Tax Justice Network do not just beat up on offshore assets for nothing.

It turns out that another of its core beliefs is progressive and equitable taxation. That is code for “tax the earnings of the rich so it can be redistributed to other, more-deserving people who didn’t earn it.”

As the study says, “For most countries, global financial inequality is not only much greater than we suspected, but is has been growing much faster.”

And how does the Tax Justice Network know all this inequality exists?

Because Henry just did a study that says that. What they mean by justice is what the rest of us call redistribution of wealth.

To be fair, it is reasonable to consider that the study could be valid.

Is the study data valid?

It is if you think data from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, central banks and that zenith of all credibility, the United Nations, have the inside scoop on knowing the amount and location of all the money that is hidden, as the Tax Justice Network says, in a “huge black hole.”

This is the group, it should be remembered, that never made an investment that didn’t result in the loss of their investment.

Like George Orwell’s newspeak, the Tax Justice Network is, in reality, all about injustice.

I mean, how can people who aren’t paying taxes complain about tax injustice?

It is unfortunate that so many otherwise reputable publishers and news sources report this sort of fabrication without any critical examination.

For all you investors whose own money is at risk, beware the Tax Justice Network and be ready to take action to defeat it.