It was quite an impressive list of performers who turned out for Barack Obama for the celebrations before his inauguration (even if I hadn’t heard of the younger ones). Some, one suspects, were there from conviction, some because they wanted to be seen in the right place at the right time.

The list included Beyoncé, Bono, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Usher, Shakira, Sheryl Crow, Josh Groban and James Taylor : Stevie Wonder, Renee Fleming, Garth Brooks, Mary J. Blige, Herbie Hancock, Heather Headley, John Legend.

And Jennifer Nettles : and don’t forget Garth Brooks and Pete Seeger (though whether after all these years of being seen as some kind of degenerate commie Pete Seeger can take the strain of being approved of by a President I know not).

One reaction is existential confusion : the last time I saw James Taylor on TV he was performing for President Josiah Bartlet in The West Wing.

Is he real these days or not ? Was it an avatar ?But there is more to it than this because President Obama has been talking seriously about taking action about tax havens, and it would appear that US corporations (and probably private citizens too) are taking themselves (or their avatars) out of the Caribbean and heading (mostly) in the direction of Switzerland. The journey of course is mainly going to be conducted in cyberspace.

Part of the connection here is Bono, who moved his tax affairs from Ireland to the Netherlands (both of them low tax regimes) in a deal reminiscent of the Rolling Stones moving to France many years ago. Are we picking on Bono ? We don’t know where the rest of the illustrious crew above keep their spare change (though Pete Seeger probably hasn’t got any). Should we be quoting Bob Marley here ?

Timothy Geitner, nominated as Secretary of the Treasury by Obama, said this when questioned by the Senate - I share the President-Elect’s commitment to aggressively address the problem of offshore tax abuses and complement you and your staff on the excellent work that they have done to highlight the problem. If confirmed, this issue will be a high priority for the Treasury Department.

Now if President Obama really takes a hard line with tax havens – and he looks as if he means business generally and tax havens do cost the USA a lot of money – then it is more than likely that the rest of the OECD will fall into line.

The crucial question here could be what this may mean for the UK. A high proportion of the better known tax havens are of course UK Crown dependencies, all the way from the Isle of Man to the Pacific. And very few of them would pay their way without their ill gotten gains from financial services. It could even be a way of bashing a few bankers, which is what the public would really like to see.