New York Times op-ed:  Mitt Romney’s Financial Mysteries, by Michael J. Graetz (Columbia):

Pressure is mounting for Mitt Romney to release more of his financial records. Mr. Romney has made public only his 2010 tax returns and has said his 2011 documents will be released soon. “That’s all that’s necessary for people to understand something about my finances,” he said recently. He is “simply not enthusiastic,” he also said, about giving the Obama campaign “hundreds or thousands of more pages to pick through, distort and lie about.” …

No one should begrudge Mr. Romney or his family the wealth they have earned. But if he has not paid the taxes that apply to transfers of such wealth, this should concern us all. After all, who do you think pays for the shortfall?

(Hat Tip: Dorothy Brown)

Update: 

• Forbes:  Romney Has a Duty to Exploit Every Tax Loophole? Horse Feathers!, by Janet Novack:

If none of Mitt Romney’s accounts were in offshore tax havens, would the presumptive Republican nominee be less competent to handle foreign affairs? If he didn’t have an IRA that could be worth as much as $102 million (perhaps, according to the Wall Street Journal, because of the unusual and aggressive way Bain Capital structured its employees’ personal investments in its deals) would he be less able to deal with retirement policy, Social Security and Medicare?If Romney had decided that his wife’s money losing partial ownership of Rafalka, a horse competing in the London Olympics, was really just part of a wonderful, healthful hobby, and one they could well afford to fund without trying to cut their tax bill, would that make him less qualified to be President? …

[H]e is either ignorant of the practical functioning (and malfunctioning) of our tax system; hopes the American public is ignorant of it; or has bought into an aggressive approach to tax-compliance that contributes to the tax mess. …

My take on this after decades of writing about tax planning, legitimate tax shelters, over-the-line tax shelters and out and out tax cheating, is this:  The attitude in some sophisticated circles that folks are chumps (or even negligent) if they don’t structure their affairs to exploit every possible provision of the tax code in ways Congress intended (and didn’t) creates a climate that allows abusive tax shelters to flourish and undermines the functioning of the tax code (which, granted, is plenty dysfunctional on its own.)

• Dan Shaviro (NYU), Others Weigh in on Romney's Tax Returns