via Yglesias, one possible explanation for why Romney is refusing to make more financial disclosures is his possible participation in an amnesty program for disclosing Swiss bank accounts.
Wealthy U.S. taxpayers, concerned about an Internal Revenue Service crackdown on the use of secret overseas bank accounts as tax havens, are rushing to meet a Thursday deadline to disclose those accounts or face possible criminal prosecution. The concern was triggered this summer when Switzerland's largest bank, caught up in an international tax evasion dispute, said it would disclose the names of more than 4,000 of its U.S. account holders.
The decision shattered a long-held belief that Swiss banks would guard the identities of its American customers as carefully as they did their money, and it raised concern that other international tax havens might be next. Under an amnesty program, the IRS is allowing taxpayers to avoid prosecution for having failed to report their overseas accounts. As a result, tax attorneys across the nation have been besieged by wealthy clients who are lining up to apply even though they will still face big financial penalties.
I remember this happening shortly after President Obama took office, but I didn't connect the dots.
Again -- we won't know for sure unless Romney comes clean, but this seems like as good of a guess as any. His returns could include a number of things. It may not be limited to just one outstanding moral liberty. Given his reluctance to discuss it at all, it could be a treasure trove of unsavory information.