Financial Transparency Coalition

Hong Kong is a special place. Not that I’ve been there, although I hear it’s quite beautiful and unique. I’m actually referring to the jurisdiction’s extremely special place in the financial and political world. Hong Kong is a special administrative district of China, which means it has autonomy over its laws, currency, and government. Residents of Hong Kong even need a passport-like document to cross the boarder to the north into China. Nonetheless, the economies of the two remain deeply intertwined. In several senses, Hong Kong is considered one of the freest places in the world....

In the space between anarchy and democracy lies dictatorship. Lest we forget this lesson from our history classes, the Arab revolutions of these last few months have refreshed our collective memories. Revolutions are messy things. First a little history. On July 14, 1789 a French mob successfully stormed the Bastille fortress. This moment marked a tipping point in the French Revolution, which later gave rise to a representative government in France. Historians have called this Revolution the “dawn of the modern era” when republicanism became “an enduring option.” Today its legacy is fundamentally entwined with our concept of...

In a public opinion poll conducted in November of 2010, Americans, on average, stated they believe about 25% of the Federal budget goes to foreign aid. When asked what would be an appropriate amount to go to foreign aid, Americans answered 10% of the budget. The amount of the U.S. federal budget that actually goes to foreign aid? About 1%. It’s no surprise that foreign aid is one of the only budget areas that a majority of Americans are willing to cut. The reason for this, pollsters believe, is because Americans have blurred the line between defense...

In July of last year President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act–also known as the “financial overhaul bill”—into law. The bill created a Financial Stability Oversight Counsel, which consolidates oversight of consumer products and alert regulators to emerging threats. It established a consumer financial protection bureau, which will be housed at the Fed, and will regulate mortgage lending, credit and debit cards and other consumer loans. And it had one amendment, buried amongst all the rest, called Energy Security Through Transparency (ESTT), which requires companies listed on the U.S. stock exchange...