Financial Transparency Coalition

The Economist highlighted a paper yesterday, with the headline “shadow economies have grown since the financial crisis began.” The magazine noted that for the first time in a decade the world’s shadow economies are increasing as a percentage of GDP.

Mexico has a problem. I’m not referring to the criminal organizations seeking to topple the state or the growing numbers of violent deaths, kidnappings, and extortions. Though those problems are obstructing development in Mexico, they are not problems which the Mexican government cannot overcome. I’m referring to a shift in the Mexican age pyramid.

The debate over the American war in Afghanistan has reached something of a boiling point.

Why did an attractive Austrian Governor with a propensity for driving expensive cars and attending lavish parties have financial ties to an entrenched North African dictator known for terrorist sympathies? The history of these men nonetheless reveals a strikingly similar ideology and mirror experiences. Around the time Haider found his feet as a leader in the FPÖ, Muammer al-Gaddafi ascended as dictator of Libya in a coup. Qaddafi based his new regime on a blend of Arab nationalism and a welfare state, which he called “Islamic socialism.” The dictator spent the next ten years refining his political...