Financial Transparency Coalition

Christine Clough analyzes whether the recent discovery of minerals in Afghanistan will have a positive or negative impact on quality of life in the country. Earlier this year the New York Times reported the discovery of vast, untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, a country previously considered to be devoid of any valuable natural resources. For the impoverished people of Afghanistan—and for the NATO countries, especially the United States, that have poured money into the country for nearly a decade—this discovery could be very good...

On Friday, May 28^th, the Washington Post published an article discussing efforts by the Thai government/army to identify and punish financial supporters of the ‘red shirt’ movement—the Thai political opposition whose protests recently paralyzed Bangkok for several weeks. The Post article particularly highlights the exploits of one businessman, a steel and Nestlé instant coffee producer named Prayudh Mahagitsiri, who was recently placed on a financial blacklist of 151 wealthy Thais by the government’s Center for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation. But...

The Task Force is currently accepting applications for Program Director of our new Economic Transparency Initiative (ETI). Qualified candidates will have a PhD in macro economics, fluency in English and a second language (preferably French), and strong written and verbal communication skills. Our goal for ETI is to significantly increase the amount and types of data available to the public related to illicit financial flows, so that we can better understand the nature and volume of the problem and then apply this knowledge towards amelioration efforts. A full description of the position and qualifications is available in the...

Good news for the economists and statistics wonks among us: the World Bank has recently made its substantial catalogue of data available on the web for free at http://data.worldbank.org! We applaud the Bank for taking this important step! The site and the data are available in four languages: Arabic, English, French and Spanish. Open access to this data is invaluable for researchers and interested members of the public who want to better understand global trends on a host of...