Financial Transparency Coalition

Global Financial Integrity's new report, Illicit Financial Flows from China and the Role of Trade Misinvoicing, was released yesterday. It found that China lost $3.79 trillion--an astonishingly high number--between 2000 and 2011 to illicit financial flows. In just 2011, China lost almost $600 billion. These outflows are the proceeds of crime, corruption, and tax evasion, and threaten Chinese social stability. The report first debuted exclusively in this week's issue of The Economist.

Transparency International today launched Keeping REDD+ clean – a step-by-step guide to guarding REDD+ against corruption, before it sets in. Many of the world’s most densely forested countries have a poor track record for corruption. Politicians have been known to accept bribes – sometimes huge – to grant companies access to forest zones that should be protected.

The United States is about to decide on who will be the most powerful person in the world for the next four years. The two candidates had set lines and issues that they wanted to talk about. These are issues that likely will play a role in determining who wins the election. I can understand that they will act this way as candidates running in a competitive race. But what I can't understand is how a veteran reporter and moderater like Bob Schieffer can forget about most of the world.

In October’s Taxcast episode: Helsinki declares itself a tax haven-free zone, Starbucks joins the tax avoidance Roll of Dishonour and we follow the money: asset recovery, dictators and the selling of secrecy.