Financial Transparency Coalition

Forthcoming Report Finds North African Nation Loses $US1.16 Billion Annually in Illicit Financial Outflows

President Zine el-Abdine Ben Ali of Tunisia fled his country on Friday, and Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi has announced that he is now in charge. Tunisia is a country known for its oppressive government rule and, according to a BBC analysis, “human rights groups say the authorities tolerate no dissent, harassing government critics and rights activists.” Unrest among Tunisians has lead to deadly riots this month over unemployment and poor governance. According to the Associated Press at least 23 Continue Reading

Broadly speaking, there are two reasons to tax. There are taxes intended to raise revenue. And there are taxes intended to dissuade a certain behavior, also called “sin taxes.” The classic example of a tax to dissuade behavior is the cigarette tax. It’s broad worldwide and considered quite effective, particularly among cigarette companies. In fact, a researcher from MIT calculated that the 1982-83 rounds of price increases in the U.S. resulted in two million fewer adult smokers and 600,000 fewer teenage smokers. But often the line between these two types of taxes is blurred because...

Bob Diamond was before the Treasury Select Committee Tuesday. Chuka Umunna, MP fr Streatham, was one of those questioning him. And as the Daily Mail notes, he tabled some new evidence on the use of tax havens / secrecy jurisdictions by Barclays: I admit I spoke to Chuka’s office about this before the event, suggesting how they might find this data from the annual return forms of the bank.

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “90% of statistics are made up on the spot” or “You can prove anything with statistics.” To some extent it’s true. Unlike other forms of math, a problem in statistics doesn’t always yield a single answer. Subjective isn’t exactly the right word to describe the science, but it is true that it’s by no means objective like calculus. The problem with statistics, and even more specifically the form of statistics applied to economics, also called econometrics, is that even when we try our best, with the very best intentions of objectivity,...