Financial Transparency Coalition

Economists have some funny ideas. Often these ideas are controversial. Sometimes these ideas are brilliant and intuitive. Other times these ideas are brilliant, intuitive, and just plain wrong. It’s often difficult to know the difference between the two. It usually takes another economist to figure it out. Economists have long held the (brilliant, intuitive, and possibly wrong) belief that people make the best decisions for themselves. This is called rational choice theory (or, simply, rationality) and it underlies almost all economic theory. This confuses a lot of non-economists who understand “rationality” to mean “sane” or “making good choices.” Rationality to...

The Task Force on Financial Integrity & Economic Development released the below statement earlier today in response to the outcome of the G20 Seoul Summit: SEOUL, KOREA – New plans from the G20 to tackle corruption and promote development are welcome commitments, said the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development (Task Force) following the conclusion of the G20 Summit in Seoul today. However, the group warned that key reforms were still missing. “The Seoul Development Consensus for Shared Growth, includes some innovative ideas like strengthening tax collection powers in...

An article in the Financial Times today uses a report from One to highlight the fact that France and Italy have not met the development goals set by the G7 at the 2005 Gleneagles Summit:

A leading development lobby group has condemned Italy and France for failing to meet targets to increase aid to sub-Saharan Africa and called on the G7 and other international organisations to take sanctions against such breaches in future...

One made the call as it published a new report assessing the progress of G7 countries in meeting targets to increase aid to...