Financial Transparency Coalition

The Philippines has made significant progress on its quest to confront corruption and tax evasion under the guidance of President Aquino. However, a new report by Global Financial Integrity shows one important—and growing—component of the problem is trade mispricing, specifically import under-invoicing, and its role in facilitating tax evasion in the Philippines. In June 2010, Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III assumed his position as the 15th President of the Philippines. As a Senator, before his election to the Presidency, Aquino pursued an anti-corruption agenda. For example, Aquino contributed to the Preservation of Public Infrastructures bill—which raised standards in public infrastructure...

I am rarely surprised when those who are not economists make egregious economic errors. I am only moderately surprised when those errors are in the Financial Times. I suppose I should get used to it. Here’s a little basic economics. Economists, whether talking about banking or housing, trees or oil, always follow a set of fundamental principals. These include very basic ideas. For example, when conducting cost-benefit analysis, count the entire range of relevant benefits and costs. Say you want to do an economic analysis of a project to build a bridge. You count all the costs—labor, materials, etc.—and all...