Financial Transparency Coalition

A few weeks ago, the U.S. upped its economic sanctions on North Korea, trying to block the rampant illegal activities taken by, or on behalf of, the political elite of the state. Kim Jon Il manages his regime, in part, by using government resources to funnel exotic, luxury goods – jewelry, cars, yachts – to his large ring of cronies. This abuse falls directly under the broad definition of illicit financial flows (IFFs) as unrecorded funds and goods promoting illegal activity. Serious corruption and continued illicit activity within North Korea is becoming a larger threat to global security. These...

New York Times columnist and prize-winning author Tom Friedman is perhaps best known for his arguments for infrastructure—green or otherwise. His columns and books often, perhaps even ad nauseam, compare U.S. infrastructure to China’s, where “a bullet train to Tianjin…takes just 25 minutes to make a 75-mile trip.” Friedman also loves to deride U.S. terminals, like the “faded, cramped” LAX and NYC’s Pennsylvania station where the escalators don’t work. Though I’m not sure rebuilding LAX would solve our problems, I agree with Friedman on principal. I also believe in the vital importance of infrastructure—whether...

From Bloomberg:

China’s households hide as much as 9.3 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) of income that is not reported in official figures, with 80 percent accrued by the wealthiest people, a study showed. The money, much of it likely “illegal or quasi-illegal,” equates to about 30 percent of China’s gross domestic product, the study, conducted for Credit Suisse AG and published last week by the China Reform Foundation, found.

Bloomberg--China’s households hide as much as 9.3 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) of income that is not reported in official figures, with 80 percent accrued by the wealthiest people, a study showed.