Financial Transparency Coalition

I’ve never worn a pair of crampons. I’ve never wielded an ice axe. And I’ve definitely never been snow camping. However, my favorite climber, who scales mountains weekly, has given me a rather intimate knowledge of the—completely outrageous—sport of mountaineering. And if for that reason alone, I can say I am preeminently qualified to declare that mountaineering is exactly like international politics. Well, minus the whole “risking your life” part. Mountaintops provide a convenient symbol for anything from achievement to power. So it doesn’t come as a surprise that the meeting of the world’s...

My week in DC is not yet over: I have some meetings still to do, but my on-line week nearly is. I admit it’s too early to appraise all that has happened. But I’ll offer first thoughts. First highlight: World Bank MD Ngozi Ikonjo-Iweala calling for mass civil society action against illicit financial flows. Has the Bank got the issue? I think so. Second, constructive dialogue with the Oxford team. I hope we can build on it. Third, clear rejection of the view put forward by some economists that data prevents analysis of this issue or that there is even...

This picture, dug out of a new report from Oxfam-France, tells it all. This is why development organisations are getting interested in the offshore system and international tax matters, at last. It is the visual counterpart of the sentence uttered by Raymond Baker of Global Financial Integrity in Washington, comparing foreign aid inflows to developing countries with the secret outflows:

"for every $1 that we have been generously handing out across the top of the table, we in the West have been taking back some $10 of...