Financial Transparency Coalition

CHRISTIAN AID—More than a billion people across the world will go to bed hungry on Saturday, the day the United Nations has designated World Food Day. The growing food crisis, which is leaving millions of people without enough to eat, has inequality at its root. Most markets have plenty of food, yet the price has risen beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Wall Street Journal—Venezuela lost $33 billion, or 10% of gross domestic product, in 2008 alone to illicit financial outflows, according to estimates from a forthcoming report from research group Global Financial Integrity.

Venezuela Lost Over US$33 Billion in Illicit Financial Outflows in 2008¹

Hugo Chávez again took to his twitter account last week, expressing his support for Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa in the midst of an uprising by disgruntled police officers. While a firm fan of new social media, Mr. Chávez tends to take a dim view of the more traditional sort. Since his election to the presidency in 1998, he has sought to muffle opposition, with state dominance of the media at the heart of his ‘Bolivarian Revolution’. Invariably a government seeking to control the...

Global Financial Integrity Director Raymond Baker gives a lecture on the issue of illicit financial flows and the impact they have on development hosted by the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre and the Chr. Michelsen Institute at the the Bergen Resource Centre for International Development.