Financial Transparency Coalition

This post is part of our series from speakers at the Task Force's 2011 annual conference, taking place in Paris October 6-7. For more information on the conference and to view live webcasts of the presentations in English and French, click here. You can also follow the conference on Twitter and submit questions for the presenters at #TFConf2011, or #TFConf2011fr for French. Large inequalities, both of income and wealth, have been steadily rising since the 1970s and 80s. Today, the top 20 percent of the population holds 70 percent of the total income. Inequality is far...

“Art is a revolt against fate.” It was André Malraux, a French adventurer who traveled China in the 1930s, who said that. Malraux believed art is more than just a source of “aesthetic pleasure.” His most enduring concept was "le musée imaginaire" or "the museum without walls", which asserted that art could be more powerful as an experience outside the traditional confines of museums. At the moment China is headed down a crash course with its own fate. China has had massive problems with bribery, corruption, and illicit financial flows for years. In fact illicit outflows from the People’s Republic of China...

Illegal poaching and trade of wildlife is a massive problem for developing countries, particularly those in Asia. Often these products find their way across boarders—stuffed into suitcases, packed into trucks, and occasionally carried. Protected and endangered species are killed and sold for their organs, flesh, bones, skin, and scales, which are turned into tonics, ornaments, meat, and traditional medicines. Many of these animals are endangered or protected. Of all the illegal wildlife product seizures in Australia last year, two-thirds were traditional medicines containing ingredients from endangered species. Global Financial Integrity has estimated that the illegal trade in wildlife among...

WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity’s Legal Counsel and Director of Government Affairs, Heather Lowe, will deliver remarks at the Brazilian Council of Economic and Social Development’s International Seminar on Fiscal Justice on Wednesday, August 10, 2011. Ms. Lowe’s remarks will be part of the seminar’s fiscal policy, productivity and competitiveness panel.