Financial Transparency Coalition

Raymond Baker writes at the Huffngton Post that outflows, not aid, must be curtailed in order to fight poverty in the developing world.

By now, I’m sure you’ve heard Google’s informal and now iconic motto “Don’t be Evil.” Google describes this slogan as twofold. To the company, the motto is first about providing its “users unbiased access to information, focusing on their needs and giving them the best products and services.” Second, it is more generally about “doing the right thing,” including “following the law, acting honorably and treating each other with respect.” While some on this blog (and even Steve Jobs once) have accurately pointed out ways in which Google has failed to act by this code, in many other ways,...

Teodoro Nguema Obiang has controlled Equatorial Guinea since he executed his uncle in a bloody coup d’état in 1979. Equatorial Guinea is a country in Middle Africa on the coast. It is one of the smallest and wealthiest countries in the continent, in large part because it holds Africa’s largest oil reserves. Yet the wealth is extremely concentrated in the hands of the government and the ruling elite. As a result over 75% of the population lives below $2 per day, 35% of its citizens do not live past the age of 40, and nearly 60% do...

Yesterday I switched on the radio in my car and heard a familiar phrase. Just as I started listening, NPR had just started reading a story on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, and the recent efforts by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to amend the law. Feeling excited, I turned up my dial. The Chamber’s basic argument is that the FCPA, the flagship U.S.legislation that makes it illegal to bribe a foreign official, is too cumbersome on U.S. businesses. For months now, the Chamber has been lobbying to weaken the FCPA and has even retained former U.S. Attorney...