Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Illicit Financial Woes

An interesting study on illegal cash flowing out of developing regions like the Middle East and Northern Africa has been released. Crime, corruption and tax evasion seem to rule the day.

Obama plans to tackle global poverty. Will he begin by stopping crime and corruption in the Middle East? Or will he stop the crime and corruption in Washington? But wait, he's never been known as a fighter of crime. Just look at his American home state and his record there.

....."Illicit financial flows siphon revenue out of poor countries, robbing them of much-needed assets and forestalling economic development," said GFI director Raymond Baker. "These new figures reveal that illicit financial flows outpace ODA by a ratio of nearly 10 to 1. This is critical to understanding global poverty and developing effective poverty alleviation and economic development strategies," Baker said......

Click to read the story.

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