New Zealand: the Shell Company Incorporation Franchises (III)
We remind the New Zealand government that a shell company network linked to $10-100Bn of alleged moneylaundering is still active in New Zealand.
Read more...Category Archives: Globalization
The Chronic Exporters’ Curse?
Why the much-envied position of being a chronic exporter isn’t quite a bed of roses.
Read more...New Zealand: the Shell Company Incorporation Franchises (II) (and Ukraine)
The nuts-and bolts view of these looting mechanisms shows how corruption actually works.
Read more...Has America’s Use of Finance as a Foreign Policy Tool Backfired?
How America’ s abject fealty to the financial services industry, and its promotion of open capital markets in emerging economies, privatization and its tolerance of tax havens, have destroyed US credibility in Eastern Europe.
Read more...New Zealand: the Shell Company Incorporation Franchises (I)
How New Zealand shell company incorporations help tax evaders and scammers.
Read more...Mirable Dictu! Americans Diss Obama’s Ukraine Adventurism, Want US to Play More Modest Global Role
Wow, Obama is really losing it. He can’t even manage a good war scare any more.
Read more...Did Japan’s Prime Minister Abe Serve Obama Beefsteak-Flavored Revenge for US Trade Representative Froman’s TPP Rudeness?
Yves here. I trust you’ll enjoy this long-form account of how President Obama put his foot in mouth and chewed in front of Japan’s Prime Minister Abe when he merely thought he was eating steak.
Read more...America’s Proposed TPP: Buyer Beware
Despite President Barack Obama’s charm offensive in the region, Pacific nations are well-advised to remain wary of the U.S. government’s position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP)
Read more...Are Administration Claims of Progress on TransPacific Partnership Negotiations in Japan Credible?
As readers may know, the mislabeled trade deal known as the TransPacific Partnership hasn’t looked like it has great odds of being consummated. But the Administration has been browbeating Japan, and has also been talking of breakthroughs in negotiations. Has the dynamic changed?
Read more...Tiny Maine Against Tax-Dodging Multinationals
While Congress cowers before multinationals’ lobbyists and moves to re-enact loopholes that let corporations like GE and Apple hide their income from the IRS, the Maine Legislature decided it had had enough.
Read more...USTR Froman’s Attack on Japan Set TransPacific Partnership Negotiations Back Further
In case you missed it, on Wednesday the US Trade Representative Michael Froman attacked Japan in front of Congress for undermining the TransPacific Partnership via refusing to give much ground on protection of its agricultural sector. So how are the Japanese responding to this US sniping?
Read more...Satyajit Das: The New Colonialism – Businesses Refuse Spend a Few Cents More Per Garment to End Labor Exploitation in Emerging Markets
Yves here. Das wrote this post to commemorate the anniversary of the collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, which killed over 1100 garment workers.
Read more...Cokie Roberts Picked a Fight With Alan Grayson on the TransPacific Partnership. Guess Who Won?
I’m clearly too feral to have the proper responses, but I’ve long considered Cokie Roberts to be too lightweight to be worth paying attention to. But since lightweight goes over well in many parts of America, Cokie still has a large following. And it’s separately worth paying attention to a fight she picked over Obama’s stalled trade deal, the TransPacific Partnership. The fact that people with popular followings are still defending it says the Administration remains keen to revive it, so opponents need to guard against becoming too complacent.
Read more...Countries Rejecting Trade Deal Provisions that Let Investors Override National Regulation
This is a welcome bit of good news. Countries are finally standing up for the rule of law over rule by multinational corporation.
Read more...New Study Shows Dangers of Trade Agreements that Help Corporations Sue Governments
As the Obama administration negotiates new trade agreements with European and Pacific nations, a battle has emerged over the agreements’ egregious rules that grant giant corporations unreasonable powers to subvert democracy. These rules, dubbed “investor rights” by the corporations, allow firms to sue governments over actions—including public interest regulations—that reduce the value of their investments.
Oxfam, the Institute for Policy Studies, and four other non-profits are releasing a new study that explains why these rules are so dangerous to democracy and the environment. We are among the co-authors of this study, titled “Debunking Eight Falsehoods by Pacific Rim Mining/OceanaGold in El Salvador.” The report offers a powerful case study of everything that is wrong with this corporate assault on democracy.
Read more...