US proves stumbling block in IMF reform
- Details
- Written by AFP
- Category: Analysis
After urging the IMF to reform, the US has been dragging its heavy feet and blocking, in fact, proposals aimed at giving emerging economies more say in the global lender. The US, by far the biggest stakeholder in the 188-nation International Monetary Fund, is the only member of the Group of Eight that has yet to ratify a quota hike that would double its permanent resources to about $767 billion and executive board reforms that would strengthen the role of emerging economies.
Social Protection in Development Cooperation
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- Written by European Commission
- Category: Documents
The European Commission adopted its final version of its communication on social protection in development cooperation. Social protection, so it says, is a human right. Though it also emphasizes the many economic objectives that are now given to social protection. The document will soon be discussed by the Council.
Financial Transaction Tax: Update on state of play in the EU
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- Written by Peter Wahl
- Category: Analysis
1. The way for the FTT in the framework of Enhanced Cooperation1 is free after the official
statement in the European Council (end of June) that an FTT in the EU-27 would not be
possible, and the process has been started.
Read more: Financial Transaction Tax: Update on state of play in the EU
Extreme Poverty and Human Rights
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- Written by Magdalena Sepulveda
- Category: Documents
Final Draft on the Guiding Principles on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, by the special rapporteur Ms Sepulveda, to be adopted by the Human Rights Council in its September Meeting.
Inequality! You don't know half of it
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- Written by Tax Justice Network
- Category: Analysis
Why Inequality is much worse than you thought ...
The price of offshore revisited
- Details
- Written by Tax Justice Network
- Category: Analysis
The wealthy hold between US$21 trillion and US$32 trillion of undeclared income according to a new report by the Tax Justice Network (TJN). This summarises the most detailed attempt to calculate the scale of wealth held in offshore jurisdictions and hidden ownership structures such as companies, trusts and foundations with unclear or undisclosed ownership. This is further evidence for why ownership of corporate vehicles must be disclosed.
Read:...
EU's emerging strategy on tax havens: ambitious enough?
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- Written by Pereira & Marriage / Eurodad
- Category: Analysis
DG TAXUD, the taxation and customs department of the EU civil service, is working on a strategy on tax havens and unfair tax competition to be released in the last quarter of the year. This is an extremely welcome step, as the communication addresses several key issues. It recognises that not only double taxation but also double non-taxation is a problem when working out how to tax cross border wealth and income; proposes the introduction of automatic information exchange at EU level; and explores several concrete measures against non-cooperative tax jurisdictions and aggressive tax planning. However, in many ways the outline strategy that is being proposed looks incomplete, it seems that this strategy would not be capable of fully addressing the problem unless some omissions and weaknesses are addressed.The communication, was the subject of a seminar held in Brussels on 17 July. This article outlines some of the highlights of the discussion, both civil society and private sector had with the Commission.
Read more: EU's emerging strategy on tax havens: ambitious enough?
The LIBOR Scandal: Why is it Scandalous?
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- Written by Immanuel Wallerstein
- Category: Analysis
Since July 4, we have been reading in major world newspapers and in statements by legislators, central banks, and judicial authorities, that there is a "scandal" about something called LIBOR. Before that time, few persons outside the group concerned with banking had even heard of LIBOR. Suddenly, we were being told that major banks in Great Britain, the United States, Switzerland, Germany, France, and probably a number of other countries had engaged in actions that were allegedly "fraudulent."
Finance's Ethics: a leap into the past
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- Written by Roberto Savio
- Category: Analysis
Someday we will have to think over the impact the fall of the Berlin Wall had on the world for both winners and losers.
In those years after the fall, Francis Fukuyama wrote the famous book The End of History where he stated that with the end of communism, capitalism was going to become an eternal reality. He recently wrote in the New York Times (NYT) an article asking for limits to the excesses of corporations, the same corporations to which this newspaper dedicates several pages in its analyses.
Poverty and Human Rights
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- Written by Mestrum and özden
- Category: Analysis
A report on poverty and human rights ... and why current poverty reduction policies fail ...
with a fresh look on poverty and a constantly necessary reference to human rights
Read the report, also available in French and Spanish, published by CETIM, Geneva.
Destroying the Commons
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- Written by Noam Chomsky
- Category: Analysis
How the Magna Carta Became a Minor Carta
Down the road only a few generations, the millennium of Magna Carta, one of the great events in the establishment of civil and human rights, will arrive. Whether it will be celebrated, mourned, or ignored is not at all clear.
That should be a matter of serious immediate concern. What we do right now, or fail to do, will determine what kind of world will greet that event. It is not an attractive prospect if present tendencies persist -- not least, because the Great Charter is being shredded before our eyes.
