Tag Archives: OECD

The Paradise Papers reveal how little the world really knows about the level of tax avoidance that takes place.

Unless more pressure is applied to embrace full transparency in adopting a public central register of companies, including tax havens, the corruption and tax dodging exposed by the Panama Leaks, representing only 2% of the offshore companies registered in Panama, will continue undisturbed.

Panama is a tax haven, but Mauritius is one with which India has a comprehensive double tax treaty. This complicates matters more.

The global financial safety net needs reform. It is too small, too fragmented and too unresponsive. Reforming the safety net would benefit the Asian region provided the IMF takes a holistic approach that addresses the root causes of this fragmentation.

Economists from rich countries increasingly agree: Sustainable development and reducing inequality matter more than economic growth.

The richest 1% would soon own more than all the assets of the 99% of the entire world population put together. Concentrated mostly in North America and Europe, a select group of individuals, almost 77% of the 1%, have actual control.  While the emerging economies are producing rich and powerful on an accelerated basis, the global economy is not being shared equally by all sections of society.

As Japan’s labor force is already in decline, it is wasteful that women, and particularly those who have a higher education, have been underutilized. To address this, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has set a target to increase the ratio of female managers to over 30 per cent by 2020. In response, several large firms have set similar numerical targets.

Financial crises are followed by significant increases in unemployment rates and the Great Recession will be no exception. Employment will not increase in earnest until overall demand in the market recovers its pre-boom strength, which will take time since the reduction of debts (also known as the deleveraging process) has barely started.   However, the financial crisis is not the …

The figures are staggering: between $1.2 trillion and $1.4 trillion has left Africa in illicit financial flows between 1980 and 2009 — roughly equal to Africa’s current gross domestic product, and surpassing by far the money it received from outside over the same period. Illicit financial flows are money earned illegally and transferred for use elsewhere. The money is usually …