Word: globalization
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Officials admit they do not have a handle on the full scope of the problem (a 1996 estimate from the International Monetary Fund said money-laundering accounts for 2%-5% of global GDP) but it's certainly many billions every year...
...says Raymond Baker, executive director of Global Financial Integrity, the capital-flight argument is similar to the businesses' objection to the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which outlawed overseas bribery. U.S. businesses would be at a competitive disadvantage, it was warned. Over time, though, America's example set a new global standard. Argues Baker: "There would be no net loss to the U.S. economy by eliminating secrecy. On the contrary, the more we can do to make the U.S. economy transparent, the more we can strengthen [it], and the more we will attract money from overseas...
...deficit amounts may be less dizzying in Europe, but they're still a major cause of concern for fiscal purists who fear that some governments may end up drowning in red ink. Twenty of the European Union's 27 members are running deficits to ease their way through the global recession, with the average pegged at 7.5% this year. Three years ago, the E.U.'s deficit average was just 0.8% of the bloc's total GDP. That figure increased to 2.3% in 2008 and then spiked to 6.9% last year. (See 25 people to blame for the financial crisis...
...entire state and you build your debt level to 70%, 80%, 90% of your revenues, you soon won't be able to pay the interest on your borrowing - much less the principle - and you'll default," says economist Marc Touati, deputy director of the Paris-based financial-services group Global Equities. "We're not there yet, especially for all the nations of Europe. But there are several, including France, that simply must cut spending, deficit and debt dramatically, and soon - or things will get very ugly." (See the worst business deals...
...Their message, that the Obama Administration has been pushing job-killing legislation on everything from health care to global warming, seems to have resonated with independent voters who helped win Republicans the Virginia and New Jersey governors' mansions and, in a surprise upset, Ted Kennedy's old Senate seat in Massachusetts. "The President isn't having trouble because Republicans oppose his job-killing agenda - he's having trouble because the American people oppose his job-killing agenda," says Michael Steel, a Boehner spokesman...