Folks, When President Obama ran for Presidency on Faith and Hope, he was sincere to voters. It was evident that he had great passion to put America on the path of reform and success, and he set forth to do just that. During his three years rule, he delivered most of his campaign promises with a lot of strain and difficulties from opposing GOP Republicans. This is because most of the Republicans developed hate and became lukewarm with President Obama's leadership and declared that Obama will be a one-time-President. To achieve this, most GOP House representatives led by Speaker majority Mr. John Boehner were set to make life difficult for President Obama from day one. At some time, they ganged up to have a Government shut-down, so President Obama would give up and surrender. On many other occasions, they made it difficult and obstructed signing of Bills including job bills. Partisan politics is often an obstruction to good governance. This is the game some Republican played on President Obama to block him from continuing with the second term. President Obama instead played bi-partisan roll and many GOP took it for being a loner, which is not the case.
To whom much is given, much is expected emphasizes the commitment President Obama endeavored to deliver mandated public services irrespective of forces that worked against his efforts. Public expectation and anxiety was real and it is true that, a lot was expected of President Obama as the country was in serious economic instability when he took over. To do this, President Obama did not rest; he vigorously led, invited public opinion engagement and embarked on immediate programs to cushion the economy through Stimulus packages, creation of jobs with other incentives to the business community to steady the economy from collapse while on the other hand, he made some adjustment to curb and level the economy. The Parable is true to President Obama's faithfulness and wise stewardship. In his passionate commitment, he inspired many people globally and became a role model influencing younger generation all over the world.
Job Specification of a President is to govern through leadership in a bi-partisan manner, and must be able to facilitate Public Mandate through a functioning system of Government Machinery in an effective and efficient way. The President must have exemplary skills to provide a conducive environment for Unity of Purpose for shared interest to thrive and manage a balanced process where commerce, governing and social welfare needs and interest harmonizes each other smoothly, easily and comfortably.
Republican Congress majority under Speaker John Boehner did not pass the job-plan, they blocked and obstructed it from being signed. If President Obama was incapable, it would have been impossible to steady the economy, manage a balance in both Governance and offer insight for favorable economics of commerce to boost job creation. He understands his role with its high expectations and that is why he was able to create thousands of job opportunities. Through Government public contracts and programs like education and infrastructure etc., businesses got Government contracts that helped business growth and expansion. This statement was also taken out of context by GOP Republicans claiming that Government does not create jobs.
President Obama is a good manager in both internal and external affairs. In Foreign matters, President Obama is able to keep friends of America at peace with each other. The methods and tactics involved in managing a Government require sound mastery of natural Political science that shares and builds unity of purpose. It cannot border on repressive of public interest and it succeeds.
The new government leadership of President Obama rejected politics of the former regime of the Republicans, which was the reason for Economic Collapse. The economy is slowly picking up in the right direction, and at a pace where President Obama has no control but the assurance is there. Three years is too early to gain full recovery from serious economic collapse. It will require voters to vote bi-partisan, responsible and committed Congress Representatives to move the country forward instead of being stuck in the mud. Intrigue maneuvering to disqualify President Obama as a bad leader, is being made in bad taste and is selfish because they see President Obama in racial biasness and not on merit.
President Obama must stand tall and just let people know the truth. He must take stock of the good services he has done and how he intends to move FORWARD with increase of job opportunities to improve the economy further in his second term. He must state to do list he wishes to engage to level economic balance for businesses and through job creation and expansion of the same. How Foreign policy is crucial and Public need to know the benefit of keep good allies in Foreign Policy and why America must remain the most powerful in Global region of the world…….With this, Africa cannot be left behind, as Africa's successful democracy is the backbone and strength of America's economic stability. Therefore, no one can engage better with Africa to make it a successful story at this initial stage better than President Obama. Africans are tired to be treated as animals for slaughter houses for the unscrupulous corrupt International Corporate Special Business Interest. Without corrupt Corporate Special Interests, Asianic/China scramble to African is pushing Africa to a worse case-scenario. Africans too want to do away with corruption and poverty so to be treated with love and care. Equally, African want to be recognized and be part of Global economic progressive development agenda, valued in shared common interest…….and this will be the beginning of realizing sustainable Unity, Peace and Love all over the world.
Cheers everybody......!!!! Judy Miriga Diaspora Spokesperson Executive Director Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc., USA http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com Rachel Maddow - HARRY REID SMASH! Published on Aug 7, 2012 by Licentiathe8th Aug 6, 2012 The ED Show - Romney tax plan skewered by independent study Published on Aug 1, 2012 by Licentiathe8th Aug 1, 2012 The Last Word - Obama attacks Romney tax increases Published on Aug 2, 2012 by Licentiathe8th Aug 1, 2012 Rachel Maddow - Romney on taxes: 'You're going to have to take my word for it' Published on Aug 2, 2012 by Licentiathe8th Aug 1, 2012 The Last Word - Mitt Romney's 'tough road trip' Published on Aug 1, 2012 by Licentiathe8th July 31, 2012 Rachel Maddow - House GOP continue fight against health care for women Published on Aug 1, 2012 by Licentiathe8th July 31, 2012 The Last Word - Rewriting GOP's idea of elitism Published on Aug 1, 2012 by Licentiathe8th July 31, 2012 The ED Show - Republican compares access to health care to 9/11 Published on Aug 1, 2012 by Licentiathe8th Aug 1, 2012 Rachel Maddow Destroys Rush Limbaugh's Batman Conspiracy Theory 7/18/2012 Published on Jul 19, 2012 by globalissues andnews Rachel Maddow, on The Rachel Maddow Show, shows the absolute absurdity with Rush Limbaugh's most recent conspiracy theory which involves the third, and final, Batman movie. Limbaugh (more than) hints that there is a connection between Bain Capital and the nemesis of the Batman movie, Bane. The Koch Brothers Get Exposed in Madison, WI Published on May 10, 2012 by bravenewfoundation "Koch Brothers Exposed" director Robert Greenwald and campaign director Jesse Lava speak to WORT-FM in Madison, WI to discuss the vast reach of the Koch brothers influence and how voters can get involved. Get your DVD today at kochbrothersexposed.com! Koch Brothers Exposed: the Film Published on Mar 19, 2012 by bravenewfoundation This hard-hitting investigation of the 1% at its very worst is the latest from acclaimed director Robert Greenwald. Charles and David Koch are using their billions to put a stranglehold on American democracy. What are we going to do about it? KOCH BROTHERS EXPOSED BY RACHEL MADDOW Uploaded by LIBERALTSUNAMI on Jun 4, 2011 THIS GANG OF TERRORIST CHRISTIANS MUST BE DESTROYED Rachel Maddow Explores Right Wing Lying Echo Chamber Uploaded by ewillies on Nov 4, 2010 My Book Title: As I See It: Class Warfare: The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom Keith Olbermann Destroys Rush Limbaugh's NBC Interview 10/13/09 Uploaded by SeanManatee on Oct 13, 2009 Keith Olbermann Destroys Rush Limbaugh's NBC Interview 10/13/09, October 13, 2009. Bane: Hate-Talker Rush Limbaugh Exposes Hollywood Time-Machine Conspiracy Published on Jul 18, 2012 by politicalarticles Bain Heat: Sununu, Romney, Limbaugh & Co. Desperate To Curtail Disaster — Call Obama 'Un-American,' Spew Baseless Insults, Lies: http://www.politicalarticles.net/blog/2012/07/18/bain-heat-sununu-romney-limb... Robert Greenwald on MSNBC's The Ed Show: The Koch/Walker Connection Published on May 3, 2012 by bravenewfoundation Robert Greenwald discusses the Koch brothers close connection to WI Gov. Scott Walker, R, with MSNBC host Ed Schultz. Income Inequality: Prof. Michael Eric Dyson Explains Why Romney & Gingrich are 'Out of Touch' Uploaded by politicalarticles on Jan 26, 2012 No description available. The ED Show - Harry Reid is the GOP's Public Enemy #1 Published on Aug 6, 2012 by Licentiathe8th Aug 6, 2012 The ED Show - Romney camp struggles to explain later Bain years Published on Jul 16, 2012 by Licentiathe8th July 16, 2012 The ED Show - Romney misquotes foreign minister, bashes American economy Published on Jul 23, 2012 by Licentiathe8th July 23, 2012 MSNBC - The Ed Show - The Details Of The Drastic Budget Cuts 4-12-2011 Uploaded by whywasilaidoff on Apr 13, 2011 Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), talks about the new details of the spending cuts the House will vote on Wednesday. MSNBC - The Ed Show - How Corporations Are Avoiding Taxes 3-30-2011 Uploaded by whywasilaidoff on Mar 30, 2011 Politicians are turning a blind eye to corporations who aren't and don't want to pay taxes. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, asks the questions that nobody else will. MSNBC - The Ed Show - The Government Is Heading For A Shutdown 3-30-2011 Uploaded by whywasilaidoff on Mar 30, 2011 Chris Hayes Washington Editor of The Nation Talks about who's to blame if we're faced with a government shutdown and what happens if the GOP caves to the Tea Party's budget demands. Bernie Sanders Tells It Like It Is: The Ed Show Uploaded by SocialistLiberal on Sep 16, 2010 Bernie Sanders Gets It!
STAMFORD, Connecticut (Reuters) - Adding a new attack line to his campaign arsenal, President Barack Obama derided Republican rival Mitt Romney's tax plan on Monday as Robin Hood in reverse - "Romney Hood " - saying it essentially would rob ordinary Americans to help the rich. Obama stepped up his criticism of Romney's tax proposals at a re-election fundraiser in Connecticut on the same day Romney's campaign reported that it had outraised the Democratic president by more than $25 million in July. Reaching back to the Middle Ages, Obama invoked the legendary outlaw of old in an attempt to sharpen the contrast with Romney, whom the president said would cut taxes for the richest 2 percent of Americans and pay for it by raising taxes on the middle class. "It's like Robin Hood in reverse. It's Romney Hood," he said, drawing loud applause and laughs from a crowd of about 500 who paid $500 a head to attend the event in a hotel ballroom. It was the latest twist in the Obama campaign's effort to paint Obama as a champion of the middle class while casting Romney, one of the richest men to ever run for the White House, as intent on protecting the fortunes of wealthier Americans. Obama sought to back his accusation by citing a report last week by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center that found that Romney's proposal to slash income taxes by 20 percent across the board would boost income for the wealthiest taxpayers while reducing it for lesser earners. The study calculated that Romney's tax cuts would boost after-tax income by an average of 4.1 percent for those earning more than $1 million a year, while reducing by an average of 1.2 percent the after-tax income of individuals earning less than $200,000. The Romney campaign called the study biased. Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams, responding to Obama's latest accusations, said the president was the only one in the race who would raise Americans' taxes. "While he's used taxpayer dollars to grow government and reward his donors, middle-class Americans have seen fewer jobs, lower incomes, and less hope for the future," he said. When Obama later headlined a glitzier fundraiser with a few dozen well-heeled donors at the Westport waterfront home of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, there was no mention of the Robin Hood analogy in remarks that journalists were allowed to hear. The $35,800-a-person event was co-hosted by screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and actress Anne Hathaway. Vogue editor Anna Wintour, actress Joanne Woodward and talk-show host Jerry Springer were also in the crowd. (Writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Stacey Joyce) Romney: No role in Bain management after 1999, Associated Press JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press, PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated PressUpdated 7:19 a.m., Tuesday, July 17, 2012
LACONIA, N.H. (AP) — His credibility under attack, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney insisted on Friday that he had "no role whatsoever in the management" of a private equity firm after early 1999, and demanded that President Barack Obama apologize for campaign aides who persist in alleging otherwise. "This is simply beneath the dignity of the presidency of the United States," Romney said in an interview on ABC, one of several he granted to network and cable stations in hopes of extinguishing the controversy. Under pressure from Democrats and even some Republicans to release tax returns going back several years, Romney indicated he wouldn't do so. "You can never satisfy the opposition research team of the Obama organization," he told CBS. Romney said after he left Bain Capital he retained ownership "until we were able to negotiate a departure" from the company he had founded. "I had no role whatsoever in the management of Bain Capital after February of 1999," he said, adding that officials at the company and independent fact-checkers had said the same thing. He also said, "I was an owner, and being a shareholder doesn't mean you're running the business." He said he couldn't recall attending any Bain management meetings after he moved to Salt Lake City to oversee the Olympic Games. The precise role Romney played at the firm between 1999 and 2001 is important not only because critics have raised questions about his truthfulness, but also because Bain was sending jobs overseas during that period. That, in turn, goes to the core issue of the race for the White House in dreary economic times, Romney's claim that as a former businessman, he has the ability to create jobs and finally pull the country out of a downturn that has lingered throughout Obama's term. The Obama campaign has criticized Romney as running a firm that pioneered job outsourcing. Some Securities and Exchange Commission documents have surfaced suggesting Romney played an active role in the Boston-based company through 2002. The filings with the SEC place Romney in charge of Bain Capital from 1999 to 2001, the period in which it outsourced jobs and ran companies that fell into bankruptcy. Obama himself had stepped into the controversy a few hours before Romney's comments were aired. "Now, my understanding is that Mr. Romney attested to the SEC multiple times that he was the chairman, CEO and president of Bain Capital. And I think most Americans figure if you're the chairman, CEO and president of a company that you are responsible for what the company does," Obama said in an interview with WJLA-TV in Virginia as he campaigned across the battleground state. The president said the questions that have been raised in numerous media reports and highlighted by his own campaign aides were a legitimate part of the race for the White House. "Ultimately, I think, Mr. Romney is going to have to answer those questions because if he aspires to being president, one of the things you learn is you're ultimately responsible for the conduct of your operations," the president said. But Romney said that was "Chicago-style politics at its worst," and accused the president and his campaign of trying to shift attention from the persistently sluggish economy and unemployment of 8 percent or higher for more than 40 months. Romney was particularly harsh when asked about a claim by Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter suggesting he might be guilty of a felony for misrepresenting his position at Bain to the SEC. "Is this the level that the Obama campaign is willing to stoop to?" he responded on CNN. "Is this up to the standards expected of the presidency of the United States?" The Obama campaign said it would not apologize. Romney acknowledged that he would have benefitted financially from Bain's operations even after he left management of the firm to others. That could open him up to criticism that he gained from investment in companies that sent jobs overseas. Mitt Romney tells networks he ceased Bain management involvement in 1999THIS STORY APPEARED IN  President Obama's campaign said this week that the reports show that Romney should be held responsible for bankruptcies and layoffs from Bain investments after he assumed a role in February 1999 running the 2002 Olympics Winter Games. "That's known and said by people at the firm," Romney said of the February 1999 date during an interview with CNN that followed a Globe report about the conflict between Romney's public statements and Bain's filings with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission. "It's said by the offering documents that the firm made subsequently about people investing in the firm," Romney added. "And I think anybody who knows I was out full-time running the Olympics would understand that's where I was: I spent three years running the Olympic Games, and after that was over, we worked out our retirement program, our departure-official program, for Bain Capital, and handed over the shares I had. But there's a difference between being a shareholder - an owner, if you will - and being a person who's running an entity." The presumptive Republican presidential nominee said the Obama campaign's focus on the discrepancy is part of an effort to divert attention "that the president has been a failure when it comes to reigniting America's economy. He continues to try to find some way to attack me other than talk policy." He said the suggestion Thursday by Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter that Romney may be guilty of a felony was beneath the dignity of the presidency. "Is this the level that the Obama campaign is willing to stoop to?" he said. Asked if the president was lying about this record, Romney replied: "There's no question but that his campaign is putting out information which is false and deceptive and dishonest. They know it and they ought to stop." Romney's campaign arranged a round-robin series of interviews with the major broadcast and cable networks as the debate consumed the airwaves since the Globe's initial report on Thursday. On other topics, Romney said: -He will release a second year of tax returns "as soon as the accountants have that ready," but no more. In 1968, during his own presidential campaign, Romney's father George released 12 years worth of tax returns. "I know that there will always be calls for more," Mitt Romney said. "People always want to get more. And, you know, we're putting out what's required, plus more that is not required." The multimillionaire added that those two years are "all that's necessary to understand my finances." -He would not comment on reports he is considering former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as his running mate. "I don't have anything to say, of course, about the vice presidential process," he said. -He thinks the president is afraid to debate him head-to-head on issues. "I want this to be campaign about the direction for America. And about who can get America working again, and who can reign in the deficits that you're seeing in Washington. The president, apparently, is not ready for an honest and important debate for America," said Romney. Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen. Could Romney be guilty of SEC violations for hiding his Bain 2002 departure?
The Boston Globe just released a report and verified by CNN that Romney may have lied on SEC documents to hide the fact he was still evolved with Bain up until 2002, not 1999 as he previously has stated. Roberta Karmel, a former SEC commissioner who served during President Jimmy Carter's administration, said the documents raise questions about Romney's role at Bain after the GOP contender says he left the company. "It's a criminal offense to file a false document with the SEC," Karmel said. "And if that isn't true, then he made a false filing, which is something I don't think he wants to claim." She continued: "If he listed himself and he was getting paid, he was legally responsible." "Either you're the owner or you're not the owner," Karmel added. "You can't have it both ways." Romney 'would be guilty of a federal felony' by claiming 1999 departure Earlier this month, FactCheck.org stated that if Mitt Romney had not left Bain Capital in 1999, he "would be guilty of a federal felony by certifying on federal financial disclosure forms that he left active management of Bain Capital in February 1999." FactCheck.org made that argument to dismiss complaints by the Obama campaign, but a new Boston Globe report on Mitt Romney's true tenure at Bain Capital -- which reportedly lasted until 2002, three years longer than Romney has stated -- brings FactCheck's statement into sharp relief. ..."In fact, if the Obama campaign were correct, Romney would be guilty of a federal felony by certifying on federal financial disclosure forms that he left active management of Bain Capital in February 1999." "Both the FactCheck.org News Desk and the Annenberg Public Policy Center, of which FactCheck.org is a part, could not be reached for comment early Thursday morning. More to come..." http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/07/factcheck-romney-would-be-guilty-of-federal-felony-128733.html http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/12/1108982/-Shocking-Politico-Question-Is-Romney-Guilty-of-a-Federal-Felony *********************** Mitt Romney stayed at Bain 3 years longer than he stated  Firm's 2002 filings identify him as CEO, though he said he left in 1999 http://bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2012/07/11/government-documents-indicate-mitt-romney-continued-bain-after-date-when-says-left/IpfKYWjnrsel4pvCFbsUTI/story.html Here's what Romney has said: Mitt Romney Public Financial Disclosure Report, Aug. 11, 2011: Mr. Romney retired from Bain Capital on February 11, 1999 to head the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. Since February 11, 1999, Mr. Romney has not had any active role with any Bain Capital entity and has not been involved in the operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way. Romney's signature appears on the line that states: "I certify that statements I have made on this form and all attached schedules are true, complete and correct to the best of my knowledge." Making false statements to the federal government is a serious crime (under 18 USC 1001) carrying possible fines and up to five years in federal prison. http://m.factcheck.org/2012/07/factcheck-to-obama-camp-your-complaint-is-all-wet/ FactCheck.org: Romney 'would be guilty of a federal felony' by claiming 1999 departure
Earlier this month, FactCheck.org stated that if Mitt Romney had not left Bain Capital in 1999, he "would be guilty of a federal felony by certifying on federal financial disclosure forms that he left active management of Bain Capital in February 1999." FactCheck.org made that argument to dismiss complaints by President Barack Obama's campaign, but a new Boston Globe report on Romney's true tenure at Bain Capital — which reportedly lasted until 2002, three years longer than Romney has stated — brings FactCheck.org's statement into sharp relief. "The Obama complaint claims we erred in saying Mitt Romney gave up active management of Bain Capital in early 1999 to run the 2002 Winter Olympics, insisting we were then wrong in saying Romney was not responsible for shipping U.S. jobs overseas," FactCheck.org's Brooks Jackson and Robert Farley wrote in a response to the Obama campaign, which had complained about an earlier article by the authors. "In fact, if the Obama campaign were correct, Romney would be guilty of a federal felony by certifying on federal financial disclosure forms that he left active management of Bain Capital in February 1999." Both the FactCheck.org news desk and the Annenberg Public Policy Center, of which FactCheck.org is a part, could not be reached for comment early Thursday morning. (See Update 2). UPDATE: The Romney campaign pushed back against the Globe report on Thursday morning. UPDATE 2: FactCheck.org responds: "We see little new in the Globe piece." Romney's wind energy stance puts him at odds with key Iowa Republicans
Senior Political Reporter – 2 hrs 36 mins ago Last week, as Romney was winding up a rocky overseas tour, his campaign made front-page news when a spokesman for the GOP candidate told the Des Moines Register Romney opposes a renewal of a tax credit for wind energy suppliers, which is set to expire at the end of this year. "He will allow the wind credit to expire, end the stimulus boondoggles, and create a level playing field on which all sources of energy can compete on their merits," Romney spokesman Shawn McCoy told the Register. "Wind energy will thrive wherever it is economically competitive, and wherever private sector competitors with far more experience than the president believe the investment will produce results." It's a stance that isn't surprising, given that Romney regularly mocks President Barack Obama's investments in green energy as a waste of time and money when the nation faces both an energy and fiscal crisis. But McCoy's comments immediately caused a stir in Iowa, which is home to more wind energy jobs than any other state in the country. And it unsettled many of Romney's top Iowa supporters, who publicly complained they had been caught off guard by his campaign's policy decision. On Capitol Hill, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley trashed the former Massachusetts governor's campaign for not talking to him first. "Nobody consulted us on this," Grassley told Roll Call. Meanwhile, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad suggested in an interview with Radio Iowa's O. Kay Henderson that "a bunch of east coast people" were behind Romney's position. Like Grassley, Branstad said he wanted to speak to Romney directly so that he could be "educated" on wind energy, which he noted has strong bipartisan support in the state. "I understand why they are very critical of the whole thing that was done by the Obama administration with regard to the stimulus and some of the money that was wasted on Solyndra, and some of these green energy projects didn't make sense," Branstad told Radio Iowa. "The tax credit, however, is a much different thing, and it way preceded Obama, and it was actually something that Sen. Grassley authored and has made a real difference over time." But a week later, Romney has given no public indication he's rethinking his position. Asked if Romney's stance had changed amid concerns from Iowa Republicans, the campaign did not respond to a request for comment. The issue has put some Iowa Republicans in an awkward spot. Ahead of Romney's visit, many state Republican operatives declined to comment when asked how the presumptive nominee's stance might play with Iowa voters in November. Meanwhile, both Branstad and Grassley, who had been listed as hosts of Romney's fundraiser at a local country club tonight, are now expected to be no-shows. A spokeswoman for Grassley told Yahoo News the Iowa senator is traveling in another part of the state meeting with voters and had not yet spoken to Romney about the issue. Branstad also cited a scheduling conflict—though he told the Quad City Times in an interview Monday that he and other Iowa Republicans still hoped to change Romney's mind before the tax credit expires. "When it's expired in the past, we've seen the growth of this industry dramatically reduced, so we think it needs to be extended again, and we're hopeful that indeed the Congress will and future President Romney will sign it," Branstad said. @@@@@@@@@ Financial crisis: 25 people at the heart of the meltdown – where are they now?In 2009 the Guardian identified 25 people – bankers, economists, central bankers and politicians – whose actions had led the world into the worst economic turmoil since the Great Depression. On the fifth anniversary of the credit crunch, what are they doing?
 Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan testifying before the US Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in 2010. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP Central bankersAlan Greenspan, chairman US Federal Reserve 1987-2006 A disciple of libertarian icon Ayn Rand, Greenspan became chairman of the Fed just in time to save the global economy from the 1987 stock market crash from becoming a full-blown disaster. He went on preside over the boom years of the 90s and lead the US economy through the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and was widely referred to as an "oracle" and "the maestro". But Greenspan's super-low interest rates and consistent opposition to regulation of the multitrillion-dollar derivatives market are now widely blamed for causing the credit crisis. Under Greenspan's tenure the derivatives market went from barely registering to a $500 trillion industry, despite billionaire investor Warren Buffett warning that they were "financial weapons of mass destruction". His rock-bottom rates encouraged Americans to load up on debt to buy homes, even when they had no savings, no income and no job prospects. These so-called sub-prime borrowers were the cannon fodder for the biggest boom-bust in US history. The housing collapse brought the global economy to its knees. He was given an honorary knighthood in 2002 for his "contribution to global economic stability", but in 2008, at a Congressional hearing investigating the causes of the financial crisis, Greenspan finally admitted he "made a mistake in presuming" that financial firms could regulate themselves. "You found that your view of the world, your ideology was not right, it was not working?" Henry Waxman, the committee chairman, said. "Absolutely, precisely," Greenspan replied. "You know, that's precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well." After he quit the Fed, in 2006, Greenspan joined Pimco, the world's largest bond investor, as a special consultant. Pimco's co-founder Bill Gross said Greenspan had helped make the firm "billions of dollars'' in his role as a consultant. Gross said Greenspan's "brilliance" was a "big money saver for us''. "He's made and saved billions of dollars for Pimco already,'' Gross said in 2008.He has also advised Deutsche Bank and hedge fund billionaire John Paulson. Greenspan has also found time to criticise current Fed chairman Ben Bernanke's programme of quantitative easing. "I've stayed away from commenting on Fed policy," he said on US TV earlier this month. "I will say this, however, that the data do show that the expansion of assets has had very little impact on the economy, for an important reason, that we've created a major increase in the asset side of the Fed balance sheet and a very large trillion and a half increase in excess reserves."  Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England At his first meeting chairing the Bank's monetary policy committee (MPC) interest rates were cut to an historic postwar low of 3.5%. King's ambition as governor was to make the Bank "boring". If only that had been the case. He was slow to react to the crisis and initially refused to follow Greenspan in pumping cash into the system. The Treasury select committee (TSC) said he should have noticed that the housing bubble was becoming unstable and should have been "more pro-active" to damp it down. Just the other week King finally admitted that the financial crisis was the result of "major mistakes" by policymakers and not just the fault of greedy bankers. At the government's Global Investment Conference in London in the buildup to the Olympics he said: "We saw this going into the crisis, we kept meeting at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but we did nothing to solve it collectively, and I don't think that this was a problem that could have been solved individually." More recently, King had to face the TSC to explain why the Bank failed to spot the Libor interest rate-fixing scandal that pre-dated the credit crunch and last month Bob Diamond stepped down as chief executive of Barclays after King let it be known Diamond no longer had the confidence of the Bank. In the shake-up of regulation that followed the financial meltdown, the governor of the Bank of England has emerged with more power than ever. However, King is due to stand down next summer, with former cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell and deputy governor Paul Tucker the favourites to replace him. Politicians Bill Clinton, former US president Politicians' current plan to help prevent another financial crisis is to ringfence banks' risky "casino banking" divisions from the more pedestrian high street banking departments. 13 years ago Clinton repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, which had done just that. Clinton's move, which came after fierce lobbying from bankers, heralded the birth of superbanks and primed the sub-prime pump. He also signed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which exempted credit-default swaps from regulation. Around the same time Clinton also beefed up President Carter's 1977 Community Reinvestment Act – forcing lenders to take a more sympathetic approach to poor borrowers trying to get on the housing ladder.  Gordon Brown, former prime minister Brown's big boast as chancellor was that he had "abolished Tory boom and bust". He hadn't. His prime ministerial tenure was spent presiding over the biggest bust since the Great Depression. In his last big speech before becoming prime minister just before the crisis began he praised bankers for their role in bringing in a "new golden age for the City of London". To tempt foreign bankers to work in the City he backed low taxes for non-doms and "light-touch" regulation that meant they could get away with a lot more in London than elsewhere. Brown is now working on projects to improve child poverty levels and education, worldwide, with organisations such as the United Nations.  George W Bush, former US president The meltdown happened on Bush's watch. While Clinton got the ball rolling with sub-prime lending, Bush failed to bring in much tighter regulation, bar the Sarbanes-Oxley Act brought in after the Enron scandal. And he didn't do a lot to stop the boom in lending to "Ninjas" [no income, no job applicants]. Nouriel Roubini, the economist who earned the nickname Dr Doom for his prediction that the crisis was about to hit, blames Bush. Obama "inherited a mess", Roubini has said. "We're lucky that this Great Recession is not turning into another Great Depression." Bush is in self-imposed political exile and has been notable for his absence in Mitt Romney's campaign to become the next Republican president. "He is enjoying his life in Texas. He's not seeking the limelight. And he is really focused on the Bush Center," his spokesman said recently. He has "no plans to endorse, at least not at present," the spokesman added. The former president has written a book, Decision Points, about the 14 biggest decisions of his presidential career. The former president was paid $7m for 1.5m copies.  Senator Phil Gramm "Some people look at sub-prime lending and see evil. I look at sub-prime lending and see the American dream in action," Gramm told a Senate debate in 2001. Another dynamite quote. "When I am on Wall Street and I realise that that's the very nerve centre of American capitalism and I realise what capitalism has done for the working people of America, to me that's a holy place." It was Gramm that had fought hardest for deregulation and helped write the law that enabled the creation of financial giants such as Citigroup and Bank of America. He remains unrepentant. Just a couple of weeks ago Gramm, who went on to work for Swiss investment bank UBS until earlier this year and is now a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said: "I don't see any evidence that allowing them to affiliate through holding companies had anything to do with the financial crisis nor has anybody ever presented any evidence to suggest that it did." Sandy Weill, however, a man with hands-on experience of running a too-big-to-fail bank as the former chairman and chief executive of Citigroup, begs to differ. Last week Weill said: "What we should probably do is go and split up investment banking from banking, have banks be deposit takers, have banks make commercial loans and real-estate loans and have banks do something that's not going to risk the taxpayer dollars, that's not too big to fail." Weill added: "The world changed with the collapse of the housing market and the real-estate bubble … so I don't think it's right anymore (to have huge investment and retail banking combines)." Wall Street/Bankers Abby Cohen, Goldman Sachs senior strategist Bear market? Cohen appears not to have heard of the term. She made a name for herself in the late 1990s by being the bullest of the bulls during the dotcom bubble, and it's hard to remember when she hasn't been bullish since. She's still a bull now. "If we were to look just at fair-value estimates over the next year to three, we think that returns that are roughly 8-10% on the stock market are sensible," she told Bloomberg last week.  Kathleen Corbet, former CEO, Standard & Poor's The credit rating agencies, of which S&P is the biggest, gave triple A ratings to the mortgage-backed securities that turned toxic and were accused of conflict of interest because the bond issuers were paying them for the ratings. As one S&P analyst wrote in an email, "[A bond] could be structured by cows and we would rate it." Another analyst emailed a colleague: "Let's hope we're all wealthy and retired by the time this house of cards falters." Corbet resigned amid a wave of criticism in 2007. She has since set up a company to invest in tech, energy and, of course, financial services companies. She has a tumblr, but is yet to actually blog.  Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, former chief executive AIG insurance group While AIG was taking a multibillion-dollar bailout from the US Treasury and the Fed after its massive credit default business went sour, 100 AIG execs where spending $444,000 on a golf and spa retreat in California. "Have you heard of anything more outrageous?" said Elijah Cummings, a Democratic congressman, said. "They were getting their manicures, their facials, pedicures, massages, while the American people were footing the bill." Greenberg, now 87, has now started over – and is running C V Starr & Co, a private equity firm named after AIG's founder Cornelius Vander Starr. Hank's son Scott is helping tap up sovereign wealth funds and the ultra-wealthy for cash for buyout deals expected to last a decade.  Andy Hornby, former HBOS boss The former wunderkind of British business who came top of his 800-strong class at Harvard and rose to become a board director of Asda by the age of 32 was the man running HBOS when it had to be rescued by Lloyds. His reputation took a knocking from the FSA, with the regulator finding HBOS guilty of "very serious misconduct" in the run up to its taxpayer bailout and rescue by Lloyds. But he's still a busy man. After HBOS's demise he was installed as chief executive of Alliance Boots (he quit last year with no payoff) and is currently chief executive of bookies Coral and non-executive chairman of online and mail order pharmaceuticals business pharmacy2U.  Fred Goodwin, former RBS boss Fred "the shred" was stripped of his knighthood earlier this year as public anger over his role in causing the financial crisis reached boiling point. Goodwin, who has been dubbed "the world's worst banker", brought Royal Bank of Scotland to its knees via a series of over-ambitious acquisitions. A string of 20 takeovers transformed RBS into a global leader but Goodwin wasn't satisfied and just before the financial crisis struck he led a $100bn takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro. RBS went on to record the biggest annual loss in UK corporate history and had to be bailed out by the government to the tune of £45.5bn. It is now 82%-owned by the state. Goodwin hit the headlines again recently when he was blamed for a crisis at Scotland's biggest architecture firm, RMJM, where he was an adviser. About 80 staff left the firm after a battle over unpaid fees.  Steve Crawshaw, former B&B boss What would the fictional Mssrs Bradford and Bingley say? The two bowler-hatted gents represented good, old-fashioned prudent banking. B&B's downfall can perhaps be traced to a single moment of arrogance in 1995 when it splashed out more than £1,000 for Stan Laurel's bowler hat to display at its head office. Steven Crawshaw bought the specialist lender Mortgage Express from Lloyds TSB, which catered for the self-employed, those seeking second-home finance and buy-to-let mortgages. The loans earned the nickname "liar loans" because the applicant didn't have to prove they had a regular income. When the wholesale money market collapsed, so did B&B, as it couldn't finance the loans. Eventually, B&B was nationalised, a few weeks after Crawshaw stepped down with heart problems. He left with a pension worth £105,318 a year. He has apparently retired to the Yorkshire countryside, and his only public role appears to be chairing the advisory board of the School of Management at Bradford University.  Adam Applegarth, former Northern Rock boss Applegarth transformed Northern Rock from a sleepy Newcastle building society into the nation's fifth-largest mortgage provider. But the business collapsed and images of customers queuing up outside Northern Rock to rescue their savings have became the dominant memory of the financial crisis. In the five years running up to the bank's disaster, he was paid around £10m. During the 18 months immediately before, he cashed in shares worth £2.6m. He collected a £760,000 payoff despite the TSC savaging his conduct at the bank. It was also later revealed that he was having an affair with a junior colleagues during the crisis. In 2009 Applegarth started his first job post-Northern Rock, advising US private equity firm Apollo Management. He is no longer listed as part of the team on the company's website. But remains in the post advising the firm's European Principal Fund on buying up distressed debt. He has also reportedly set up a company, Beechwood Property Management, with his son Greg. But there is very little publicly available information about the company.  Dick Fuld, chief executive Lehman Brothers "The Gorilla of Wall Street", as Fuld was known, steered Lehman deep into the business of sub-prime mortgages. Lehman took the loans and packaged them up into (soon-to-be toxic) bonds which they sold to investors. Fuld is said to have raked in almost $500m in pay and bonuses during his tenure as chief executive, but the 66 year old insisted to Capitol Hill that he actually only earned $300m. During the testimony, Fuld was asked if he wondered why Lehman Brothers was the only firm that was allowed to fail. "Until the day they put me in the ground, I will wonder," he said. In 2009 Fuld joined US hedge fund Matrix Advisors. A year later he joined broker Legend Securities, he left the firm earlier this year.  Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin Cioffi and Tannin are two of a very small group that have faced financial penalty for their role in causing the crisis. The pair, who ran Bear Stearns hedge funds that went bankrupt in 2007, were accused by the SEC of misleading investors about the risks of sub-prime loans. This summer the pair agreed to pay$1.05m to settle the charges. US District Judge Frederic Block described the fine as "chump change". Their investors lost $1.6bn. "I certainly would have liked my career to have ended differently," Cioffi said in a 2010 interview.  Lewis 'Lew' Ranieri, 'godfather' of mortgage finance Ranieri wanted to be an Italian chef, but his asthma stopped him working in smoky kitchens. Instead he moved into trading via Salomon Brothers mailroom and pioneered the mortgage-backed bonds immortalised in Liar's Poker. In 1984 Ranieri boasted that his mortgage-trading desk "made more money than all the rest of Wall Street combined". But when sub-prime borrowers started missing payments, the mortgage market stalled and bond prices collapsed. Investment banks, overexposed to the toxic assets, closed their doors and investors lost fortunes. He blames Wall Street for misusing his brainchild to construct "affordability products" that homeowners really couldn't afford.  Joseph Cassano, AIG financial products Cassano has been dubbed "patient zero" of the global economic meltdown. He ran the AIG team that sold credit default swaps in London that led the company into bankruptcy and a massive bailout. Democratic senator John Sarbanes said Cassano "single-handedly brought AIG to its knees". After the bailout Cassano refused all media interviews and had not spoken about the crisis until he was called before the US congress financial crisis inquiry commission in July 2010. "I think there would have been few, if any, realised losses on the CDS contracts had they not been unwound in the bailout," he said, adding: "my perspective diverges in important ways from the popular wisdom". Cassano, who used to live in an opulent townhouse behind Harrods, has since moved back to Westport, on Long Island Sound, where he is apparently unemployed, and uncontactable.  Chuck Prince, former Citi boss Just when the sub-prime crisis was starting to take hold in the summer of 2007, Prince told the FT he didn't expect the brewing crisis to hurt his bank. "As long as the music is playing, you've got to get up and dance. We're still dancing," he said. Shortly afterwards the music stopped and Citi racked up more than $45bn of writedowns. Recently, Sandy Weill said handpicking Prince to be his successor was "one of the major mistakes that I made". Last year Price said: "If we want a better outcome, supervisors and business leaders had better do something different this time around." He hasn't been heard from again since.  Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide Financial Mozilo popularised the notion that practically anyone could have a massive mortgage, even if they didn't have a job. Countrywide was the world's biggest sub-prime lender before it was rescued from bankruptcy by Bank of America. The SEC investigated Mozilo over fraud and insider dealing charges, but in the end he agreed to pay a $67.5m fine and accept a lifetime ban from serving as a company director. The fine represents just over a 10th of Mozilo's estimated net worth of $600m. The SEC's director of enforcement said: "Mozilo's record penalty is the fitting outcome for a corporate executive who deliberately disregarded his duties to investors by concealing what he saw from inside the executive suite – a looming disaster in which Countrywide was buckling under the weight of increasingly risky mortgage underwriting, mounting defaults and delinquencies, and a deteriorating business model." Mozilo and his wife Phyllis sold their LA home for $2.9m earlier this year. The LA Times described it as "Georgian Colonial-style two-storey" property, sitting above the second fairway at the Sherwood Country Club, complete with "a cherry-finished library-office, five bedrooms, six bathrooms and an oversized four-car garage". The couple still own a string other luxury homes in southern California.  Stan O'Neal, former boss of Merrill Lynch Another casualty of the thirst for CDOs. By June 2006, Merrill had amassed $41bn in sub-prime CDOs and mortgage bonds, according to Fortune. O'Neal, who had Merrill security guards hold a lift at all times for his exclusive use, was booted out (with a $161.5m golden parachute) and Bank of America snapped Merrill up less than a year later. There were rumours O'Neal was going to join Vision Capital, a hedge fund run by two visually impaired managers, but the role never materialised. Vision was later investigated by the SEC.  Jimmy Cayne, former Bear Sterns boss While Bear Sterns was going bust Cayne was playing bridge in Detroit. He's quite an accomplished player and has won several rounds of the North American Bridge Championships. But he was less good at running Bear Sterns, with CNBC naming him one of the "worst CEOs of all time". Bear Sterns was sold to JP Morgan for $10 a share, compared with the $133.20 a share it was trading at before the crisis. Cayne, who had a big stake in the company, lost about $1bn. Cayne has now disappeared from the corporate public eye, but it is still possible to play him at bridge online. Others Christopher Dodd, former chairman Senate banking committee Dodd pushed back against calls for tighter regulation on Fannie Mae and Freedie Mac, while receiving $165,000 in campaign donations from … Fannie and Freddie. The Dodd-Frank Act, which aims to reform Wall Street, is named after him and financial services committee chairman Barney Frank. But Dodd disagrees with proposals to split up big banks' investment banking and high-street divisions. "[The idea that] breaking up these institutions is going to solve the problem, I think it's frankly too simplistic an approach," he said last week.  Geir Haarde, prime minister of Iceland 2006-2009 Haarde is the only politician to have been found guilty by a court of helping to cause the crisis. Earlier this year an Icelandic court found Haarde guilty of failing to hold emergency cabinet meetings in the run up to the crisis. Haarde fell from power after the country's three biggest banks collapsed, the country's economy went into meltdown, and the government was forced to borrow $10bn (£6.3bn) to prop up its economy. During the trial, he said: "None of us realised at the time that there was something fishy within the banking system itself, as now appears to have been the case. The American public It wasn't just the bankers who were greedy. The men and women on the street took out billions of dollars of loans they knew they couldn't afford. American families' wealth has fallen by 38.8% between 2007 and 2010, according to the latest three-yearly data from the Fed. The collapse in house prices, which was caused by Americans' failure to keep up repayments on loans they couldn't afford, caused US families median net worth to decline from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010.  John Tiner, FSA chief executive 2003-07 He once had a reputation for being the luckiest man in the City. Without a university degree, he worked his way up to the top of accountant Arthur Andersen – and left nine months before it collapsed under the weight of fraud and false accounting at its client Enron. In July 2007 he quit as chief executive of the Financial Services Authority with praise ringing in his ears (his leaving party reportedly cost the regulator £20,000). But the praise quickly evaporated, not least for the FSA's inadequate stewardship of Northern Rock, which was slammed in an internal report. Tiner, who has a personalised T1NER numberplate, then joined colourful entrepreneur Clive Cowdery at insurance buyout vehicle Resolution. They bought Friend's Provident life insurance group but then the deals dried up and last week the group revealed it could no longer return cash, as expected, to shareholders. LettersThe £18tn stashed offshore is what's wrong, not cash in handguardian.co.uk, Tuesday 31 July 2012 16.00 EDT David Gauke is wrong to suggest that "it is illegal for the plumber" to take cash-in-hand payment for work done (Paying plumber cash 'morally wrong', says minister, 24 July). It is no more illegal to do so than to accept payment by debit card or cheque. What is illegal is the failure to declare cash received as business income and thus evade paying income tax due (as the Surrey plumber recently jailed for evading income tax of £50,000 found to his cost). And why is cash payment "morally wrong" for the customer? What a plumber or electrician does or does not declare to the tax authorities is their responsibility, moral and legal. Or perhaps Mr Gauke wants to make voluntary tax inspectors of us all? Tim Feest Godalming, Surrey • The Treasury telling us that paying in cash is wrong is yet another example of the lack of joined-up thinking so regularly displayed by government. So typical of it to pick on small traders over a few quid while ignoring the £18 trillion stashed away in tax havens by big businesses and wealthy individuals. It was very late in stopping the banks from withdrawing cheques as a means of payment, and allowed the killing off of the cheque guarantee scheme, so tradesmen's choices for payments that won't bounce are now cash or card. Taking cards costs small businesses extra for the equipment, and the bankers then trouser another 4% or so of the transaction just for passing the money from one account to another. Given their options, taking cash is not tax evasion, it is common sense for small businesses. Roy Prockter Clacton-on-Sea, Essex • I do not know if Treasury minister David Gauke thinks that it is "morally wrong" to strip public sector workers of their full pensions, to deny disability benefits to 500,000 or to cap housing benefit and to threaten 250,000 people with homelessness. But I do know he thinks paying tradesmen in cash is "morally wrong". That's all anyone needs to know about this government. Sasha Simic London • If the coalition is having doubts about so many people working for cash in hand, it should hire more public sector workers, who cannot escape PAYE. (Cameron, Clegg and Johnson all admit paying tradesmen in cash, 25 July). David Reed Northampton • Is it morally justifiable to pay a tradesman in cash so that they may avoid bank charges? I fear I may be helping to reduce bankers' bonuses. David Atkinson Norwich, Norfolk • If Cameron and Gauke want to go beyond moralising declarations, they could refuse to enter public sector contracts with, or allow lobbying by, any firm based in a tax haven. Chris Pickvance Canterbury, Kent • I have just bought something from Vodafone in cash, so should I make sure I pay by cheque if I want them to pay the VAT? Steve Knight Hove, East Sussex Tax avoiders may be 'named and shamed' by HMRCTreasury's proposed crackdown comes in the wake of the row over comedian Jimmy Carr's tax affairs
 Jimmy Carr found himself at the centre of criticism about K2, a legal tax scheme. Photograph: Ian West/PA The Treasury will announce a crackdown on tax avoidance schemes on Monday in the wake of the row over the tax affairs of the comedian Jimmy Carr. Promoters of aggressive tax avoidance schemes may be forced to disclose client lists to inspectors, according to David Gauke, the minister with responsibility for tax matters. It follows revelations about the financial loopholes used by the rich and famous to legally sidestep large tax bills. In one scheme, Carr was paying 1% tax on his income. The plan, which is going out to consultation, has been greeted with scepticism by Labour. One shadow minister said the Tories were so closely associated with tax avoiders they would not have the political will necessary to change the tax system. Gauke will tell the Policy Exchange thinktank that scheme operators will be "named and shamed" for sharp practice. Officials often hit a dead end when investigating schemes that are based offshore but, under the proposals, UK promoters will be made to hand over customer databases. That information will be used to formally warn clients about the deals they have signed up to and to work out how much the amount of tax they would owe if the scheme failed. Under the reforms, a promoter who has been penalised for not complying with the rules will also have to provide extra information to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) on all of their schemes, not just the one they were reprimanded for. Gauke will say: "We are building on the work we have already done to make life difficult for those who artificially and aggressively reduce their tax bill. These schemes damage our ability to fund public services and provide support to those who need it. They harm businesses by distorting competition. They damage public confidence and they undermine the actions of the vast majority of taxpayers, who pay more in tax as a consequence of others enjoying a free ride." HMRC is also looking at formally requiring individuals, as well as firms, to comply with the rules, which would help it when a firm is dissolved or moved offshore, or an individual promoter moves from firm to firm. Last month, Carr found himself at the centre of criticism about K2, a legal scheme that allows its members to pay income tax of as little as 1%. Carr, 39, reportedly used the scheme to shelter £3.3m a year, channelling money from DVD sales and television appearances into a company that gave him back "loans" which are not subject to tax. The comedian later apologised for his "terrible error of judgment" in using a tax avoidance scheme. Gauke's announcement at Policy Exchange comes a day after one of the thinktank's trustees was disclosed to have been involved in an aggressive tax avoidance scheme. The Mail on Sunday reported that Conservative donor George Robinson had been ordered to pay back millions of pounds in tax after a judge ruled against the tax scheme. Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP for Rochdale, said: "It tells you everything you need to know about this government that ministers have chosen to give a speech on tax avoidance at an organisation whose trustee, the Conservative donor George Robinson, has just been found to have used an offshore avoidance scheme and had to pay back millions of pounds. "With billions of pounds estimated to be lost each year, this government is failing to tackle tax avoidance, while also giving a tax cut to millionaires. How can it be fair to cut taxes for the very richest while ordinary families, pensioners and businesses are feeling the brunt of this double-dip recession?" he said. Tax avoidance represents nearly 14% of the UK tax gap, according to the Treasury. £13tn hoard hidden from taxman by global elite• Study estimates staggering size of offshore economy Heather Stewart, business editor
 The Cayman Islands: a favourite haven from the taxman for the global elite. Photograph: David Doubilet/National Geographic/Getty Images A global super-rich elite has exploited gaps in cross-border tax rules to hide an extraordinary £13 trillion ($21tn) of wealth offshore – as much as the American and Japanese GDPs put together – according to research commissioned by the campaign group Tax Justice Network. James Henry, former chief economist at consultancy McKinsey and an expert on tax havens, has compiled the most detailed estimates yet of the size of the offshore economy in a new report, The Price of Offshore Revisited, released exclusively to the Observer. He shows that at least £13tn – perhaps up to £20tn – has leaked out of scores of countries into secretive jurisdictions such as Switzerland and the Cayman Islands with the help of private banks, which vie to attract the assets of so-called high net-worth individuals. Their wealth is, as Henry puts it, "protected by a highly paid, industrious bevy of professional enablers in the private banking, legal, accounting and investment industries taking advantage of the increasingly borderless, frictionless global economy". According to Henry's research, the top 10 private banks, which include UBS and Credit Suisse in Switzerland, as well as the US investment bank Goldman Sachs, managed more than £4tn in 2010, a sharp rise from £1.5tn five years earlier. The detailed analysis in the report, compiled using data from a range of sources, including the Bank of International Settlements and the International Monetary Fund, suggests that for many developing countries the cumulative value of the capital that has flowed out of their economies since the 1970s would be more than enough to pay off their debts to the rest of the world. Oil-rich states with an internationally mobile elite have been especially prone to watching their wealth disappear into offshore bank accounts instead of being invested at home, the research suggests. Once the returns on investing the hidden assets is included, almost £500bn has left Russia since the early 1990s when its economy was opened up. Saudi Arabia has seen £197bn flood out since the mid-1970s, and Nigeria £196bn. "The problem here is that the assets of these countries are held by a small number of wealthy individuals while the debts are shouldered by the ordinary people of these countries through their governments," the report says. The sheer size of the cash pile sitting out of reach of tax authorities is so great that it suggests standard measures of inequality radically underestimate the true gap between rich and poor. According to Henry's calculations, £6.3tn of assets is owned by only 92,000 people, or 0.001% of the world's population – a tiny class of the mega-rich who have more in common with each other than those at the bottom of the income scale in their own societies. "These estimates reveal a staggering failure: inequality is much, much worse than official statistics show, but politicians are still relying on trickle-down to transfer wealth to poorer people," said John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network. "People on the street have no illusions about how unfair the situation has become." TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "Countries around the world are under intense pressure to reduce their deficits and governments cannot afford to let so much wealth slip past into tax havens. "Closing down the tax loopholes exploited by multinationals and the super-rich to avoid paying their fair share will reduce the deficit. This way the government can focus on stimulating the economy, rather than squeezing the life out of it with cuts and tax rises for the 99% of people who aren't rich enough to avoid paying their taxes." Assuming the £13tn mountain of assets earned an average 3% a year for its owners, and governments were able to tax that income at 30%, it would generate a bumper £121bn in revenues – more than rich countries spend on aid to the developing world each year. Groups such as UK Uncut have focused attention on the paltry tax bills of some highly wealthy individuals, such as Topshop owner Sir Philip Green, with campaigners at one recent protest shouting: "Where did all the money go? He took it off to Monaco!" Much of Green's retail empire is owned by his wife, Tina, who lives in the low-tax principality. A spokeswoman for UK Uncut said: "People like Philip Green use public services – they need the streets to be cleaned, people need public transport to get to their shops – but they don't want to pay for it." Leaders of G20 countries have repeatedly pledged to close down tax havens since the financial crisis of 2008, when the secrecy shrouding parts of the banking system was widely seen as exacerbating instability. But many countries still refuse to make details of individuals' financial worth available to the tax authorities in their home countries as a matter of course. Tax Justice Network would like to see this kind of exchange of information become standard practice, to prevent rich individuals playing off one jurisdiction against another. "The very existence of the global offshore industry, and the tax-free status of the enormous sums invested by their wealthy clients, is predicated on secrecy," said Henry. Standard Chartered bank accused of scheming with Iran to hide transactionsBritish bank named in scathing report by regulators which claims SCB helped Iranian clients skirt US financial sanctions
 The attack on Standard Chartered is a severe blow to the bank's reputation. Photograph: Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images Standard Chartered bank ran a rogue unit that schemed with Iran's government to hide more than $250bn (£160bn) in illegal transactions for nearly a decade, according to a scathing report by New York regulators that may put intense pressure on the management of the UK-based bank. According to the report filed by the New York state department of financial services (NYSDFS), when warned by a US colleague about dealings with Iran, a Standard Chartered executive caustically replied: "You f---ing Americans. Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we're not going to deal with Iranians." About 60,000 transactions were involved between 2001 and 2007 and the bank faces losing its ability to trade in the US if the allegations are proven. The regulator has demanded a meeting with the bank on 15 August and just hours before trading began in its shares in Hong Kong this morning the bank insisted it "strongly rejects the position or the portrayal of facts as set out". Shares in the British bank dropped sharply in the final seconds of trading; the accusations were published just as the London stock market was closing. The shares slumped 6% to £14.70 to become the biggest faller in the FTSE 100. The attack on Standard Chartered – which is accused by the US of "wilful and egregious violations of law" – could be a severe blow to the reputation of the bank which, until last night, had been regarded as the most solid of any of the London-listed banks after the 2008 taxpayer bailouts, the more recent Libor-rigging scandal at Barclays and the money laundering offences at HSBC. Its top management team – the chief executive, Peter Sands, and the finance director, Richard Meddings – are held in such regard that only last week they were fending off questions about their potential candidacies for governor of the Bank of England or joining Barclays in the wake of the Libor scandal. The 27-page report claims that Standard Chartered bankers helped Iranian clients skirt US financial sanctions against their country for nearly a decade. Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of the NYSDFS, said a Standard Chartered subsidiary in New York had also sought to do business with other US-sanctioned countries, including Libya, Burma and Sudan. It is the latest blow to the reputation of the City, already criticised in Washington following the HSBC money-laundering debacle and JP Morgan's multibillion-dollar trading losses at its London office. "It seems to be that every big trading disaster happens in London," New York congresswoman Carolyn Maloney told a Congressional panel investigating the JP Morgan fiasco in June. The New York regulator has provided emails between members of Standard Chartered staff. In one the head of the US operations warned, among others, the executive director of risk in London, that the dealings with Iran could cause "very serious or even catastrophic reputational damage" to the group. The email, dated October 2006, warned: "There is equally importantly potential of risk of subjecting management in US and London (e.g. you and I) and elsewhere to personal reputational damages and/or serious criminal liability." It was this memo that provoked the response about "you f---ing Americans". Financial transactions with Iran have been subject to US sanctions since 1979. Limited, highly scrutinised transactions known as "U-turns" were allowed as long as the money ended up in non-Iranian banks. In 2008 the US Treasury revoked authorisation for U-turn transactions, because it suspected that Iran was using its banks to finance nuclear weapons and missile programmes, and terrorist groups including Hezbollah and Hamas. According to Lawsky, Standard Chartered set up an operation known as Project Gazelle, aimed at helping Iranian banks put money through the US financial system. The bank is alleged to have removed codes to hide transfers for Iranians. "For almost 10 years, SCB [Standard Chartered bank] schemed with the government of Iran and hid from regulators roughly 60,000 secret transactions, involving at least $250bn, and reaping SCB hundreds of millions of dollars in fees. "SCB's actions left the US financial system vulnerable to terrorists, weapons dealers, drug kingpins and corrupt regimes, and deprived law enforcement investigators of crucial information used to track all manner of criminal activity," the regulator said. "In short, SCB operated as a rogue institution." In one example from 2001 detailed in the report, Standard Chartered was approached by CBI/Markazi, Iran's central bank, to act as recipient for daily oil sales from the National Iranian Oil Company. Iranians warned the bank that disclosure of their identities to US banks would cause "unacceptable delays in clearing funds", according to the report. The bank took legal advice and was told it "should ascertain that the payments are authorised", according to the report. Instead, it "conspired with Iranian clients to transmit misinformation to the New York branch by removing and otherwise misrepresenting wire transfer data that could identify Iranian parties", the report claims. Standard Chartered, which is one of the top five largest banks in the UK by market value, was unprepared for the scale of the criticism, despite having made disclosures in previous annual reports – and in its interim report last week – about discussions with the US over breaking sanctions. The bank stressed that it had complied with the regulations. "Well over 99.9% of the transactions relating to Iran complied," the bank said as Asian markets opened for Tuesday. Discussions continue and the bank said it was "surprised to receive" the regulatory order. "The group takes its responsibilities very seriously and seeks to comply at all times with the relevant laws and regulations," the bank said. Credit crunch: elusive ghosts of the financial feast lurk in the shadowsIt is half a decade this week since the 'world changed', in Adam Applegarth's famous phrase. But what has happened to the architects of economic meltdown? And has anything really changed for them?
 Customers of Northern Rock queue outside the Kingston branch of the company in London on September 15, 2007. Photograph: Cate Gillon/Getty Images When Adam Applegarth was forced out of a sinking Northern Rock in December 2007, it was amid the kind of numbers that tend to dance in front of your eyes. In the five years running up to the bank's spectacular crash he had been paid around £10m. During the 18 months immediately before he cashed in shares worth £2.6m. On leaving he secured a golden goodbye to be paid in monthly instalments, totalling £760,000. His pension, payable when he turns 55, is worth £304,000 a year. The year after his exit he was glimpsed in a very familiar setting, once again turning out for the second XI of his beloved Sunderland Cricket Club. "This summer," said one of his old associates, "he will be putting his feet up. He is playing an awful lot of cricket, enjoying his motors and travelling." In the autumn of 2009 Applegarth became a senior adviser to the American private equity firm Apollo Management, advising a new arm, the European Principal Fund, on the buying-up of distressed debt – perhaps a field of expertise. Three years on he remains in the job and shielded behind a communications firewall administered by a New York PR firm called Rubenstein Associates, whose other clients include Walt Disney, the Las Vegas Comedy Festival, and the American Kennel Club. When I contacted them, I was handed over to a breathlessly efficient operative called Melissa, who said I should send over my questions. With a view to at least trying to get his attention, I kept them non-confrontational, and short: What does Mr Applegarth's role at Apollo involve? Could he explain how the depth of banks' problems in 2007 first revealed itself to him? And how has his life been since? Twenty-four hours later she called back: "Put us down for a decline to comment," she said. So, on to another lead. In September 2010 it was reported that Applegarth had joined his son Greg in setting up a company called Beechwood Property Management, in which he held 55 of the 100 shares. Their documents list both men's occupation as "consultant". Their registered office is on the 11th floor of a gleaming Newcastle office block called Cale Cross House, but when I called the in-house security guard he had never heard of them. In fact, this is merely the address of their accountants – who passed on a message, with no result. There is no entry for Beechwood Property Management in the phone directory, nor has it a website. On the face of it, it is a ghost outfit, whose existence is only noticeable to those hard-bitten people who pore over records held at Companies House. Such is the great cloud of silence that now surrounds people who were once among the loudest voices in the financial services industry. The reclusive lifestyle of former Royal Bank of Scotland chief Fred Goodwin barely needs mentioning. Steve Crawshaw, who turned Bradford and Bingley from a staid building society into a specialist in self-certified mortgages and left the company weeks before it had to be nationalised, has apparently retired to the Yorkshire countryside: his only publicly-recorded activity these days is as the chair of the advisory board of the School of Management at Bradford University, who forwarded him my list of questions, but I heard nothing back. Even the few who still have heavyweight business roles keep schtum: there may be a beautiful poetry in the fact that the former HBOS chief executive Andy Hornby is now the boss of Coral bookmakers, but getting him to talk is a non-starter. "As the article does not relate to his current role at Coral he wishes to respectfully decline your request," said his spokesman. At the height of a financialised age, it was the done thing to refer to these people as "Masters Of The Universe". Five years on, picking through the subsequent career histories of those who sparked first the credit crunch and then the crash, the suggestion of omnipotence sounds absurd. Most of the people at the centre of the events of 2007-8 tend to suggest a much less titanic stereotype: the faded rock star, often still trying to keep their hand in, well aware that the hits have dried up, the old tricks have long since turned embarrassing, and their time has passed. Meanwhile, a very awkward question sits in the public mind: will there ever be any convincing payback? In the US, only a tiny handful of former bankers have been criminally indicted on charges relating to the crash: most notably, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, two former Bear Stearns employees – and one-time sub-prime specialists – who were acquitted of fraud and conspiracy in November 2009. In February this year a civil case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission was settled on the basis of a $1.05m payout from the two, which the judge in charge termed "chump change". The only big figure sent to jail for his part in two decades of crazed speculation and irresponsibility has been Bernie Madoff. By contrast, the people who bundled up the bad debt in arcane financial instruments that pushed the world to the brink of ruin are still out there: hugely diminished – but free, and hardly penniless. Even those who steered Lehman Brothers into catastrophe and thus started the decisive crash of 2008 seem to have got away with it. In May this year an internal memo from the SEC leaked to Reuters said that after its investigation into the bank it had been "determined that charges will likely not be recommended". Which brings us to 780 3rd Avenue in Manhattan, the location of an almost comically dull office block that looks like a giant house brick. Inside is the HQ of Matrix Advisors. Its founder is a byword for the events of 2007-8: Dick Fuld, the CEO of Lehmans, until its cataclysmic demise. Back then, he was the pumped-up corporate icon once known as "the Gorilla", the man who summed up his business style with the boast that he wanted to reach into the bodies of Lehmans' competitors, "rip out their hearts and eat it in front of them before they die". These days he apparently flits between New York and his homes in Florida and Sun Valley, Idaho – on bog-standard commercial flights, according to witnesses – looking after a tiny outfit which provides "strategic advice to client management teams and senior employees … across all aspects of business". One source close to Fuld has said that the workforce extends to "a young guy from Lehman and two secretaries". When I called their office, I therefore had the tantalising sense that the figure most indelibly associated with the crash might only be a few yards from the person parrying my questions. Her name was Carla Schiavo: she suggested I send over a few lines of inquiry. What, I asked, does Mr Fuld's work at Matrix Advisors involve? What are his views on the aftermath of the credit crunch and how banks and regulators have responded? What did the financial services industry need to do to recover its esteem? Eventually, Schiavo pointed me in the direction of Fuld's lawyer, a former president of the New York Bar Association named Patricia Hynes – who, predictably enough, did not deign to reply to either phone calls or emails. Two months ago Fuld was seen at an ice hockey game between the New Jersey Rangers and the New York Devils. An eyewitness reported on the scene for the Wall Street news and gossip site Dealbreaker: "He was with two goons who were clearly his bodyguards, one sitting next to him in a tan jacket and the other one standing behind him in black. Fuld was wearing a suit … I guess to try and look like he actually has a job he was coming from before the game." Documents filed with US regulators two years ago said Fuld's work at his new venture stretched to around 60 hours a week. Such hard graft may be a necessity: proof, as with the sale of his Park Avenue apartment three years ago (for $25.87m) that he may not be enjoying quite the life of unending luxury that some would imagine, and setting money aside for future litigation, which has so far been met from the coffers of Lehmans' insurers. There is also an abiding sense of twitchiness. When a reporter doorstepped him three years ago, he blurted out: "You don't have a gun. That's good." For others who were intimately involved in the crash, there is a similar sense of shrunken lives, and mouths sealed shut. Kathleen Corbet was the president of the hugely important ratings agency Standard & Poors, but quit in August 2007 just as it started to become clear that the safe-as-houses triple-A ratings given to mortgage-backed securities had turned out to be illusory. She is now in charge of Cross Ridge Capital, a small private equity firm based in New Canaan, Connecticut – and did not respond to messages asking for her take on what happened in 2007 onwards, and what has transpired since. Neither did Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, who pumped up AIG to the point that the American group became the biggest insurance company in the world – only to watch it plunge towards bankruptcy and become 80% nationalised by the US government. He resigned two years before the start of the crash, in 2005, in the midst of the accounting scandal that began the firm's nosedive – but the fact that he avoided direct involvement in the crash presumably accounts for the fact that in controlled circumstances, he can speak with a belligerence that might suggest the events of 2007-8 never happened. "We now have huge government, which is not the creator of opportunity – it's the private sector that creates opportunity, so our basic values are under attack," he recently said, warning against the prospect of "regulating ourselves out of business". By way of putting his money where his mouth is, Greenberg is suing the US state for $25bn, alleging that AIG's board was "coerced" into turning over control of the company to the federal government. Such a high-profile action contrasts with the post-crash story of his old AIG colleague Joseph Cassano – the man who sold credit default swaps in London to keep the money coming in, and thereby pushed the company towards such ruin that it needed £182bn of US taxpayers' money to keep it alive. Back then, Cassano lived in an opulent townhouse behind Harrod's. He has since moved back to Westport, on Long Island Sound, where he is apparently unemployed, and uncontactable. But if there is one man who remains the best embodiment of all the delusion and absurdity that led to the crash, it is 74-year-old Angelo Mozilo, the son of a Bronx butcher, a man so tanned that his skin looks like an orange dipped in toffee. Until July 2008 he was the chairman and chief executive of Countrywide Financial, the USA's biggest provider of sub-prime mortgages. Between 2001 and 2006 he took home something in the region of $470m. The company crashed from August 2007 onwards, finally being bought out by the Bank Of America. In a civil case that ended in October 2010 Mozilo settled with the SEC to pay $22.5m to cover allegations of fraud and insider trading, with a further $45m going to his company's former shareholders to cover "ill-gotten gains", to be taken from BoA and Countrywide's insurers. The SEC's director of enforcement said this: "Mozilo's record penalty is the fitting outcome for a corporate executive who deliberately disregarded his duties to investors by concealing what he saw from inside the executive suite – a looming disaster in which Countrywide was buckling under the weight of increasingly risky mortgage underwriting, mounting defaults and delinquencies, and a deteriorating business model." At the same time, Mozilo was cashing in shares to the tune of $285m. Last year a criminal investigation into Mozilo's activities was shelved. But the intrigue swirling around him will not go away: four years after stories about his firm's dealings with American lawmakers first appeared in the media, a Congressional Committee has alleged that Mozilo ran a "Friends of Angelo" unit to grant influential members of congress preferential loans, and thereby subdue any drive to rein in his very risky kind of business. The impact of what Mozilo and his company did cannot be overstated: it was Countrywide that led the drive to drown the international financial system in bad debt, while he was paying himself spectacular amounts of money. In Wall Street, the City and beyond, the result of what he and his colleagues were doing was a deathly panic, and the end of the boom years; in the real world, millions of people had their homes repossessed or lost their jobs and now we labour under the austerity cuts that still grip the Western economies like a vice. In May this year a piece in the LA Times reported that Mozilo and his wife Phyllis had sold their home in Thousand Oaks, 29 miles west of near LA, for $2.9m. It described a "Georgian Colonial-style two-storey" property, sitting above the second fairway at the Sherwood Country Club, complete with "a cherry-finished library-office, five bedrooms, six bathrooms and an oversized four-car garage", along with "an infinity pool, spa, lawn and a built-in barbecue". Reading it, you wondered if perhaps, in their own way, the Mozilos were feeling the pinch. And then came the last sentence, and the sickly scent of the high life, uninterrupted: "They hold other southern California properties in trust, in Riverside and Santa Barbara counties." Africa's wealth is being devoured by tyrants and vulturesCitizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo should be living in one of the world's richest countries. Plunder and corruption condemns them to poverty
 'Repayment' of loans made to the corrupt Mobuto Sese Seko has proved an important means of draining the DRC's wealth. Photograph: Remy De La Mauviniere/AP A surprise judgment was made last week against a vulture fund, FG Hemisphere, striking down its claim for $100m from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Keeping money out of the hands of profiteers is welcome, but wider questions raised by the case lead straight to one of the central problems of the global economy: the right of money to flow wherever, whenever, while millions remain in poverty. FG Hemisphere has spent many years and a small fortune pursuing Congolese dictator Mobutu Sese Seko for a debt it bought "secondhand" for $3m, but on which it hoped to claim back $100m. Most recently it has been trying to grab the assets of Congo's state-owned mining company, Gécamines, through a joint venture in which it is invested on Jersey. It was winning until Tuesday when the privy council, the final court of appeal for Jersey, overturned previous judgments, saying Gécamines assets could not be taken as state assets. With luck, the case will have cost Hemisphere so much that we won't hear from it again. But for the people of Congo, it's not the end of the story. Few of them will know much about the case. Indeed, it raises the question of why wealth derived from mining in the DRC was being fought over in faraway Jersey in the first place. The DRC has vast mineral wealth including diamonds, copper, oil and gas; one estimate puts the value of these resources at $24 trillion. However, it is pretty much the poorest country in the world. The reason is centuries of plunder, at its worst involving the buying, selling and brutalisation of millions of people. But plunder today continues in different guises – through odious debt and tax avoidance. The debt bought up by FG Hemisphere was part of a vast pile that fuelled the rule of Mobutu, who pillaged his country for more than 30 years. Mobutu's lenders knew he was as corrupt as hell; a report by an IMF mission in 1982 reported there was "no, I repeat no, chance on the horizon for Zaire's [DRC's] numerous creditors to get their money back". But lending continued to rise sharply. Mobutu was, on balance, doing what his paymasters wanted. "Repayment" of this money, long after Mobutu was ousted, has proved the first important means of draining the DRC of wealth. The country was judged eligible for debt cancellation on the basis of its poverty, but this involved jumping through so many hoops it took eight years to complete. By then, more than $2bn had left the country repaying Mobutu's debts and numerous new loans were needed. It seems incredible that so rich a country can end up in serious debt, until you think about the amount of money leaving the DRC through the other crucial factor in its impoverishment: unpaid taxes. Although the DRC has been a poor reporter of data, it has been estimated that, between 1970 and 2008, more than $6bn left the country illicitly. This is equivalent to about 1% of the economy every year – more than enough to cover its total outstanding debts. The figures suggest that an average of $170m has left the DRC every year, almost two-thirds of the average $300m it has to make in debt service payments. Little wonder that its debt is starting to rise again, and is expected to reach $7.5bn by 2015. In essence, successive governments have used foreign loans as a means of financing their activities – including building palaces in the jungle and stealing from state coffers. This is useful for governments interested in avoiding accountability to their people. It's useful for lenders interested in plundering the countries of those governments. For today's leader, payment is put off for another day; for today's lender, a web of dependency is created with an income stream potentially reaching into the far future. This tale is not limited to Congo. Latest estimates put capital flight from sub-Saharan Africa – money lost to the continent and hidden offshore – at $683bn between 1970 and 2010, more than enough to wipe out sub-Saharan Africa's debts to the rest of the world. As Africa is celebrated for its growth rates, the amount of taxes lost to the continent accelerates. The funds flowing in, lauded by Tony Blair, Sir Bob Geldof and their ilk, will primarily enrich those already at the top, fuel inequality and expand dependence on a crony form of finance. Vultures will increasingly swoop on these riches. Stopping them, and building a different society, means controlling the flow of money – and taxing it. Nick Dearden is Director of the Jubilee Debt Campaign congofest.com22/07/2012 09:50 Citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo should be living in one of the world's richest countries. Plunder and corruption condemns them to poverty A surprise judgment was made last week against a vulture fund, FG Hemisphere, striking down its claim for $ 100m from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Keeping money out of the hands of profiteers is welcome, but wider questions raised by the case lead straight to one of the central problems of the global economy: the right of money to flow wherever, whenever, while millions remain in poverty. FG Hemisphere has spent many years and a small fortune pursuing Congolese dictator Mobutu Sese Seko for a debt it bought "secondhand" for $ 3m, but on which it hoped to claim back $ 100m. Most recently it has been trying to grab the assets of Congo's state-owned mining company, Gécamines, through a joint venture in which it is invested on Jersey. It was winning until Tuesday when the privy council, the final court of appeal for Jersey, overturned previous judgments, saying Gécamines assets could not be taken as state assets. With luck, the case will have cost Hemisphere so much that we won't hear from it again. But for the people of Congo, it's not the end of the story. Few of them will know much about the case. Indeed, it raises the question of why wealth derived from mining in the DRC was being fought over in faraway Jersey in the first place. The DRC has vast mineral wealth including diamonds, copper, oil and gas; one estimate puts the value of these resources at $ 24 trillion. However, it is pretty much the poorest country in the world. The reason is centuries of plunder, at its worst involving the buying, selling and brutalisation of millions of people. But plunder today continues in different guises – through odious debt and tax avoidance. The debt bought up by FG Hemisphere was part of a vast pile that fuelled the rule of Mobutu, who pillaged his country for more than 30 years. Mobutu's lenders knew he was as corrupt as hell; a report by an IMF mission in 1982 reported there was "no, I repeat no, chance on the horizon for Zaire's [DRC's] numerous creditors to get their money back". But lending continued to rise sharply. Mobutu was, on balance, doing what his paymasters wanted. "Repayment" of this money, long after Mobutu was ousted, has proved the first important means of draining the DRC of wealth. The country was judged eligible for debt cancellation on the basis of its poverty, but this involved jumping through so many hoops it took eight years to complete. By then, more than $ 2bn had left the country repaying Mobutu's debts and numerous new loans were needed. It seems incredible that so rich a country can end up in serious debt, until you think about the amount of money leaving the DRC through the other crucial factor in its impoverishment: unpaid taxes. Although the DRC has been a poor reporter of data, it has been estimated that, between 1970 and 2008, more than $ 6bn left the country illicitly. This is equivalent to about 1% of the economy every year – more than enough to cover its total outstanding debts. The figures suggest that an average of $ 170m has left the DRC every year, almost two-thirds of the average $ 300m it has to make in debt service payments. Little wonder that its debt is starting to rise again, and is expected to reach $ 7.5bn by 2015. In essence, successive governments have used foreign loans as a means of financing their activities – including building palaces in the jungle and stealing from state coffers. This is useful for governments interested in avoiding accountability to their people. It's useful for lenders interested in plundering the countries of those governments. For today's leader, payment is put off for another day; for today's lender, a web of dependency is created with an income stream potentially reaching into the far future. This tale is not limited to Congo. Latest estimates put capital flight from sub-Saharan Africa – money lost to the continent and hidden offshore – at $ 683bn between 1970 and 2010, more than enough to wipe out sub-Saharan Africa's debts to the rest of the world. As Africa is celebrated for its growth rates, the amount of taxes lost to the continent accelerates. The funds flowing in, lauded by Tony Blair, Sir Bob Geldof and their ilk, will primarily enrich those already at the top, fuel inequality and expand dependence on a crony form of finance. Vultures will increasingly swoop on these riches. Stopping them, and building a different society, means controlling the flow of money – and taxing it. Nick Dearden is Director of the Jubilee Debt Campaign guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds World news: Democratic Republic of the Congo | guardian.co.uk Popularity: 1% [?] |
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