[A-List] "Dirty money" guru Raymond Baker talks about the global stats

[Henry C.K. Liu]

The fact is that under dollar hegemony, dollars are useless outside of 
the dollar economy. So it is only a technical detail as to who holds the 
dollars, the foreign central banks or the corrupt elite. The legalized 
theft occurred a lot earlier at the export round. The elite stolen from 
the central banks which never had any intention or even venue of giving 
the money back to the people who produced the goods for export. It is 
the equivalent of Al Capon knocking off his lieutenants for stealing the 
weekly takes from him.

Henry C.K. Liu

Nestor Gorojovsky wrote:

>Certainly so.
>
>However, it is quite revealing to discover that money which 
>_capitalism itself, by its own standards_ calls "dirty" becomes the 
>most representative kind of money available.
>
>It is as if the most loathable "Good Fella" gained control of the 
>gangs in an irresistible way.
>
>What?  That this is exactly what happens?  Wow.
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>Any comments, Henry?
>
>Respuesta a:"Re: [A-List] "Dirty money" guru Ray"
>Enviado por:Henry C.K. Liu
>Con fecha:21 Jan 2006, a las 16:07
>
>  
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>>This is an example of reduncancy. All money are dirty and capitalism
>>is itslef the crime.
>>
>>Henry C.K. Liu
>>
>>Jurriaan Bendien wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>I was listening to Raymond W. Baker on radio, who is the author of
>>>"Capitalism's Achilles Heel: dirty money and how to renew the
>>>free-market system". He provides the following estimates of global
>>>illegal transaction volumes (on-line sources):
>>>
>>>"My estimate of the total flow of dirty money - and I'm only talking
>>>about the cross border component of this. I'm not concerned about
>>>what takes place inside of a country so much as I am what crosses
>>>borders - my estimate is a trillion a year - a thousand billion
>>>dollars a year of dirty money crosses borders. Half of that, in my
>>>estimate, comes out of the poor countries of the world, developing
>>>and transitional economies, and those are the countries that are
>>>tremendously hurt by these flows, because that is for the most part,
>>>a one-way flow out of those countries into western accounts."
>>>Source: http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2005/s1529454.htm
>>>
>>>For comparison, US$1 trillion is now roughly equal to the GDP of
>>>Spain, or Canada, or Mexico; world GDP income is nominally at about
>>>US$40 trillion; the combined assets of the world's millionaires and
>>>billionaires (mostly legal) are around $31 trillion (Merrill-Lynch).
>>>If we included the volume of illegal transactions within countries
>>>in Baker's total, we'd easily reach an amount equal to the total
>>>funds which the UN says is required to meet the basic survival needs
>>>of all the world's poor - a statistic which I'm sure would please
>>>both rightwing and leftwing reformists interested in "poverty
>>>reduction". So anyway, the idea of "capital shortage" or
>>>"sacrifices" preventing the elimination of poverty is pretty much a
>>>myth, if anything, the poverty exists because of crime, and the
>>>resources expended on combatting it. Baker emphasizes that
>>>government corruption is globally really the smallest part of total
>>>dirty money flows (yet, most of the public controversy focuses on
>>>this).
>>>
>>>Baker also says elsewhere:
>>>
>>>"... nearly 40 percent of Africa's aggregate wealth has been 
>>>transferred to
>>>foreign bank accounts, according to the World Bank. In Africa and
>>>elsewhere, the movement of corrupt and tax-evading money drains hard
>>>currency reserves, reduces government revenues, deters investment,
>>>hurts competitiveness, solidifies the permanence of poverty, props
>>>up tyrants, and undermines political stability and economic
>>>progress. As the world's largest repository of this kind of money,
>>>the United States erodes its own strategic objectives - and its
>>>moral stature - in countries around the globe." Source:
>>>http://www.alumni.hbs.edu/bulletin/2001/february/qanda.html
>>>
>>>The bad news of course is that capitalism cannot exist without crime
>>>(globally, at least 200 million crime victim reports a year), and
>>>the large costs of combatting crime, feeding into risk perceptions -
>>>in seeking to stitch together the moral fabric again, the reformists
>>>condemn the parts, but not the whole... perhaps inevitably, since
>>>the total problem is much larger than any agency can manage, or show
>>>a clear policy result for.
>>>
>>>Jurriaan
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>    
>>
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>Este correo lo ha enviado
>Néstor Miguel Gorojovsky
>nestorgoro at fibertel.com.ar
>[No necesariamente es su autor]
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>"La patria tiene que ser la dignidad arriba y el regocijo abajo".
>Aparicio Saravia
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