#its normally thirty dollars including tax

[ferbiknowhatweregonnadotoday]

wishing i could buy the perry the platypus pillow pet but its soo expensive :[

#swizzy pnf #random pnf #perry the platypus #ptp #perry the platypus pillow pet #ptp pillow pet #pillow pets #if anyones wondering #its normally thirty dollars including tax #and then shipping is like thirty two dollars #so yeah ruined my plans heuehueheue :[

[goloyieng]

South Korea’s Chaebol Challenge

By Eleanor Albert

South Korea’s megaconglomerates have helped lift the country out of poverty, but their extraordinary influence could put the health of the Korean economy at risk.

Introduction

A group of massive, mostly family-run business conglomerates, called chaebol, dominates South Korea’s economy and wields extraordinary influence over its politics. These powerful entities played a central role in transforming what was once a humble agrarian market into one of the world’s largest economies.

The South Korean government has generously supported the chaebol since the early 1960s, nurturing internationally recognized brands such as Samsung and Hyundai. However, in recent years chaebol have come under fire amid a slowing South Korean economy and following a series of high-profile corruption scandals, including one that prompted mass protests and the ouster of Park Geun-hye.

What is a chaebol?

The word chaebol is a combination of the Korean words chae (wealth) and bol (clan or clique). South Korea’s chaebol are family-owned businesses that typically have subsidiaries across diverse industries.

Traditionally, the chaebol corporate structure places members of the founding family in ownership or management positions, allowing them to maintain control over affiliates. Chaebol have relied on close cooperation with the government for their success: decades of support in the form of subsidies, loans, and tax incentives helped them become pillars of the South Korean economy.

Although more than forty conglomerates fit the definition of a chaebol, just a handful wield tremendous economic might. The top five, taken together, represent approximately half of the South Korean stock market’s value. Chaebol drive the majority of South Korea’s investment in research and development and employ people around the world. Samsung Electronics, the largest Samsung affiliate, employs more than 300,000 people globally (more than Apple’s 123,000 and Google’s 88,000 combined).

Which are the largest chaebol?

Samsung. Founded in 1938, Samsung Group is South Korea’s most profitable chaebol, but it began as a small company that exported goods, such as fruit, dried fish, and noodles, primarily to China. Today the conglomerate is run by second- and third-generation members of the Lee family, the second-wealthiest family in Asia, according to Forbes. Over the past eighty years, the company has diversified to include electronics, insurance, ships, luxury hotels, hospitals, an amusement park, and an affiliated university. Its largest and most recognized subsidiary is Samsung Electronics, which for the past decade has accounted for more than 14 percent of South Korea’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Hyundai. Hyundai Group was a small construction business when it opened in 1947 but grew immensely to have dozens of subsidiaries across the automotive, shipbuilding, financial, and electronics industries. In 2003, following the Asian financial crisis and the death of its founder, Chung Ju-yung, the chaebol broke up into five distinct firms. Among the standout offshoots are Hyundai Motor Group, the third-largest carmaker in the world, and Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s largest shipbuilding company.

SK Group. The conglomerate, also known as SK Holdings, dates back to the early 1950s, when the Chey family acquired Sunkyong Textiles. Today, the chaebol oversees around eighty subsidiaries, which operate primarily in the energy, chemical, financial, shipping, insurance, and construction industries. It is best known for SK Telecom, the largest wireless carrier in South Korea, and its semiconductor company, SK Hynix, the world’s second-largest maker of memory chips.

LG. LG Corporation, which derives its name from the merger of Lucky with GoldStar, got its start in 1947 in the chemical and plastics industries. Since the 1960s, the company, under the direction of the Koo family, has heavily invested in the development of consumer electronics, telecommunications networks, and power generation, as well as its chemical business, which includes cosmetics and household goods. In 2005, LG split, spinning off a separate entity called GS, a chaebol whose core businesses are in energy, retail, sports, and construction.

Lotte. Shin Kyuk-ho founded Lotte Group in Tokyo in 1948 and brought the chewing gum company to South Korea in 1967. The conglomerate’s main businesses are concentrated in food products, discount and department stores, hotels, and theme parks and entertainment, as well as finance, construction, energy, and electronics. Lotte Confectionery is the third-largest gum manufacturer in the world. In 2017, the company opened the Lotte World Tower in Seoul, the tallest building in South Korea, with 123 stories.

How did chaebol emerge?

Many of South Korea’s chaebol date to the period of Japanese occupation before the end of World War II, modeling themselves after Japan’s powerful industrial and financial conglomerates, known as zaibatsu. As U.S. and international aid flowed into Seoul [PDF] following the Korean War (1950–1953), the government provided hundreds of millions of dollars in special loans and other financial support to chaebol as part of a concerted effort to rebuild the economy, especially critical industries, such as construction, chemicals, oil, and steel.

Park sought to build a South Korea that was self-reliant.

Scott A. Snyder, Council on Foreign Relations

These enterprises flourished under the leadership of General Park Chung-hee, who led a military coup in 1961 and then served as president from 1963 to 1979. As part of Park’s export-driven development strategy, his authoritarian government prioritized preferential loans to export businesses and insulated domestic industries from external competition. The practice was similar to that of the other Asian tigers, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. “Park sought to build a South Korea that was self-reliant and not dependent on great powers for its security,” writes CFR’s Scott A. Snyder in his 2018 book, South Korea at the Crossroads.

Over time, the chaebol expanded into new industrial sectors and tapped into lucrative foreign markets, providing more fuel for South Korea’s engine. Exports grew from just 4 percent of GDP in 1961 to more than 40 percent by 2016, one of the highest rates globally. Over roughly the same period, the average income of South Koreans rose from $120 per year to more than $27,000 in today’s dollars. As South Korea lifted millions out of poverty, the parallel rise of chaebol embedded the conglomerates into the narrative of South Korea’s postwar rejuvenation.

Chaebol in the South Korean Economy

How did democratization and the 1997 financial crisis impact them?

South Korea’s democratic transition in the late 1980s had important but limited effects on the chaebol system. Democratization fostered the formation of strong labor unions, which fought for higher wages, better working conditions, and an unraveling of the close relationship between the government and chaebol. Reforms in the early 1990s introduced nominal improvements in economic governance and paved the way for South Korea to join the World Trade Organization and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development. However, throughout this period, the nexus between government and big business remained largely unchanged.

On the other hand, the 1997 Asian financial crisis, in which countries across the region were hit by plummeting currencies, debt crises, and recessions, tested South Korea’s chaebol-dominated economic model. In the lead-up to the crisis, South Korean banks lent aggressively to chaebol so they could expand into new sectors. Before and after the exchange rate crisis hit, fifteen of the top thirty conglomerates [PDF] were allowed to go bankrupt.

In December 1997, South Korea agreed to a more than $50 billion international bailout package, a record amount at the time. As a condition of the rescue, led by the International Monetary Fund, Seoul instituted reforms intended to weaken the chaebol system, including new corporate transparency measures and cuts to government subsidies. More broadly, the bailout required major economic adjustments: reducing government deficits, restructuring insolvent financial institutions, and liberalizing trade and foreign investment.

How close are chaebol to the government?

The South Korean government and the chaebol have long had a symbiotic relationship. Many leaders in Seoul have equated the success of the chaebol with South Korea’s postwar prosperity. “The large conglomerates and Korean economy cannot be separated from the politics and the culture and history,” says Rhyu Sang-young, a professor at Yonsei University in Seoul.

The large conglomerates and Korean economy cannot be separated from the politics and the culture and history.

Rhyu Sang-young, Yonsei University

Today, some politicians look to chaebol for financial support during campaigns and often tout chaebol economic successes as national ones. Meanwhile, the chaebol lobby for favorable legislation and public policy. Critics say the tight-knit relationship between Seoul and the chaebol has fostered a culture of corruption, in which embezzlement, bribery, and tax evasion have become the standard. “Asking for money from chaebol executives in return for political favors was considered quite normal until very recently,” Kang Won-taek, a professor at Seoul National University, told the Economist.

The cozy relationship between chaebol and government has increasingly roused the public’s ire. In recent decades, South Korea’s economic growth has dropped from near double digits to around 3 percent, while chaebol have gone global and moved many jobs overseas. Chaebol, once seen as instruments of growth, have become financiers for the government and “contributed more to Korean social inequality than to society,” says CFR’s Snyder.

Many top executives have been found guilty of corruption, including leaders from Samsung, Hyundai , Lotte, and SK. Despite their convictions, the businessmen rarely see the inside of a prison for long, if at all; many pay heavy fines instead, receive presidential pardons, or see their jail sentences suspended by the courts.

Public discontent with the chaebol reached a new peak in 2016–17 with the eruption of a massive influence-peddling scandal that led to the ouster of President Park Geun-hye. In April 2018, she was sentenced to twenty-four years in prison and fined almost $17 million for soliciting bribes from many of South Korea’s top chaebol. In a separate investigation, Park’s predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, was arrested in March 2018 on a slew of graft charges, for which he could receive a life sentence.

What are the ongoing challenges with chaebol?

Despite the scandals, chaebol have continued to stack their corporate boards with allies and place new generations of family in executive roles. While the boards generally adhere to international standards of transparency, analysts say that in practice chaebol families continue to dominate from the sidelines and have fostered a cult of personality that prioritizes loyalty. Practices such as cross-shareholding, in which families exert control over chaebol through a web of circular investments in various affiliates, persist.

Though the chaebol are responsible for the majority of the country’s investment in research and development, experts say they may also introduce challenges to the health of the Korean economy. Economists have warned that the behemoth conglomerates often use their monopolistic clout to squeeze small and medium enterprises (SMEs) out of the market, often copying their innovations rather than developing their own or buying out the SMEs. In this predatory environment, SMEs, which provide for most of the country’s employment, are unable to grow.

There is also a significant wage gap, as the average pay for workers at SMEs is only 63 percent of that at chaebol. South Korea faces growing income inequality levels [PDF] and limited job growth, with high youth unemployment rates.

Further, experts say that large-scale corruption, often associated with the chaebol, reduces economic competitiveness, diminishes social trust, leads to wasteful spending and poor decision-making, and sometimes necessitates large bailouts.

What’s the debate over reforming the chaebol system?

Many experts say the South Korean economy will require major corporate governance reforms to create sustainable growth and limit inequality.

The government, particularly under liberal administrations, has implemented some policies to change corporate management and ownership structures, increased transparency for management and financial reporting, and consolidated chaebol business ventures in core areas. However, analysts say reforms have so far only tackled low-hanging fruit. Chaebol remain dominant, with the top ten owning more than a quarter of all business assets in the country.

Elected in May 2017, President Moon Jae-in came into power with a mandate to sever the government-chaebol nexus and crack down on corruption. He has vowed to end the practice of pardoning convicted executives, raised the minimum wage, and modestly boosted the corporate tax rate from 22 to 25 percent. However, his ability to enact reforms is undermined by his party’s lack of a majority in parliament, where chaebol hold sway over many members.

Some economists have suggested other policy changes, including tougher antitrust laws, a ban on all cross-shareholding among subsidiaries, and greater voice to minority shareholders, to finally break the dominance of the chaebol. Yet many experts caution that changing the chaebol system’s deeply entrenched culture will not happen overnight.

©2021 Council on Foreign Relations. All rights reserved.

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[cherry03wiggins-blog]

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[ganderllama51-blog]

Contribution Margin

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[adrenalineguide]

Kia K5 GT: Korean for sweet ride

Words and Photos By Michael Hozjan

What’s in a name? Well if you’re like my posse of twenty and thirty something’s, it’s the difference between cool and not cool. Case in point Kia’s midsize four door sedan the K5, formerly known as the Optima. I can see some of you already grimacing, but its true. In a move that can be described as nothing short of genius, someone at Kia decided to upgrade the car and make it appealing to the youth market by simply getting rid of a stodgy old moniker.

I can’t recall anybody ever being excited when the Optima was mentioned. All that has changed with the K5. Admittedly it does sound cooler, kind of like F16.

The K5 comes in four different trim levels (LX, EX, GT-Line and GT) with prices starting at $31,460 for the base LX model and climbing to $42,360 for the GT. The K5 continues Kia’s tradition of bringing more bang for your shopping dollar. A heated steering wheel, smart key access, push button start, lane keep assist and blind spot avoidance are all too often found on competitors’ mid level trim lines, for Kia, they’re standard fare on the base car.

There’s more to the K5 persona than just a name tag, gone is the normally aspirated, anemic four cylinder that propelled your uncle’s Optima. Sadly so are the hybrids. The base engine is a turbocharged 1.6L four that delivers 180 hp and 195 lb.-ft. of torque to all four wheels through an 8-speed automatic. It powers the first three trim levels and while it won’t shatter any records, it’s smooth, responds quickly to throttle inputs and should be more than adequate for most drivers. You also get the choice of front or all-wheel-drive with the 1.6L.

My tester came with the more potent 290 horsepower, 2.5L turbo mill that punches out 311 lb.-ft. of torque, through a dual clutch 8-speed automatic. For the extra bucks you get a heads-up display, premium Bose sound system, twin exhaust, plus the usual array of driving aides. In an odd turn of events the GT is offered only in the front drive configuration.

As the GT designation implies this K5 gets a sport-tuned suspension, bigger binders to help stop the added horses and wider 19” rubber. It’ll hit the century mark in 5.5 seconds.

Above and below: Not my usual interior shots, I had so much fun driving the K5 I forgot about my task at hand. 

Interior

Like the exterior, the K5’s cockpit looks fresh with a modern air to it and could be mistaken as belonging to a pricier sports sedan. Fit and finish is top rate, as are Kia’s choice materials right down to the faux leather seats. You get heated/vented buckets, ambient lighting and wireless charging pad. Head, leg and shoulder room is generous for the front seat occupants and rear seat legroom is way beyond the 3 Series bimmers.  

Within three minutes of setting myself in the leather bucket seat I’ve adjusted the seat, set the mirrors, connected my phone, and set my sat radio stations, all without cussing. Voila, simple and to the point, unlike this week’s overly complicated, infuriating sedan. Yes Kia needs to talk to their sound system suppliers to properly set the favorites but other than that, the K5’s controls are easily manipulated and are intuitively placed, the infotainment screen is big, bright, simple to navigate and very responsive.

You can select and customize drive modes and customize the displays in the instrument cluster.

The K5s arrive with cruise, collision mitigation, lane keep. The on screen pop ups keep you in the loop as to which safety systems are in use, and can easily be switched on and off. Again not like this week’s dictorial ride.

You know immediately this is going to be a fun drive.

On the road

I’ve set this before about Kias, so excuse me for repeating myself, but it needs to be said. With their engineers coming from Germany’s top builders it comes as no surprise that the K5 steers, handles and responds better than its front drive competitor., If the rear wheels would be pushing the car instead, than  it would give the big buck Germans a run for their money. If you’ve read my comments on the Stinger GT, well think of the K5 as its smaller athletic brother. If the K5 would be rear wheel drive It would 

The K5 may be classified as a family sedan but with 290 horses on tap eager to be awakened, its one special family. The K5 will easily light up the 19-inch front tires. Whether your right foot is having a heavy day or you’re just out cruising taking in the autumn colors, the trim exclusive  8-speed automatic is perfectly matched to the engine.

The K5’s size lends itself to more enjoyable drive and is easier to toss into a corner than the Stinger. The GT’s larger brakes bring the sporty sedan to controlled stops time and again with little to no fade – just the ticket for those long curvy lakeside roads. The suspension holds up well to most of our third world rated roads without sacrificing too much in seat comfort.

The seats are firm and supportive yet I wouldn’t hesitate for a minute to take this car for a cross-country road trip.

Verdict

I wish Kia would offer the GT trim in all-wheel-drive. Having said that I’ve already put it on my short list as the ride to book for our gang-of-four trip to the Detroit Autorama when and if it reopens in March. It’s capable of swallowing all our gear, give us the ride and comfort we demand and not kill our fuel budget.

If you’re looking for a smart sedan with evocative good looks, that’s easy on the budget as well as on your senses, then run don’t walk to your nearest Kia dealer.

Price as tested: $42,610*

*Includes colour charge, dealer prep, taxes and destination charges

Warranty: 5 year/100,000 km Worry-free comprehensive, 8 year/130,000 km Major Emissions Components, 5 year unlimited mileage 24/7 Roadside Assistance  

#kia #k5 #sports sedan #stinger

[youbusiness2025]

If you are trying to find the best audit company in Pittsburgh for your local business, the Best Accounting Firm in Pittsburgh for Your Small Business below are five definitive realities about the city and five excellent methods to find the audit company there that ideal satisfies your local business demands.

Pittsburgh-- The Most Comfortable City In The U.S. Pittsburgh is Pennsylvania's second-biggest city, a populace of 311,647. The 7 county area bordering the city boasts a populace of 2,354,957.

Allegheny Area, which includes Pittsburgh, is without a doubt the largest and most flourishing.

In these seven regions, there are over 1,000 audit companies, 40% of which remain in Pittsburgh. Over half of them cater to small businesses.

In 2005 and again in 2009, The Economic expert placed Pittsburgh the leading most livable city in the USA.

In 2007, Pittsburgh asserted the primary area in the Places Rated Almanac.

In 2010, both Forbes Magazine as well as Yahoo! had Pittsburgh at the top of their listings. Entrepreneur Magazine placed Pittsburgh as one of the very best for business owners.

Pittsburgh-- The City Of Bridges.

Pittsburgh is the globe record owner for bridges with 446 of them included entirely within the city limits.

These bridges go across the Allegheny River from the northeast and also the Monongahela River from the southeast to form the Ohio River and the Midtown location of the city referred to as the Golden Triangle.

They link the city to the four locations bordering it, namely the North Side/North Hills, the South Side/South Hills, the East End and also the West End.

4 interstates (I-376, I-279, i-579 and also i-79), recognized to Pittsburghers as the Parkway East, the Parkway West, the Parkway North and also Crosstown as well as two major expressways (Route 28 and Course 22) connect 237 boroughs as well as 202 areas with each other and with Downtown Pittsburgh.

The majority of the larger audit firms serving Pittsburgh's significant companies remain in Midtown Pittsburgh.

Nonetheless, practically all of the audit companies serving the city's ever-growing local business population lie in the locations north, south, eastern and also west of the city.

These companies offer small businesses in Pittsburgh and Allegheny Region as well as likewise supply their services to the various other six counties that compose the Greater Pittsburgh Area.

The local business bookkeeping firms in these areas have deep-seated connections to the area, the people and the businesses living there.

Best Accounting Firm in Pittsburgh for Your Small Business

Pittsburgh-- A City Transformed. Thirty years back, Pittsburgh was an unclean, smoky steel town, called the Steel City, due to its predominance as a mighty steel-making center.

When that industry fell down and also Pittsburgh shed its manufacturing base, its blue-collar workers, and business titans like Westinghouse, Gulf Oil, Koppers and also Rockwell International, the city encountered its initial recession in more than a century.

To its debt, though, the city transformed like none other in the country and also emerged twenty years later on as a growing white-collar city.

Today, Pittsburgh is still a steel city.

United States Steel, the 10th largest steel business in the world, is headquartered there.

Allegheny Technologies, a world-class steel maker, has 8 manufacturing plants in the area.

The city still employs 7,000 steel employees as well as one more 12,000 in the primary metals market. Though the area shed 100,000 manufacturing tasks in the last three decades, that sector is still among the greatest factors to the region's economic situation.

What altered is just how diversified that market is currently.

Sophisticated businesses in life sciences, robotics, information technology and study have actually signed up with ranks with 8 Fortune 500 businesses.

Healthcare, education, research, monetary solutions and entertainment/tourism are the recently arising sectors that are driving earnings and work for the region.

One of the fastest-growing areas supporting the city's change to a white-collar economy is accounting.

This is particularly real as the city remains to move far from sector to solution as well as modern technology.

Much of the recently arising companies across all fields of the regional economy are small businesses.

Though there are already over 400 accounting companies in Pittsburgh as well as Allegheny Area alone servicing those services, that number raises drastically as you move into the various other 7 regions bordering the city.

Pittsburgh-- A City Of Growth. The local economic situation mirrors the country's economy as it remains to battle the recession.

Nonetheless, the area has gotten on much better than the majority of areas in the country and is positioned for substantive development in 2011.

Economists from the city's largest financial institutions anticipate that the Greater Pittsburgh Area will include 13,000 new jobs this year.

Unemployment is anticipated to drop listed below 8 percent as larger companies begin to work with and also newly established businesses begin to expand. Added hiring will certainly also appear as brand-new companies situate there.

New IT companies to support the growing research activity

The College of Pittsburgh Medical Facility, the city's biggest employer, is presently in a hiring mode. Retail titans like Cock's Sporting Product and also General Nutrition Facility (GNC) are growing. Google now runs a 40,000 square foot office in Pittsburgh and just recently announced plans for expansion.

Marcellus Shale natural gas will be a significant factor to the neighborhood's economic situation.

The Cultural Arts, consisting of movie manufacturing, continues to blossom and dozens of new information technology firms are emerging to support the growing research activity at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie-Mellon University.

Most of the new companies being created in the area are small businesses supporting these major industries remains to bloom as well as lots companies arising College

business location small companies.

As the location grows, these organizations will certainly expand too and also their requirement for more specialized accounting services will become significantly evident.

Presently, accounting professional companies in the Pittsburgh area deal 18 various kinds of accounting to small businesses, income tax obligation accountancy and project accounting to name a few.

Pittsburgh-- The City Of Champions. Pittsburgh is house to 3 major league franchises-- the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Pittsburgh Steelers as well as the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Two of those teams have enhanced the city with championships, the Steelers winning six Super Dish titles and also the Penguins winning three Stanley Cups.

Thanks to the inventive idea of a cherished Pittsburgh sportscaster and also his Awful Towel, the Steelers have actually given Pittsburgh fans the factor to proclaim their hometown satisfaction by just waving their Terrible Towel.

This marketing icon singlehandedly created Steeler Nation, a brotherhood of loyal fans across the country that has quietly and selflessly raised millions of dollars for a local charity in Pittsburgh.

This hometown pride, this brotherhood, this spirit of generosity is championed in almost advertising and marketing symbol developed Country devoted followers nation and also elevated numerous bucks regional home town league kindness nearly every community and community in the Greater Pittsburgh area.

Pittsburghers are proud, laborious, charitable as well as friendly people.

Many of them have actually stayed in their hometown for years and also have developed numerous small companies to support their households, their neighborhoods and also the city they call home. Accounting companies throughout the area have their origins in these exact same areas as well as have actually handled to successfully assist and sustain these organizations as well as the local communities and also organizations they offer.

These small organizations continue to thrive since of their efforts.

With the excellent working expertise of the city, its economic climate as well as its people, you can quickly locate the accounting firm in Pittsburgh that ideal satisfies your small company demands. Right here are 5 sure-fire means to assist you do that.

Pay attention to your area and the location of the accounting office you choose to work with

Pay attention to your area and the place of the bookkeeping firm with whom you select to work. Pittsburgh is a big urban city with over 400 neighborhoods and areas as diverse as the people living there. These neighborhoods and communities are what make Pittsburgh unique and it is important that you find an accounting firm that knows these places and the businesses that reside there. Pittsburgh is also a city area as well as a community distinct and also is essential audit company recognizes and also live , like several various other huge cities in the country, tormented with traffic jams, building delays and also negative weather condition. These problems cause mayhem when driving in and out of the city at any time throughout a normal service day. Don't waste time driving completely across the community to meet with your accounting professional. Besides, if your audit company is close to you, they should be willing ahead to your place of business.

#IFTTT #Blogger

[daniloqp]

Zillow Taps AI to improve your home value estimates

Zillow Taps AI to improve your home value estimates

https://theministerofcapitalism.com/blog/zillow-taps-ai-to-improve-your-home-value-estimates/

Stories of people Getting cash offers for your homes has become normal at tens of thousands of dollars above the asking price. This year, the inventory in the US real estate market reached a record low, while house prices reached a record high. Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman recently highlighted the madness with a tweet telling the story of a homebuyer who offered to baptize his eldest son by the seller’s name, and was turned down.

When the hot American real estate market began to overheat, in February, Zillow began making the first cash offers to buy homes according to his price estimate. Now Zillow has updated his algorithm behind these estimates in a way according to the company, will make them more accurate and allow Zillow to offer the purchase of more homes.

Owners of some 900,000 properties were initially eligible to receive automatic cash offers to purchase a home. Zillow head of analysis Stan Humphries said the change was his artificial intelligence will expand this group by 30 percent. A company spokesman said Zillow Offers could close sales in just one week.

Zillow previously determined the value of households using nearly 1,000 derivative algorithm variations for local markets. Now all prices nationwide will be decided by one neural network. Zillow says the new algorithm will reduce its pricing errors by 11.5 percent for homes off the market in nearly 30 U.S. regions. Compared to the previous version of the algorithm, errors were reduced more in Phoenix, followed by San Antonio, Tampa, and Houston.

Using the new algorithm, Zillow will more frequently update its estimates of the value of 104 million properties in 23 U.S. markets. Around the founding of the company in 2005, valuations were updated monthly. More recently, they have been updated several times a week; now, some estimates can be updated daily.

Zillow’s estimates on the home are popular topics of local conversation, particularly in the popular housing markets. A recently Saturday night live skit compared Zillow surfing to phone sex and joked that, for people in their thirties, “the pleasure you used to have from sex now comes from looking at other people’s homes.”

Zillow has been developing its home valuation algorithm for 15 years. In 2019 a step towards a single neural network was initiated after a public competition to improve its estimates that attracted more than 3,000 teams competing for a $ 1 million prize. Two out of three finalists in this contest took advantage of neural network-based approaches, a form of deep learning that Zillow says is more able to recognize the relationship between the data used to estimate a home’s valuation.

For example, Humphries said the new approach is able to better understand the value of waterfront properties or how valuations are influenced by the size of nearby homes.

“The old approach would make it difficult for this county to understand the value of oceanfront homes,” he said. “Neural networks that are formed across the country could get information from other parts of the country about the value of the boardwalk and apply it to a local geography, even if there weren’t many houses like that in that geography.”

Estimates of home value are based on dozens of factors about a property, including square feet and location. Some listings also include data extracted from tax assessments and sales records. Since 2016, the company has also used computer vision systems that draw photo conclusions from home listings.

By expanding its home buying program, the company hopes to incorporate one-click e-commerce sensitivity into the real estate market, said CEO Rich Barton. “Finally, we want to have most homes in the country inside this live offer purchase box,” he said.

The company also hopes to take advantage of what it calls “the big remodel,” as more people seek to work from home more often and millennials seek to buy homes.

Billions of people look at Zillow listings every year, many, Barton said, to dream or engage in a little voyeurism. For them, Zillow tries to “get involved or entertain themselves,” but for people who buy and sell homes, Zillow wants to sell more services. Beyond home buying, Zillow also increases services such as home loans, home insurance and helps you go through the collateral process.

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[agnarr-mattiasson]

Top 21 Real Estate Investing Terms and Formulas

Becoming familiar with the parc esta condo investing terms and formulas is extremely very helpful (if not crucial) for brokers, agents and buyers who want to service or acquire real estate investment properties. This is not normally the case, though. During my thirty-year experience as an investment real estate property specialist I often encountered far too many that had basically no idea, and it showed - both in their performance plus success rate. As a result, I felt it needful in order to list what I deem are the top 20 properties investing terms and formulas worth understanding categorized while either primary or secondary. The primary terms and formulas are the very least you should know, and the secondary terms takes the software a step further for those of you who are seriously planning to are more actively engaged with real estate investing. Primary 1 . Low Scheduled Income (GSI) The annual rental income a home would generate if 100% of all space were hired and all rents collected. GSI does not regard openings or credit losses, and instead, would include a decent market rent for those units that might be vacant at the time of a genuine estate analysis. Annual Current Rental Income + Gross Market Rental Income for Vacant Units = Uncouth Scheduled Income 2 . Gross Operating Income (GOI) It is gross scheduled income less vacancy and credit burning, plus income derived from other sources such as coin-operated laundry facilities. Consider GOI as the amount of rental income the estate investor actually collects to service the nightly rental property. Gross Scheduled Income - Vacancy and Credit score Loss + Other Income = Gross Operating Salary 3. Operating Expenses These include those costs associated with staying a property operational and in service such as property taxes, insurance plans, utilities, and routine maintenance; but should not be mistaken to make sure you also include payments made for mortgages, capital expenditures or taxes. 4. Net Operating Income (NOI) This is a property's source of income after being reduced by vacancy and credit decline and all operating expenses. NOI is one of the most important car loans calculations to any real estate investment because it represents the income stream online that subsequently determines the property's market value - that is, the price a real estate investor is willing to have the funds for that income stream. Gross Operating Income - Jogging Expenses = Net Operating Income 5. Cash Flow Prior to Tax (CFBT) This is the number of dollars a property generates from a given year after all cash outflows are subtracted as a result of cash inflows but in turn still subject to the real residence investor's income tax liability. Net Operating Income - Bill Service - Capital Expenditures = Cash Flow Before Place a burden on 6. Gross Rent Multiplier (GRM) A simple method made use of by analysts to determine a rental income property's market value based upon its gross scheduled income. You would first calculate a GRM using the market value at which other properties advertised and then apply that GRM to determine the market value for your own personal property. Market Value ÷ Gross Scheduled Income = Gross Rent Multiplier Then, Gross Scheduled Income times Gross Rent Multiplier = Market Value 7. Max Rate This popular return expresses the ratio in between a rental property's value and its net operating income. Typically the cap rate formula commonly serves two useful realty investing purposes: To calculate a property's cap pace, or by transposing the formula, to calculate an important property's reasonable estimate of value. Net Operating Profits ÷ Value = Cap Rate Or, Net Working Income ÷ Cap Rate = Value 8. Hard cash on Cash Return (CoC) The ratio between the property's cash flow in a given year and the amount of primary capital investment required to make the acquisition (e. g., mortgage down payment and closing costs). Most investors normally look at cash-on-cash as it relates to cash flow before taxes within first year of ownership. Cash Flow ÷ Initial Growth capital Investment = Cash on Cash Return 9. Performing Expense Ratio This expresses the ratio between the investment real estate's total operating expenses dollar end up its gross operating income dollar amount. It is depicted as a percentage. Operating Expenses ÷ Gross Operating Cash flow = Operating Expense Ratio 10. Debt Coverage Relation (DCR) A ratio that expresses the number of times gross net operating income exceeds debt service (I. elizabeth., total loan payment, including both principal and interest). Net Operating Income ÷ Debt Service = Arrears Coverage Ratio DCR results, Less than 1 . 0 : not enough NOI to cover the debt Exactly 1 . 0 -- just enough NOI to cover the debt Greater than 1 . 0 - more than enough NOI to cover the debt 11. Break-Even Ratio (BER) A ratio some lenders calculate to gauge all the proportion between the money going out to the money coming to enable them to estimate how vulnerable a property is to defaulting on the debt if rental income declines. BER reveals the actual percent of income consumed by the estimated expenses. (Operating Expense + Debt Service) ÷ Gross Operating Cash = Break-Even Ratio BER results, Less than 100% : less consuming expenses than income Greater than 100% -- more consuming expenses than income 12. Loan for you to Value (LTV) This measures what percentage of a property's appraised value or selling price (whichever is less) is certainly attributable to financing. A higher LTV benefits real estate investors through greater leverage, whereas lenders regard a higher LTV in the form of greater financial risk. Loan Amount ÷ Lesser in Appraised Value or Selling Price = Loan to Worth Secondary 13. Depreciation (Cost Recovery) The amount of tax reduction investment property owners may take each year until the entire depreciable possession is written off. To calculate, you must first find out the depreciable basis by computing the portion of any asset allotted to improvements (land is not depreciable), then amortizing that amount over the asset's useful life because specified in the tax code: 27. 5 years just for residential property, and 39. 0 years for non-residential. Property Value x Percent Allotted to Improvements = Depreciable Basis Then, Depreciable Basis ÷ Useful Daily life = Depreciation Allowance (annual) 14. Mid-Month Convention The adjusts the depreciation allowance in whatever month the particular asset is placed into service and whatever month it will be disposed. The current tax code only allows one-half of your depreciation normally allowed for these particular months. For instance, any time you buy in January, you will only get to write down 11. 5 months of depreciation for that first time of ownership. 15. Taxable Income This is the amount of cash flow produced by a rental on which the owner must pay Federal tax. Once calculated, that amount is multiplied by the investor's marginal tax rate (I. e., state and federal combined) to arrive at the owner's tax liability. Net Managing Income - Mortgage Interest - Depreciation, Real Place - Depreciation, Capital Additions - Amortization, Points as well as Closing Costs + Interest Earned (e. g., place bank or mortgage escrow accounts) = Taxable Source of income Then, Taxable Income x Marginal Tax Rate = Tax Liability 16. Cash Flow After Tax (CFAT) The amount of spendable cash that the real estate investor makes out of your investment after satisfying all required tax obligations. Cash Before Tax - Tax Liability = Cash Flow Once Tax 17. Time Value of Money This is the primary assumption that money, over time, will change value. It's a key element in real estate investing because it could suggest that the timing of receipts from the investment might be more important in comparison to the amount received. 18. Present Value (PV) This demonstrates what a cash flow or series of cash flows available in the long run is worth in today's dollars. PV is calculated by "discounting" future cash flows back in time using a given discount fee. 19. Future Value (FV) This shows what a cash or series of cash flows will be worth at a particular time in the future. FV is calculated by "compounding" the principal sum forward in time at a given compound quote. 20. Net Present Value (NPV) This shows typically the dollar amount difference between the present value of all foreseeable future cash flows using a particular discount rate - your own required rate of return - and the initial hard cash invested to purchase those cash flows. Present Value of most Future Cash Flows - Initial Cash Investment = Net Present Value NPV results, Negative - the essential return is not met Zero - the required return is without a doubt perfectly met Positive - the required return is realized with room to spare 21. Internal Rate regarding Return (IRR) This popular model creates a single lower price rate whereby all future cash flows can be discount until they equal the investor's initial cash investment decision. In other words, when a series of all future cash flows will be discounted at IRR that present value amount will probably equal the actual cash investment amount. So You Know ProAPOD's real estate investment software solutions as well as iCalculator - it's web based real estate calculator - apply these formulas and produce these calculations automatically.

[weedbombing]

Finest 21 Real Estate Investing Terms and Formulas

Understanding the Ola EC investing terms and formulas is extremely helpful (if not crucial) for brokers, agents and investors who want to service or acquire real estate investment properties. This is not always possible, though. During my thirty-year experience as an investment real estate expert I often encountered far too many that had no suggestion, and it showed - both in their performance and achieving success rate. As a result, I felt it needful to record what I deem are the top 20 real estate committing terms and formulas worth understanding categorized as sometimes primary or secondary. The primary terms and formulas is the very least you should know, and the secondary terms takes it the step further for those of you who are seriously planning to become more make an effort to engaged with real estate investing. Primary 1 . Gross Timetabled Income (GSI) The annual rental income a property would certainly generate if 100% of all space were rented plus all rents collected. GSI does not regard vacancy or possibly credit losses, and instead, would include a reasonable current market rent for those units that might be vacant at the time of a real house analysis. Annual Current Rental Income + Annual Current market Rental Income for Vacant Units = Gross Signed Income 2 . Gross Operating Income (GOI) This is uncouth scheduled income less vacancy and credit loss, as well as income derived from other sources such as coin-operated laundry services. Consider GOI as the amount of rental income the real home investor actually collects to service the rental building. Gross Scheduled Income - Vacancy and Credit Decline + Other Income = Gross Operating Income 3. Operating Expenses These include those costs associated with keeping a home operational and in service such as property taxes, insurance, tools, and routine maintenance; but should not be mistaken to have payments made for mortgages, capital expenditures or income taxes. contemplate. Net Operating Income (NOI) This is a property's income once being reduced by vacancy and credit loss as well as all operating expenses. NOI is one of the most important calculations for you to any real estate investment because it represents the income stream the fact that subsequently determines the property's market value - that may be, the price a real estate investor is willing to pay for who income stream. Gross Operating Income - Operating Prices = Net Operating Income 5. Cash Flow Before Tax bill (CFBT) This is the number of dollars a property generates in a assigned year after all cash outflows are subtracted from dollars inflows but in turn still subject to the real estate investor's income tax liability. Net Operating Income - Debt Services - Capital Expenditures = Cash Flow Before Tax 6. Gross Rent Multiplier (GRM) A simple method used by experts to determine a rental income property's market value based upon the nation's gross scheduled income. You would first calculate the GRM using the market value at which other properties sold then apply that GRM to determine the market value for your own place. Market Value ÷ Gross Scheduled Income = Low Rent Multiplier Then, Gross Scheduled Income x Uncouth Rent Multiplier = Market Value 7. Cap Quote This popular return expresses the ratio between accommodations property's value and its net operating income. The max rate formula commonly serves two useful real estate shelling out purposes: To calculate a property's cap rate, and / or by transposing the formula, to calculate a property's reasonable estimate of value. Net Operating Income ÷ Value = Cap Rate Or, Net Operating Cash ÷ Cap Rate = Value 8. Cash regarding Cash Return (CoC) The ratio between a property's cash flow in a given year and the amount of initial growth capital investment required to make the acquisition (e. g., property loan down payment and closing costs). Most investors usually view cash-on-cash as it relates to cash flow before taxes during the first of all year of ownership. Cash Flow ÷ Initial Capital Investment decision = Cash on Cash Return 9. Operating Expenditure Ratio This expresses the ratio between an funding real estate's total operating expenses dollar amount to the gross operating income dollar amount. It is expressed in the form of percentage. Operating Expenses ÷ Gross Operating Income = Operating Expense Ratio 10. Debt Coverage Ratio (DCR) A ratio that expresses the number of times annual netting operating income exceeds debt service (I. e., 100 % loan payment, including both principal and interest). Goal Operating Income ÷ Debt Service = Debt Policy cover Ratio DCR results, Less than 1 . 0 - too little NOI to cover the debt Exactly 1 . 0 - adequate NOI to cover the debt Greater than 1 . 0 - ample NOI to cover the debt 11. Break-Even Ratio (BER) The ratio some lenders calculate to gauge the ratio between the money going out to the money coming so they can calculate how vulnerable a property is to defaulting on its arrears if rental income declines. BER reveals the percentage point of income consumed by the estimated expenses. (Operating Outlay of money + Debt Service) ÷ Gross Operating Income = Break-Even Ratio BER results, Less than 100% - much less consuming expenses than income Greater than 100% - further consuming expenses than income 12. Loan to Worth (LTV) This measures what percentage of a property's appraised value or selling price (whichever is less) is as a result of financing. A higher LTV benefits real estate investors with significantly greater leverage, whereas lenders regard a higher LTV as a larger financial risk. Loan Amount ÷ Lesser of Appraised Value or Selling Price = Loan to Value Secondary 13. Depreciation (Cost Recovery) The amount of tax deduction expenditure of money property owners may take each year until the entire depreciable asset will be written off. To calculate, you must first determine typically the depreciable basis by computing the portion of the property allotted to improvements (land is not depreciable), and then amortizing that amount over the asset's useful life as particular in the tax code: 27. 5 years for readily available property, and 39. 0 years for non-residential. Place Value x Percent Allotted to Improvements = Depreciable Basis Then, Depreciable Basis ÷ Useful Life = Depreciation Allowance (annual) 14. Mid-Month Convention This changes the depreciation allowance in whatever month the possession is placed into service and whatever month it is got rid of. The current tax code only allows one-half of the accounting allowance normally allowed for these particular months. For instance, if you order in January, you will only get to write off 11. 5 months of depreciation for that first year in ownership. 15. Taxable Income This is the amount of revenue generated by a rental on which the owner must pay Federal income tax. After calculated, that amount is multiplied by the investor's minor tax rate (I. e., state and federal combined) to arrive at the owner's tax liability. Net Operating Source of income - Mortgage Interest - Depreciation, Real Property - Depreciation, Capital Additions - Amortization, Points and Ending Costs + Interest Earned (e. g., property bank or investment company or mortgage escrow accounts) = Taxable Income Therefore, Taxable Income x Marginal Tax Rate = Tax burden Liability 16. Cash Flow After Tax (CFAT) This is the variety of spendable cash that the real estate investor makes from the investment decision after satisfying all required tax obligations. Cash Flow Prior to Tax - Tax Liability = Cash Flow After Place a burden on 17. Time Value of Money This is the underlying forecasts that money, over time, will change value. It's an important element in real estate investing because it could suggest that the timing regarding receipts from the investment might be more important than the amount of money received. 18. Present Value (PV) This shows that of a cash flow or series of cash flows available in the future may be valued at in today's dollars. PV is calculated by "discounting" foreseeable future cash flows back in time using a given discount rate. 20. Future Value (FV) This shows what a cash flow or perhaps series of cash flows will be worth at a specified amount of time in the future. FV is calculated by "compounding" the original most important sum forward in time at a given compound rate. 20. Net Present Value (NPV) This shows the greenback amount difference between the present value of all future hard cash flows using a particular discount rate - your expected rate of return - and the initial cash expended to purchase those cash flows. Present Value of all Foreseeable future Cash Flows - Initial Cash Investment = Netting Present Value NPV results, Negative - the required gain is not met Zero - the required return is wonderfully met Positive - the required return is met through room to spare 21. Internal Rate of Gain (IRR) This popular model creates a single discount quote whereby all future cash flows can be discounted until finally they equal the investor's initial cash investment. To explain, when a series of all future cash flows is discount at IRR that present value amount will even the actual cash investment amount.

[amherstnhwjoh642-blog]

10 Undeniable Reasons People Hate Town Of Amherst Nh Selectmen

Sights : 43 Please publish your views relating to this area and advise All those who would like to go here.

. It is the accountability of your homeowner to know that taxes are owing 2 times a yr. If a homeowner won't get a bill, make sure you get in touch with the Tax Collector’s Office environment. The Tax Collector sends the bills to your homeowner and address on document that's based on the assessing information warranted to your Tax Collector in the Board of Selectmen.

Investigators Restrict your assert-House right down to an Escort or Transporter. If you decide on random persons to hypnotize into believing they were being part-blocked, and will disprove your declare, you could be lynched conveniently. In this instance, Transporter is a decent declare if there won't be any Spies about.

If an influence failure occurs during a flood event or any other uncommon weather conditions party, your sump pump won't operate and you will run the potential risk of having a flooded basement. As an added precautionary subject, it is actually strongly encouraged that you buy a properly sized gasoline-driven generator or simply a long-lasting normal-gas run generator which could be utilised to deliver ability on your sump pump within the party of a power failure. Make sure you Take note that a permit from your Town of Amherst Building Department is needed for a everlasting generator. In its place, you might buy a battery-driven sump pump system that could operate throughout a power failure. In case your sump pump fails, we also advise that you purchase a spare sump pump with appropriate plumbing fittings. Temperature events including the October 2006 major snowfall, the substantial winds on January thirty, 2008 along with other high wind gatherings have brought about lengthy electricity failures. Further more, in the course of the past number of years, the Town has skilled hefty snowfalls at various periods of calendar year which designed flooding disorders later. Further flood details offered at Remember to Call me Should you have any inquiries with regards to this facts. Extremely definitely yours, Thomas C. Ketchum, P.E. Commissioner of Building Attachment C:\Users\willerd\AppData\Nearby\Microsoft\Home windows\Momentary Net Documents\Articles.Outlook\H40FPECT\CRS Letter2014base.doc two/21/2014

Be cautious about depending on Jesters, considering the fact that They could lie about your messages in an effort to get killed on their own.

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[ericfruits]

15 Minute increments OK In Wyoming

The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed a favorable decision for a law firm in a fee dispute.

The court concluded that the law firm's 15 minute minimum increments for charges to the client were not unreasonable under the circumstances

For more than sixteen years, Manigault retained Daly & Sorenson to represent her in ninety-seven separate legal matters ranging from land and oil and gas transactions to ranching, domestic relations, and criminal matters. She typically paid her bills and any accrued interest when proceeds from her oil and gas interests and cattle sales became available.

In late 2012, she retained the firm with respect to one of the matters that gave birth to the present case. Manigault’s mother sued her to collect on two separate promissory notes on which she owed nearly three million dollars, and to collect accumulated interest, late fees, and attorney fees.

The case ultimately settled when Manigault agreed to confess judgment in favor of her mother (notwithstanding her initial position that the money received from her mother was a gift), and in exchange her mother agreed to forgive the entire debt and write off the loss on her taxes. Manigault paid the law firm roughly thirty percent of what it billed in that case, leaving an unpaid balance of approximately $13,116.33.

Earlier in 2012, she retained Daly & Sorenson for what the parties call “the trust litigation.” It involved the large estate of Manigault’s father and its complex distribution through numerous family trusts and family partnerships and his will. Although she and her son were beneficiaries of those trusts, they were controlled by her stepmother, brother, and several attorneys and financial planners. Moreover, they were created and situated in several states and involved far-flung assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The trusts’ corpora included stock in publishing companies, holdings in various media outlets, plantations and historic pre-revolution homes in South Carolina, and ranchlands in Wyoming and Montana.

The bills accrued and the law firm sued. A Wyoming Bar penel held a hearing by the Wyoming State Bar Committee for Resolution of Fee Disputes

the panel found that the hourly rates charged by Daly & Sorenson were reasonable, and that since 1997 it had represented Manigault in many legal matters without a written agreement. The absence of such an agreement led the panel to deduct interest and fees for long distance phone calls from the amount it found due the firm. It also deducted charges for the preparation of two motions which benefited the law firm but not Manigault, as well as charges for clerical work it determined were improperly billed at paralegal rates. Finally, it also deducted for a single instance of accidental double billing, and it concluded that Manigault owed the firm $64,621.05 after all of these adjustments.

The client appealed and the court had remanded to the panel

On February 18, 2016, the panel determined in its second decision that Daly & Sorenson billed Manigault according to minimum increments of fifteen minutes, that such was its normal practice, and that this had been the practice it had employed with Manigault in ninety-seven separate matters over several years. It also determined that the firm’s use of those increments was not unreasonable.

With respect to billing for certain information exchanges between a firm attorney and another attorney or paralegal employed by the firm, the panel determined that this was likewise the law firm’s normal practice, that it had been employed throughout its long history of representing Manigault, and that it was not unreasonable. The panel’s consequent decision to deduct nothing further from the amount owed to the law firm led to a second petition for judicial review filed on March 25, 2016.

In this appeal

Manigault accuses the law firm of using fifteen-minute minimum billing intervals to routinely charge her for that interval when the specified work took far less time to accomplish, and of billing for unproductive casual conversations between attorneys and paralegals which did not advance her cases. The record indicates, however, that of the eight factors addressed in Rule 1.5(a), only one received more than a cursory mention by the parties, and only that factor seems to have survived as contested throughout the process of judicial review. That factor is the nature and length of the law firm’s professional relationship with Manigault, and the billing practices during that time. She did not rely on that factor to prove her accusations. Instead, she relied principally upon attorney expert testimony that unfavorable inferences could possibly be drawn from a number of billing entries. She did not account for the fact that other inferences were equally possible. On the other hand, members of the law firm testified about its longstanding billing practices, and the adherence to these practices during its relationship with Manigault.

The testimony of the attorneys supported to result

When we accord proper deference to the panel’s allocation of the weight and assessment of the credibility of the testimony presented to it, we are compelled to conclude that the testimony from the attorneys of Daly & Sorenson provided a sufficient and reasonable basis for the panel’s decision. Therefore, its conclusion that Manigault should receive no further reduction relating to the firm’s fifteen-minute minimum billing practice or billing for substantive and necessary intraoffice communications was supported by substantial evidence.

(Mike Frisch)

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2018/03/the-wyoming-supreme-court-for-more-than-sixteen-years-manigault-retained-daly-sorenson-to-represent-her-in-ninety-seven-se.html

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2018/03/the-wyoming-supreme-court-for-more-than-sixteen-years-manigault-retained-daly-sorenson-to-represent-her-in-ninety-seven-se.html

#IFTTT #Feedly

[libertariantaoist]

The ridiculous truth is that the imposition of a travel ban on Yemen – in addition  to six other countries  –  has evoked more anguish than America’s major role  in making that country unlivable. Here’s  a very sad story about the plight of a young Yemeni girl who is being blocked  from entering the US – but where is the outrage about what’s being done to her  homeland with our tax dollars and in our name?

And make no mistake: the Saudi invasion of Yemen on behalf of a “government”  that has no popular support and was kicked out of office  by its disgusted citizens is one of the worst atrocities in recent history.  More than 25,000  have died, many more have been grievously wounded, and the country is being  swept by famine.  The result has been the empowerment of America’s worst enemies – and by that  I mean not just al-Qaeda.

Yemen has been in turmoil since the end of the cold war, with a  many-sided civil war making normal life nearly impossible. Yet things have  gotten much worse since the 2015 Saudi invasion, which aims at installing a  puppet government and crushing the Houthi  insurgency in the north. The Saudis and Yemeni government troops have generally  ignored  al-Qaeda, which controls a swathe of territory in the southeast, instead  concentrating their efforts on bombing civilians in Houthi areas.

The Houthis are adherents of the Zaydi faith,  a dissident sect of Islam, often likened to the Shi’ites  –  a facile comparison,  since there are significant theological differences. They have long maintained  their autonomy in the face of successive (and notoriously unstable) central  governments, but were pushed to the brink when the Saudis sent in Sunni fundamentalist  preachers who challenged the authority of local religious and tribal authorities.  This led to the rise of the “Believing  Youth,” a Zaydi revivalist group that eventually coalesced into a military  force.

As the so-called Arab Awakening swept through the Middle East, destabilizing  longstanding governments, Yemen was no exception: massive demonstrations eventually  forced President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had reigned as undisputed despot for  thirty years, to resign in favor of his Vice President, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi – whose “election” in 2012 was made possible by the fact  that he was the only candidate.  

Yet this did not appease the various tribal and factional groups that had been  unleashed by the end of Saleh’s rule: it only emboldened them. It wasn’t long  before Hadi, too, was driven out of office, and forced to flee: the Houthis  took over the capital, Sana’a, and declared the establishment of a “Revolutionary  Committee.” Hadi fled to Aden, while the former President Saleh denounced him  and demanded that he go into exile: troops still loyal to Saleh allied with  the Houthis.

In 2015, the Saudis invaded, declaring their support for Hadi and bombing Sana’a  and the Houthi strongholds in the north. Hadi and his Saudi masters say that  the Houthis are being funded and trained by Iran and Hezbollah, but in the past  US government officials have been dubious about  this claim.

Hadi has received unconditional support from Washington in spite  of his inability to either control the country or confront the growing influence  of al-Qaeda. Last week, the US launched  an attack on an al-Qaeda redoubt, killing a number of civilians – including  the young daughter of US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, who was himself killed by  the US along with his teenage son in 2011. One US soldier was killed, and three  were injured.

The irony here is that the Houthis are militant opponents of the Sunni supremacist  al-Qaeda, and are the only military formation indigenous to the country capable  of confronting and defeating them. Yet the US is aiding the Saudis and the Hadi  regime in their merciless war against the Houthis and allied tribes, while al-Qaeda  continues to make gains.

All of which raises a larger issue: the US-Saudi relationship under President  Donald Trump. Despite a recent conversation  between the Saudi king and the President, Trump has never said a good word about  the Kingdom or its rulers. He vocally  supported the campaign to release the famous “28 pages” of a joint congressional  report on the role of foreign governments in aiding the 9/11 hijackers, which  exposed the part played by Saudi officials in facilitating the attack. Indeed,  fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers were Saudi citizens. Highlighting the  danger posed by “radical Islamic terrorism” was a major theme of Trump’s presidential  campaign, and it continues to be the overarching theme of his administration.  The Saudis have long been the main perpetrators of this ideology, funding radical  mosques and their demagogic imams, and setting up madrassas that spread the  doctrines that energize al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.

In trying to imagine what Trump’s policy toward the Saudis will be, I’m reminded  of a passage from a recent  essay by Branko Milanovic, a visiting  professor at City University of New York’s Graduate Center, in which he wrote:

“The Western elites  treat Trump as they would treat a tiger with whom they are unwillingly locked  in a cage: they try to be friendly to the tiger hoping to avoid being eaten,  but they hope that the tiger would soon be taken out of the cage.”

This applies to the Middle Eastern elites as well. The Saudis hope to deploy  Trump as a battering ram against their Iranian archrivals, but the fear is that  they will also be battered in the process. Riyadh is quite justified in this  fear. The Saudi foreign minister has decried the seven-nation travel ban as  “very  very dangerous,” in part because it applies to Sudan, one of their allies  in the Yemen war, and in part because, if applied across the board, it could  very well wind up being applied to them.

Trump’s foreign policy predilections are fraught with contradictions: on the  one hand, he’s a critic of the decision by the Bush administration to invade  and occupy Iraq, but on the other hand he claims we left “too soon.” He inveighs  against the Obama administration’s efforts to overthrow Syrian strongman Bashar  al-Assad, and his National Security advisor, Mike Flynn, was fired from his  post as head of Obama’s Defense Intelligence Agency for his criticism of our  Syrian policy. And yet Flynn – and Trump – are also hot under the collar about  the alleged growth of Iranian influence in the region, denouncing the Iran deal  to limit their nuclear program as a “bad deal”(while saying they wouldn’t ditch  it). Yet the Iranians have been fighting ISIS alongside the Iraqis, who are,  in turn, our allies – at least they  were our allies, until the Trump administration barred Iraqi nationals  from the US for three months.

Another contradiction is Trump’s often-stated  desire to repair relations with Russia, and even to enlist their help in eradicating  ISIS. Yet the Russians are in cahoots with the Iranians in Syria, and have defended  Tehran against American attempts to strong-arm them. The present balance of  forces in the Middle East pits the Saudis and their Sunni allies against Iran,  Syria, and, standing behind them, Russia, with Turkey (moving away from Washington)  and Egypt standing on the sidelines.

A Trumpian rapprochement with Moscow would mean a seismic shift in the delicate  balance of Middle Eastern forces – away from the Sunni-centric policy that motivated  our support for Syria’s Islamist “rebels” and our appeasement of Riyadh.

As this shift takes place, a reconsideration  of our policy in Yemen is an absolute necessity – on strategic and moral  grounds. Washington’s support for the Saudi Kingdom’s vicious war in Yemen is  unconscionable. The Saudis have been committing war crimes  with impunity – and with our help. How is it in America’s interests to reduce  Yemen, one of the poorest nations on  earth, to a pile of rubble? How does it serve us to give unconditional support  to Saudi Arabia, a country that has birthed more terrorists than any other in  the Muslim world?

Is that putting “America first,” or is it putting  the Saudis first?

#justin raimondo #anti-war #yemen #saudi arabia #donald trump

[douglasacogan]

More than a dozen new grants of federal sentence reductions using § 3582(c)(1)(A), including another based on stacking/disparity/trial penalty concerns

In recent posts here and here, I highlighted some of the COVID-influenced grants of sentence reductions using § 3582(c)(1)(A) available via Westlaw.  (And, as I keep mentioning, I think these Westlaw listings do not represent all sentence reductions being granted these days).  Though a new week is just getting started (with Westlaw only showing rulings through April 27), I have spotted lots of new grants of sentence reductions since my last posting.  It is heartening to see these rulings from coast-to-coast and lots of places in-between:

United States v. Robinson, No. 18-cr-00597-RS-1, 2020 WL 1982872 (ND Cal. Apr. 27, 2020)

United States v. Gorai, No. 2:18-CR-220 JCM (CWH), 2020 WL 1975372 (D Nev. Apr. 24, 2020)

United States v. Coles, No. 00-cr-20051, 2020 WL 1976296 (CD Ill. Apr. 24, 2020)

United States v. Thorson, No. 5:16-CR-00017-TBR, 2020 WL 1978385 (WD Ky. Apr. 24, 2020)

United States v. Williams, No. 3:17-cr-121-(VAB)-1, 2020 WL 1974372 (D Conn. Apr. 24, 2020)

United States v. Park, No. 16-cr-473 (RA), 2020 WL 1970603 (SDNY Apr. 24, 2020)

United States v. Walls, No. 92-80236, 2020 WL 1952979 (ED Mich. Apr. 23, 2020)

United States v. Jackson, No. 4:14-CR-00576, 2020 WL 1955402 (SD Tex. Apr. 23, 2020)

United States v. Tillman, No. 1:07-cv-197, 2020 WL 1950835 (WD Mich. Apr. 23, 2020)

United States v. Curtis, No. 03-533 (BAH), 2020 WL 1935543 (DDC Apr. 22, 2020)

United States v. Bess, No. 16-cr-156, 2020 WL 1940809 (WDNY Apr. 22, 2020)

United States v. Sanchez, No. 18-cr-00140-VLB-11, 2020 WL 1933815 (D Conn. Apr. 22, 2020)

In addition to this encouraging dozen of sentence reductions grants using § 3582(c)(1)(A) accelerated by COVID concerns, last week also brought a remarkable ruling that focused on pre-COVID concerns.  In United States v. Haynes, No. 93 CR 1043 (RJD), 2020 WL 1941478 (EDNY Apr. 22, 2020), the court granted relief to a fellow who, back in the early 1990s, got 40 years of extra mandatory prison time based on stacked gun charges brought by prosecutors after he turned down a plea deal calling for around an eight-year term.  As the court now explained: "Haynes has served almost 27 of the 46½ years to which he was sentenced.  To put that in context, he has served more than three times the length of the high end of the sentence he would have received had he pled guilty."  With that background and after some extended discussion of relevant precedent, the court added:

The Court readily concludes, on the facts as detailed above — including the brutal impact of Haynes’s original sentence, its drastic severity as compared to codefendant Rivers’s ten-year term, its harshness as compared to the sentences imposed on similar and even more severe criminal conduct today, and the extent to which that brutal sentence was a penalty for Haynes’s exercise of his constitutional right to trial — that the FSA’s elimination of the § 924(c) sentencing weaponry that prosecutors employed to require that sentence is an extraordinary and compelling circumstance warranting relief under § 3582(c).  For an individual like Haynes, with three pre-amended § 924(c) counts in a single indictment, the change spells the difference between thirty years in or out of prison.

I continue to be pleased to see (some) judges recognizing that 3582(c)(1)(A) motions can and should provide a means to correct (some) past unjust federal sentences.  The COVID crisis and the threat it poses to vulnerable prisoners is surely increasing the willingness of judges to review swiftly those past sentences that may no longer serve any sentencing purpose.  But, the sad reality of prison is that it is often bad, even in normal times, for the health of both inmates and the broader community.  Judge (and prosecutors and lawmakers) ought always be carefully checking and double-checking and triple-checking whether the considerable tax dollars used to keep persons incarcerated are sound public safety investments.

Prior recent related posts since lockdowns:

Notable recent (pre-COVID) grants of sentence reductions from coast to coast using 3582(c)(1)(A) ... as FAMM urges thousand more filings in response to coronavirus

Documenting early federal court COVID jurisprudence in response to various release requests from federal defendants and inmates 

A few (too few) recent COVID-influenced grants of sentence reductions using 3582(c)(1)(A)

Pleased to see growing number of COVID-influenced grants of sentence reductions using 3582(c)(1)(A)

A few more COVID-influenced grants of sentence reductions using 3582(c)(1)(A)

Still more COVID-influenced grants of sentence reductions using 3582(c)(1)(A), with waivers of exhaustion/waiting period 

Additional COVID-influenced grants of federal sentence reductions using 3582(c)(1)(A) 

Another round of recent COVID-influenced grants of federal sentence reductions using 3582(c)(1)(A)

Some (of many) pre-COVID posts on § 3582(c)(1)(A) after FIRST STEP Act:

Compassionate release after FIRST STEP: Should many thousands of ill and elderly federal inmates now be seeking reduced imprisonment in court? 

Sad start to what should become happier compassionate release tales after passage of FIRST STEP Act 

Encouraging new reports about encouraging new compassionate release realities thanks to FIRST STEP Act

Highlighting how judges can now bring needed compassion to compassionate release after FIRST STEP Act 

Is anyone collecting and analyzing sentence reduction orders under 3582(c)(1) since passage of the FIRST STEP Act?

Good day for thinking hard about sentencing second looks and second chances

New District Court ruling confirms that "any extraordinary and compelling reasons" can now provide basis for reducing imprisonment under 3582(c)(1)(A)

District Court finds statutory sentence reform among "extraordinary and compelling reasons" for reducing LWOP sentence under 3582(c)(1)(A)

Another notable (but ultimately disappointing) ruling about sentence reductions under 3582(c)(1)(A) after FIRST STEP Act

Another LWOP federal drug sentence reduced under 3582(c)(1)(A) after FIRST STEP Act

Another District Court finds statutory sentence reform among "extraordinary and compelling reasons" for reducing sentence by 40 years under 3582(c)(1)(A) 

Another thoughtful and thorough opinion finds statutory reform among "extraordinary and compelling reasons" for reducing sentence under 3582(c)(1)(A) 

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8247011 https://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2020/04/more-than-a-dozen-new-grants-of-federal-sentence-reductions-using-3582c1a.html via http://www.rssmix.com/

[vegas-glitz]

How to Get Rich III - 20 Resources of Passive Money, Section 1

http://topicsofnote.com/?p=10055&utm_source=SocialAutoPoster&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Tumblr

Money is king!

This aphorism from genuine estate investing completely describes the minimal recognised approach the prosperous truly use to accumulate tens of millions of dollars. This report reveals 20 sources of passive revenue. Place any or all of these sources into position and sit back and view the bucks roll on with no (or pretty very little) even further exertion on your component.

If you truly want to get abundant and reside a existence of luxury, then you have to grasp the means of producing dollars circulation from passive earnings resources. Without the need of this capability, your money will be constrained to traditional strategies of producing income, such as operating. Operating will never free you from owning to get the job done. You should do one thing diverse than working in get to obtain the earnings you require to dwell the life-style you need. Passive money is the important.

Prior to you commence any expenditure program, the 1st rule is to seek the advice of with a qualified expense advisor. By conversing more than your strategy and thinking about possibilities you may well not have viewed as, you will guard your funds to the finest diploma and enable shield it from probable decline whiule multiplying your return.

This post will not contemplate the charge of entry to any expense nor will we appear at charges of return. These will fluctuate - possibly each 12 months or even above the class of a yr-based on the economic climate, problems established by the SEC and other regulatory bodies and the IRS. This write-up will contemplate only the 20 doable resources of passive income you will will need to conduct even further analysis to decide if any expenditure is appropriate for you.

1. ETF's - Exchange Traded Money - This is a fund that tracks the general performance of an index such as the Dow Jones or Normal and Weak 500, a basket of assets or a commodity. Buying and selling in the identical method as a inventory, its rate will differ according to the times buying and selling requires. Gains of owning an ETF contain the skill to obtain brief, buy on margin and to acquire as small as one share. Expenditure ratios are typically reduced than mutual cash. A common ETF is named a spider - SPDR - and tracks the S&P 500 index. Appear for the symbol SPY to study or to acquire.

2. REIT - True Estate Investment Have faith in - Just one of my preferred investments mainly because you very own a portion of the serious estate (or home loans) the have faith in invests in. These also trade like a stock on the exchanges. An Fairness REIT buys ownership (equity) in attributes though a Property finance loan REIT purchases the mortgages on qualities. Two key strengths to proudly owning an REIT are the tax benefits and the liquidity of the safety - you trade it just like a stock.

3. Canadian Oil and Gasoline Rely on - This is an business that invests in oil and / or gasoline manufacturing and potentially mining in Canada. Various of these are now investing on the American (US) exchanges. Order is the exact same as obtaining a inventory in any other corporation. Tax benefits are similar to all those of an REIT and a large advantage - the a person I like the most - is that some of these trusts fork out ridiculously superior dividends - and they pay out month-to-month! My assistance: do your exploration, locate a Canadian Oil and Gasoline Have faith in you like and then invest as significantly as you can.

4. MLP - Learn Limited Partnership - Want a restricted partnership that you can promote or trade as effortlessly as a inventory? Enter the Learn Constrained Partnership. These hybrid corporations element the confined liability of a partnership though enabling you to trade the partnership models - investment units - just as you would a stock. What could be greater? A MLP provides distributable cash stream as effectively as money and these conditions ought to be mastered and understood ahead of a reasoned conclusion can be created pertaining to the buy of an MLP for your financial commitment portfolio.

5. Annuities - Who has not listened to of an annuity? But do you know how they operate? Enable's retain this basic: an annuity is almost nothing much more than a agreement you sign with an insurance business that assures to pay out you a certain set amount of money of money about a period of time of time. You pay for an annuity on signing and then the insurance policy organization repays you the sum of your investment as well as the "earnings" (we'll continue to keep this straightforward and not use the complex phrase) in excess of a period of numerous (or quite a few) decades. These are usually regarded as safe steady investments ideal for a conservative portfolio.

6. Recommendations - Treasury Inflation-Guarded Securities - Offered by the US Treasury, these are securities that are indexed to the charge of inflation indicating your dividend will raise as the fee of inflation improves. A Ideas pays curiosity each 6 months and pays the principal on maturity. Also a conservative investment decision, you may well want to take into consideration these if you are hunting to preserve and secure cash from the ravages of inflation whilst furnishing a consistent and trusted cash flow, but your income may not grow at the level you would favor - but then we aren 't looking at cash appreciation in any case.

7. Dividend Having to pay Stocks - Finally we get to what is maybe the most common approach of passive income. Any one who appreciates everything about Wall Street knows that providers pay dividends to individuals who personal their inventory. Suitable? Nicely, most of the time, if it is a effectively regarded and established company. Lots of newer and lesser firms will use their revenue to increase the enterprise in its place of shelling out dividends and any company that incurs monetary problems could halt shelling out dividends. So if you are going to acquire stock to acquire the income make absolutely sure the company has a keep track of document of paying dividends. The most effective regarded American providers - frequently referred to as the "Blue Chips" are also the businesses that traditionally have paid out the most effective dividends. As with all other investments, research is necessary to seize the finest dividends and focus on all those companies with the finest possible in potential a long time.

8. Protected Phone calls - This is a passive financial commitment instrument that is usually regarded dangerous. But it is not. A coated get in touch with is promoting the choice to invest in inventory that you very own. You do not provide the inventory, you only market the choice to obtain that stock at a potential price tag and time. The individual shopping for the coated call purchases the possibility at the rate you concur upon - really at which the marketplace agrees upon - and you just set back and overlook it. Nicely, not really. The individual who has bought the option has the appropriate to acquire your inventory at any time amongst the time you offered the alternative and the expiration of that possibility. Creating (offering) a lined phone is the only alternatives financial commitment that is thought of secure plenty of by the IRS to be included in a 401K or other retirement designs. But you have to do your homework and thoroughly recognize the planet of possibilities ahead of working with this technique.

9. Real Estate - Absolutely everyone understands what actual estate is and every person appreciates - or at least is intuitively informed - that big income can be produced from authentic estate. Authentic estate supplies tax strengths as properly as the option to hugely leverage your investment - leverage remaining a variable that is confined or absent in a lot of other investments. A lot of authentic estate advisors and gurus insist that the 1 house at a time or the flipper system or fixer upper or wholesale process or other taste of the thirty day period is the complete very best way to make money in real estate. Frequently talking, keep away from all that. Producing massive money - this means enormous earnings - in true estate is possible with hugely leveraged offers which are a certainty only in business property. Many family members properties, place of work structures, retail facilities and warehouses would all constitute commercial property. Of these, the greatest technique is to make investments in numerous family members properties. The even bigger, the superior. This necessitates expertise and training much more than it necessitates funds. Cash can usually be obtained by means of your network, but understanding is the a person component that will make this passive financial commitment system do the job. And, with a major assets, the income from that 1 assets may be all you have to have to protected your retirement - right now!

10. Enterprise Possession - No, this isn't what you assume. Proudly owning a modest small business for most individuals is worse than performing 9 to 5. In your individual compact company you get caught up in the facts, seeking to make the small business go, hunting for a current market, working with buyers It rapidly will become far more than a entire-time job. That's Okay if that's what you love to do. But, what we necessarily mean listed here is setting up a business or franchise with the brief term goal of handing it off to anyone to run. The a lot quicker you can do this the improved. If you can do it from the very commencing so a great deal the greater - the additional time you cost-free for your self, the much more time you will have to get pleasure from and / or develop a lot more passive cash flow resources. A e book that will support you is The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber, another is the Four Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris. Each of these publications will enable you framework your small business possession in a way that frees you from actually running the enterprise yourself - margaritas on the seaside anyone?

All of these sources demand work to set up, but after recognized, they can be structured to run hands totally free. The two publications mentioned in product 10 higher than will help you composition your passive earnings resources to be definitely arms cost-free revenue.

11. Private Lending - Non-public lending has been close to since men and women have been all over. Effectively personal lending is practically nothing additional than lending out some of your excess dollars to a honest person who wants it. This has not always been effortless or fruitful for the...particular person who has experienced revenue they required to commit. As a final result, numerous online providers are now readily available that will acknowledge your dollars and distribute it under your path to all those you really feel are experienced look for for particular person to individual lending on the important search engines to discover corporations you can use. The most important profit of personal lending is that the fascination costs are generally a great deal higher than you would attain by parking your dollars in a CD or bank.

12. Tax Liens and Notes - A primary gain of tax liens is the larger desire amount you acquire on your expense moreover the reality that your principal is backed by real estate. Be sure to be aware that you will pretty much in no way obtain the home from investing in tax deeds, liens or notes the primary advantage is the favorable curiosity charge and the protection resulting from a serious estate backed transaction. Prevent organizations that suggest you will be acquiring the property the tax instrument is from. A further profit of this variety of passive revenue is that you can make investments on-line from practically any point out in the country - be confident to evaluation Texas tax deeds, desire can be as substantial as 50% each year in some scenarios.

13. Bonds - Ok, you know about bonds - they are a conservative expenditure for aged people today and individuals frightened of the inventory market place ideal? Wrong. A bond can supply a safe and steady source of income for any one. By definition, a bond is a personal debt issued by an licensed firm - frequently a corporation, municipality or utility. A bond sells for the difficulty price tag, matures (is compensated again to you) at the principal (deal with total or nominal rate) and in amongst you collect interest that is referred to as the coupon charge. Bonds are usually purchased in the variety of mutual fund bond money. Some of these can be very beneficial with a generate exceeding that of equity money but these are generally tricky to uncover. But they are there!

14. Mutual Money (Earnings Money) - As we are only thinking about resources of passive cash flow, we are only heading to search at earnings mutual resources. These may well be called "progress and income" money or "cash flow" cash or "benefit" cash. Approximately each individual mutual fund family members will have their very own established of revenue or progress and revenue resources. Morningstar and other companies offer 3rd bash rankings that you can use to determine the most secure and highest paying out cash flow cash. Commit sensibly and normally seek the advice of a competent financial investment advisor prior to investing. Mutual cash are also demanded to send you a prospectus (a formal disclosure of the resources objectives and functioning suggestions) for your critique in advance of you can invest. Overview the prospectus carefully and talk to with your economic advisor for terminology you may not realize.

15. T-Costs, T-Bonds & T-Notes - Treasury Bills, Treasury Bonds and Treasury Notes - Considered to be the most secure of all investments mainly because they are issued by the United States Treasury Section, these motor vehicles are also amid the cheapest yielding . But you sacrifice produce for security each time you devote. T-Expenditures, Bonds and Notes are most frequently acquired via your bank, broker or they may well be bought directly from the US Treasury Section by means of their Treasury Immediate on the web service. Although you will not receive a higher rate of return, the security of your financial investment can not be any increased than it is with these investments.

16. Device Expenditure Rely on - A Device Financial investment Believe in is a person of 3 distinct forms of investment decision organizations, the many others remaining a shut conclude fund and the familiar mutual fund. UIT's provide securities in the sort of "models" that signify a device of their investment decision portfolio. This portfolio is usually an unmanaged portfolio consisting of stocks and bonds. Units are commonly marketed in quantities of $ 1,000 and buyers or "device holders" get dividends from the units they keep. A exclusive attribute of a UIT is its termination day. Compared with most other organizations and investment company corporations, which exist in perpetuity, a UIT has a outlined termination date which is set upon inception. When this day arrives the UIT is terminated and the property held are offered. The proceeds from this sale are then distributed to the device holders.

17. Preferred Stock - A Most well-liked Inventory is a protection issued by a corporation that commonly features a precise dividend level. Preferred stock normally does not have voting legal rights apart from often in remarkable functions. Chosen inventory also receives priority more than popular inventory holders when dividends are dispersed - preferred inventory holders should be paid first. And chosen stock holders also obtain desire if the organization is ever dissolved. Your amount of return with most well-liked stock could not be high, but the protection of your investment decision is greater than with additional dangerous investments.

18. Company Backed Rely on Securities (CABCO) - Also identified as Corporate Asset-Backed Securities, these investments are issued by companies and are based on a pool of underlying assets. The dollars stream from these assets give the dividend payments created to the holders of the security. The asset pool can consist of nearly any style of asset which presents a dollars stream. Usually marketed initially to a market place maker kind business this sort of as an financial commitment lender, these securities may well be resold to the typical community by the broker. Get hold of your broker for far more facts on these styles of investments.

19. Songs Publishing - You don't know about new music publishing? The artist may well get the glory (and normally the funds) but the publisher Usually will get the income. If you individual the rights to a tune or sheet new music you are the publisher and you get paid out every time that track is performed or done in general public. While the current price is only 8 cents (US) per "efficiency" think of all the radio stations, bars and golf equipment in the country where by your music may well be being performed appropriate now. Sure, bars and restaurants will have to pay out you each time your track is played in their establishment. You don't have to stress about likely all over to each bar, hotel foyer or elevator or cafe (Additional sites!) In the nation to obtain your 8 cents - this is handled by any one (or some mix) of just 3 organizations which rather significantly take care of all songs all over the entire world - ASCAP, BMI and for the internet SoundExchange. Indeed, you do need to have to register with these organizations so they know where to ship your checks, but this can be a pretty rewarding resource of passive income.

20. Copyrights, Patents and Licenses - If you are an creator you get compensated just about every time a e-book of yours is offered. Okay, this is obvious, but you can also republish public domain substance beneath a new copyright if you improve it by at the very least 20% or insert at least 20% a lot more product to it. The straightforward aspect (some would say not easy) is the producing of the reserve by itself. The tricky component is getting other people today to obtain it, that requires marketing and advertising which is over and above the scope of this post, but if you can get a bestseller on your palms, the royalties (payments you get from becoming the copyright holder) acquired can be very substantial.

A patent is an innovation (method) or invention (detail). You get compensated when the product represented by the patent is made use of or bought by some other business or the general public. The patent safeguards your suitable to distinctive possession of that process or invention for a selected sum of time.

A license is also doable to market to the sector. What if you know a distinct process or treatment that no a single else does? Can you offer this expertise? Yes, you can. And the way to do it is to license an organization to use your knowledge in the type of a course of action or procedure. Check out out inventright.com for a guidebook on how to do this.

Bonus

21. Motion picture & Other Obscure Investments - We reside in a dynamic planet and there will usually be expenditure autos remaining conceived for a need. Also, far more obscure investments are offered but normally are mysterious exterior of their unique market. Motion picture investments are one of these. Videos normally will need financiers completely ready to fund the manufacturing of the film undertaking. When the film is released to the general public and commences to make money the financiers get their money and return on investment decision. This can be a fantastic way to make a lot of funds if you again a blockbuster or a good way to lose a large amount of dollars - search at how quite a few flicks do poorly. Do not invest in this vehicle except you are an business insider.

Other obscure investments incorporate exploration funding, water rights, coal leases, minimal partnerships, commercials and business funding (indeed, television set commercials and infomercials), receivables financing, athletics group possession, and many others, etcetera, and so on. If you have an interest in investing in any of these areas you need to uncover anyone with great understanding of the area and with a great keep track of in investing in that business. Check with with them intensely allowing them to guideline your financial investment decisions. Generally, the very best policy is to commit only in all those parts the place you are acquainted and never ever, hardly ever spend extra than you can afford to pay for to eliminate.

Summary

Passive cash flow investing is the essential to securing money. Income is money circulation. Funds flow is king. You are unable to spend long term revenue or a projected return or an eventual fairness position you can only make investments the hard cash you have on hand right now. Also, you can't pay expenditures or get groceries or spend the mortgage loan or tax man with anything other than dollars or credit history. A projected return or equity place will not fork out right now's expenditures or set food items on the table. Funds appreciation is terrific - for tomorrow. I desire income in hand these days. The more income circulation you have coming in now, the bigger that tomorrow will be. Certain!

Source by Perry Jones

[alexmorrall]

France Trip Nov 2019

Wednesday Nov 6, 2019

Flew with Mallory on Swiss Air to Zurich overnight from Boston. 

  Thursday Nov 7

Transferred to Paris and picked up our Renault 4-door sedan rent a car for the paltry sum of $150 for four days.  Drove in Parisian rush hour through the outskirts of the City of Light on the highway four hours to meet Zack’s girlfriend Natalie in Angers.  Formally the seat of the Dukes of Anjou, ancestors of the Plantagenets (Henry V.) Their descendants were the Lancasters of which George RR Martin’s Lannisters in Game of Thrones are based.  Arriving in Angers that night, we had a wonderful dinner hosted by Natalie.  She had two types if plain sausage prepared, one with mushrooms, as well as salad, cheese, wine and rabbit pate.  Her hospitality was incredible the whole time we were there.  She was very happy to have visitors too, as we brought a little bubble of America with us for Nat to enjoy.  As we ate, Nat regaled us of having to deal with leaking bloody fluids from alcoholic medical patients in her study program in Angers’ Med School.

  Friday Nov 8

Natalie’s parents’ apartment was very nice and we stayed on the pullout couch, sleeping late then wandering toward downtown Angers to experience local French culture for the first time. I ordered in French and surprised myself with how much of the language I could get by with.  Throughout the trip, I proved fairly capable of ordering, and making my way along, asking where the toilet was, “Ou est les toilette?” etc. I ordered “deaux café, sil vous plait” (two espressos) which came with a little slice of banana nut bread neatly perched on the saucer. The café was colorful, its walls lined with local artists’ paintings for sale.  There were brochures for local bands and comedy acts and a  few local women hanging out. The French dressed incredibly sophisticated almost always and Mallory and I tried our best to follow suit.  I wore dress shoes, black jeans, button up shirts and my peat coat the whole time while Mallory wore a collection of attractive sweaters, a wool headband, jeans and four different pairs of stylish boots.

  It was early in our relationship to be traveling so far to Europe (I must say) but two weeks prior we had celebrated our three month anniversary and I had told her I loved her. It was an unforgettable experience for the two of us traveling so far outside our comfort zones. We frequented game shops where the owners scratched their heads at the prospect of us buying board games in French when we didn’t speak the language. Then we made our way to the river and a view of Chateau D’Angers from below.  Later we would see it from on high and within but today we met Natalie for lunch at a sophisticated spot for lunch called Restaurant Sens.  The server was extremely friendly and knowledgeable, speaking superb English and indulged me to order and ask thigs in French as well.  We had a wonderfully buttery hazelnut and artichoke soup with great local red wine, braised lamb and another café for dessert.  Next, we walked about Angers, past craft beer stores, whiskey stores, bars, restaurants, game and record shops. I scored some sweet French comic books and returned to Natalie’s to head out in her little snub nose cherry red Wingo Renault four door sedan to cruise up to “FL” vineyard in the Loire valley countryside.

  Our sommelier guided us through four white wines and a red before allowing us to buy some (which Natalie informed us was highly encouraged after imbibing.)  I snapped a photo of our sommelier with Bill Murray taken a few months previous and Mal and I bought a bottle of white each. Nat bough four for her family and we returned to Angers for dinner at Chez Remi, a chic, homey restaurant where we had veal, lamb and a delicious chocolate cake for dessert.  We walked up to Chateau D’Angers that night, picked up some bleu cheese, truffle cheese, camembert and smoky cheese.

  Saturday Nov 9

Made it downtown with Nat to see the bustling farmers’ market’s last hour of business.  It was a great vibe, better than America by far and an eye-opening experience to see the vast varieties of food and care that went into their preparation and presentation.  Normally I would feel some semblance of agoraphobia surrounded by so many strange people but here I felt at ease amidst the French locals.  We tasted olives and marinated roasted red peppers on baguette from an Italian vendor and bought some ashy one-month aged cheese. I bought two jams for my parents and we purchased a plethora of pastries as well to add to our eventual dinner.  For dejeuner (lunch) we had savory breakfast crepes (ham, sausage and cheese) with a bottle of chilled local cider poured into porcelain mugs.  Apparently, the French drink hot wine but never hot cider.

  Next, we went to Joker’s Pub and got caught in the rain after enjoying the massive mural of musicians behind our table, a couple IPA’s, including Hellfest and one covered in Vikings battling a giant squid (a scene right out of my current DnD campaign I was running with Eddie and other Viking employees.) Caught in the rain our flan got squished under all our goods in the market basked but we returned with beaucoup de (plenty of) food before heading back downtown for four dollar mojitos.  We watched Julie and Julia (which I surprisingly enjoyed) that night over a bottle of wine, and fantasized about all the wonders of French cooking.

  Sunday Nov 10

Mal and I headed to Chateau D’Angers for a tour of the amazing castle built originally in 970 but rebuilt in 1234 and many times since. There, we witnessed the largest tapestry in the world: the Apocalpyse tapestry depicting the “Fall of Bablyon” (a metaphor for any great civilization of the time.) The tapestry displayed many-headed lions and dragons facing off against crusader swordsmen and the ending resulted in a rapture-like deliverance to New Jerusalem.  I scored some sweet photos of the Maine River, surrounding city of Angers and the gardens up on the walls of the chateau including roses and grapes for wine. We met up with Nat for local burgers that tasted more like steaks, less chewy and coarse than American burgers, paired with lightly-fried, buttery frites (fries) and mayo.  Then we headed out into the country to Chateau Brissac, a beautiful castle, owned by the same family since the year 1500.  In the stables, down some paths we found a menagerie of taxidermy animals: deer, boars, wolves and bears.  Stags were very common on French coats of arms and I remarked via text to my friend Joe Quinn that it was like Baratheon land.  The tour of the castle was twenty Euro each and all in French so we declined, opting to taste wine instead.  They had two great roses and a sweet cabernet that was basically rose (of which we bought two, in addition to two “real” reds.)

  Next, we wandered into the local village of Brissac for a café where they were celebrating the weekend of Armistice Day (which was the next day.)  A bunch of locals (including the servers) were seated, drinking and laughing in the middle of the café.  We ordered trois cafes on the back patio and discussed how funny it was that a donkey at the chateau took a serious liking to Mal (eating a fallen yellow leaf out of her hand.) We dubbed her the Donkey Whisperer.  We got onto the topic of Dr. Doolittle and I asked Mal if the movie inspired her to become a veterinarian.  She said no.  Growing up with dogs and horses was most likely “why” and I love her golden retriever Baylor (he’s my phone lock screen and background) and Maine Coon mix Beasley.  

  Returning to Natalie’s abode, then hitting the town for beers and smoked sausage (saucisse) at Berthems bar then Delirium Brewing Company where we got a free round because the bartender screwed up (she mistook my request for the check as asking for another round, which I then paid for one round.)  Walked out feeling pretty tipsy for Punjab, an amazing Pakistani-owned Indian style restaurant where all the servers were men in grey loose uniforms.  The food was out of this world, easily the best Indian and some of the best overall food I’ve ever eaten: chicken masala, beef korma, and paneer with amazing garlic naan and half a bottle of vin rouge (red wine.)  Returning to Nat’s apartment to drink a bottle of cabernet (rose) and watch “Our Planet” on Netflix while Mal slept on me (again, but I never mind because I find it adorable.)

  Monday Nov 11 (Armistice/Veteran’s Day)

Awoke for French press café with Nat then hit the road in the rain for Paris (specifically CDG airport) to return the rental car. As I tried to fill up some gas early in the trip, I found all my cards were not working (Fraud alerts, credit limits or American Express which they just wouldn’t accept in France.)  We continued on, able to pay inside a gas station for half a tank with my remaining Euro cash (it would have cost $100 US to fill the whole tank because of France’s gas taxes!) This explained the protest of the yellow jackets and those who have to drive on their daily commute into French cities.)  Then, before us stretched a broad assembly of thirty toll booths. I chose one toward the right hand side of the road (but not far enough right as it would turn out.)  Pulling up to the toll booth’s barred gate, none of my cards would work and I was now fresh out of cash.  Defeated, I exited my car and approached the driver of the car behind me who understood my English. Then I went to the next one in line, a French woman who spoke no English.  Eventually I got all five cars behind me to back up into oncoming traffic.  Then we somehow merged at a perpendicular angle to the right, avoiding hordes of approaching cars. Reached a government office building next to the toll booths on the right hand side of the road and parked in front.  I got out of my car and was about to approach the office before a woman on its second floor window closed the blinds on us.  We had no other choice and merged back behind a car, tailing them to sneak through before the toll gate dropped on my rental car.  We made it without a scratch!

  Feeling a rush of adrenaline we sped on our way to CDG and dropped off the rental.  Then we had to buy an RER train ticket to Paris.  This I feared, especially when all three of my cards failed once more.  But I added my Paypal account to Google Pay while standing at the ticket machine (not sure which account it was linked to but it worked!)  Zooming into Paris, we arrived at Gare Du Nord (North station, same name of the Boston station I used on my commute every day of work at Viking downtown.)  We took the Metro a few stops to Republique and exited for our first street view of Paris: teens skateboarding and hundreds of people milling about for Armistice Day.  I considered visiting a battlefield this day but they were all northeast of Paris and we had to return the rental car by 2:30pm.  Walking twenty minutes with our suitcases, from Republique to our Airbnb near Pere Lachaise (we could’ve used the Metro but walking was good exercise after enjoying so much extravagant food all weekend in Angers.  Made it all the way to the Airbnb, hosted by Quentin, who was nowhere to be found.

  Instead there was supposed to be a girl named Nastya waiting there for us (but not yet.) We went to a nearby café for an hour and I finally got my Bank of America account unlocked so I could get 100 Euro out of an ATM which was about the best feeling ever!  I feel like I will always carry some local cash with me wherever I go after that… hopefully it’s true, haha.  Nastya then let us in, a petite French girl in urban wear (sweatshirt, skullcap, skinny jeans) The apartment was small but nice and homey with plenty of Quentin’s 3D paintings on the walls.  The bedroom was perfectly sized for us (Mal loved it!) A winding staircase that gave you a dizzy head (mal a la tete) or a too-tight elevator (where you basically had to make out with the person sharing it with you) separated the fourth floor from the first.  We departed the apartment, leaving Nastya (who seemed surprised that we had immediate plans in the city) sitting on the living room couch. We were on our way to meet up with Anneli (newly “officially” engaged to Eddie, wearing a Sterling silver ring she had crafted with him on their recent trip to Dublin.)

  We met in Jaures (northeast Paris) with Anneli at Paname Brewing Company on a little canal that was cute and hip, lots of dogs, families and joggers.  We had a huge charcuterie (meat and cheese board), beers, plus a lamb burger and heavenly fries.  Anneli regaled us with stories of a last minute Airbnb in Dublin where their host kept two different African wives and a son.  We discussed if Eddie was really moving out to marry her and live together in an apartment outside Paris in either April, July or September or next year. Anneli and I agreed Sept. was the soonest possibility based on the fact that France requires proof of three month’s income in France and Anneli was graduated at the soonest in June.  Returning to Pere Lachaise, we said goodbye to Anneli and found sleep.

  Tuesday Nov 12

Our final full day in Paris (and France), we did all the touristy things.  We took the Metro west to walk down past Notre Dame (which was under construction because of the fire a year previous) then headed to the Pantheon (a Greek-style building with beautiful statues, massive columns and Anneli’s favorite view of the Eiffel Tower: it was alright, not my favorite.) It was then that I realized just how amazing the architecture was in this city. What would dwarf the finest architectural marvels in many first-class cities of the world, these previously mentioned monuments I could tell were merely an “amuse bouche” to what wonders awaited us that day. The University of Paris was nearby (as well as a Pita Pit, a chain that was common to both my alma mater UMass Amherst and that of Mal) and I wondered what it would be like to go to school here. I could already tell Paris was the most impressive and old city I had ever seen in terms of beautiful, classical architecture and art.  

  We made our way down to Luxembourg Gardens, which was as Anneli said, “a little sad in November” but it was still a grand garden with elegant statues of kings and queens as well as a palace and fountain we photographed.  Next, was our walk to the Louvre and lunch at a café, croque monsieur (ham and cheese sandwich) for Mal and croque madame (ham and cheese sandwich with egg) for me.  It started raining super hard as we were at the café and droves of Parisians and tourists flooded inside, which our snappy and humorous server welcomed in and easily accommodated.  The rain did not let up during our lunch and we decided to embark into the rain without hats, rain jackets or umbrellas, walking several blocks down the Seine River in a torrential downpour past chic luxury shops that sold clothes, furniture and art.  Sheltering briefly in one woman’s clothing store, before a finley dressed manager asked if we could be helped and we shook our heads, taking that as our cue to leave. 

  We finally made it to Musee D’Orsay (France’s leading French art museum.) We saw a few Van Gogh’s originals (portrait of the artist and Starry Night II) as well as some Monets, Manets and Renoirs.  My favorites were the Realist historical depictions of Charge of the Light Brigade, WWI, Burial of Alexander, the Spanish Inquisition, the Decadence of Rome, Moroccan Harems, Normans setting sail to conquer England, the Hunt for Diana and the excommunication of Robert the Pious.  A Burial at Shanghai was featured and it was sprawling and powerful, taking up an entire wall.  We also walked through the featured Degas opera exhibit then departed for Place De La Concorde (fortuitously buying two umbrellas from an insistent Indian vendor upon exit from the museum before hail dropped on our heads.)  Walking along the Seine, we view the voluminous Louvre, and found a place to cross over to Place De La Concorde. It was now a massive rotary around a 3,300 year old central obelisk to Rameses II that was donated to France in 1829 by Egypt in front of the huge Greek-style Palais Bourbon, once a Royal Palace and now home to France’s National Assembly.  Later we learned the place of the obelisk was where the guillotine was set up and King Louis XVI as well as Marie Antoinnette were beheaded.

  The Place De La Concorde offered a straight-shot view all the way up Champs-Elysees to the Arc De Triomphe atop a sloping hall.  We walked up Champs Elysees, seeing beacoup de cafes, cinemas and designer clothes stores including loads of tourists waiting outside Louis Vuitton.  Then we backtracked a bit to the Seine and a ride on a bateaux mouche river boat to see all the monuments we had just walked to and more from the river.  Sunset on the bateaux mouche under the Eiffel Tower was splendid, snapping lots of selfies of Mal and I.  Then we returned to Champs-Elyssees (the so-called “most beautiful road in the world,” it was pretty nice but very commercial and crowded.)  For my niece Tigerlily, I bought a Mickey Mouse shirt from the Disney store that said “Paris” on it and I bought a Paris St Germain soccer shirt for $40 US which was a little pricey but definitely cool. We checked out the Addidas flagship store which was awesome, including a treadmill to run in new sneakers before buying.)

  Then we returned to the Seine for dinner aboard a stationary “Alexandre III” bateaux mouche (we had to because it had my name on it, and the other more hip one named Float was not yet open.)  I had escargot, red wine, and local French steak frites and Mal had salmon.  Then we walked over to the Eiffel Tower for a selfie of our two smiling faces directly beneath it, all lit up at night.  At this point my phone died so we wandered about in search of bathrooms and the Metro.  Little grocery stores had none and we found a café but were too afraid to use its bathroom which was through the kitchen after our server yelled at us for not ordering full meals.  Back into the night, we found a free public toilet on a street corner with a little old woman inside.  She was in there for about 15 minutes so I knocked twice and she emerged, berating me in a hilarious French deluge that I could not understand, merely shrugging.  I peed while Mal held the door close because its automated function keep trying to open it but the toilet was so trashed and stinky that Mal refused to use it.  We found the Metro soon after and returned to Pere Lachaise, however, I almost forgot our apartment access code and we were locked out in the cold for 10 minutes while I jammed in different passcodes… Finally I got it right and we retired after more wine to lighten the load in our suitcases.

  Wednesday Nov 13

Woke up, got deaux café and observed a hectic rush hour before making it over to Gare Du Nord for the RER train to Paris and our return to Zurich. Overall it was one of the best trips of my life, top highlight being Natalie’s hospitality in showing us Angers, plus Mal and I loving every minute together.  Mal was a perpetually calm, supportive, enthusiastic and appreciated companion who I cherish dearly. We watched four movies on the way back: the Art of Driving in the Rain, Guardians of the Galaxy, Yesterday and Stuber, staying up all night so that we could fall asleep on time with good old Boston EST and avoid jetlag.

Bon voyage indeed!

[courtneytincher]

How We Can Stop Global Money Laundering

As economies become more interconnected and globalized and the borders between countries and jurisdictions effectively disappear, the complexity of financial trans­actions is reaching new levels. The fundamental difference between the current stage of glo­balization and the previous one that unfolded in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries consists of both the direction of capital flows and the entities they originate from. If one looks back, then one might realize that between 1870 and 1913 the major European nations (Great Britain and France) invested abroad 6.5 and 3.7 percent of the­ir GDP respectively. In the case of Great Britain, this amounted to approximately 34 percent of its total capital investments). However, there was virtually no money from “peripheral” countries that was deposited in British and French banks, and there were only a few dozen properties that were ow­ned by investors from these countries. Moreover, if there were cases of wealthy overseas entrepreneurs or noblemen bringing money to the most developed nations of the time, they were well-known, with their properties being perfectly do­cumented. In our day, everything has changed in this regard: every year $800 billion to $2 trillion, or roughly 10 percent of the combined GDP of the European Union, ar­­rives to global financial capitals like London, New York, or Zurich from “developing” countries, many of which are label­led so by mista­ke. Most of this money comes through various “off-shore” jurisdictions that were created after the famous decision by the Bank of England in 1957 that authorized the holding of the deposits in pounds outside Britain, with its owners unknown.In recent decades, a completely new industry has emerged which is focused entirely on processing these funds and putting them in safety outside the countries where they were “harvested.” It includes the investment bankers who attract the money and either deposit it or place it into different investment funds and SICAVS (open-ended, collective investment schemes); the lawyers which oversee a large network of offshore and shell companies, trusts and SPVs which regulate in accordance with current regulation; the crowds of nominal directors and legal owners; the real estate agents and luxury developers who sell the overpriced assets to the super-rich; the producers of exclusive goods from jewellery and watches to luxury cars and megayachts; and even the government officials who elaborate different “citizenship-for-invest­ment” programs. The sco­pe of this group is rather small; I would argue with great certainty that it doesn’t ex­ceed twenty thousand people all around the world. The impact of this new industry on the global economy is enormous. Today, about a third of all multinational corporations’ FDI goes through different tax havens which results in massive tax avoidance; the fi­gures for the corporate sector are unknown, but the most conservative assessments for tax evasion amongst individuals reach $1 trillion per year. The investment funds and large banks which claim to be completely transparent, are often sued for violating different money-laundering acts or sanction regimes—and if are accused and fined, the average fine they agree to pay has sky­rocketed from $22 million in the mid-2000s to $1.6 billion in 2014–2015. The largest fine, at $9 billion, was paid by BNP-Paribas when it settled its dispute with the U.S. Justice Department in June 2014. But how can the legal banking business repay such substantial amounts and manage to stay afloat? What operati­ons aren’t uncovered that allow such funds and banks to prosper? People should not be fooled about their nature as more than $230 billion was laundered in 2007–2015 by the Estonian subsidiary of Danske Bank, which represented a nation with a GDP that is eight times smaller than this sum, and which is proudly ranked eighteenth in the 2018 Global Transparency Index and sixteenth in the Doing Business 2018 survey. Around thirty-five thousand houses and apartments in Lon­don, as it was recently revealed, are owned by compa­nies whose real beneficiaries remain unknown, and in New York City, close to 250,000 apartments in residential buildings are unoccupied, with at least half being bought in the name of offshore companies. I’m not addressing the issue of where the world’s superyachts or business jets are registered—more than 80 percent of these “luxury toys” carry flags of countries with low taxes.All of this depicts the reality of the modern money laundering business that has beco­me part of today’s “financial capitalism.” Many left-wing writers argue that it de­vastates the peripheral nations—and I agree with that argument—but what’s much more im­portant, I believe, is to mention that this new reality harms developed nations just as similarly as developing nations.The “traditional” arguments include the main thesis about “plundering” the peri­pheral countries from where the money originates and of “enrichment” of already wealthy nations where the money is direc­ted—but such a statement is not suffi­cient. First of all, the inflow of dirty funds from the global “South” distorts the normal functioning of European and American business. The cities to which the super-rich flock are becoming too expensive for the locals and their econo­my often becomes disrupted and is pushed to the brink of crisis. More and more city dwel­lers are sque­ezed into suburbs, and the local authorities must invest more money into afforda­ble housing. In London, these allocations rose to £3.15 billion which are to be spent on new ninety thousand affordable homes between 2017 and 2020. The financial system is overloaded by launde­red funds and bubb­les become more widespread and common. As I mentioned earlier, in some cases, illicit dealings with money flows from the global periphery lead to claims and pe­nalties by the authorities, which in turn only push the bankers to take a higher-ris­k business strategy to cover the losses. The governments of European count­ri­es are facing dilemmas with the new capital inflows: on the one hand they should encourage them but on the ot­her they feel obliged to defend their political and judiciary system from corrupti­on. But with three-fifths of the United Kingdom’s richest residents being either foreign nationals or foreign-born (as are thirty-five out of fifty-five billionaires residing in London), it becomes more problematic from year to year.But there is another side of the issue which is much less studied. As poorer nations become more corrupt and their politicians and businessmen try to channel their capital to Europe, the quality of life in these countries decreases even further, and desperate peo­ple start to emigrate. Of the top ten countries that have seen the highest levels of emigration into the EU in the 2010s, eight (Pakistan, Ukraine, Iran, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Syria) are found at the lowest ranks (from 117 and 178) in the 2018 Corruption Perception Index. So by accepting hundreds of millions of dollars into European banks, the European authorities must pay dozens of billions of euros to accommodate new migrants while also facing growing social tensions caused by this inflow. Moreover, I would add that emigration from the peripheral nations, which is caused by the corrupt governments, jeopardizes their development since it deprives them of their best human capital, which has resulted in ma­ny cases in ethnic and civil conflicts which often descend into full-scale civil war (this was the case of the Democratic Republic of the Congo after Mobutu Sese Seko, one of the world’s corrupt dictators, fled to France where his fortune was kept, in 1997). Western countries are then forced to spend additional billions to provi­de food, medical care, and even armed humanitarian assistance to the nations ruled by the most renown kleptocrats. This is a very high price for the joy of allowing several thousand people to manage money laundering operations from their luxury offices in London or Zürich—and I would also argue that this joy contributes to an “import of corruption” from the global periphery to the core (I am reminded of the well-known story of a Scottish-based “laundromat” that allowed the Azerbaijani political elite to squeeze billions of dollars from its country and to use it, inter alia, to co­ver legitimate lobbying for Azerbaijan and its state-owned companies in European capitals).But why does the fight against this evil appear so ineffective? Why are the people that stripped their states of their taxpayers’ money, presided over the largest delibe­rate bank failures, or those engaged in looting the na­tural resources of their co­untries, all still living in Europe without experiencing any consequences? I think at least fo­ur systemic problems exist that make this possible. First, I would argue that the main focus these days is made on one issue—on the so called “problematic jurisdictions” which the West’s authorities believe are either engaged in offshore banking or lack the necessary financial regulations. Many lists of these countries were drafted in recent years, with the American “Financial Action Task Force” (FATF) and the European Union’s list being the most well-known. As of Jan. 1, 2012, the first one comprised forty states and territories, and the second as of March 2019 has sixteen. Both do not include, for example, either Russia nor China. Russia was successfully removed from the FATF list back in 2003 and has never appeared on the European Union’s list—even tho­ugh it’s a common point that the Russians are among the lar­gest final beneficiaries of companies that own real estate in the UK, Spain, and some other European countries. China never appeared on both lists while the offshore companies controlled by the Chinese are among the most active buyers of expen­sive mansions in the United States. At the same times, there are many countries on the list that might harbour terrorists and jihadis, but do not possess either the funds to be launde­r­ed nor the modern banking systems that would allow to transfer these money into the European banks. The excessive attention to the “intermediate” countries rather than to the places from where the money really originates is, I believe, the first tre­mendous challenge the fight against money laundering faces today.Second, the control over the allegedly dirty money in the “recipient” countries is quite weak. I would say that the very term “due diligence” shouldn’t be used for the description of what’s going on in Europe and in the United States. One can remember the most famous cases—like the case of Arthur Andersen insisting on Enron’s firmness five months prior to its bankruptcy; the case of Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch drawing the AAA ratings to the “subprime” mortgage-backed securities in the wake of the 2008 crisis; the case of Wachovia which laundered close to $500 billion of drug cartels affiliated money in 2000s, etc. If it co­mes to purchases of the expensive real estate, as one can see, remaining in the shadows is even easier. The “investments” into the wealthy countries are welco­med by their governments—today, even the EU nations effectively sell citi­zenships or permanent residencies in hun­dreds of ways with the cheapest ones (as in Malta, Cyprus or Bulgaria) requiring not mo­re than Є1.2-2.0 million to attain citizenship. The British, who introduced “unexplained wealth orders” as part of the Criminal Finances Act of 2017, used this tool to prosecute only one person since the orders went into force—and I would remind that there are thirty-five thousand real estate units in Lon­don with a value of around $70 billion, which were paid for by unknown sources and belong to undisclosed owners. A total revision of the banking ac­counts owned by foreign residents and/or com­pani­es, as well as the real esta­te bought by such entities should be under way—but in most cases the lo­cal authorities prefer only to le­vy additional taxes on such objects rather than find the sources of mo­ney that bought them.Third, I would say that there’s a fascinating multitude of laws and regulations that are applied to tracking money flows in different countries. No pan-Eu­ropean register of real estate exists; the banking regulations in Switzerland differ greatly from those in the EU countries; special regimes like the Liechtenstein-based trusts or Sociétés civiles d’immobilier founded in Monaco or Luxembourg are used for acquiring objects throughout Europe; British law is different from the continental one and will become even more different after Brexit is finalized. At the same time, all these jurisdictions are considered “safe”—so if someone sells a mansion in the UK or transfers funds from his Swiss bank account there will be no formal procedures in place to verify money’s origins. Without all these rules being standardized, if not unified, any progress in combating money laundering practices seems to be a pipe-dream—but I would say that in recent years the legislation is becoming rather more diversified than normalized. Of course, in some cases there might be expectations—like the one that happens today with the Russians who become extremely “toxic” if it comes to opening new banking accounts or acquiring property; but I would argue it happens not so much be­cause of the spread of corruption in Russia or since Russia’s “presen­ce” is too obvious in Europe, but exclusively due to the sanctions against Russia that were introduced because of the violation of international law and interfere­nce into other nations’ domestic affairs.Fourth, there is another issue which deals with the growing problem of “state capture” on the world’s periphery. I’m addressing the very simple fact that most countries, if their authorities suppose some money parked in their banks or used for acquiring some property there, used to ask the authorities of those states where either the money or its owner originated from, and about his criminal records or/and the nature of the mentioned funds. If the originating country is not only corrupt, but acts as a state totally “captured” by its ruling elite where money is ea­sily exchanged for power, and vice versa, its authorities would prove the absence of any wrongdoings. Some authors argue that these days the political eli­tes in many countries have completely merged with the business ones, and call such nations a business-states—so in all these cases the Western judiciary looks almost impotent in ad­dressing the most vital money laundering cases. The renowned international bo­dies, like, e.g., Interpol, are also acting on the same basis and will not hunt anyone in case the national bureaus initiate the search. So I would say once again that if some wealthy person from a deeply corrupt state with good political con­nections launders money in Europe or the United States, there is highly unlikely she or he will be accused of any wrongdoing (even if regimes collapse, nothing may change—e.g., Ukrainian authorities after the Euromaidan did virtually nothing for chasing the funds of corrupt officials from the previous government owned in the European countries).So what is to be done in such circumstances?I would argue that what we need is an institution that is able to confront money lau­n­dering activity and all types of corruption globally, or at least for the sake of all developed countries where dirty money are accumulated and invested. Therefo­re, we need an international organization that can either establish new rules for fi­gh­ting illegal financial operations or at least use the existing ones on its own, without needing to as­k governments for approving its actions. If one takes all these points into ac­count the only option that suits them all will be to create an International Finan­cial Court since the judiciary is the branch of authority that acts independently from the executive. Such an International Finan­cial Court might possess several crucial features.To start with, the court can be established by several nations and blocks which consider themselves as “transparent” and “doing their best” to fight financial fraud. The European Union, the United Kingdom (in case Brexit finally happens), Japan, Canada, and some Asian countries relatively free from corruption might become the founding signatories to its statute (another approach may be based, for exam­ple, on invol­ving all the OECD nations into the new venture—and if the count­­ries that benefit the most from these schemes, like the United States or Britain, will oppo­se the measure, it could be introduced either by France or even by some of the pe­ripheral countries). The major idea behind this move is that the court may first make its rulings based on natio­nal legislation (e.g., the British law about Unexplained Wealth Orders), but these rulings will have an equal power in all the states that ratified the court’s statute. In the long run, therefore, the anti-corruption and anti-money laundering practices of all the “transparent” and “decent” nations will move closer to one another and may eventually even merge into one code of conduct. There is a long story in the West telling us how effective the courts had been in implemen­ting laws and treaties that were adopted by executive authorities. The Fourteenth Amen­d­ment to the U.S. Constitution declaring equal rights for African Americans in 1868, was de facto enacted by the 1954 Supreme Court ru­ling in the Brown v. The Board of Education case, while the provisions of the Tre­a­ty of Rome which established the European Communities in 1957 beca­me fully im­plemented only after European Court of Justice’s landmark Cassis de Dijon ruling of 1979. The courts, I would argue, have a powerful say in putting into acti­on the laws and rules that already exist but are easy to be avoided, and this is the major reason why I am advocating for a new international judicial institution to combat these problems.What makes the new anti corruption vehicle so different from any other international organization?First of all is its independent character. The  International Finan­cial Court might be able to nominate in­dependent counsels, prosecutors and investigators not reporting to the national law enforcement agencies, with their powers co­vering the territory of all parti­cipating states. Its rulings, as I already noted, should have uni­versal reach—that means that, in due course, they will be implemented into the national legislation. Both features greatly enhance the court’s reach and authority.The next crucial point is the system of claims behind the cases the court investigates and deliberates. These claims might be filed by any private or corporate person who considers itself a complainant or aggri­eved—and in this case the set of actors might be very wide, beginning from any taxpayer in the country where money originates or from a client of any bank ruined by its owners. The claims would be directed towards any citizen of the country where the money goes whose ri­ghts have been violated by the decreasing level of decency in his country’s governing authorities caused by the inflow of “dirty funds.” This me­ans the propo­sed option is able to overcome the negligence of the national investigators who, for different re­asons, might be disinclined from launching an inquiry into the nature of unexplained funds or its uses inside the receiving nations’ financial do­mains.Yet what may become the court’s greatest advantage is its powers to block and arrest the funds and assets owned or controlled by the citizens of the countries which did not become signatories of its Statute, but whose funds and assets are on the territory of its member na­tions. This very fact might undermine the fundamental principle of safety that today motiva­tes corrupt individuals and entities from around the world to hide their property ab­road: just imagine how senseless such a move will become if an anti-corruption activist’s documented claim sent from the country where the money was stolen, can cause the seizure of funds in the country where either the real estate was ac­quired or the bank deposit was opened. Even though the court may not become a well functioning institution overnight, it can be anticipated as a crucial danger by anybody engaged in corrupt and illicit financial operations around the world, therefore, greatly curb the inflows of “dirty money” from the peripheral nations to the developed ones.Moreover, and this is extremely important for the revitalization of the global civil society, the anti-corruption activists across the globe would, for the first time, get a proper global partner whom they might appeal. Organizations like the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, not to mention less renown national groupings who will submit a substantial number of duly verified claims, might get special representation with the court. Furthermore, people con­cerned with growing corruption around the world will get additional reasons for uniting and working together since they will get a clear addressee for their work. I believe that this issue cannot be overestimated: In most countries plagu­ed with rampant corruption, citizens remain passive first of all because they are discouraged by the lack of response from both the national regulators, law en­forcement agencies, and even from international investigators since corrupt officials possessing either accounts in Panama or real estate in London don’t feel any pressure inside their own countries.The last advantage of the International Finan­cial Court might beco­me its records which—unlike the records and databases of either In­terpol or nati­onal law enforcers—will be open to the public and electro­nically accessible from any place in the world. This would contribute to the emer­gence of the first truly global database of corrupt officials, doubtful jurisdic­tions, banks involved in processing “dirty money,” as well as the law offices and attorneys most closely linked to money laundering operations. Such an open database may, as I believe, erode the very foundations of the secrecy that allows the international corruption and money laundering to flourish in today’s world.To make one final observation, I would contend that governments in all nati­ons across the world will face very powerful pressure from their citizens to sign the International Finan­cial Court’s statute and to become the part of that global body. In the case that the largest global powers—the United States, China, and Russia—are not participating in the International Criminal Court, it will be much more difficult for those authorities to explain to their subjects why they should remain outside the new system, especially if they are pretending they are doing their best to eliminate corrupt practices inside their own borders. It might be framed as the debate over war crimes—which in many nations are believed to be a “natural part” of the respective countries’ “real sovereignty” (a term widely used in Russia and coined by former Deputy Defense Minister Andrei Kokoshin)—but the negative attitude to corrup­tion and the misuse of power transcends national borders and ideological fractures. Thus, the dissenters in many parts of the globe will get a very simple “foothold,” on which they might hope to make things change.Alexander Lebedev, a Russian entrepreneur and philantropist, is the primary share­holder of the National Reserve Corporation in Moscow and the financial backer of both The Independent and The London Evening Standard in London.Image: Rueters

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As economies become more interconnected and globalized and the borders between countries and jurisdictions effectively disappear, the complexity of financial trans­actions is reaching new levels. The fundamental difference between the current stage of glo­balization and the previous one that unfolded in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries consists of both the direction of capital flows and the entities they originate from. If one looks back, then one might realize that between 1870 and 1913 the major European nations (Great Britain and France) invested abroad 6.5 and 3.7 percent of the­ir GDP respectively. In the case of Great Britain, this amounted to approximately 34 percent of its total capital investments). However, there was virtually no money from “peripheral” countries that was deposited in British and French banks, and there were only a few dozen properties that were ow­ned by investors from these countries. Moreover, if there were cases of wealthy overseas entrepreneurs or noblemen bringing money to the most developed nations of the time, they were well-known, with their properties being perfectly do­cumented. In our day, everything has changed in this regard: every year $800 billion to $2 trillion, or roughly 10 percent of the combined GDP of the European Union, ar­­rives to global financial capitals like London, New York, or Zurich from “developing” countries, many of which are label­led so by mista­ke. Most of this money comes through various “off-shore” jurisdictions that were created after the famous decision by the Bank of England in 1957 that authorized the holding of the deposits in pounds outside Britain, with its owners unknown.In recent decades, a completely new industry has emerged which is focused entirely on processing these funds and putting them in safety outside the countries where they were “harvested.” It includes the investment bankers who attract the money and either deposit it or place it into different investment funds and SICAVS (open-ended, collective investment schemes); the lawyers which oversee a large network of offshore and shell companies, trusts and SPVs which regulate in accordance with current regulation; the crowds of nominal directors and legal owners; the real estate agents and luxury developers who sell the overpriced assets to the super-rich; the producers of exclusive goods from jewellery and watches to luxury cars and megayachts; and even the government officials who elaborate different “citizenship-for-invest­ment” programs. The sco­pe of this group is rather small; I would argue with great certainty that it doesn’t ex­ceed twenty thousand people all around the world. The impact of this new industry on the global economy is enormous. Today, about a third of all multinational corporations’ FDI goes through different tax havens which results in massive tax avoidance; the fi­gures for the corporate sector are unknown, but the most conservative assessments for tax evasion amongst individuals reach $1 trillion per year. The investment funds and large banks which claim to be completely transparent, are often sued for violating different money-laundering acts or sanction regimes—and if are accused and fined, the average fine they agree to pay has sky­rocketed from $22 million in the mid-2000s to $1.6 billion in 2014–2015. The largest fine, at $9 billion, was paid by BNP-Paribas when it settled its dispute with the U.S. Justice Department in June 2014. But how can the legal banking business repay such substantial amounts and manage to stay afloat? What operati­ons aren’t uncovered that allow such funds and banks to prosper? People should not be fooled about their nature as more than $230 billion was laundered in 2007–2015 by the Estonian subsidiary of Danske Bank, which represented a nation with a GDP that is eight times smaller than this sum, and which is proudly ranked eighteenth in the 2018 Global Transparency Index and sixteenth in the Doing Business 2018 survey. Around thirty-five thousand houses and apartments in Lon­don, as it was recently revealed, are owned by compa­nies whose real beneficiaries remain unknown, and in New York City, close to 250,000 apartments in residential buildings are unoccupied, with at least half being bought in the name of offshore companies. I’m not addressing the issue of where the world’s superyachts or business jets are registered—more than 80 percent of these “luxury toys” carry flags of countries with low taxes.All of this depicts the reality of the modern money laundering business that has beco­me part of today’s “financial capitalism.” Many left-wing writers argue that it de­vastates the peripheral nations—and I agree with that argument—but what’s much more im­portant, I believe, is to mention that this new reality harms developed nations just as similarly as developing nations.The “traditional” arguments include the main thesis about “plundering” the peri­pheral countries from where the money originates and of “enrichment” of already wealthy nations where the money is direc­ted—but such a statement is not suffi­cient. First of all, the inflow of dirty funds from the global “South” distorts the normal functioning of European and American business. The cities to which the super-rich flock are becoming too expensive for the locals and their econo­my often becomes disrupted and is pushed to the brink of crisis. More and more city dwel­lers are sque­ezed into suburbs, and the local authorities must invest more money into afforda­ble housing. In London, these allocations rose to £3.15 billion which are to be spent on new ninety thousand affordable homes between 2017 and 2020. The financial system is overloaded by launde­red funds and bubb­les become more widespread and common. As I mentioned earlier, in some cases, illicit dealings with money flows from the global periphery lead to claims and pe­nalties by the authorities, which in turn only push the bankers to take a higher-ris­k business strategy to cover the losses. The governments of European count­ri­es are facing dilemmas with the new capital inflows: on the one hand they should encourage them but on the ot­her they feel obliged to defend their political and judiciary system from corrupti­on. But with three-fifths of the United Kingdom’s richest residents being either foreign nationals or foreign-born (as are thirty-five out of fifty-five billionaires residing in London), it becomes more problematic from year to year.But there is another side of the issue which is much less studied. As poorer nations become more corrupt and their politicians and businessmen try to channel their capital to Europe, the quality of life in these countries decreases even further, and desperate peo­ple start to emigrate. Of the top ten countries that have seen the highest levels of emigration into the EU in the 2010s, eight (Pakistan, Ukraine, Iran, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Syria) are found at the lowest ranks (from 117 and 178) in the 2018 Corruption Perception Index. So by accepting hundreds of millions of dollars into European banks, the European authorities must pay dozens of billions of euros to accommodate new migrants while also facing growing social tensions caused by this inflow. Moreover, I would add that emigration from the peripheral nations, which is caused by the corrupt governments, jeopardizes their development since it deprives them of their best human capital, which has resulted in ma­ny cases in ethnic and civil conflicts which often descend into full-scale civil war (this was the case of the Democratic Republic of the Congo after Mobutu Sese Seko, one of the world’s corrupt dictators, fled to France where his fortune was kept, in 1997). Western countries are then forced to spend additional billions to provi­de food, medical care, and even armed humanitarian assistance to the nations ruled by the most renown kleptocrats. This is a very high price for the joy of allowing several thousand people to manage money laundering operations from their luxury offices in London or Zürich—and I would also argue that this joy contributes to an “import of corruption” from the global periphery to the core (I am reminded of the well-known story of a Scottish-based “laundromat” that allowed the Azerbaijani political elite to squeeze billions of dollars from its country and to use it, inter alia, to co­ver legitimate lobbying for Azerbaijan and its state-owned companies in European capitals).But why does the fight against this evil appear so ineffective? Why are the people that stripped their states of their taxpayers’ money, presided over the largest delibe­rate bank failures, or those engaged in looting the na­tural resources of their co­untries, all still living in Europe without experiencing any consequences? I think at least fo­ur systemic problems exist that make this possible. First, I would argue that the main focus these days is made on one issue—on the so called “problematic jurisdictions” which the West’s authorities believe are either engaged in offshore banking or lack the necessary financial regulations. Many lists of these countries were drafted in recent years, with the American “Financial Action Task Force” (FATF) and the European Union’s list being the most well-known. As of Jan. 1, 2012, the first one comprised forty states and territories, and the second as of March 2019 has sixteen. Both do not include, for example, either Russia nor China. Russia was successfully removed from the FATF list back in 2003 and has never appeared on the European Union’s list—even tho­ugh it’s a common point that the Russians are among the lar­gest final beneficiaries of companies that own real estate in the UK, Spain, and some other European countries. China never appeared on both lists while the offshore companies controlled by the Chinese are among the most active buyers of expen­sive mansions in the United States. At the same times, there are many countries on the list that might harbour terrorists and jihadis, but do not possess either the funds to be launde­r­ed nor the modern banking systems that would allow to transfer these money into the European banks. The excessive attention to the “intermediate” countries rather than to the places from where the money really originates is, I believe, the first tre­mendous challenge the fight against money laundering faces today.Second, the control over the allegedly dirty money in the “recipient” countries is quite weak. I would say that the very term “due diligence” shouldn’t be used for the description of what’s going on in Europe and in the United States. One can remember the most famous cases—like the case of Arthur Andersen insisting on Enron’s firmness five months prior to its bankruptcy; the case of Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch drawing the AAA ratings to the “subprime” mortgage-backed securities in the wake of the 2008 crisis; the case of Wachovia which laundered close to $500 billion of drug cartels affiliated money in 2000s, etc. If it co­mes to purchases of the expensive real estate, as one can see, remaining in the shadows is even easier. The “investments” into the wealthy countries are welco­med by their governments—today, even the EU nations effectively sell citi­zenships or permanent residencies in hun­dreds of ways with the cheapest ones (as in Malta, Cyprus or Bulgaria) requiring not mo­re than Є1.2-2.0 million to attain citizenship. The British, who introduced “unexplained wealth orders” as part of the Criminal Finances Act of 2017, used this tool to prosecute only one person since the orders went into force—and I would remind that there are thirty-five thousand real estate units in Lon­don with a value of around $70 billion, which were paid for by unknown sources and belong to undisclosed owners. A total revision of the banking ac­counts owned by foreign residents and/or com­pani­es, as well as the real esta­te bought by such entities should be under way—but in most cases the lo­cal authorities prefer only to le­vy additional taxes on such objects rather than find the sources of mo­ney that bought them.Third, I would say that there’s a fascinating multitude of laws and regulations that are applied to tracking money flows in different countries. No pan-Eu­ropean register of real estate exists; the banking regulations in Switzerland differ greatly from those in the EU countries; special regimes like the Liechtenstein-based trusts or Sociétés civiles d’immobilier founded in Monaco or Luxembourg are used for acquiring objects throughout Europe; British law is different from the continental one and will become even more different after Brexit is finalized. At the same time, all these jurisdictions are considered “safe”—so if someone sells a mansion in the UK or transfers funds from his Swiss bank account there will be no formal procedures in place to verify money’s origins. Without all these rules being standardized, if not unified, any progress in combating money laundering practices seems to be a pipe-dream—but I would say that in recent years the legislation is becoming rather more diversified than normalized. Of course, in some cases there might be expectations—like the one that happens today with the Russians who become extremely “toxic” if it comes to opening new banking accounts or acquiring property; but I would argue it happens not so much be­cause of the spread of corruption in Russia or since Russia’s “presen­ce” is too obvious in Europe, but exclusively due to the sanctions against Russia that were introduced because of the violation of international law and interfere­nce into other nations’ domestic affairs.Fourth, there is another issue which deals with the growing problem of “state capture” on the world’s periphery. I’m addressing the very simple fact that most countries, if their authorities suppose some money parked in their banks or used for acquiring some property there, used to ask the authorities of those states where either the money or its owner originated from, and about his criminal records or/and the nature of the mentioned funds. If the originating country is not only corrupt, but acts as a state totally “captured” by its ruling elite where money is ea­sily exchanged for power, and vice versa, its authorities would prove the absence of any wrongdoings. Some authors argue that these days the political eli­tes in many countries have completely merged with the business ones, and call such nations a business-states—so in all these cases the Western judiciary looks almost impotent in ad­dressing the most vital money laundering cases. The renowned international bo­dies, like, e.g., Interpol, are also acting on the same basis and will not hunt anyone in case the national bureaus initiate the search. So I would say once again that if some wealthy person from a deeply corrupt state with good political con­nections launders money in Europe or the United States, there is highly unlikely she or he will be accused of any wrongdoing (even if regimes collapse, nothing may change—e.g., Ukrainian authorities after the Euromaidan did virtually nothing for chasing the funds of corrupt officials from the previous government owned in the European countries).So what is to be done in such circumstances?I would argue that what we need is an institution that is able to confront money lau­n­dering activity and all types of corruption globally, or at least for the sake of all developed countries where dirty money are accumulated and invested. Therefo­re, we need an international organization that can either establish new rules for fi­gh­ting illegal financial operations or at least use the existing ones on its own, without needing to as­k governments for approving its actions. If one takes all these points into ac­count the only option that suits them all will be to create an International Finan­cial Court since the judiciary is the branch of authority that acts independently from the executive. Such an International Finan­cial Court might possess several crucial features.To start with, the court can be established by several nations and blocks which consider themselves as “transparent” and “doing their best” to fight financial fraud. The European Union, the United Kingdom (in case Brexit finally happens), Japan, Canada, and some Asian countries relatively free from corruption might become the founding signatories to its statute (another approach may be based, for exam­ple, on invol­ving all the OECD nations into the new venture—and if the count­­ries that benefit the most from these schemes, like the United States or Britain, will oppo­se the measure, it could be introduced either by France or even by some of the pe­ripheral countries). The major idea behind this move is that the court may first make its rulings based on natio­nal legislation (e.g., the British law about Unexplained Wealth Orders), but these rulings will have an equal power in all the states that ratified the court’s statute. In the long run, therefore, the anti-corruption and anti-money laundering practices of all the “transparent” and “decent” nations will move closer to one another and may eventually even merge into one code of conduct. There is a long story in the West telling us how effective the courts had been in implemen­ting laws and treaties that were adopted by executive authorities. The Fourteenth Amen­d­ment to the U.S. Constitution declaring equal rights for African Americans in 1868, was de facto enacted by the 1954 Supreme Court ru­ling in the Brown v. The Board of Education case, while the provisions of the Tre­a­ty of Rome which established the European Communities in 1957 beca­me fully im­plemented only after European Court of Justice’s landmark Cassis de Dijon ruling of 1979. The courts, I would argue, have a powerful say in putting into acti­on the laws and rules that already exist but are easy to be avoided, and this is the major reason why I am advocating for a new international judicial institution to combat these problems.What makes the new anti corruption vehicle so different from any other international organization?First of all is its independent character. The  International Finan­cial Court might be able to nominate in­dependent counsels, prosecutors and investigators not reporting to the national law enforcement agencies, with their powers co­vering the territory of all parti­cipating states. Its rulings, as I already noted, should have uni­versal reach—that means that, in due course, they will be implemented into the national legislation. Both features greatly enhance the court’s reach and authority.The next crucial point is the system of claims behind the cases the court investigates and deliberates. These claims might be filed by any private or corporate person who considers itself a complainant or aggri­eved—and in this case the set of actors might be very wide, beginning from any taxpayer in the country where money originates or from a client of any bank ruined by its owners. The claims would be directed towards any citizen of the country where the money goes whose ri­ghts have been violated by the decreasing level of decency in his country’s governing authorities caused by the inflow of “dirty funds.” This me­ans the propo­sed option is able to overcome the negligence of the national investigators who, for different re­asons, might be disinclined from launching an inquiry into the nature of unexplained funds or its uses inside the receiving nations’ financial do­mains.Yet what may become the court’s greatest advantage is its powers to block and arrest the funds and assets owned or controlled by the citizens of the countries which did not become signatories of its Statute, but whose funds and assets are on the territory of its member na­tions. This very fact might undermine the fundamental principle of safety that today motiva­tes corrupt individuals and entities from around the world to hide their property ab­road: just imagine how senseless such a move will become if an anti-corruption activist’s documented claim sent from the country where the money was stolen, can cause the seizure of funds in the country where either the real estate was ac­quired or the bank deposit was opened. Even though the court may not become a well functioning institution overnight, it can be anticipated as a crucial danger by anybody engaged in corrupt and illicit financial operations around the world, therefore, greatly curb the inflows of “dirty money” from the peripheral nations to the developed ones.Moreover, and this is extremely important for the revitalization of the global civil society, the anti-corruption activists across the globe would, for the first time, get a proper global partner whom they might appeal. Organizations like the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, not to mention less renown national groupings who will submit a substantial number of duly verified claims, might get special representation with the court. Furthermore, people con­cerned with growing corruption around the world will get additional reasons for uniting and working together since they will get a clear addressee for their work. I believe that this issue cannot be overestimated: In most countries plagu­ed with rampant corruption, citizens remain passive first of all because they are discouraged by the lack of response from both the national regulators, law en­forcement agencies, and even from international investigators since corrupt officials possessing either accounts in Panama or real estate in London don’t feel any pressure inside their own countries.The last advantage of the International Finan­cial Court might beco­me its records which—unlike the records and databases of either In­terpol or nati­onal law enforcers—will be open to the public and electro­nically accessible from any place in the world. This would contribute to the emer­gence of the first truly global database of corrupt officials, doubtful jurisdic­tions, banks involved in processing “dirty money,” as well as the law offices and attorneys most closely linked to money laundering operations. Such an open database may, as I believe, erode the very foundations of the secrecy that allows the international corruption and money laundering to flourish in today’s world.To make one final observation, I would contend that governments in all nati­ons across the world will face very powerful pressure from their citizens to sign the International Finan­cial Court’s statute and to become the part of that global body. In the case that the largest global powers—the United States, China, and Russia—are not participating in the International Criminal Court, it will be much more difficult for those authorities to explain to their subjects why they should remain outside the new system, especially if they are pretending they are doing their best to eliminate corrupt practices inside their own borders. It might be framed as the debate over war crimes—which in many nations are believed to be a “natural part” of the respective countries’ “real sovereignty” (a term widely used in Russia and coined by former Deputy Defense Minister Andrei Kokoshin)—but the negative attitude to corrup­tion and the misuse of power transcends national borders and ideological fractures. Thus, the dissenters in many parts of the globe will get a very simple “foothold,” on which they might hope to make things change.Alexander Lebedev, a Russian entrepreneur and philantropist, is the primary share­holder of the National Reserve Corporation in Moscow and the financial backer of both The Independent and The London Evening Standard in London.Image: Rueters

August 21, 2019 at 12:44PM via IFTTT

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