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> There may be a lot of wealth, but it may end up in the pockets of corrupt officials who use it to buy foreign luxury products That's what came into my mind a

> There may be a lot of wealth, but it may end up in the pockets of corrupt officials who use it to buy foreign luxury products That's what came into my mind an hour ago: it probably is easy to inhibit corruption in developing countries if every developed country would ban their citizens from purchasing luxury and making huge investments abroad. E.g. if a Kenyan or a Russian citizen (let alone an official/politician) wants to buy a humble middle-class living or start a small business in the EU/US/UK/etc - that's Ok but as soon as they try to buy a luxury penthouse, a castle or otherwise invest money which exceeds their country richest city median annual wage by an order or magnitude or more - this transaction should be blocked and investigated.

pjc50 7y ago
That's a bit "run before you can walk"; most places are only just putting in the required beneficial owner rules in order to know that an e.g. Cayman Islands limited company isn't a front for someone on the US proscribed persons list, let alone that they're taking bribes in Kenya. There is a tremendous paper that takes advantage of the fact that a lot of debt is public in its amount but not owners to quantify the "missing trillions". The global sums of "amount owed to me" and "amount owed by me" should sum to zero, but there's a huge gap. That's money owed (bonds) to the invisible rich. https://theintercept.com/2016/04/05/heres-the-price-countries-pay-for-tax-evasion-exposed-in-panama-papers/ https://theintercept.com/2016/04/05/heres-the-price-countrie...
socialdemocrat 7y ago
I don't think you can solve these problems with a stick. Quite the contrary I think that is part of the problem. The more laws and rules you enact, the more laws and rules you see people ignore and break. This just undermines totally respect for law and order. I believe in what economist Hernando de Soto has said about laws: Laws are discovered not made. You need to align laws with what is actually acceptable in your country at the moment. You cannot escape into a rosy Utopia where your underdeveloped country is going to somehow emulate a rich well developed democracy over night, by enacting the same laws. How a country works, and its laws are two different things. On paper Russia is an amazing democracy. In practice not so much. I see developing trust and confidence in the laws of the land is the most important thing you can do. For that to happen I think you simply need to legalize a lot of the crimes everybody does. Once you get people to actually respect and follow the laws you have, you gradually start tightening those laws. You gradually try to nudge people towards better behavior. Transparency is more important than strict laws IMHO. If e.g. a particular government official takes a $5 bribe for every application, then make it public and legal. Post a note that says you pay him or her $5 for the application. You know that fees where originally illegal bribes?

pjc50 7y ago

That's a bit "run before you can walk"; most places are only just putting in the required beneficial owner rules in order to know that an e.g. Cayman Islands limited company isn't a front for someone on the US proscribed persons list, let alone that they're taking bribes in Kenya. There is a tremendous paper that takes advantage of the fact that a lot of debt is public in its amount but not owners to quantify the "missing trillions". The global sums of "amount owed to me" and "amount owed by me" should sum to zero, but there's a huge gap. That's money owed (bonds) to the invisible rich. https://theintercept.com/2016/04/05/heres-the-price-countries-pay-for-tax-evasion-exposed-in-panama-papers/ https://theintercept.com/2016/04/05/heres-the-price-countrie...

socialdemocrat 7y ago

I don't think you can solve these problems with a stick. Quite the contrary I think that is part of the problem. The more laws and rules you enact, the more laws and rules you see people ignore and break. This just undermines totally respect for law and order. I believe in what economist Hernando de Soto has said about laws: Laws are discovered not made. You need to align laws with what is actually acceptable in your country at the moment. You cannot escape into a rosy Utopia where your underdeveloped country is going to somehow emulate a rich well developed democracy over night, by enacting the same laws. How a country works, and its laws are two different things. On paper Russia is an amazing democracy. In practice not so much. I see developing trust and confidence in the laws of the land is the most important thing you can do. For that to happen I think you simply need to legalize a lot of the crimes everybody does. Once you get people to actually respect and follow the laws you have, you gradually start tightening those laws. You gradually try to nudge people towards better behavior. Transparency is more important than strict laws IMHO. If e.g. a particular government official takes a $5 bribe for every application, then make it public and legal. Post a note that says you pay him or her $5 for the application. You know that fees where originally illegal bribes?