This from the website of Tax Justice
Norway's development organisation Norad has commissioned the respected Chr. Michelsen Institute to produce a new literature review entitled How banks assist capital flight from Africa - A literature review. Its first sentence notes something we've long been aware of:
"Systematic studies of the banking sector’s involvement in facilitating capital flight from developing countries are limited."
"The review shows that banks should not be disregarded as passive players when analysing capital flight. Banks play an active role in facilitating capital flight from Africa."
So what is actually leaving Africa by the container-load? Factories, mines, and the machinery that is in them? Logs? Wild game? Rhinoceros horns? Land? Paper claims on wealth?
I ask the question because capital is such a vague term that nobody seems to be able to define it any more.
Norway's development organisation Norad has commissioned the respected Chr. Michelsen Institute to produce a new literature review entitled How banks assist capital flight from Africa - A literature review. Its first sentence notes something we've long been aware of:
"Systematic studies of the banking sector’s involvement in facilitating capital flight from developing countries are limited."
"The review shows that banks should not be disregarded as passive players when analysing capital flight. Banks play an active role in facilitating capital flight from Africa."
So what is actually leaving Africa by the container-load? Factories, mines, and the machinery that is in them? Logs? Wild game? Rhinoceros horns? Land? Paper claims on wealth?
I ask the question because capital is such a vague term that nobody seems to be able to define it any more.
Kommentarer
I've recently been in dialogue with a Marxist on this topic. I asked the simple question:
"You claim that capital cannot be owned as private property. Please tell me why?"
Initially the response was that capital was money and land etc. This was from a self proclaimed lifelong Marxist. Once over this problem, I was told that large accumulations of capital should not be allowed, which might be more to the point. But that was not the question in principle and for an answer to that different question we have to ask later how that outcome has been allowed in the present system.
Generally the conversation, once a point of certainty had been reached degenerated into obfuscation, diversion, misrepresentation, denial of previous claims made earlier in black and white, allegations about things I have said about different questions unrelated and generally attacks on my character.
It was a bit like talking to a child, much the same as the responses I used to get from talking to the TJN folks before I was banned for scrutinising their moral basis.
All I was doing was asking the person to clarify their logic with a simple question. I tried about 10 times to repeat the question over he course of a thread about 40 emails long. Seriously!