Abstract

"After Dirty Air, Dirty Money"

When U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said after the February meeting of the top industrialized countries, known as the G-7, that a European initiative to clamp down on money laundering is not about dictating to any country what should be the appropriate level of tax rates, it was clear that the game was over. For about eighteen months the United States had signaled that it was serious about joining the Europeans in modest efforts to deal with the tide of illicit money that washes around the world. Now, the U.S. President George W. Bush's Administration was saying that it was backing off the U.S. commitment to reform the offshore banking system. INSETS: Hank and Citibank--A Case in Point, by L.K..;Russia--Scamming the System, by L.K...