Report cites growing corruption, sees link with rising populism

[humble3d]

Report cites growing corruption, sees link with rising populism

Growing levels of perceived corruption and social inequality provided fertile ground for the rise of populist politicians in 2016, global watchdog Transparency International said on Wednesday.

TI said populist leaders like U.S. President Donald Trump and French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen regularly drew links between a "corrupt elite" and the marginalization of working people.

But anti-establishment parties generally failed to address corruption once in office, the group said.

"In the case of Donald Trump, the first signs of such a betrayal of his promises are already there," TI's research chief Finn Heinrich wrote in a blog about the report.

He said Trump was talking about "rolling back key anti-corruption legislation and ignoring potential conflicts of interest that will exacerbate, not control, corruption."

 

The TI report came two days after constitutional and ethics lawyers filed a lawsuit alleging that Trump was "submerged in conflicts of interest".

 

Trump dismissed the allegations and said the lawsuit filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington was "without merit".

 

The group's annual report said Qatar showed the biggest drop in confidence in 2016 after scandals involving the FIFA soccer scandals and reports of human rights abuses.

Somalia was the worst performer on the list for the 10th year.

TI said the report showed pervasive public-sector corruption around the world.

Sixty-nine percent of 176 countries scored below 50 on the index scale of 0 to 100, with 0 perceived to be highly corrupt and 100 considered "very clean."

 

More countries declined in the index than improved in 2016, it noted.

Once in place, populist leaders appeared almost "immune to challenges about corrupt behavior," Heinrich wrote.

 

The scores of Hungary and Turkey - countries with autocratic leaders - fell in recent years, for example. Argentina, which ousted a populist government, saw its score improve.

 

To break the "vicious circle" between corruption and the unequal distribution of power and wealth in societies, TI said, governments should stop the revolving door between business leaders and high-ranking government positions.

 

It also called for greater controls on banks and other businesses that helped launder money, and moves to ban secret companies that hide the identities of their real owners.

TI said big corruption cases like those involving oil giant Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) in Brazil and Ukrainian ex-president Viktor Yanukovych showed how national revenues were being siphoned off to benefit the few, fueling social exclusion.

    
Brazil's score on the index had dropped over the past five year after a spate of corruption scandals, but independent law enforcement bodies there had begun bringing to justice those previously considered untouchable, TI said.

Denmark and New Zealand performed best in 2016, with scores of 90, followed closely by Finland (89) and Sweden (88). Somalia remained the worst performer with a score of 10, followed by South Sudan (11), North Korea (12) and Syria (13).

The United States ranked 18th on the list, down from 16th in 2016, with a perceived corruption score of 74.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-corruption-idUSKBN1590B5?il=0

 

[marinegirl]

Rothschild family is worth more than the top 8 billionaires in the world

January 22, 2017

•  
• A recent report by Oxfam International highlights the dramatic rise in income equality by noting that the combined wealth of the world’s top 8 individual billionaires is more than the lower half of the world’s population, some 3.6 billion people.

 

The intention of the report was to bring awareness to the unfairness and injustice inherent in our global economic system.

“It calls for a fundamental change in the way we manage our economies so that they work for all people, and not just a fortunate few.” [Oxfam]

Listed below are the 8 billionaires along with their estimated wealth, which combined equals $426.2 billion:

Bill Gates – $75 b
Amancio Ortega – $67 b
Warren Buffett – $60.8 b
Carlos Slim Helu – $50 b
Jeff Bezos – $45.2 b
Mark Zuckerberg – $44.6 b
Larry Ellison – $43.6 b
Michael Bloomberg – $40 b

Oxfam’s assertion is that world economies are mismanaged in favor of the wealthy, which is largely true, however, the report failed to hit the mark on this serious issue by not acknowledging the greatest problem with the world’s economy, which is the global central banking model of privately owned debt-based fiat currencies.

The current banking model is the product of hundreds of years of planned development, structuring, manipulation, force and trickery which began in earnest with Mayer Amschel Rothschild, who first established banking and finance houses in Germany in the 18th century.The careful cultivation of his wealth with the assistance of his five sons allowed Rothschild to profit immensely during the French Revolution by providing financing and war materials to Austria, which in turn allowed the budding family empire to evolve into a multi-national organization, henceforth becoming a major financier of industry and war.“Around that time, Rothschild sent his five sons to live in the capital cities of various European countries. His goal was to have each of his children establish a banking business in Frankfurt, Naples, Vienna, Paris, and London, and throughout the 1800s, they did. With Mayer Rothschild’s children spread across Europe, the Rothschild’s became the first bank to transcend borders. Lending to governments to finance war operations for the past several centuries provided ample opportunity to accumulate bonds and shore up additional wealth in a range of different industries.” [Source]

Fast forward to 2016, the Rothschild family is a dynasty of unimaginable wealth which manages to somehow conceal it for the most part, never quite being publicly credited as the richest and most influential family in the world. By dividing their capital and holdings up amongst the many members of the family, including numerous descendants and heirs, occasionally a single member of the family will appear on a list of the world’s top individuals, however, the family as a whole represents the largest fortune ever known.

“Traditionally, the Rothschild fortune is invested in closely held corporations. Most family members are employed by these corporations directly or invested in operations that generate family wealth. The remarkable success of the family has largely been due to a strong interest in cooperation, being entrepreneurs and the practice of shrewd business principles.” [Source]

Investopedia estimates the family’s total wealth at over $2 trillion in assets and holdings, including some of the world’s oldest living corporations:

“…their holdings span a number of diverse industries, including financial services, real estate, mining, energy and even charitable work.There are a few Rothschild-owned financial institutions still operating in Europe, including N M Rothschild & Sons Ltd in the United Kingdom, and Edmond de Rothschild Group in Switzerland. The family also owns more than a dozen wineries in North America, Europe, South America, South Africa and Australia.” [Source]

At $2 trillion plus, the family’s reported wealth is closing in on five times as much as the combined wealth of the world’s top 8 individual billionaires, meaning that the Rothschild family alone controls more wealth than perhaps three-fourths or more of the world’s total population.

That could be one of the reasons for the rise of.  populism....we are being ripped off, by a bunch of crooks.

http://www.hangthebankers.com/rothschild-family-worth-top-8-billionaires-world/

[CODYQX4]

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[marinegirl]

Those who understand.