Re-Define advises several governments, international organizations and non governmental organizations on how to reform international finance, design macroeconomic policy, achieve development and sustain the environment. 

Tackling Tax Havens - Adressing Fiscal Deficits, Financing Development and Stabilizing Finance

Submitted by sony.kapoor on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 17:52

Anna Gibson, Research Associate, Re-Define

 
The German government recently decided to purchase stolen data revealing tax avoiders hiding money in Swiss bank accounts. This is a risky move diplomatically, but, for Germany, the gains from tackling this tax flight appear to outweigh the risks. It is also illustrative of the proliferating efforts by individual governments and the international community to clamp down on tax flight: the loss of tax revenue due to cross border tax evasion or avoidance.
 
However, the recent spat between Switzerland and Germany is merely the tip of the iceberg; symptomatic of what is one the most serious systemic failures of our time: the lack of intergovernmental cooperation on cross-border financial matters.
 
In order to capture the true extent of this failure and seek sufficient and holistic remedies, the current discussion can be crystallised into three central arguments: the effect of tax havens on fiscal revenue, development finance, and the stability of the financial system.
 
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Tackling Sovereign Debt Systematically - If Not Now then When?

Submitted by sony.kapoor on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 17:31

Anna Gibson, Research Associate, Re-Define 

            Development actors have long argued for an overarching international mechanism that would resolve sovereign debt crises in a fair, transparent, and consistent manner.  Such a mechanism would assist poor countries that often suffocate under unsustainable levels of (sometimes odious) debt, lacking the political power and legal rights to negotiate with their creditors in an impartial and efficient forum. It would make handling sovereign debt problems less messy, more predictable, and the burden sharing simpler and fairer. It would also provide incentives to curtail irresponsible lending policies on behalf of creditors.
 
           However, since these problems were seen to be 'out there' and we in the rich OECD world were mostly the creditors there was little political will to support this call. That was a missed opportunity. The developed world is now realising just how vital a sovereign debt workout procedure really is. The escalating sovereign debt levels of Iceland, Greece, Italy, Ireland and Spain, not to mention Dubai, that have transpired in the wake of the global financial crisis, have brought the severity of the issue out of the hypothetical realm and into that of Western reality. 
 
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Re-Define Managing Director Sony Kapoor testimony at the European Parliament Hearing on Alternative Investment Funds

Please Click Here to see an archived webcast of the hearings which were held on the 27th of January. The written testimony will be available both here and on the European Parliament Website by the end of next week.

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Re-Define Testimony at European Parliament Hearings on Financial Transaction Taxes

Submitted by re-define on Fri, 12/04/2009 - 13:21

Please click below to see an archived webcast of the European Parliament Testimony of Re-Define Managing Director Sony Kapoor on Financial Transaction Taxes. This hearing was conducted by the full ECON committee on the 2nd of December 2009.

Sony Kapoor European Parliament Testimony on Financial Transaction Taxes

For the speech please look at time stamp 16:20:10 to 16:27:20 and for answers to MEP questions please look at time stamp 17:01:20 to 17:09:00.

A copy of the submitted written Testimony of Mr Kapoor will be available both here and on the European Parliament website on Monday the 7th of December. 

Other details of the hearing can be accessed here. 

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Sony Kapoor Interviews on Recovery, Financial Regulation, Taxation, Inequality, Unemployment and Governance

Submitted by sony.kapoor on Mon, 11/30/2009 - 10:06

Re-Define Managing Director Sony Kapoor sat down with the Real News Network on one of his visits to Washington DC and gave a series of wide-ranging interviews on the difficulty of getting the right financial regulation, the extreme fragility of the economic recovery, the sheer scale of the problem of rising unemployment and stagnating wages, the problems of collective action faced by institutions and governments and a number of other topical issues including the question of what should be done with institutions such as Goldman Sachs. These can now be accessed in our Audio/Video resource section http://www.re-define.org/audiovideo.

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Forthcoming Policy Papers from Re-Define

How is the financial crisis likely to impact Low Income Country Access to the Financial System (Report)

Our New paper on why Financial Transaction Taxes (Tobin Taxes) are the taxes of the future (Paper)

An Updated version of Re-Define's widely circulated State of the Regulation Debate Paper (Paper)

A Re-Define e-Book on the Future of Development (Book)

A Re-Define e-Book on the Future of Finance (Book)

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Sony Kapoor speaking on Financial System Reform at the Momentum Young Leaders Conference

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