@mattcollin
Development economist working at the @taxobservatory.bsky.social in Paris. Illicit finance, tax evasion, and foreign aid. Techno DJ when no one is looking. www.matthewcollin.com https://datadarkly.substack.com/
Netanyahu Calls Iran Strikes Necessary To Prevent War He Just Started
Netanyahu Calls Iran Strikes Necessary To Prevent War He Just Started
🚨 A defining moment for global health data.
The termination of the #USAID-supported Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) Program has wide-ranging consequences. We reflect on the collapse and argue what should come next in a new PNAS: doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2…
📊 9,000+ studies
If HMRC isn't interested in punching through opacity in corporate structures to collect all other types of tax that are evaded and avoided, idk if a wealth tax is going to change their minds
But I'm not sure how you get your transparency-via-wealth tax without it? Also not clear that the places that do have a wealth tax make corporate structures more transparent to the public, which is the channel through which pressure mounted in the above example
If you want to make real estate ownership transparent, you could just do... that. Most real estate in England and Wales owned by corporates is covered under the beneficial ownership register. There are gap which should be plugged - but those gaps don't apply to the tax authority.
While I'm sympathetic, I'm curious how you think a wealth tax would have been the thing that made a difference in the above case
Congrats Michael!
@scepticalranil.bsky.social
Claude Code went through the original SQL file and cleaned out any malicious code, then went through the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine to retrieve the orignial .jpegs!
It took like 3 hours in total, incredible
After years of hand-wringing and fighting with Bluehost's weak Wordpress protection, I finally have resurrected an archived, html version of Aid Thoughts at the original address, with a little help from Claude!
aidthoughts.org
With original comments and images!
There are there middle aged men at the table next to me in this cafe all collectively having a voice conversation with Mistral or Chat GPT or something while they have their coffee and croissants what is even happening
Self-recommending. @johndellosso.bsky.social is an excellent investigator and this seems like a great way to train the next generation of bright young sleuths
"America will get better and better," declared the Reverend Jesse Jackson on the stage of the 1988 Democratic National Convention. "Keep hope alive."
Find some hope today in Jackson's speech as we remember the life of one of America's civil rights icons.
Today I’m proud to launch the Investigative Simulations Lab (@investigativesimulations.org), an organization that designs and delivers simulation games that show journalists and researchers how to follow the money and uncover wrongdoing.
What is never very clear from @chainalysis estimates is whether they are measuring a true intensive margin, or just a measurement extensive margin: in the past year they just got better at detecting human trafficking www.chainalysis.com/blog/crypto-...
We'll take your assets, just not your people
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...
I suspect @ronbdavies.bsky.social is already half way there
Looking forward to the Myanmar article! @nmoreaukastler.bsky.social
Think your LLM gave this the wrong tag
Grumpy opinion:
Too many young development economists are working on behavioral econ questions that are unimportant for development. The topics are amenable to small experiments that can nail mechanisms and demonstrate smarts via a clever design. The profession over-rewards those attributes.
We are now the International Tax Observatory!
How effective are transparency innovations in curbing offshore tax evasion? We’re spending the next two days examining the latest evidence on illicit financial flows.
🎙️ Opening remarks by @gabrielzucman.bsky.social.
Can’t make it? Catch the full recording on our YouTube later this week!
Very happy to have had the chance to present our work (w. @mattcollin.bsky.social & @szakonyi.bsky.social) on the effects of the Economic Crime Bill and its beneficial ownership transparency on secretive real estate ownership in the UK.
Except when it comes to fiscal exile mania
"The ultimate owners of almost 45,000 UK properties worth an estimated £190 billion are hidden from public view via offshore companies"
New investigation by @thetimes.com / @danneidle.bsky.social uses beneficial ownership data from UK Register of Overseas Entities
www.thetimes.com/life-style/p...
Some next level stuff from Fox News
