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Israel's success in gaining membership in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is a big deal.  The 31-member, Paris-based group is an elite club of developed, open-market, democratic economies.   Membership inspires investor confidence and opens more avenues for trade.  Israel has been knocking on OECD's door for more than 15 years.  And on Monday, May 10, it was finally admitted by a unanimous vote.  Since the OECD operates by consensus, a single objection would have kept the door closed.  But all members voted "aye," including Turkey, with a government headed by an Islamic party.  In so doing, Turkey brushed...

Note Video included at article link. SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) - The Internal Revenue Service has launched a new global program to target what it calls “high wealth individuals,” IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman said Monday. “Through our new global high wealth operating unit we are taking a unified look at the entire web of business and economic entities controlled by high wealth individuals so we can better assess the risk such arrangements pose to tax compliance,” Shulman said at the National Press Club on Monday. Shulman said the IRS is using “our robust and evolving enforcement program that ensures that everyone pays...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-export-import-banks-annual-conference Home • Briefing Room • Speeches & Remarks The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release March 11, 2010 Remarks by the President at the Export-Import Bank's Annual Conference Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington, D.C. 11:30 A.M. EST THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, everybody. And thank you, John, for that generous introduction. Congratulations to you and Fabienne and Luis for the recognition your companies so richly deserve. And thank you to the Chairman of the Export-Import Bank, Fred Hochberg, for having me here today, and for all the important work the...

The global recession is coming to an end faster than thought just a few months ago and may already be over, according to forecasts published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development on Thursday. The recovery may even prove a little stronger than previously predicted, OECD chief economist Jorgen Elmeskov told Reuters in an interview where he elaborated on the forecasts for several key economies.

Climate Change: As a winter storm shutters D.C.-area schools, Al Gore does a show-and-tell on global warming before Congress. The road to Copenhagen is being paved with good intentions."When it comes to the weather, folks in Washington don't seem to be able to handle things," a joking President Obama told reporters Wednesday morning. Daughters Malia and Sasha had a snow day as the private school they attend, Sidwell Friends, closed due to a winter ice and snow storm. Truer words were never spoken. When it comes to weather, the current Democratic majorities in the nation's capital don't have a clue....

Reform: If the world's most famous physicist, Stephen Hawking, is a shining example of British health care, how is it that others in the U.K. are repeatedly denied critical care and medicine?In commenting on efforts to overhaul American's health care system, we have tried to pull back the curtain and pay attention to those trying to clone the systems of Canada and Britain. But supporters of government-run health care frequently ignore some of the less-pleasant facts. Much has been made of this statement in one of our Aug. 3 editorials: "People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance...

Energy Policy: The chief economist of the International Energy Agency says the world is running out of oil. We've been told that for the last 150 years. The only thing we're running out of is the will to drill.Ever since the first oil well was drilled in Titusville, Pa., in 1859, experts have been predicting we would soon run out of oil. The latest is Dr. Fatih Birol, chief economist for the International Energy Agency in Paris, whose job it is to assess future energy supplies by OECD countries. In an interview with the Independent, Dr. Birol says that based...

Korea will achieve the highest growth rate next year among 30 member OECD member states, the organization forecast Wednesday. In its global economic outlook, the OECD said Korea's economy will shrink 2.2 percent in 2009 but rebound with a growth rate of 3.5 percent in 2010 as global trade recovers. The estimate is far above the average 0.7 percent forecast for the 30 OECD members. "After a deep plunge in the final quarter of 2008, [Korea's] economy has bottomed out as fiscal stimulus began to take effect," the OECD said. Uncertainty still remains high, including plummeting employment and the unstable...

PARIS -- The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Wednesday that developed economies will shrink less sharply this year than it previously expected, and will grow next year. The projection was the first upward revision to the OECD's growth forecasts since June 2007, before the financial crisis began. The International Monetary Fund is likely to follow suit when it releases new forecasts July 7. However, the OECD warned governments and central banks against prematurely withdrawing stimulus packages, which it deemed essential in averting a deeper, more prolonged recession. The OECD, a leading think tank and policy forum for its...

OECD puts Switzerland on list of tax havens (DPA) 12 March 2009 PARIS - The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has drawn up a new list of uncooperative tax havens made up of about 30 countries, including Switzerland, the online edition of the French daily Le Figaro reported on Thursday. The list, described by the OECD as a ‘working paper,’ has been sent on to London to be used as a basis for possible measures to be taken against these tax havens by the G20 group of nations, which will be meeting there on April. The OECD prepared the...

The world’s rich donor countries have clashed over plans to improve the quality of their overseas aid, with the US and Japan arguing against setting themselves tougher targets. In a meeting this week in Accra, Ghana, officials have tussled over proposals to force donor countries to co-ordinate their aid programmes with each other and to use financial systems set up by the recipient developing countries wherever possible. The conference follows the so-called “Paris declaration” of 2005 in which rich governments agreed to make aid more predictable and to reduce requirements to use it to buy exports from the donor country....

Or 20 reasons why Pelosi and gang need to be “booted”.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Wealthy Americans are hiding about 1.5 trillion dollars in overseas tax havens in a "deceptive" partnership with top foreign banks such as UBS, resulting in 100 billion dollars in lost US tax revenue, a congressional probe was told Thursday. The hearing centered on a 115-page report following investigations into alleged abuses by UBS in Switzerland and the smaller LGT Bank in Liechtenstein amid a widening international investigation into tax scandals involving the two banks. "The evidence we have been able to obtain breaks through some of the wall of secrecy to show that these two banks have...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Bad agricultural policies and changing eating habits in developing nations are primarily to blame for rising food prices, not biofuel production as some critics claim, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday. Environmentalists and humanitarian groups have stepped up campaigning against biofuels, arguing they divert production away from food and animal feed while contributing to sharp rises in the price of cereals and milk products. But Merkel, whose country is Europe's largest biofuel producer, said the rise in food prices was not mainly due to biofuels but to "inadequate agricultural policies in developing countries" as well as...

OSLO (AFP) - The world could solve many of the major environmental problems it faces at an "affordable" price, the OECD said Wednesday, warning that the cost of doing nothing would be far higher. In a report presented in Oslo, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development suggested a range of measures to address what it said were the greatest global environmental challenges through 2030: climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity and the impact on human health of pollution and toxic chemicals. "It's not cheap. It is affordable, but also it is considerably less onerous for mankind and for the...

The German government's purchase of data stolen from a Liechtenstein bank has reinvigorated longstanding debates about privacy, law enforcement and international relations. Much of the fallout has followed predictable patterns. Some argue that Germany's richest citizens should be brought to justice for failing to comply with the tax laws, while others point out that it is unseemly for a nation to spy on a peaceful neighbor. The conflict between Germany and Liechtenstein also has triggered a broader debate about tax competition and the role of so-called tax havens. The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is trying to use...

Economic Redistribution Ahead Bethany Stotts, January 31, 2008 .....“The United States is committed to strengthening our energy security and confronting global climate change. And the best way to meet these goals is for America to continue leading the way toward the development of cleaner and more energy-efficient technology,” said President Bush. However, groups such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) view such technology-promoting initiatives quite differently. OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría told the United Nations Bali Climate Conference this December that while “cutting emissions and fostering low-carbon activities will require investments in research and development of new technologies,”...

The United States is starting to look like a slowpoke on the Internet. Examples abound of countries that have faster and cheaper broadband connections, and more of their population connected to them. What's less clear is how badly the country that gave birth to the Internet is doing, and whether the government needs to step in and do something about it. The Bush administration has tried to foster broadband adoption with a hands-off approach. If that's seen as a failure by the next administration, the policy may change. In a move to get a clearer picture of where the U.S....

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released a scathing report Sept. 11 calling for a dramatic drawdown in the subsidies and preferential trade laws granted to biofuel producers in OECD countries. In Europe, Friends of the Earth hailed the report, saying it has focused attention on the negative issues surrounding biofuels, while libertarian groups on both sides of the Atlantic applauded its call for a reduction in subsidies. The report is one of a number of efforts designed to deflate support for biofuels in the United States and Europe. Increasing numbers of groups, especially in Europe, are beginning...

Governments need to scrap subsidies for biofuels, as the current rush to support alternative energy sources will lead to surging food prices and the potential destruction of natural habitats, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development will warn on Tuesday. The OECD will say in a report to be discussed by ministers on Tuesday that politicians are rigging the market in favour of an untried technology that will have only limited impact on climate change. “The current push to expand the use of biofuels is creating unsustainable tensions that will disrupt markets without generating significant environmental benefits,” say the authors...