BANKING ON OUR RESERVE BANK

- Liz Griffiths

1. given that more than 85% of banking in NZ is now transacted using offshore privately-owned banks or via their branches in NZ, and:
2. that only 3% of financial transactions are made using cash i.e., the notes and coins issued by the Reserve Bank. All other transactions are done digitally, and this 97% of "money" in the economy is only issued by the banks to individuals, or businesses or the Government literally by them borrowing, i.e., 97% of new money is "created credit" - issued digitally by debt, and:
3. in 2021 our Reserve Bank "printed money", to buy bonds from the NZ Treasury bond market, to boost the fractional reserve base of these predominantly private bankers, enabling greater lending volumes, to then flood NZ with loans primarily to individuals, mostly for buying houses, and shares, mostly for the already wealthy, and causing the rapid house-price inflation in mid-2021.The Bank used a convoluted process called quantitative easing, rather than funding the Government directly with that credit for social/public benefit during the covid disruptions.

Who Governs The Reserve Bank Now?

That means our State-owned Reserve Bank, which is independent of the Government, is no longer focused on the financial health of our country - that it has, in effect, betrayed us. So, who governs it now? There have been many world leaders, bankers, journalists, video-producers presenting their views about this topic - dozens of sources available to us all. I am saying nothing that isn't already well documented - but it is still known only by comparatively few people.

None of this is taught in schools - or even at universities. Henry Ford, yes, the car maker, had this to say - "It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking, and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be revolution before tomorrow morning". Many leaders in America and elsewhere have fought the privately-owned banking system with great effort - but the bankers have so much to lose that they fight hard until the opposition is silenced.

"I am afraid that the ordinary citizen will not like to be told that the banks can, and do, create and destroy (i.e., it ceases to exist when a loan has been repaid) money. The amount of money in existence varies only with the actions of the banks increasing and decreasing deposits and bank purchases (i.e., usually Treasury bonds) ... and, they who control the credit of a nation, direct the policy of governments and hold in the hollow of their hands the destiny of the people" - Reginald McKenna, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, WWI.

We all immediately understand the word debt. Someone owes something to another. But the word credit is more uncertain. We all use credit cards. We can spend to buy now and later pay a monthly bill to the bank or whoever has issued the card but our card payment for our purchase is received by the seller within 24 hours, via our NZ Reserve Bank inter-bank settlement system. And we all know what a mortgage means. We take on a debt owed to a bank, or whoever loaned that money to us - by using their credit. And we get to know that there are strict terms for the repayment of this loan over a defined time (note the Latin origin of the word - mort/death, and gage as in engage/to grip - i.e., a death-grip).

My discussion is limited to the banking system - as the main providers of credit. And banks, of course, provide an essential service in society and are staffed by helpful, pleasant people. This is NOT about the bank staff but about the secretive people who own the big privately-owned banks. Give me control of a nation's money supply (i.e., credit), and I care not who makes its laws"" - Mayer Amschel Rothschild - head of the Rothschild dynasty.

He couldn't have been any clearer - and the Chinese government has learned well about the substantial power of credit. They also want to dominate globally, competing against the American Federal Reserve system and World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), also using debt to gain control over other countries. Of the world's largest banks, all of whom are experts in the "creation of credit", six are American and European/UK banks, and four are Chinese State-owned, after 30 years of phenomenal growth.

Exactly How & Why Is There Almost No Open Discussion About The Creation Of Credit?

We have learnt, mostly through the media, that the Reserve Bank "prints funny money" i.e., credit - and the NZ Social Credit Party was derisively and ignorantly labelled the "funny money" party. And, yes, in 1935 the Labour government of Michael Savage, a year after the NZ Reserve Bank was established as a State-owned bank, did arrange for it to issue credit directly to the Government, as "social" credit i.e., to fund schools, hospitals, roads, and about 35,000 State houses, plus provision for the very poor, after years of severe global poverty and disruption from the 1929-39 Great Depression - and then followed by the 1939-45 World War II.

NZ was about the first country in the world to recover from the Great Depression and was not left hugely indebted by the war as, again, funds were made available from the Reserve Bank by creating credit for the Government. NZ did not need to borrow from private banks to finance our war effort. And all of this was without interest payable and without the credit needing to be repaid to itself.

But how can you "create credit" to spend as legal money - out of nothing?!! It seems so improbable that it defies the imagination. Yet all money, created as credit by all banks, is created out of nothing - and this has a direct and huge effect on our whole society. The global banking system is based on this. This is their monopoly. Either it is controlled in the "Western sphere" through the privately-owned US Federal Reserve Bank system (with 12 State Federal Reserve banks and its central Federal Reserve "board") or, for example, by the Chinese government through its' State-owned banks in China.

In just 30 years the Chinese have learnt well the immense power and global control that Rothschild referred to, but the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has also lifted that country out of poverty, the most spectacular development made in the history of the world in so few years. However, it has its own inflation problems too. So, what happens if you need a $100,000 mortgage? You go to your bank to plead your case. You probably have to declare details about your income and other assets.

The bank will also want to know what you can surrender should you fail to meet the ongoing repayments - and this is called collateral i.e., "securities pledged by you as the borrower to protect the interests of the lender" (and most of us have some of our money already deposited in a bank; no more cheque accounts, sadly, but you might have a cash account, or savings account, or a term deposit).

And probably most of us believe that the savings we put in to the bank are then able to be loaned, by the banks, to other people - with an "interest" payable component - i.e., the fee for the bank, as intermediary and risk-taker. So, presumably, all our deposits/public savings that are in the bank will become some of what that bank will on-lend to others. BUT NO. They lend out of thin air!! There is a confusing aspect in the "Western" banking system called the fractional reserve banking system - a banking system in which "only a fraction of the total deposits managed by a bank must be kept in reserve".

Think of a glass about 10% full of water - this base represents our public savings/deposits and their assets like bonds held by the banks which they must keep to enable overnight "settlements" between banks, i.e., used when we pay a debt by Internet banking etc. to someone who uses another bank, and also to pay to depositors, i.e., you and me, should there be a "run" on the bank, or when our term deposit matures and we want the cash paid out (remember, the "deposits" are our public money in the banks which we keep there for our ease of access, "safety", even for the "term deposit" interest paid to us by the banks).

I understand that in the USA and Canada these reserves are minimal, no longer up to 10% as in NZ. So long as a required "reserve" is held as actual cash or bonds in the bank it can lend the 90% above the 10% of actual cash i.e., it lends against the empty air in the glass. The loans made by the banks are literally backed by nothing. What a licence. Unbelievable but true!!

You go to your bank to borrow that $100,000 and you've met its' requirements regarding your income and collateral, shake hands, and the bank then credits your account. You can see the "money" sitting there next day. But what exactly did the bank give you? Think about it. No notes or coins have appeared. Just a digital entry in your bank account statement showing $100,000 and, yes, you can use Internet banking or an ATM (automated teller machine) for cash and go and spend it. That bit is great and what you needed. Banks DO provide an essential service.

But it gave you nothing but a digital entry in your account. Utterly incredible the more you think about it. This form of banking has been developed over decades, except that now, sadly, many locally-based, publicly-owned banks have been bought by private bankers. Globally. Until about 30 years ago New Zealand had one of the best banking systems in the world.

Where Did All Our Banks Go?

Just as the Australians loved their Commonwealth Bank (and reflect on the meaning of that name - all profits were paid to the Government until it was privatised under Paul Keating's Labor government in 1992), we too in NZ mostly had our bank accounts with our provincial "savings" banks. All the profits remained for the benefit of the province and any taxes went to the Government and stayed in NZ. These banks supported local sporting groups or social organisations like Plunket, or local developments, public buildings etc., or could be used for a nationwide charity such as the lifesaving clubs.

Today, of these provincial banks, only the Taranaki Savings Bank still exists. They were profitable: Canterbury Savings Bank was established in 1962 and operated until "sold" after 1984. Its profits are now administered by the Rata Foundation and only from the growth on those funds about $14 million is still able to be distributed locally each year. Banks are super profitable.

The Auckland and Westland savings banks were bought by the Australian Commonwealth Bank (so ASB should change its name, in my opinion) and the rest by Westpac, which is also our Government's banker. Again, our State-owned Kiwibank should be used for this role. The public was never consulted about the sale of these popular, successful provincial banks.

Other remaining banks in NZ with public ownership are the Government-owned Kiwibank, with profits going to the Government, SBS Bank (Southland Building Society), the Nelson Building Society, with their profits going to the local communities and the Co-operative Bank whose profits go to the users of the bank's services. Heartland Bank is privately owned.

Kiwibank might not have existed except for the pivotal role of Jim Anderton MP in 2001*. Even then he expressed grave concern that NZ was "haemorrhaging foreign exchange reserves" with the foreign private banks taking their profits offshore. Banks are today the biggest drain of profit going out of NZ. Year after year. In the year ended March 2021 the banks accounted for 50% of profits from private foreign-ownership profits leaving NZ - about $7.1 billion out of $14.4 billion. *Murray Horton's obituary of Jim Anderton is in Watchdog 147, April 2018. See the subsection "Deputy PM, Kiwibank Founder." Ed.

And now, in 2022, the Government is considering whether to sell Kiwibank!! It has been owned by NZ Post 53%, ACC 22% and NZ Super Fund 25%. The Government should buy it outright. Its role in the NZ economy is pivotal, and needs a more dominant stake, especially as it should be the Government banker (the Government should buy the NZ branch of Westpac, as it's indicated it wants to sell).

Today 80-85% of New Zealanders use one of the four "Australian" banks - well, they once were Aussie banks and are domiciled there but the ownership of them has dramatically changed - again, in the last 30 years. All are now about 25% owned by Hong Kong Shanghai Bank (HSBC) nominees, then the next largest holder is JP Morgan nominees with about 10% and Citigroup nominees with around 6%.

The "nominee" companies are because these banks invest for their clients - and that information about who's who is kept confidential - but it also means we can never know if there are just a few in the group or dozens, or who they are. But you can go to the top 20 listed shareholders of each bank in their publicly available Annual Reports and they are clearly not Australian-dominated as owners any more - and, given the nearly identical dominance of owners like those listed above, the banks don't seem too independent/different from each other either.

NZ now has to rely on a high level of ownership by foreign banks which is regarded by many as highly risky for our economy in an uncertain world. Of the 27 banks registered in NZ, 12 operate as branches of overseas incorporated banks, ten are purely foreign-owned - leaving the five locally-owned banks. Taranaki Savings Bank is continually named as the favourite bank in NZ. Wikipedia states that $117.9 billion of gross external debt was owed in 2021 by the NZ government or businesses or individuals to registered banks - in 2001 it was $55.2 billion.

HSBC is interesting. Just in 2021 it sold its domestic banking services in the USA i.e., mostly retail local banks, to the Citizens Bank in the East Coast and Cathay Bank for the West Coast. Similarly, in the UK and presumably in Europe, only on-line services are now available. The bank is headquartered in the financial City of London but is now focused on Hong Kong and Shanghai as a major investment bank.

It is estimated that it owns $US2.96 trillion and is among the wealthiest of all banks, but has a tarnished image from money laundering prosecutions and has been a conduit for Mexican drug cartel money moving through the USA to some offshore tax haven ("HSBC Fined £64m For Anti-Money Laundering Failings", BBC News, 17/12/21).

Creating Money Out Of Thin Air

Just as the Reserve Bank creates credit for the Government as "funny" money - "printed out of nothing", so too do all the privately (and publicly) owned banks. At every level in society, including our Government, we borrow "money" from banks. We are literally borrowing "printed money". We spend years at school, and many of us at tertiary institutions, learning a trade or whatever to then spend much of our adult years in the workplace, earning enough tax-paid income to pay our bills, get a house, raise our children, and have fun, but it can be a struggle. Lucky for those people who love their jobs but that is not the case for many. And those on low wages can really struggle to earn enough; cleaning offices all night on minimal wages, for example.

So, how come banks can just print a digital entry that reads $100,000? It seems incomprehensible. How have banks got such an incredible licence to simply digitally print an amount in our bank account which we can withdraw in several ways as spendable actual money? But we have to eventually repay that digital entry with our real, hard-earned money plus an interest payment, all tax-paid, directly to the bank. The interest portion doesn't ever circulate in the economy and is a built-in component of inflation.

The banks have this unimaginable licence to create money out of nothing. And we are not told about it at school, it is not debated in the public media. So how is it kept so secret? And it must be remembered that private banks primarily lend to make the greatest profits and that they alone decide to whom they will lend. And we've gone almost entirely digital. Credit card and swipe card payments, on-line banking is now simply what we do.

Of all money transactions in NZ now, only 3% are made using notes and coins. There is talk at international level, involving our Reserve Bank, to do away with "money", as has happened with cheques (and bank branches!!). The lower usage of cheques made them unprofitable (!!) for banks who just digitally print money, and are highly profitable.

We will lose our money if we don't start paying with cash everywhere: supermarkets, local businesses. Mostly all accept cash payments and can give you back any change needed e.g., by using a $50 note for some $39.45 item for example. At least Adrian Orr, the Reserve Bank Governor, has agreed to delay eliminating notes and cash - for the meantime. And cash transactions are still private. In China which is aiming to be fully digital in many areas, e.g., Shenzhen, mass surveillance techniques are built into the cards now used, plus facial recognition. This could be our future too. I agree that using a credit card can be faster and much easier, but do you want to go entirely digital with the consequences of built-in surveillance now practised in China?

So, What's Meant By Being A Debt-Based Economy In NZ?

The remaining 97% of "printed" bank money in NZ is only supplied via a debt (i.e., borrowed by the Government or some entity or individual e.g., you) from banks, to be repaid in tax-paid, hard-earned cash, with the interest component payable as well. Since 1971, our Reserve Bank and the Treasury (and the Police) are deemed to be independent of the Government.

The Reserve Bank's role is to manage monetary policy, especially to keep inflation at 2%, and to watch over banks operating in NZ e.g., to ensure that the minimal fractional reserve is adhered to, to manage settlements between banks daily. But Governor Adrian Orr has stated that the right for the Reserve Bank to create credit (out of nothing) for the Government for the public good has been taken away from it.

By whom and when exactly? To repeat, this means that: no money is now added into our economy unless someone or some company or the Government borrows a digital entry from the private banks. Any increase of new money in circulation in the economy is directly and solely because of new debt i.e., someone somewhere has taken out a new loan.

97% Of "Money" In Our Economy Is Created Through Debt

And banks don't lend to the already poor, nor to businesses collapsing because of covid. In 2021 there was a bonanza called quantitative easing (QE) - remember the flurry to borrow to buy housing for rental incomes. Interest rates owed to the banks were at an all-time low and suddenly the four "Aussie" banks had billions to lend. Suddenly this QE was happening in the US, UK, South Africa, Canada and Australia too - why all at the same time?

Some money went into the share market too; again, primarily for personal investments which do not add to the "wealth of the economy" such as gained by successful new businesses, or expanding businesses, or good company research, education and development etc. These national Reserve Banks are known collectively as the central banking system, and include the Bank of England as the UK bank.

And what happened to house prices? QE has been used three times in the UK so has been well researched - showing less than 8% "trickles down" towards those who need it most - during (i) Brexit, and (ii) the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 (when the big banks were playing with their client deposits and savings to buy stuff called derivatives, etc. and were so greedy that some banks lost all their clients' savings so taxpayers had to bail them out) plus (iii) the covid crisis. In the UK during QE it is clearly proven that the already wealthy only became more so, and I believe there was a similar pattern in NZ.

So, to curb this "excessive borrowing" causing inflation, there are now, in 2022, new regulations that the Reserve Bank has been creating and, gosh, it's all so similar to other countries overseas. And again, new home buyers and the poorer people are those most adversely affected by these new regulations. The aim is to curb massive borrowing, concentrating on housing where the values of homes ramped up alarmingly, so a bigger house deposit please, capital gains tax if you sell within ten years and of course the OCR (big news: official cash rate i.e., interest rates payable on the mortgage) and yes, some who over-invested might lose their properties.

This is our debt-based economy!! If the Reserve Bank makes getting a loan even harder for most people, then less new money will be flowing into our economy, because the new terms will slow future lending as many people won't want to borrow, which leads to a recession. So, inflation and recessions are largely caused by bank policies, releasing money through less tight loans and then squeezing those conditions. But our Reserve Bank shouldn't be the main conduit enabling a flood of money to be loaned to these private banks, through quantitative easing (look that up on the Internet) as the NZ Reserve Bank did in 2021. They should be lending prudent social credit to the Government.

How Did This "Betrayal" Happen? And Who Authorised It?

The Federal Reserve Bank of the USA - backed by the privately-owned 12 Reserve banks, controls the money system in USA - and also central banks of the "Western" world. The US dollar is the world's reserve currency. Money has had no backing since 1971 when the gold standard was abandoned. "Money" is now simply a token, backed by faith.

We got thumped in NZ when the 1984 Labour Government introduced the well-planned but secret agenda, based on the neoliberal economics of Friedrich von Hayek and Milton Friedman, then implemented in NZ by careful planning of the Business Round Table and others, following Reagan and Thatcher. Roger Douglas wanted "structural adjustments" to be introduced with stealth and speed to avoid public debate and they were created to be irreversible.

This ushered in a fundamental change in to NZ, with the new mantras: globalisation, privatisation, de-regulation, open borders for money transfers etc., plus the sale of many of the Government departments and real assets, owned by us. All these changes were implemented about 30-40 years ago - and the world has been transformed.

NZ has gone from an egalitarian, structured society to a steeply triangulated one, with a few very wealthy, mostly hidden, beneficiaries at the apex, and a struggling middle class, and many very poor, and where Government departments, even the ambulance service, the underpaid nurses, the local councils, are all short of money. NZ is no longer regarded in the world for our high standards in schools and excellent hospitals. In fact, everywhere seems short of cash for essential work. There are daily reports of problems in the economy.

But anyone rich enough from anywhere can buy almost anything. This is what a neoliberal economy is like - laissez-faire - a policy of minimum governmental interference in the economic affairs of individuals and society, literally enabling private businesses to make as much money as possible without intervention, in the belief that this wealth will trickle down to individuals. What a laugh.

But this was the kind of thinking enabling John Key's visit to Beijing in 2016, where Alibaba's Jack Ma co-hosted a meeting with him, expressly for Chinese billionaires to be told that NZ was wide open for investment. Decisions that were once the prerogative of national governments have been transferred to outsiders, dominated by the Bank for International Settlements, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation, plus the global power of many transnational corporations.

Nation states e.g., America itself, Japan, Greece, Italy, are burdened by national debt. Argentina has long been managed by the International Monetary Fund rottweiler using structural adjustment programmes and austerity measures - just as China is now doing, also using its debt to control nations e.g., in Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Vanuatu. The super-wealthy not only have lifestyle abominations but their control and power over world affairs is rapidly increasing. Russia has been exposed, with its half-billion-dollar-plus luxury yachts as an illustration of Putin's inner circle of wealth and corruption.

NZ: It's All On Sale

There was once a time when New Zealanders would be appalled to allow a non-resident to buy land in NZ but now anyone can buy anything: for dairying, pine forests, wine growing, salmon farms (plus the severe environmental pollution and damage that goes with each one) and the electricity line company supply to our capital city, which is now foreign-owned, so with a flick of a switch all power could be turned off, and also our Dominion Salt supply at Lake Grassmere, etc. plus Uber, Countdown and Fresh Choice, golf courses and exclusive luxury resorts, McDonalds, MainZeal, Vodafone. Just too, too, many to list here.

CAFCA has documented the loss of land and businesses, plus NZ businesses bought by offshore billionaires looking for yet more places to park wealth. Globalisation is now being seen as great a worldwide disaster, as laissez-faire was in France immediately prior to the 1789 French Revolution. The stretch between the hideously super-wealthy, struggling middle class and growing poor has never been greater and, yes, unrest is there. Globally and in NZ.

And now NZ is facing a growing threat from China. First a claim that all of the South China Sea has long been their territory, with the creation of new islands as military bases. And now the dramatic step to influence, and ultimately control by debt, the Pacific Island nations as has happened in Vanuatu. Suddenly this "Ultimate Bankster Quote" becomes believable:

"Capital must protect itself in every possible way, both by combination and legislation. Debts must be collected, mortgages foreclosed as rapidly as possible. When, through process of law, the common people lose their homes, they will become more docile and more easily governed through the strong arm of the Government applied by a central power of wealth under leading financiers".

"These truths are well known among our principal men, who are now engaged in forming an imperialism to govern the world. By dividing the voter through the political party system, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting questions of no importance. It is thus, by discrete action, we can secure for ourselves that which has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished" (Montagu Norman, Governor of the Bank of England during the Great Depression. This is from his 1924 address to the United States Bankers' Association, New York City).

Compare that with Colonel Mu'ammar Gaddafi, Head of State in Libya. We learnt in the press that he was a terrible dictator but actually he had 90% support of his people. When he came to power in 1969, he took control of most economic activities including the central bank, and no foreign banks were allowed to operate in Libya. No usury was allowed i.e., no interest was payable on a loan - and Libya had no national debt, nor foreign debt, but foreign exchange reserves exceeded $US54 billion - similar to the UK and Canada.

There was free education, students got a salary for study time, free electricity, health care, even housing, etc., a bit like NZ in the 1930's. And Libya had 144 tons of gold. So, what happened? Gaddafi was demonised as an enemy by the West and eventually killed, in 2011. And in Iraq Saddam Hussein decreed all oil payments were to be made in euros. Was it this currency decision which cost him his life and the destruction of so much of the country by the US? Who knows?

In June 1963 President John F Kennedy issued Executive Order No 11110 which instructed the Treasury to print $US4 billion worth of new $2 and $5 bills. These bills, backed by silver in the Treasury's vaults, were issued free of debt and interest with the seigniorage accruing not to the privately owned US Federal Reserve Bank, but to the US government. This note issue formed part of Kennedy's long-term plan to reduce the power of the US Federal Reserve Bank. In November 1963 Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas (quotes above from A History of Central Banking by Stephen Mitford Goodson who served on the Board of the South African Reserve Bank, 2003-12).

In Summary, What To Do:

1. Use cash - the alternative will be to go totally digital - and then maybe we too will be issued with transaction cards that have built in surveillance as in China now. Also, cash is an essential backup if a bank gets attacked by cyber-crime and becomes inoperable until a ransom is paid. The Reserve Bank has been hit but no statement was made about the amount of ransom money paid. ANZ has had some problems as has Kiwibank too.
2. Support the retention and enlargement of Kiwibank, Government-owned and an essential key in the NZ banking system - to be the Government's banker as well as being available to us all for usual banking services - with all profit going to the Government - as the Post Office Savings Bank once did. Talk to your local MP.
3. Encourage the use of and establishment of more NZ publicly-owned banks - all profits stay local, according to the trust deed.
4. Demand a review of the function of the Reserve Bank as lender of non-repayable, interest-free credit ONLY for the Government to use for the greater public good.
5. Remind the Government that, as a debt-based economy facing new threats from China, we are comparably powerless against their infinite ability to create credit - all debt-free, and interest-free. Remember, of the top ten biggest banks in the world, four are the Chinese State-owned banks, a position achieved in just over 30 years. Not only have they advanced the development of China to a leading world economy and many people out of poverty but they have also financed projects throughout Africa and South and Central America and in the Middle East, and have begun an enormous Belt and Road Initiative, etc. which can ONLY have been achieved through the creation of credit. And yes, they have problems too, inflation especially but, as with the World Bank, they have charged interest when lending to foreign countries and have some seriously affected "colonies".
6. Review globalisation & neoliberal ideology as already too much of NZ is foreign-owned with high unaccountability, too much private profit going offshore, draining our economy, and a Government over-reliant on dairy and pine exports, going without any value-added, except emissions trading benefits etc. Our country is being environmentally damaged so that the Government can receive enough foreign earnings to try to balance the lower tax intake to meet the needs of the country, and is clearly failing.

Some References:

"Who's Eating New Zealand?", Farah Hancock, - excellent video and funny if it wasn't so un-funny.
Positive Money have several excellent videos explaining the banking system.
"The Spider's Web: Britain's Second Empire", - excellent video about the City of London global financial hub.
"Stop: Think", book by Paul Hellyer, Canadian MP re the adverse effects of neoliberalism.
"The Laundromat: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation Of Illicit Money Networks And The Global Elite", by Jake Bernstein - "about how the world really works" - uncovering illicit money, political corruption, and global fraud.
"The Silent Takeover: Global Capitalism And The Death Of Democracy", by Noreena Hertz.
Note also ICIJ (Independent Consortium of Investigative Journalists) - for ongoing information.


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