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The purpose of this paper is to make a case for an international clearing house.

The systems postulate is used: the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Specifically, the 2007 Godley‐Lavoie model is exploited.

Domestic banking arrangements are institutionally fragile; they import stability from their central banks. In like manner, relations between central banks must be conducted under a common metric, a world money.

The paper shows that a technical argument for a multilateral clearing house will not be found. The author teases “implicit dynamics” (Stephen Turnovsky) out of national income identities.

The purpose of this paper is to underscore the current supranational anti‐money laundering (AML) regimes articulating challenges of harnessing them as a robust framework. Some aspects of the above framework are created under the auspices of the United Nations treaties, some are regional‐based initiatives while others are ad hoc arrangements.

The paper was written on the basis of the supranational framework against money laundering such as the United Nations Convention against drug trafficking and other psychotropic substances. Owing to the limitations of the above AML model law, the paper utilised a qualitative research methodology, exploring a wide range of the current AML regimes. The paper has also exploited the revised AML framework which expands the scope of the offence to encompass, not only proceeds from drug trafficking but also serious criminal activities (smuggling, fraud, serious financial crimes, and the sale of stolen goods). Ideally, the paper has been written based on the provisions of the United Nations Convention against transnational organised crimes and its attendant three protocols adopted in Palermo (2000); and the Financial Action Task Force (2004). The foregoing regimes underscore an essential framework for the study of money laundering and its attendant predicate offences globally.

The findings of the study clearly demonstrate that the current AML framework is not robust enough to caution countries against the threat of money laundering. There is a gaping gap in the law of money laundering within and between regions even though there is a global framework in place. This is presumably the reason why some countries have not fully transposed some aspects of current AML regimes locally.

The gaps in the law against money laundering – both in relation to the way they are created and enforced signify that states still need to do more collectively to stem the threat of money laundering. The current intransigence in application of AML laws in some countries sign‐post the inherent challenges of globalisation of international finance.

While there is a growing body of literature generated on supranational AML regimes, this paper is distinctly based on the interplay of global and local factors in harnessing it. Thus, the research design of this paper is connected by two strands – a review of existing supranational AML framework and the inherent challenges faced by individual states in domesticating it. The paper is also written based on some practical experiences of harnessing global AML regimes in some countries.

On January 1, 1999, the euro became the common currency of the 11 Member States of the European Union (EU) – Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, The Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain, to be joined by Greece in 2000. The 12 were joined by Slovenia on January 1, 2007, Malta and Cyprus on January 1, 2008, and Slovakia on January 1, 2009. Estonia was scheduled to be the 17th member of the Eurozone on January 1, 2011, and was admitted to the Eurozone membership in September 2010. Following Slovenia and Slovakia, Estonia is the third former Communist state to join the Euro regime. It is, however, the first former Soviet republic to earn this honor. The remaining East European countries, who were admitted to EU membership by the Treaty of Rome in 2004, will become members of the Eurozone after a process of scrutiny. Each must satisfy the terms of the Maastricht Treaty of 1992. Denmark, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, three of the original EU-15 countries, continue to be outside the Eurozone. However, Sweden and Denmark have limited exchange rate fluctuations with the euro. The United Kingdom has a different story. Its economic structure and its relatively small share of world GDP have become an issue. The declining share of the United Kingdom's pound sterling as an international reserve currency warrants much critical evaluation.

This chapter argues that monetary integration must precede, rather than follow, monetary unification, in order to avoid the occurrence of structural and systemic crises. It briefly overviews the relevant literature on european monetary union (EMU) with regard to the criteria to set up an optimum currency area (OCA) according to the mainstream view. It then points out that adopting the euro as single currency for a number of heterogeneous countries led inevitably to a number of major negative effects, so much so because of the counterproductive financial constraints induced by the Euro-area fiscal and monetary policies framework. Particularly, the lack of fiscal transfers between these countries and the dogmatic attitude of the European Central Bank (ECB) as regards its policy strategy and goal increase, rather than reducing, the unemployment rate, and the degree of financial instability across the euro area. In fact, a way out of the euro area exists without renouncing to the (long-run) benefits of monetary integration. It implies that countries whose population suffers most of “fiscal consolidation” introduce their national currencies again, limiting the use of the euro to their central banks only, in order for them to settle all international trade and financial-market transactions carried out by residents in these countries. This monetary–structural reform will be instrumental in increasing financial stability and employment levels across Europe, thereby inducing positive effects also for trade and public finance.

Schumacher's ideas and Illich's insights have yet to influence the mainstream. So why have institutions of society failed to adapt to their vision of a more people‐centred and ecological world? And, more importantly, what should we do about this now? This paper, taking government and the money system as a case study, outlines a possible answer to these questions.

This paper aims to focus on the concept of money laundering and explores the evolution and expansion of criminalization of predicate offences to the money laundering within the international anti-money laundering (AML) regime over the time. It proposes how to limit the size and scope of predicate offences in designing a balanced legal definition.

This paper opted a content analysis focussed on the criminalization aspect of offences to money laundering in the international AML regime under the United Nations Conventions (Vienna, Palermo and Corruption Convention) and Financial Action Task Force Standards.

This paper provides how the criminalization of money laundering has evolved and its definition expanded over the time. The international definition is widely drafted with wide range of predicate offences from proceeds of drug money to corruption, including terrorist financing and terrorist acts; however, the two phenomena – money laundering and terrorist financing are quiet distinct apart. This continual expansion of predicate offences quite leads legality issues such as over-criminalization and conflict with principles of criminal law. This paper suggests an approach to limit the size and scope of predicate offences to money laundering.

This paper includes implications for the development of a balanced approach in defining predicate offences through a qualitative limitation approach consistent with the minimalist theory of penalization of criminal law.

This paper attains an identified issue how the legal definition of the money laundering offence can be improved while considering rule of law and principles of criminal law concerns.

This chapter introduces the theoretical and political-practical underpinnings of this volume. It also gives an outline of the editorial organisation of the book and the various chapters. The chapter examines the literature on rural-urban relations, city-near rural areas and current challenges and problems identified in these areas. We identify huge sustainability and resilience problems in current rural-urban relations and metropolitan ruralities. We also relate to writings about a transition from the current carbon-based economy and society to a post-carbon society with reduced ecological footprints. The contributions in this volume are based on the current situation and provide ideas to develop the debate on rural-urban relations, metropolitan ruralities and post-carbon transition.

The purpose of this paper is to present the risk of the non-financial sector in Croatia concerning the threats of money laundering through the prism of national and supranational risk assessment. In addition to a brief overview of the financial sector, the specifics of the non-financial sector have been highlighted. This paper aims to emphasize the peculiarities of the non-financial sector, focusing on the consequences of arbitrary application on the right to professional secrecy and independence.

Specifics of the national risk assessment in Croatia have been analyzed using deductive and inductive methods. To provide an overview of the non-financial sector, the risk assessment at the supranational level has been discussed and compared with the national one. Particular attention has been paid to the areas of increased risk.

The effectiveness of risk assessment depends on several factors such as the characteristic of the sector being observed, the specifics of each profession or business, changes at the level of awareness-raising and efficient and coherent supervision. Most deficiencies were observed in the area of beneficial ownership identification, conducting due diligence, awareness of the risk exposure and permanent education.

By recognizing the risk profile faced by the non-financial sector, this paper seeks to point out their role as “Gatekeepers” that is far from being negligible. By analyzing the risk of money laundering in Croatia, the tendencies of harmonization with international standards are pointed out along with the occurrences indicated by the practice.

In 1936, John Maynard Keynes taught us macroeconomics in the context of a sovereign nation state and the Keynesian Revolution successfully overwhelmed the critics. In the post-WWII decades, the concept of supranational macroeconomics became the core theme of the continental economic integration of Europe. The progression of the historic movement, anchored to the concept of one European family is an accomplishment of immense magnitude. Students of economics are now aggressively challenged to study the new paradigm of continental macroeconomics. One common economic unit with its well-specified micro- and macroeconomic parameters has been mapped onto one common geographic unit, the continent of Europe, a group of sovereign European nation states voluntarily surrendering their erstwhile sovereignty. Of course, each EU Member State has retained its authority to approve the EU decision, mostly by Treaties, before it can be functionally operational. The official inauguration of one common money, the euro, managed by one common supranational central bank, the European Central Bank (ECB), on January 1, 1999, has been an epochal event in the eventful history of the European Union (EU) from 1958 through the present.