$1 TRILLION IN LAUNDERED MONEY PER YEAR.

Drug traffickers, arms dealers and other criminals continue to successfully move large amounts of money despite the banks' massive attempts to monitor and stop money laundering.

At this point, a study of banks report that the number of suspicious transactions have increased with Forty-two percent (42%) of the respondents claiming that that the increase has been substantial. I believe that more efforts should be exerted by governments along this line. Laundered money does not only enrich common criminals. It fuels terrorism. Banks especially, should exercise more leadership in this endeavor. Financial centers are good terrorist targets (remember 9/11).

However, the moves to stop the flow of bad money should be done with utmost care. Please bear in mind that there are a lot of honest citizens who are being hard hit by these strict anti money laundering measures. Thousands of bloggers for example, are unable to collect payment or participate in good online programs because they live in countries that are unable to receive Paypal payments. There was e-gold a few months ago. But now, even that system is under fire.

Let us not forget that restricting and contracting the level economic activities is also a terrorist goal.

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