Institute for Financial Transparency Welcome - Institute for Financial Transparency

Sponsored by the Institute for Financial Transparency, the Transparency Label Initiative^TM brings C.A.L.M. to the global financial system and transforms opacity into an asset class.

It does this by using a label to draw a bright line between safe and unsafe financial products, between investing and blindly gambling and between rigged and unrigged financial markets.

(used with permission from author of Transparency Games)

Drawing this bright line is important because the financial markets directly impact all of our lives. They set the interest rate we pay on our mortgages or the interest rate that is paid to us on our savings. They set the exchange rates that are reflected in the price we pay on imports. They set the commodity prices for goods like electricity we purchase. They also influence the cost of food that we buy. Unfortunately in the absence of the bright line and the transparency enforced by the labels, bankers around the world have hidden behind a veil of opacity and engaged in bad behavior. They have rigged and manipulated these financial markets for their personal gain at our expense. The Transparency Label Initiative^TM is needed to put an end to this behavior and restore financial markets that work for our benefit.

Know What You Own

The Transparency Label Initiative^TM is needed so investors can know what they own or are buying. This applies to every aspect of the global financial system.

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Avoid Blindly Betting

Where the label is not present, investors are blindly gambling in a market rigged for the benefit of the bankers.

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Use the label!

Nobody makes good investment decisions when blindly betting. While some blind bets pay off, blindly betting is not a good long term investment strategy. A better strategy is use the label, know what you own and invest in unrigged markets.

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Keep C.A.L.M.

By using a label to make a clear distinction between safe and unsafe, investing and blindly gambling as well as unrigged and rigged markets, the Transparency Label Initiative^TM allows us to keep C.A.L.M. and invest confidently.

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Trust the Label

The Transparency Label Initiative^TM is free from all conflicts of interest that could call into question the quality or integrity of its labels.

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Pay for the Label

To ensure the integrity of the label and the adequacy of the resulting disclosure for knowing what you own or are buying, the Transparency Label Initiative^TM is paid for by the buy-side.

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Introducing Transparency Games

Transparency Games is the story of how bankers with help from politicians, economists, think-tanks, rating firms, investment charter constrained asset managers and the financial regulators undermined the global financial system by reintroducing opacity. The result of this opacity was the worse financial crisis since the Great Depression and the slowest economic recovery. The recovery is slow because of the burden this opacity puts on the real economy. To remove this burden and prevent future opacity driven financial crises, Transparency Games solves the problem of how to restore transparency with the Transparency Label Initiative^TM. By using a label to effectively steer investors away from blindly gambling, this Initiative ends the ability of bankers to hide behind the veil of opacity where they rig the global financial markets for their benefit. It also ends bank bailouts due to the fear of financial contagion and the problem of Too Big to Fail.

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