That the value of a brand so ubiquitous that it straddles both the in and outside of society is kept off its books is one of the wonders of the accounting world. Yet when Coke and other large multinationals are allowed to withhold, or hold in secrecy, the value of core business intangibles while charging confidential expenses against these assets, it not only distorts the market but also facilitates gross transfer pricing manipulation and drastically undermines taxes owed to governments.

Through the exploitation of loopholes in the tax system, under a veil of proprietary confidentiality, the diamond industry is systematically short-changing the citizens of South Africa.

Much of the energy expended by official ‘world-savers’ – governments, policy wonks, multilateral institutions and the like – is devoted to devising news ways to cash in on the next ‘development’ era.

Stratfor - as evidenced by their own content - is neither a politically nor ideologically neutral intelligence agency.

The power imbalances underpinning the structural layout of public worlds have reflected economic inequalities in areas characterised by those lacking political capital.In Zimbabwe, the scene is ripe for private waste sanitation companies or toilet capitalists.

Khadija Sharife cuts into the carbon offset market, asking why the solutions to climate change are being put in the hands of financiers and key state polluters.

Tom Goldtooth, head of the Indigenous Environmental Network talks to the Africa Report’s Khadija Sharife about the manipulation of carbon trading data and the double standards assumed by richer countries.

‘Was Gaddafi the most threatening figure on the African continent? Or was he convenient as a pretext to push through military missions vying to establish bases in Africa,’ asks Khadija Sharife.

Earlier this week, Kimberley Process experts meeting in Congo agreed to allow Zimbabwe to sell diamonds from the controversial Marange fields. Khadija Sharife writes about documents which reveal the conditions that Zimbabwean diamond miners operate under.

Did France intervene in Libya out of desire to promote democracy, or simply to secure its business interests, asks Khadija Sharife.

Government ‘development’ schemes don’t always take into account the interests of the people affected by them. How do we decide whether or not the ‘right to development’ should take precedence over human and people’s rights, asks Khadija Sharife.

Khadija Sharife takes a look at the links between Hong-Kong-based private entity China International Fund, Angola’s state oil company Sonangol and Zimbabwe’s diamond fields.

Khadija Sharife takes a closer look at the involvement of key players in Zanu PF’s Mugabe faction in a diamond-mining venture between the Zimbabwean government and Chinese company, Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Co. Ltd.

The ‘international and continent-wide issue is not so much whether Gaddafi's regime should be removed’, but rather ‘how this should be approached, and why it is being approached at all,’ writes Khadija Sharife.

The recent regulatory approval of Zimbabwean diamonds for sale reveals deep flaws in the system, writes Khadija Sharife.

The pharmaceutical industry uses dirty tricks to maximise profits at any cost, hurting sick people and taxpayers. Khadija Sharife examines the methods used by multinational drug corporations to control markets – and lives.

Is microfinance is helping families out of poverty or merely plunging them into debt? Khadija Sharife speaks with one recipient about her experience.

Mining corporations' tax avoidance schemes cost African nations billions of dollars each year, says Khadija Sharife.

A Tanzanian gold mine leaks polluted water into a major river. A mining town in Zambia is listed as amongst the most polluted places in the world. And a water pollution problem in South Africa that is caused by mining threatens national water resources. Khadija Sharife examines the hidden costs behind Africa's resource extraction reputation.

Despite the apparent ‘success’ of the privatisation of the Zambian copper industry, the true picture is one of systemic multinational exploitation, national assets sold ‘for a song’ and persistent tax dodging, writes Khadija Sharife.