Comments on: The future of finance: Total transparency? http://hjalli.com/2008/10/06/the-future-of-finance-total-transparency/ Technology and other wonders / Tækni og fleiri undur veraldar Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:17:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Iceland: Restoring trust through open data and “brutal transparency” « DataMarket blog http://hjalli.com/2008/10/06/the-future-of-finance-total-transparency/#comment-1817 Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:08:04 +0000 http://hjalli.wordpress.com/?p=569#comment-1817 [...] few days after the crash I outlined on my personal blog a few ideas about how total transparency was the future of finance. I believe this now more than ever, but I also believe it should reach all branches of the [...]

]]> By: Turbulance in the airline industry « Kjartansverrisson’s Blog http://hjalli.com/2008/10/06/the-future-of-finance-total-transparency/#comment-772 Sun, 26 Oct 2008 10:03:07 +0000 http://hjalli.wordpress.com/?p=569#comment-772 [...] fellow blogger and an entrepreneur, Hjálmar Gíslason, wrote and interesting post on a related subject where he suggests total transparency in corporate finance and has in fact formed a company to make [...]

]]> By: Roar http://hjalli.com/2008/10/06/the-future-of-finance-total-transparency/#comment-736 Sat, 18 Oct 2008 08:50:14 +0000 http://hjalli.wordpress.com/?p=569#comment-736 One third of the world’s production is hidden in tax paradises, according to this article: http://tinyurl.com/5k4hof (in Norwegian). Enron is said to have hidden 900 companies with huge dept this way. If this information were forced to be transparent as well, we would get a very different world.

I don’t know much about finance, but I would assume that such hidden transactions would leave traces in “your” real-time, transparent finance data. And as you say, through the power of collaboration, this hidden information might be dug up and brought into the light. Eva Joly would get a team of several million corruption detectives to help her.

]]> By: hjalli http://hjalli.com/2008/10/06/the-future-of-finance-total-transparency/#comment-640 Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:10:23 +0000 http://hjalli.wordpress.com/?p=569#comment-640 Secrecy issues are in essence no different in this world view than they are today with the quarterly filings (only deeper info and more frequent updates). Companies would obviously still be able to keep new products, strategy etc. secret as they please. This is only the financial part of the equation.

Also, this is a trade-off between secrecy and access to funding. Companies can still choose not to have any registered shares or bonds. The transparency is just a prerequisite for filing. Many companies (in fact many companies that are coming out strong in the fallout) are privately held and “conservatively” operated. This will also be far more common in the future of finance.

]]> By: Douwe Osinga http://hjalli.com/2008/10/06/the-future-of-finance-total-transparency/#comment-637 Fri, 10 Oct 2008 02:01:44 +0000 http://hjalli.wordpress.com/?p=569#comment-637 I had been thinking about this too, but more from an openess/secrecy perspective. Ideally companies would be allowed to keep secret the things that keeps their competitors from copying their success, but open up the things that are of interest to their investors. Of course there is no real distinction between the two, so who’ll make the call as to what is what? The company seems like a poor choice. Auditors or suing after the fact all seem like suboptimal solutions too.

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