Joseph Stiglitz resigns from Panama’s ‘transparency commission’

Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has resigned from the committee set up by the Panamanian government to investigate the lack of transparency in that country’s financial system, saying that the committee itself lacks transparency.

Panama’s government set up the committee after the leak in April of more than 11.5m documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca caused worldwide scandal.

Stiglitz and Swiss anti-corruption expert Mark Pieth joined the seven-member commission at Panama’s invitation, but both resigned yesterday, saying that Panama refused to guarantee their report would be made public.

“I thought the (Panamanian) government was more committed, but obviously they’re not,” Stiglitz said. “It’s amazing how they tried to undermine us.”

Read more here in The Guardian’s report today. There’s also more here on Reuters.