I know I’m going to be the odd man out here and what I have to say may enrage some of y’all or get me accused as a puppet of “the man” or capitalist running dog, etc. but this one makes pretty good sense to me. A few years back I met Avi Jorisch and then read some of his books, this one in particular as I had reason to start learning about Anti Money Laundering/Counter Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) things. Gives a good overview of how money can move inside and outside of the formal banking system.
“Follow the money” is really one of the best strategy and tactics packages against some really repellent criminal activity as well as terrorism. Being really good at forensic accounting or being able to automate some of the analysis also lets you sort out “regular” remittances of migrant workers from criminal/terrorist smurfing transfers. There have been plenty of BB posts about Brian Krebs tracing down various criminal gangs who operate by virtue of money transfer mules, these are the sorts of tools you use to identify evidence of the crime in progress. Same techniques work in regards to the funding networks of Boko Haram and other nasties.
As for theories about if this data is used for the advantage of American industry I wont speculate. I will point out the contrast between the wink wink nudge nudge relationship between Three Letter Agencies in the US and industry vs France where there is a national School of Economic Warfare which is largely staffed by ex-military folks. I went to a lecture by the director and one of the professors there, very interesting stuff. The French do not make any secret of the state’s support of commerce in this regard.
