L. Burke Files

How To Launder Money will be out February 17th - Order your copy today, please. amazon.com/How-Launder-Mo… Money laundering is as old as money itself, yet efforts to stop it remain strikingly ineffective. Today’s anti–money laundering laws intercept just 0.05 per cent of global illicit financial flows, while imposing heavy costs on legitimate businesses and consumers. Criminals stay ahead of regulators, forfeitures often cost more than they recover, and vast sums still move invisibly through cash, gold, and other assets. How to Launder Money exposes how and why this happens, dissecting the mechanics of money laundering not to enable crime, but to reveal the failures of the current system. Acknowledging the challenges faced by law enforcement, it offers practical recommendations to reduce financial crime and identify what actually works. This is an inside story criminals already know—told for everyone else who wants to understand how well-intentioned laws are doing more harm than good.

@ed_fin It's a seller's market if you can deliver.

IYKYK

@LukeGromen But it is still a minute fraction of what used to sail.

@LukeGromen More tankers are getting out than shown. They are going through Iran's waters, paying a fee, and turning off their AIS.

"It is legitimate to judge an event by its outcome for it is the soundest criterion." -Clausewitz

@SamAntar @NYCMayor Yep - spot on.

Hey @NYCMayor Zohran Mamdani: If 30 days is the standard for NYPD body cam footage, why not 30 days for FOIL requests across NYC government? Transparency shouldn’t be selective.

@SamAntar @NYCMayor Hochul is an odd duck. The interview pleading for wealthy New Yorkers to return to New York City is bizarre and pathetic.

Reza, @NYCMayor Zohran Mamdani already answered your question. “Violence is an artificial construct.” Kathy Hochul endorsed Mamdani for mayor.

I used an LLM to answer questions about money laundering. I needed an intelligent discussion on some of my hypotheses on why AML laws are not working. (New book in NOV called How To Launder Money). 1) it could not answer my questions as it was "illegal". 2) When it did answer the questions, it burped out pablem. The LLM model in this topic is flooded with junk input.

@Jellybooks @thetimes @BitebackPub We really enjoyed writing this book.

The @thetimes bestseller from @BitebackPub 'How to Launder Money' by George Cottrell and Lawrence Burke Files Money laundering is as old as money itself – and yet the laws designed to prevent it are as ineffective as they ever have been. 📖 peek inside blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/produ…

My team has known that several ships have paid to pass through the Straits of Hormuz; this is just confirmation. x.com/LloydsList/sta…

@vtchakarova Sadly, zero surprise.

Literally, no words. You can’t apply market logic to filling defence gaps. This is gross negligence on behalf of European states.

@ed_fin This might help. ajot.com/news/u.s-overt…

“Brazil dominated China’s corn imports in 2025, but early Q1 2026 data indicate the U.S. is regaining market share.”

💸 “We don’t habe Inflation because the people are living too well, we have inflation because the government is living too well” — Reagan

@SantiagoAuFund Twitter is filled with wisdom or idiots - little in between.

US takes action to constrain Chinese access to VZ and Gulf energy. Twitter: No problem, they can just get all their energy needs from one country (Russia). Also Twitter: The US is a dying empire bc they get all their refined rare earth needs from from one country (China)

@ianmSC Yep.

The thing you have to understand about California is that outcomes literally do not matter. It does not matter how much Democrats fail here. They will get 70% of the vote in LA and 80-90% of the vote in the Bay Area forever. And that’s why it’s only going to get worse.

@mattwridley The Greens worship at the altar of NetZero, a false prophet. Much of the funding for no drilling and no shale gas came from Russia, so the EU would remain an energy-dependent territory.

Remember this is exactly the opposite of what all polite opinion expected. In the early 2010s I was almost alone at least in the UK in saying the shale revolution was big news. Flash in the pan said all the energy “experts” and energy editors. Some flash, some pan.

@ed_fin Japan needs our oil as much as the US needs Japan. Also, the EU needs our LNG too.

“US will not implement a crude export ban.”

@UnicusResearch @thejobchick Me thinking run by block heads.

@thejobchick that is some "clerical errors"

@FriedrichHayek BART is a nice system. But the smell of human feces and piss at the stations is an indication that all may not be right. The fare kiosks are also a royal PIA. BART, check out London, does it?

“We’ve got to compete with the luxury of today’s autos.” Utopian visions for Big Governed in 1965 — and a dystopian reality for those of us living 2026.

@TS_Secrets Educational fraud is a problem

My neighbor spent about $80k on his son’s college finance degree. His son graduated, filled out 105 applications, and couldn’t land a finance job. Right now, he’s managing a Jimmy John’s while he “waits for a break.” Then my neighbor said, “I’m going to introduce him to some of my friends so he can get an entry-level role.” And it hit me. If the outcome is still who you know, not what you studied… what exactly did the $80k buy?

@razibkhan In CA, the sunk cost fallacy rules! Go fallacy go fallacy!

sure they are "good union jobs" or whatever; the only thing that seems to matter to democrats now

@FCNightingale It would be a good quarry for stone blocks and a copper mine for plumbing.

Dalian Development under contract to buy GSA's Regional Office Building at 301 Seventh St. SW in Washington D.C. Price not yet disclosed. The assessed value is slated to rise in 2026 to $107.3M. "As constructed, it contains approximately 941,463 gross square feet. The building was originally built as a warehouse in two phases between 1929 and 1932; it was later adapted for office use in a haphazard fashion, resulting in poor circulation and office layout." "The Federal Office Building converted from warehouse to office use throughout its life, does not include appropriate lighting, HVAC, interiors, fire protection and finishes for modern office space. The property is situated on a highly valuable location in downtown Washington, DC, adjacent to five Metrorail lines and one block from the National Mall. Its electrical system has both capacity and distribution issues that make it difficult and costly to perform even minor space alterations. Building elevators are far beyond their useful life, resulting in frequent outages of one or more elevators, and often only custom or rebuilt parts can be used to repair them The building's HVAC system is also well past its useful life. There are distribution issues that create hot and cold areas throughout the building, regardless of the external temperature. The building also has ongoing plumbing issues, and occasionally pipes burst and damage interior walls and carpet." "Approximately one-fifth of the air handling units (AHU) are more than three decades old, and the steam piping and condensate return lines are more than 50 years old." "The existing sub power and lighting distribution panels throughout the building are in fair to poor condition. Multiple electrical panels are more than 40 years old, and the associated feeders are well beyond the end of their expected useful life." Elevators- "Periodic entrapments occur that have lasted up to 20 minutes per incident." -bizjournals / house . gov #commercialrealestate