7️⃣May be of interest to @weisenthal.bsky.social @tracyalloway.bsky.social @mattlevineofficial.bsky.social @amandalfischer.bsky.social @keatingetom.bsky.social @warondirtymoney.bsky.social @oliverbullough.bsky.social @reziemba.bsky.social @agreenberg.bsky.social @jessmarindavis.bsky.social

6️⃣ Quick side-note: political science needs to be more open to the value of policy proposals. I was told at one point, "We don't do this kind of thing..." Why not?! With a few exceptions, there isn't really a venue in IR/IPE for putting forward new (untestable) ideas. This needs to change.

5️⃣ Implications: my hope is this will push the debate on financial crime and surveillance in different directions. The current system is incredibly wasteful and inefficient - we need new ideas! This is just one crack at the problem...there are many other (probably better) variations possible.

4️⃣ Potential applications: The article examines three scenarios where the LDA program would be applied.

One example is market abuse in the U.S. The SEC could grant LDAs access to the Consolidated Audit Trail and establish compensation mechanisms. Much of the infrastructure is already in place ⤵️

3️⃣ Proposed solution: Licensed Detection Agents

Create a new class of private firms authorized to surveil transactions and financially rewarded for reporting suspicious activity. Professionalize, in other words, the act of blowing the whistle. ⤵️

2️⃣Precedent for alternatives: whistleblower reward programs have been wildly successful.

Take, for example, the False Claims Act. From 1987 to
2024, US gov awarded, in inflation-adjusted numbers, $13.1 billion in return for $76.6 billion in successful settlements and judgments (ROI of 486%) ⤵️

1️⃣ The problem: Existing approaches to detection are trapped in a web of constraints, in which difficult trade-offs must be made between data access, positive incentives, and privacy protection. As a result, rates of detection are abysmal.

I call this the "Detection Trilemma" ⤵️

There’s still plenty of negotiation to come. But those of us in Dutch academia are breathing a sigh of relief tonight..