Poor country gov'ts accept bribes; rich country gov'ts enable corporate theft

it's a beautiful friday morning here in kabul after a very rare cloudburst cum hail yesterday afternoon that left the air cool and fresh and mud puddles on some of the streets up to the bumpers of small cars...

friday is our one-day "weekend" here, cherished downtime in a six-day work week... we had a delightful gathering last night in a local restaurant with an afghan couple who just celebrated their one year wedding anniversary... good food, good company, and lots of laughs...

despite the glory of a beautiful day, it's important to be ever mindful of the fact that we - afghans, americans and the rest of the world's citizens alike - are continually being fleeced by those for whom "enough is never enough"...

jeffrey sachs...

The world is drowning in corporate fraud, and the problems are probably greatest in rich countries – those with supposedly “good governance.” Poor-country governments probably accept more bribes and commit more offenses, but it is rich countries that host the global companies that carry out the largest offenses. Money talks, and it is corrupting politics and markets all over the world.

Hardly a day passes without a new story of malfeasance. Every Wall Street firm has paid significant fines during the past decade for phony accounting, insider trading, securities fraud, Ponzi schemes, or outright embezzlement by CEOs. A massive insider-trading ring is currently on trial in New York, and has implicated some leading financial-industry figures. And it follows a series of fines paid by America’s biggest investment banks to settle charges of various securities violations.

There is, however, scant accountability. Two years after the biggest financial crisis in history, which was fueled by unscrupulous behavior by the biggest banks on Wall Street, not a single financial leader has faced jail. When companies are fined for malfeasance, their shareholders, not their CEOs and managers, pay the price. The fines are always a tiny fraction of the ill-gotten gains, implying to Wall Street that corrupt practices have a solid rate of return. Even today, the banking lobby runs roughshod over regulators and politicians.

[...]

[N]ext time you hear about a corruption scandal in Africa or other poor region, ask where it started and who is doing the corrupting. Neither the US nor any other “advanced” country should be pointing the finger at poor countries, for it is often the most powerful global companies that have created the problem.

sachs makes a very important point... corruption is fueled by money and to really understand the full scope of the problem, we only need to remember the tired but true maxim, "follow the money"...

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