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USA Is Number 1 Again...
...In Foreign Bribery.
As OECD notes,
The most widely accepted estimate of global bribery puts the total at around USD 1 trillion each year (World Bank, 2004). In the developing world, bribery amounts to around USD 20 billion to USD 40 billion a year – a figure equivalent to 15-30% of all Official Development Assistance (World Bank, 2007).
Corruption in awarding business contracts has social, political, environmental and economic costs which no country can afford. Serious consequences result when public officials take bribes when awarding contracts to foreign businesses for public services such as roads, water or electricity. A USD 1 million dollar bribe can quickly amount to a USD 100 million loss to a poor country through derailed projects and inappropriate investment decisions which undermine development.
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Steady as she goes...
...down the drain.
Where's China on that list? Should be number one with a bullet.
WaPo, DailyKos blame Bush, Cheney for ISIS terror techniques:
http://tinyurl.com/ox7a3yt
Indeed. I don't believe it for one minute but it COULD be argued that the US has more instances because it actually pursues corruption (Except, of course, on Wall Street), which would also exolain why China is absent entirely.
Are you fucking high? Next thing we know, you are going to tell us that big tobacco pursues research into the health of cigarettes.
.
Must be bath salts. I've never known weed to cause anyone to dissociate from reality so completely.
OT but - Has anyone else noticed how slow ZH is in responding? Downloads are slow, login is slow, posting is slow.
What's going on?
Are you fucking high?
No, that point is corret if you look at the report linked. Tyler's post is actually EXTREMELY disingenuous.
A few countries, notably the United States and Germany, have seen a considerable amount of judicial activity with regard to foreign bribery cases.
Missing is the amount of bribes paid by the US government.
I might believe you, if I didn't know two people, personally, that both work for Uncle Sam, have backgrounds in law and law enforcement, and bribe foreign government officials on a regular basis.
German 92 -1 Turkey (acquitted) should give an indication that this list isn't quite what it seems to be at first glance.
The wealthy are usually more ready, willing, and able to pay.
Right, germany is 92x more corrupt than turkey on this metric...Actually, turkey had none. They angels out there!
This isn't a corruption metric. It is foreign bribery metric. Germany's manufacturers will bribe Greeks to buy submarines. What foreigners are Turks going to bribe? Really? Read Confessions of an Economic Hitman, by Perkins, if you haven't already.
Really, foreign bribery isn't a part of corruption?
Turkey, for example, repealed corporate criminal liability for the offence of foreign bribery in 2005 and replaced it with "security measures" that do not meet the standards of the Convention. In addition, Turkey dismissed an investigation of a foreign bribery case allegedly involving a Turkish holding company and Turkish nationals in another country, for reasons that do not satisfy the Working Group.
http://www.oecd.org/turkey/oecdquestionsturkeysimplementationoftheoecdan...
A recent scandal involving top members of the government:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_corruption_scandal_in_Turkey
Moreover, Egemen Ba???, the Minister of European Union Affairs, is cited in newspaper articles as a potential suspect of bribery related to Reza Zarrab who has business affiliations withBabak Zanjani.[4][5][6]
The police confiscated some $17.5 million as money used in bribery during the investigation; $4.5 million was found at Süleyman Aslan's residence and $750,000 at Bar?? Güler's.
Some of your opinions lately have been headscratchers hedgeless..
Excellent rhetoric, James, but totally beside the point. Your fallacious arguments have been top shelf. Blame the OECD if you don't like the study design, not me.
Excellent rhetoric, James, but totally beside the point. Your fallacious arguments have been top shelf. Blame the OECD if you don't like the study design, not me.
My point is the actual study (much longer than that one slide and linked above) indicates Germany and the US are actually making a concerted effort to go after foreign bribery - hence why their numbers are so high.
Any list related to corruption where Turkey comes up aces is not believable - explained in the report and in the quote I posted above. It's not a problem with the OECD report, it's tyler's characterization.
Either Turkey has no foreign bribery, or they are not going after it.
Sometimes ZH surprises me at how stupid the articles can be that get posted (considering that sometimes the articles are excellent), and what's with the good rating by the readers?
The US has 3.83 times the population of Germany. If the US is the unholy standard of corruption, then US population of 313.9 million/ Germany population of 81.89 million = a factor of 3.833... x 92 = 352.636.... / by US population of 313.9 million = 1.12, which means...
The Germans are 12% more corrupt than the Oh so unholy standard of corruption Americans!
This article is shit until it gets adjusted on a per capita basis. Also, more transparent countries will have more corruption discovered in the first place which really throws these stats off.
POS article!!!
lol...now the Chinese, now there is no-fuss no-muss enforcement agency on small timer bribery & corruption, makes the family pay for the executioners bullet & burial!
Man, thats harsh.
The big timers who convicted the small timer, not so much ;-)
How do you explain how the registrar of birth records in Kenya in 1961 was able to move to the USA 20 years later and afford to buy a big co-op on East 89th steet near Gracie Mansion? This former Kenyan registrar can't tell you, he drowned in a boating accident in 1992. If you don't believe this story, ask Michael Hastings about it.
Yes, the people behind Obama are pretty good at tying up loose ends... Boating accidents are always a popular choice but "Sudden illness" is another way to go...
http://www.dcclothesline.com/2014/06/21/sandy-hook-lead-investigator-die...
Truly amazing.
Duh...
Usually a victimless "crime".
"Bribery" should be de-criminalized except when it involves other people's money. Like that of taxpayers.
Can you provide a situation (an example) where a bribe doesn't benefit someone at the cost of others (even if the bribe only works on an individual to authority basis, others would need to bribe once this sequence was established)?
What about corporations wining-and-dining their suppliers' or customers' representatives - with corporate money? Happens all the time. The problem is people being given authority over others.
Well, I want to see an end to involuntary taxation altogether so from my point of view it's nothing to get upset about.
If you put individuals in positions of authority they will act as individuals, not as supposedly-upright agents of authority. It's naive to think they will not take money, so why not let it go? Yes, it would be a free-for-all but how do you propose to try to stop it without loads of unworkable and time-consuming regulations?
The problem is people being given authority. Not bribery.
I'm not upset about the whole victimless crime thing... It's just that bribery isn't one of them.
Added: Power is derived from the ability to bribe: buy your way into and out of situations. It sets a precedent for others to follow.
"Bribery is a victimless crime", said the contractor to the bureaucrat / said the vendor to the purchasing officer / said the defendant to the judge and jury.
Don't tell me, tell Corzine, JPM and the Squid. I'm sure they'd like a good laugh.
No-one goes to jail for bribery. They go to jail for undisguised bribery. Or because their "friends" (business associates) don't like them any more. I guess it's like being convicted for being an idiot.
Bribery isn't one of them (victimless crimes). That looks a bit hillbilly if you picture it without the parentheses but I'll leave it to make my original point.
Your conondrum, Cobra, is that you believe the best way to stop theft and violence is to 'legitimize' an entity (statist) which by definition is one of theft and violence. I'd rather have small occasional fires rather than endemic perpetual bribery and cronyism.
Umm, I'm not sure what's happening here but my original point was... Is that bribery is bad. It opens doors for 'bigger' bad. It's perpetual. People suffer in one way or another because of it --> It's not a victimless crime. <--
I'm not sure what I missed but I'll be sure to revisit before I shove off tomorrow morning. Goodnight ZH.
Pure Bullshit.
Hardly "victimless" for the disposessed.
Then the problem is the existence of big, well-funded-by-coercive-taxation government. Not bribery...the cost of doing business.
Sounds like the rapist saying "well, if the girls weren't so damn pretty, sexy dressers..."
If bribery is a victimless crime then who bothers to prosecute?
Most bribery is done in secret. If done out in the open, would no victims come forth?
"I bought that purchasing officer fair and square."
"Well I just made him a better offer."
... and it was only fair that big pharma provided the doctors will a little relaxation time after their gruelling, informative and totally unbiased information seminar about the new drugs available for treating patients. We should thank big pharma for their continuing efforts to bring global disease under control and for taking care of the doctors who treat us ...
yes that was bloody sarcasm but for some reason I still felt I might be compelled to spell it out to some people around here.
Would "big pharma" be able to profit by buying doctors (and artificially raising drug costs, usage and profits) if healthcare were truly entirely private?
They make a profit because they can get an entire socialized system to use their products. Imagine if they had to pay off each and every little GP!
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1994-04-13/
i guess that aptly explains why drug costs are lower in socialist universal health care canada?
Arrest Jamie Dimon and Loyd Blankfein.
I think bribery is legal as long as you report the income.
It is a word game. As long as you use the right words to describe the transaction, it is legit. And the briber can write it off as a business expense. Start with "consultancy fees" and keep going from there.
And while I'm still here, has anyone here ever paid 50 grand or so, give or take a bit, to have dinner with someone else? Why?
Was it purely just love for that person and scarcity economics? Really?
Were you co-erced by anyone else into going? What did they say?
Did you truly get 50 grand or more of value? How?
"This guy is an excellent speaker and worth every penny." Really?
Can we see this graph re-done on a per-capita basis? 300 million population vs 20 million? Of course one is going to be higher than the other.
Also, is this a graph of "bribers" or "people charged with bribery"? The difference is quite important.
Thanks.
Bribery is just an expence......... USA rules are arbitaryta nd wrong and enforced.....
Also alot moolre countries do not have the population base that the usa has......\
Total bullshiy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IMO, the US is just the biggest hypocrit. Politicians are bribed every single f'n day ... and what do they do? They create laws against bribery... such as the FCPA (all-in-all good, IMHO, if the world and its people agreed to work that way ... but so far, they seem to like bribery more.)
Financial institutions, banks, and most other large donations to political campaigns are naked favor bribes.
I want to see the chart on how the US is #1 in "the people" being Corzined!
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=corzined
This chart is a little like a chart that shows that elephants do the biggest turds.
Or is it the blue whale?
maybe it's more like when you see one cockroach
Consider this more proof of the harm being done by massive growth in crony capitalism and corruption in Washington. Much of this can be attributed to the ability of those in control "changing the rules" and positioning themselves to benefit at every corner. In our busy and complex world we have found it impossible to watch all the moving parts. More on this subject in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/05/how-empires-collapse.html
The dollar can not collapse fast enough. We really are the scourge of this planet.