You Can't Trust Those Big-Government Socialists
NY Times: Transparency International, an organization that tracks corruption, ranks countries from least to most corrupt, and in its 2007 index Venezuela was at 162 out of 179 countries.
CARPE DIEM
Professor Mark J. Perry's Blog for Economics and Finance
Sunday, November 25, 2007
About Me
- Name: Mark J. Perry
- Location: Washington, D.C., United States
Dr. Mark J. Perry is a professor of economics and finance in the School of Management at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan. Perry holds two graduate degrees in economics (M.A. and Ph.D.) from George Mason University near Washington, D.C. In addition, he holds an MBA degree in finance from the Curtis L. Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. In addition to a faculty appointment at the University of Michigan-Flint, Perry is also a visiting scholar at The American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.
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6 Comments:
And based on the same report you base your post on you can't trust those rich countries (like the U.S.) either.
Akere Muna, vice chair of Transparency International, said: “Criticism by rich countries of corruption in poor ones has little credibility while their financial institutions sit on wealth stolen from the world’s poorest people.”
The same report also says, “Bribe money often stems from multinationals based in the world’s richest countries. It can no longer be acceptable for these companies to regard bribery in export markets as a legitimate business strategy."
You said "Venezuela was at 162 out of 179" but our little show piece of our tremendous power and ability to impose "regime change" and bring democracy and freedom to Iraq seems to have failed miserably.
Iraq comes in at 178 with a score of 1.5 only slightly better than the worst two countries for corruption--Somalia and Burma (aka Myanmar) sharing a 1.4 score.
Even Afghanistan at 172 and scoring 1.8 comes in worse than Venezuela.
By the way...180 nations were covered by the report, not 179.
Anon 4:55 - a few questions and points:
What wealth was "stolen" from the "world's poorest people?"
"Bribe money" would not exist if not for corrupt governments being willing to take it. Thus, you cannot place the blame on the home nations of multinational corporations for doing something that is either legal or not enforced in another nation, in the best interests of their business. You can say "it can no longer be acceptable" until you are blue in the face, but in the end, the home nation really doesn't have enforcement power outside of imposing sanctions on the corrupt nation.
When has regime change and a transition from despotic dictatorships to a full fledged transparent democracy ever gone perfectly? Those things take years if they are to work.
Yeah, you can't trust those "big government socialists." Why, then, do the rankings have Denmark, Finland and New Zealand tied for first place? Oh, and your favorite -- Sweden -- tied for 4th place? Even France (19th place) beats the U.S. (20th place).
Mark, your selective interpretation of data is sometimes just downright hilarious.
"alex a" said...
When has regime change and a transition from despotic dictatorships to a full fledged transparent democracy ever gone perfectly? Those things take years if they are to work."
alex take a look at Germany after WWII.
The Iraq misadventure was designed to fail. Ask *any* semi-knowledgeable military person that does not have a career to protect or an axe to grind. The whole thing, from day one was a foregone conclusion.
How do you literally lose a billion dollars in cash anyway? Why is it costing U.S. taxpayers $22.00 to do a load of laundry for our troops?
There's going to be a whole lot of "splainin" to do after our own regime change in next Novembers federal elections.
I'm looking at Germany after WW2, not seeing any perfection.
Unless perfection in your eyes is the existance of East Germany...
The "misadventure" would have gone better had it not been for the peace dividend. If we would've fully funded the military like the $600 billion (Fed, state and local) for K-12 every year. Any business person would know that spending 25% of your budget on benefits for retirees in Oregon schools has got a whole lot of explainin to do. Unless they are protecting their job.
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