When Chancellor Kohl’s party and Edith Cresson are suspected of gross corruption – these are labelled “aberrations” in an otherwise honest West. When NASA in collaboration with its UK counterpart blow a 130 million US dollars spacecraft to smithereens having confused the metric system for its pound/feet archaic predecessor – people nod their head in disapproval: “accidents happen”. When President…
Tag: Corruption
Investing In China Chinese Banks
China’s banking sector has traditionally served as a party-controlled feeding trough for its inefficient, unprofitable state-owned enterprises (SOEs), most of which were technically insolvent. The process was simple – extend a loan to an unqualified SOE applicant, then write off the loan as a bad debt when it failed to repay. This situation is beginning to change, and Chinese banks…
Politics The Corruption Curve
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” (Lord Acton) We all like to think of ourselves as kind, honest, and benevolent. In our hearts, we are convinced that should we ever attain personal power, whether through building our own business, rising to the corporate executive office, becoming extraordinarily influential in our…
Manifestation Of Corruption
The freedom of choice is the key aim of any democratic state and this principle has been developing fro ages. The person is forced, by circumstances or by desires, to make a choice between what is right and what is easy. Nowadays it is not difficult to pick an easy way and never regret about the consequences, though that are…
Corruption And Transparency
I. The Facts Just days before a much-awaited donor conference, the influential International Crisis Group (ICG) recommended to place all funds pledged to Macedonia under the oversight of a “corruption advisor” appointed by the European Commission. The donors ignored this and other recommendations. To appease the critics, the affable Attorney General of Macedonia charged a former Minister of Defense with…
Corruption And Transparency
I. The Facts Just days before a much-awaited donor conference, the influential International Crisis Group (ICG) recommended to place all funds pledged to Macedonia under the oversight of a “corruption advisor” appointed by the European Commission. The donors ignored this and other recommendations. To appease the critics, the affable Attorney General of Macedonia charged a former Minister of Defense with…