Latin America
Related: About this forumVenezuela tops list of most corrupt countries
http://www.local10.com/web/wplg/news/politics/venezuela-tops-list-of-most-corrupt-countriesVenezuela's public sector was the most corrupt country in the hemisphere during 2015, an anti-corruption watchdog said in its new report.
The South American country was also considered one of the most corrupt in the world only ranking higher than Iraq, Libya, Angola, South Sudan, Sudan, Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia, according to the Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index.
Venezuela's score was based on the opinions of public sector corruption experts. Corruption, according to the index, has been increasing since Nicolas Maduro was elected president, after Hugo Chavez died of cancer in 2013.
"Poor governance, a concerted effort to quash the voice of the people, coupled with rampant corruption, are leading Venezuela to a terrible destiny," said Mercedes De Freitas, the organization's chapter director in Venezuela, last year.
FBaggins
(26,714 posts)forest444
(5,902 posts)Last edited Thu Jan 28, 2016, 05:24 PM - Edit history (2)
*$8.5 trillion "missing" (embezzled) from Pentagon.
http://www.reuters.com/investigates/pentagon/#article/part2
*$43 trillion in Wall Street bailouts - for engineering the most massive fraud in human history.
http://www.westernjournalism.com/obama-administration-facing-massive-federal-lawsuit/
(and no wonder the media treads carefully around those $43 trillion: http://vitalnewsaustralia.blogspot.com/2012/12/cnbc-execs-children-murdered-1-day.html)
*The largest Medicare fraud in history? That can make you governor of the 4th largest state in today's America.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article1960993.html
*Not to mention our system of legalized congressional bribery, even before Citizens United (at least in other countries, it's illegal).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10769041/The-US-is-an-oligarchy-study-concludes.html
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/citizens-united-campaign-finance-legalized-bribery-102366
*At least $1 trillion in annual money laundering by U.S. banks (inc. narco proceeds), with near-total impunity.
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/press/releases/2011/October/unodc-estimates-that-criminals-may-have-laundered-usdollar-1.6-trillion-in-2009.html
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2013-03-31/money-laundering-banks-still-get-a-pass-from-u-s-
*Runaway rent-a-judges.
http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2013/06/05/pennsylvanias-most-corrupt-court-could-be-closed
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/23/pennsylvania.corrupt.judges/
*Mitt Robmey.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-reinbach/romneys-tax-secret-1500-percent_b_2066257.html
*And of course, Jersey Shore Crisco.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article1960993.html
Donald Ian Rankin
(13,598 posts)The USA is in the top 20%, IIRC. That doesn't mean it's corruption-free, but it's better than most countries.
forest444
(5,902 posts)Treason doth never prosper: Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason.
The above list alone would put the U.S. very far from the "top 20%" of any honest transparency measurement (i.e. not something from the corporate-run "Transparency" International or the World Bank).
Many of these crimes figure among some of the costliest, most brazen examples of corruption in human history (not counting the British East India Company - so heinous it inspired George Orwell's literary career), and I didn't even get into the many officially-sanctioned drug trafficking "enterprises" or "cost plus" and the cesspool of corruption that was the Iraq War: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/06/iraq-reconstruction_n_2819899.html
Bacchus4.0
(6,837 posts)private fraud. The supposed bribery link just has a blog post of a study that concludes wealthy people have more power than poorer people and says nothing about congress.
forest444
(5,902 posts)In most countries - particularly larger, advanced countries - private-sector corruption usually dwarfs government corruption by at least an order of magnitude.
As for the link, to wit:
Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the US political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it.
That refers, of course, to the lopsided influence of special interests over lawmakers in both the executive and legislative branches - influence that comes by way of our unregulated campaign finance system. Legalized corruption (and then some): https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-the-next-citizens-united-could-bring-more-corruption--but-less-gridlock/2014/02/21/a190d1c6-95ab-11e3-afce-3e7c922ef31e_story.html
Bacchus4.0
(6,837 posts)forest444
(5,902 posts)Last edited Fri Jan 29, 2016, 10:54 PM - Edit history (1)
DU might not be the place for you.
And the above list - incomplete as it is - includes plenty of gov't. corruption.
Bacchus4.0
(6,837 posts)DU isn't going to change anything about that.
FBaggins
(26,714 posts)I think you missed the point of the article. They evaluated corruption on a continuum. They didn't say "this one is corrupt and the others lack any corruption", did they?
hack89
(39,171 posts)forest444
(5,902 posts)Plenty of sources to back up the existence of gargantuan amounts of money laundering through the U.S. banking system.
hack89
(39,171 posts)FBaggins
(26,714 posts)Or even, likely, that it's a private corruption problem on the part of the banks.
It's also likely factually inaccurate:
At least $1 trillion in annual money laundering by U.S. banks (inc. narco proceeds), with near-total impunity
Most estimates put the size of the entire illegal drug trade in the US at a tad under half a trillion dollars per year. That would make it pretty unlikely that more than twice that amount is laundered (let alone knowingly) by US banks.
By comparison... lots of those illegal drugs are sold by Venezuela as intentional government actions to bring in the stronger currency (and facilitated directly by government officials and their families who profit personally). That's the very definition of corruption... not whether or not some bank knows that a given cash deposit is related to the drug trade and let's it slide.
forest444
(5,902 posts)And while no one's denying it also goes on in Venezuela, to assert that laundering is not "a private corruption problem on the part of U.S. banks" simply flies in the face or everything we already know (no doubt just the tip of the iceberg).
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/press/releases/2011/October/unodc-estimates-that-criminals-may-have-laundered-usdollar-1.6-trillion-in-2009.html
http://www.alternet.org/story/151135/american_banks_%27high%27_on_drug_money:_how_a_whistleblower_blew_the_lid_off_wachovia-drug_cartel_money_laundering_scheme
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2010-06-29/banks-financing-mexico-s-drug-cartels-admitted-in-wells-fargo-s-u-s-deal