September 7th, 2011
Corruption costs China’s economy a pretty penny. A
report from China’s own central bank estimates that “up to 18,000 corrupt officials and employees of state-owned enterprises” have absconded with 800 billion yuan, or $123 billion, of state money since the 1990s. In a recent speech given to celebrate China’s Communist Party’s nineteenth anniversary, President Hu Jintao
specifically addressed the importance of “rampant corruption” and the impetus to create a “clean government.” And Minxin Pei, a former scholar for the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, estimates that China’s government loses as much as 10% of government spending in kickbacks and corruption,...
September 5th, 2011
Green MEP Sven Giegold tabled a question to the European Commission in July asking about the EU’s position on the IASB’s revision to its constitution that has downgraded its obligation to anyone but those people who use accounts to make investment decisions. I
discussed that issue here.
Now the Commission
has replied as follows:
Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission
The Commission shares the view of the Honourable Member regarding the importance of properly taking into account the public interest in the IFRS standards setting.
September 2nd, 2011
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September 2nd, 2011
For any act of corruption, there is a demand—that is, a venal official who is willing to accept a bribe—but there is also a supply—an individual or business willing to supply it. The dualistic nature of corruption is a headache, particularly for public individuals and institutions interested in stemming the harmful practice. For example, India’s environment minister, Jairam Ramesh has commented on the difficulty for environmental regulators inIndia to check violations of green controls. He noted "I can control the demand for corruption but someone has to control the supply of corruption too. I cannot stop that."
Fortunately, as a...
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