Monday, May 2, 2011

Sachs: Out of Control Corporate Crime

Jeffrey Sachs has a very good essay about growing and out of control corporate crime in developed (not developing) countries, namely the USA.

Here is an excerpt from this excellent essay:
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/sachs177/English
"The explosion of corruption – in the US, Europe, China, India, Africa, Brazil, and beyond – raises a host of challenging questions about its causes, and about how to control it now that it has reached epidemic proportions.

Corporate corruption is out of control for two main reasons. First, big companies are now multinational, while governments remain national. Big companies are so financially powerful that governments are afraid to take them on.

Second, companies are the major funders of political campaigns in places like the US, while politicians themselves are often part owners, or at least the silent beneficiaries of corporate profits. Roughly one-half of US Congressmen are millionaires, and many have close ties to companies even before they arrive in Congress.

As a result, politicians often look the other way when corporate behavior crosses the line. Even if governments try to enforce the law, companies have armies of lawyers to run circles around them. The result is a culture of impunity, based on the well-proven expectation that corporate crime pays.....

Majia here.



Here are some recent examples of out of control corporate negligence and crime


TEPCO mismanagement of nuclear disaster in Japan http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/may2011/fuku-m02.shtml


BP oil spill negligence and negligible clean up efforts


Fracking disaster where unregulated natural gas companies used toxic chemicals for years, contaminating water supply chains http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?q=news/committee-democrats-release-new-report-detailing-hydraulic-fracturing-products


Monsanto and its GMO monstrosities (I am not against all genetic engineering but I am against round-up ready crops that are detrimental to human welfare because of high amounts of Round-Up which is an endocrine disruptor) http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/us/23water.html?_r=1&th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print

Goldman Sachs raping of the US Treasury and exacerbating global food crisis
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/video-talking-welfare-for-the-rich-with-max-keiser-20110426

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/27/how_goldman_sachs_created_the_food_crisis

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