Honest graft
I’m always amused (or bemused) by those yearly reports from accounting firms (they used to be underwritten by Arthur Andersen, which knew something about how to define corruption) that claim Mexico is “corrupt” compared to other major economic powers. I guess corruption is in the eye of the beholder… being defined as relatively poor people extorting money from other relatively poor people, and not rich people doing it to everyone.
The law, in its majesty, makes it a crime for the rich and the poor alike to sleep under a bridge. And to pay a few hundred pesos to a policeman. Paying a few hundred thousand to a congressman though… that’s an investment!
As David Sirota notes, it’s not corruption, it’s an investment opportunity:
… you probably didn’t hear about corporate America’s newest sure thing: a path to financial freedom far more reliable than any decent-paying job. It’s something so old-fashioned that even amateur investors can understand it!
It’s called graft — a surefire wealth creator that takes your investments, modifies laws and delivers returns that the best stock trader could never dream of! …
In the last decade, the financial industry’s $5 billion investment in campaign contributions and lobbyists resulted in deregulation, which generated trillions for executives. And when the bubble burst, there was another boatload of free money! By Bloomberg News’ account, $12.8 trillion worth of taxpayer loans, grants and guarantees — all to Wall Street!
But wait … there’s more!
The Associated Press this week reports that “companies that spent hundreds of millions lobbying successfully for a tax break enacted in 2004 got a 22,000-percent return on that investment” — $100 billion in all. That could be you!
Of course, the secret is investing heavily in specific political stocks.
… it’s perfectly legal!
That, of course, makes it OK.
mexfiles.net 
On my blog I wrote a post (http://bakirita.blogs.com/xico/2009/03/adam-cohen-wrote-today-in-the-ny-times-about-the-us-propensity-to-fixate-on-and-demonize-a-country–through-a-one-dimensional.html) about just this topic with a reference to the international perception of corruption survey in which Mexico ranked 72 out of 181, or actually in the top half of less corrupt countries, less corrupt than Brazil and India; as corrupt as China, and significantly less than Pakistan. In the US, folks seem to be able to justify anything so long as they can avoid besmirching their name. What after all is this bank bail-out?