9/30/2004

APEC's Fight to Curb Corruption Continues

Craig A. Kelly, U.S. Ambassador to Chile has called for a renewed effort in the war on corruption. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). APEC is a group of Government anti-corruption agents that meet and discuss methods of corruption reform. Ambassador Kelly feels that the high rate of corruption among foreign nations is slowing their economic growth.

The two main parts of the economy that are most effected by corruption are:free markets and sustainable growth. With the constant threat of terrorist type leadership many are un willing to foster the ever popular democratic way of thinking. Fear is most detrimental to a capitalistic society. Corruption of government leaders fosters this fear.

Curbing this fear is a big problem, APEC is working towards implementing a transparency act which would give countries relief from corrupt leadership. Countries would be monitored by U.N. Officials that would deter corruption.

I feel that in order for the world trade to work and function properly every country must be able to enjoy the same capitalistic freedom that we do here in the United States, thus for this to happen we as a nation need to support our leaders in their quest to over power these corrupt governments and leaders.

3 comments:

Ernie said...

In a perfect world we as Americans believe that the rest of the globe should function in a capitalistic environment, much the same as ourselves. Do we really want the rest of the world to be as well off as ourselves? What would our economy be like if we didn't have people pouring into our country to perform menial tasks for even less menial wages. Stability is needed in the world, but I wouldn't go as far as saying that we need every other nation's form of government to support capitalism. Eventually, North Korea, China, and possibly Cuba will begin to see that communism just doesn't work. China has already loosened some of its tough stances on the way that its country is ran. And we do enjoy some free trade with China already. People in North Korea are literally starving and Castro has already outlasted some 5 or six U.S. presidents.

Dr. Tufte said...

-1 on the post for misuse of a colon, misspelling unwilling, and miscapitalizing officials.

Corruption is a big drag on the economies of many other countries. It is difficult to measure, but economists and aid agencies (particularly the World Bank) are making advances in measuring corruption. The bottom line is that it is the biggest drag on growth in Latin America, Africa, and much of south Asia.

Having said that, there are economic examples where corruption can actually improve how things work. Take the example of standing in line at a government agency. Because the person at the counter does not take bribes, the queue is first come first served. This may be inefficient because the people who have the least disincentive to wait in line are those with nothing better to do. But, what if someone does have something better to do? In particular, what if you'd even pay to get to the front of the line so that you could save time and go out and do something even more productive? This is a good reason to have markets for position in line (and places like DisneyWorld and the airlines have already figured this out). But, in the absence of those markets, the queue might work more efficiently if the person at the counter did take bribes.

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