New York Times (October 6)
“There is nothing in the Constitution that prevents a president from being impeached more than once.” While proceeding with a narrow impeachment case, the House should not “close the impeachment inquiry. Keep it open and ready to draw up more articles as new corruption is uncovered. Impeach Trump repeatedly if necessary.”
Tags: Articles, Constitution, Corruption, Impeachment, Inquiry, Narrow, President, Prevents
Chicago Tribune (April 1)
“The issues in Tuesday’s election for mayor of Chicago are perennials: teetering city finances, gun violence, public schools, City Hall corruption. Either finalist, Lori Lightfoot or Toni Preckwinkle, would be a capable mayor. But let’s pause to celebrate that whoever next leads the city will be unique: Chicago’s first African-American female mayor.”
Tags: African-American, Capable, Chicago, Corruption, Election, Female, Gun violence, Lightfoot, Mayor, Preckwinkle
The Economist (December 9)
“Under President Jacob Zuma, the state is failing. Contracts are awarded through bribes and connections; ruling-party members murder each other over lucrative government jobs; crooks operate with impunity.” South Africa’s “people deserve better” than the Zuma corruption or his wife who now seeks to replace him as President. “The rainbow nation still has the potential to be a beacon of prosperity and good governance in Africa, but memories of its hopeful birth are a melancholy counterpoint to its dark present. The best chance for recovering that optimism is a victory for Mr Ramaphosa.”
Tags: Africa, Bribes, Connections; Ruling party, Corruption, Crooks, Failing, Governance, Impunity, Ramaphosa, South Africa, Zuma
The Guardian (October 17)
“If Brazil’s recent decline could be plotted in the falling popularity of its presidents, Michel Temer represents the bottom of the curve.” Overall, his popularity now sits at 3%, but “among under 24-year-olds, Temer’s approval hit zero.” Brazil’s president “has been charged with corruption, racketeering and obstruction of justice.” He may conceivably “escape impeachment, but the ongoing political crisis undermines democracy and opens the door to authoritarian hardliners.”
Tags: Approval, Brazil, Corruption, Crisis, Democracy, Impeachment, Obstruction of justice, Popularity, Racketeering, Temer, Zero
Bloomberg (May 22)
“Investors dumped Brazil’s stocks and currency Thursday as the country’s ever-proliferating corruption scandal spread to President Michel Temer. This latest twist in a seemingly endless saga not only threatens to stall vital economic reforms but also comes close to showing that the corruption in Brazil’s government is literally beyond control.”
Bloomberg (March 21)
The so-called skyscraper curse has claimed another victim. “After almost seven years of planning and 4 trillion won ($3.6 billion) in spending, the conglomerate is preparing to unwrap its Lotte World Tower to the public.” Like other skyscrapers planned in the best of times, this unveiling is taking place amid challenging times as South Korea “is being pummeled by concurrent political and economic crises.” Morevoer, “the debut couldn’t come at a worse time for Lotte…. The empire’s 94-year-old founder and three of his children face corruption charges, and its stores are at the epicenter of Chinese consumer retaliation for a U.S. missile-defense system being installed on land it provided.” Making things even worse, an elevator glitch has delayed the grand opening by two weeks.
Tags: China, Corruption, Crises, Delay, Elevator, Founder, Lotte World Tower, Missile defense, Planning, Retaliation, Skyscraper curse, South Korea, U.S., Victim
Washington Post (May 22)
“With the Asian economic juggernaut coming to an end, due to lower growth in China, an aging Japan and South Korea, and India’s ongoing problems with corruption and a bureaucracy that impedes structural reform, the continent must be viewed from another angle: as a department store of many of the world’s gargantuan political and military challenges. Indeed, unless Asia’s strategically consequential states can significantly mitigate, if not resolve, the region’s political and military deficits, Asia’s rise will never be completed.”
Tags: Aging, Asia, Bureaucracy, Challenges, China, Corruption, Economic juggernaut, Growth, India, Japan, South Korea, Structural reform
New York Times (September 27)
Big money politics is reaching new highs in the U.S. “Top-tier Republican donors will pay $1.34 million per couple for the privilege of being treated as party insiders, while the Democratic Party will charge about $1.6 million.” Make that lows. “More big money can only leave less hope for voters concerned that the richest donors are buying ever more influence over politicians, with favoritism and corruption an inevitable result.”
Tags: Big money, Corruption, Democrat, Donors, Favoritism, Influence, Insiders, Politics, Republican, U.S., Voters
New York Times (August 18)
“Brazil is in tatters. The economy is in a deepening recession.” On top of that Petrobras is facing a “massive corruption scandal” and the country’s credit rating was just downgraded by Moody’s. “In all this turbulence, it is easy to miss the good news: the fortitude of Brazil’s democratic institutions.” Specifically, “in pursuing bribery at Petrobras, federal prosecutors…have not been deterred by rank or power, dealing a blow to the entrenched culture of immunity among government and business elites.”
Tags: Brazil, Bribery, Business, Corruption, Credit rating, Democratic institutions, Downgraded, Economy, Elites, Government, Immunity, Moody's, Petrobras, Power, Prosecutors, Rank, Recession, Scandal
USA Today (May 29)
The work of U.S. federal prosecutors “will not be done until they find a way to force the soccer governing body to enact meaningful reforms and get rid of leaders who, at the very least, tolerated the corruption.”
Tags: Corruption, FIFA, Governing, Leaders, Prosecutors, Reforms, Soccer, U.S.
