>
>
> It's amazing to me to hear what makes for a political money scandal
> in Europe. What Kohl did is pretty much out in the open here in the
> U.S.A. I interviewed Tony Benn on the radio a few months ago, and he
> was describing the scandals of campaign cash in Britain. It too
> sounded like pretty weak stuff. Maybe that's the genius of the
> American system - hide something in the open. Everyone here knows
> that big money runs politics, but it just goes on & on.
Exactly. I understand that those international corruption surveys only check the extent to which the laws are broken -not the laxity of the laws. That's why the US always comes up as one of the cleanest countries. Bribery, influence peddling and corporate fiduciary misconduct are not only legal, but standard practice. Why would anybody break the law? By contrast, in Spain, if you want to do some serious stealing, you have to run the risk of going to jail, or at least suffer some embarrasment. The country was in uproar over some telefonica executives awarding themselves an average of $3 million apiece in options. I mean, $3 million! That wouldn't be enough for travel allowance in the US.
-- Enrique Diaz-Alvarez Office # (607) 255 5034 Electrical Engineering Home # (607) 272 4808 112 Phillips Hall Fax # (607) 255 4565 Cornell University mailto:enrique at ee.cornell.edu Ithaca, NY 14853 http://peta.ee.cornell.edu/~enrique