(Certainly governments, corporations and other organizations do take actions to reduce harm or otherwise improve the lives of the people. This is often, even typically, the result of political action by citizens. This post gives examples.)
Deutsche Bank whistleblower gets $200 Million bounty for tip on Libor misconduct Mengqi Sun and Dave Michaels Wall Street Journal October 21, 2021
The payout is the largest ever by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Federal judge files recusal notices in 138 cases after WSJ queries Coulter Jones, Joe Palazzolo and James V. Grimaldi Wall Street Journal November 2, 2021
Rodney Gilstrap initially argued he didn’t violate financial-conflicts law
How corruption ruined Lebanon Rania Abouzeid New York Times October 28, 2021
The deadly port blast, the triple-digit inflation, the energy shortages — Lebanon’s many crises have a shared root: misrule by a self-dealing elite.
Transparency International January 28, 2021. This year’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) paints a grim picture of the state of corruption worldwide. Like previous years, more than two-thirds of countries score below 50 on this year’s CPI, with an average score of just 43. Most countries have made little to no progress in tackling corruption. Our research shows corruption not only undermines the global health response to COVID-19, but also contributes to a continuing crisis of democracy.
The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople, uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
Continue readingSarah Repucci and Amy Slipowitz Freedom House March 3, 2021 See full report. (36 page PDF file.)
As a lethal pandemic, economic and physical insecurity, and violent conflict ravaged the world in 2020, democracy’s defenders sustained heavy new losses in their struggle against authoritarian foes, shifting the international balance in favor of tyranny. Incumbent leaders increasingly used force to crush opponents and settle scores, sometimes in the name of public health, while beleaguered activists—lacking effective international support—faced heavy jail sentences, torture, or murder in many settings.
These withering blows marked the 15th consecutive year of decline in global freedom. The countries experiencing deterioration outnumbered those with improvements by the largest margin recorded since the negative trend began in 2006. The long democratic recession is deepening.
The impact of the long-term democratic decline has become increasingly global in nature, broad enough to be felt by those living under the cruelest dictatorships, as well as by citizens of long-standing democracies. Nearly 75 percent of the world’s population lived in a country that faced deterioration last year. The ongoing decline has given rise to claims of democracy’s inherent inferiority. Proponents of this idea include official Chinese and Russian commentators seeking to strengthen their international influence while escaping accountability for abuses, as well as antidemocratic actors within democratic states who see an opportunity to consolidate power. They are both cheering the breakdown of democracy and exacerbating it, pitting themselves against the brave groups and individuals who have set out to reverse the damage.
Continue reading
Why we let white-collar criminals get away with their crimes Review by James B. Stewart New York Times September 29, 2020