The recent $900,000,000,000 government bail out of financial institutions raises the question here in United States are we now living in a kleptocracy? A kleptocracy is government that extends the personal wealth of the few at the expense of the many. (The word is loaned to us from the Greek with klepto meaning theft (as in kleptomaniac) and cracy meaning governining body (as in bureaucracy)) It does not seem to me that laws get passed anymore unless there is a strong, well funded effort behind them which means someone economic interest is at stake.
In 2007 Transparency International, an international organizaiton founded in Germany whose mission is to create change towards a world free of corruption, ranks the United States as the 20th least corrupt of a179 nations but behind Switzerland, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Japan, Canada among others. Will the US fare better this year?
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