The rise of global and MAGA kleptocracy

This appears to be a very big deal. For years US companies complained that they could not compete with other countries in international business because US law made bribing foreign officials illegal. That law, the FCPA, was a major bulwark against the rise of kleptocracy in the US and abroad. Now DJT, himself a kleptocrat, is unilaterally killing the law, whether it is legal or not (probably not). The NYT writes: 

President Trump on Monday ordered a pause in the enforcement of a federal law aimed at curbing corruption in multinational companies, saying it creates an uneven playing field for American firms.

The law, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, makes it illegal for companies that operate in the United States to pay foreign government officials to secure business deals. Though the law was enacted in 1977, federal authorities have more heavily enforced it since around 2005, cracking down on bribery, especially in countries where it is a common business practice.

The article goes on to report that companies and billionaires are very angry at being prosecuted for running afoul of the FCPA. The Indian billionaire Gautam Adani (worth ~$85 billion), stands accused of bribing Indian officials (~$250 million in bribes). He is charged with fraud in raising money from US investors. Various companies that have paid fines under the FCPA. The engineering conglomerate Siemens and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson have both been fined. In 2020, Goldman Sachs agreed to pay about $2.9 billion to resolve charges that employees at its Malaysian subsidiary had paid $1 billion in bribes to foreign officials. 

DJT justified letting vast bribery run free, wild and butt naked in international commerce like this: The law has been “abused in a manner that harms the interests of the United States.”

So what's wrong with kleptocracy?

Now that bribery is significantly legalized in US governments and commerce, one has to take a hard look at how kleptocracy plays out for regular people. Corruption expert Sarah Chayes takes a very dim view of it. In her book, Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security, points out that (i) vast amounts of money that are subverted from public works, and (ii) once kleptocracy is sufficiently settled and powerful, it is essentially impossible to get rid of. Chayes learned first hand about kleptocracy and its staying power while working with NGOs in Afghanistan.

She argued that corruption leads to a breakdown in economic and social structures: "Corruption, it made plain, was not solely a humanitarian affair, an issue touching on principles or values alone. It was a matter of national security—Afghan national security and, by extension, that of the United States. And if corruption was driving people to violent revolt in Afghanistan, it was probably doing likewise in other places." Chayes described corruption in some countries as a vertically integrated criminal organization, where corruption flows from the bottom up, making it deeply entrenched and practically impossible to dislodge. 

In the US, corruption seems to mostly flow from the top down, so it may not be too late to combat the plague. In the US, major corruption usually manifests through the influence of wealthy individuals and corporations over government decisions. This includes "pay to play" politics.

In terms of governance, kleptocracies are characterized by a high degree of authoritarianism. The ruling elites typically use state institutions to shield and enable their corrupt activities. That empowers and maintains personal enrichment and political control. Kleptocratic authoritarianism is not just a byproduct but a core feature of kleptocratic governance. Kleptocracies usually show a profound lack of concern for the common good or the general welfare. Since the primary focus is on personal enrichment and maintaining power, public services, infrastructure, and economic development suffer. Corruption in kleptocracies leads to inadequate resources for public services, and often repression of dissent, which fuels radicalization, state fragility, and conflict.

So, kleptocracy is bad governance. But it looks like the US is moving briskly in the direction of kleptocracy, whether we want it or not. 

Michel argues that the US as not just a participant but a leader in the global offshoring of illicit wealth, facilitated by its own legal and financial structures, which have been exploited by some of the world's most corrupt individuals and regimes

Looks like things will get a whole lot worse real soon!