Goldman, corruption, and why they won’t respect us in the morning

Guest: Stephan G Richter, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Globalist, the daily online magazine on the global economy, politics and culture, which he founded and launched in January 2000. In addition, he provides editorial direction for The Globalist’s innovative content services on global issues, which are licensed to newspapers, corporations, institutions, universities and high schools around the world.

• Goldman Sachs and America’s Regulation/Supervision Paradox
  • the vilification of government and civil servants in America (in some quarters) and the impact this had had on our ability to protect ourselves from the financial crisis;
  • the status America’s civil servants have vs those other countries;
  • the importance of a vibrant private sector to assure that elected leaders actually leave their offices (and not change their constitutions to remain in power)

• The West as a Role Model
  • How the financial crisis has affected America’s standing in the world and what impact it has had on “American” companies doing business elsewhere, i.e. successful countries/economies have certain characteristics in common, but the ‘rule of law’ seems to be an important, if not the important, one;
  • if the reputation of US companies is that they are corrupt, does this make it more difficult for US companies to make and enforce contracts in other countries, refuse to pay/accept bribes, etc