U.S. Slips to Historic Low in Global Corruption Index

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters / Iraq State Television

U.S. slips to historic low in global corruption index

By Dave Graham
BERLIN | Tue Oct 26, 2010 4:50am EDT

(Reuters) - The United States has dropped out of the "top 20" in a global league table of least corrupt nations, tarnished by financial scandals and the influence of money in politics, Transparency International said on Tuesday.

Somalia was judged the most corrupt country, followed by Myanmar and Afghanistan at joint second-worst and then by Iraq, in the Berlin-based watchdog TI's annual corruption perceptions index (CPI).

The United States fell to 22nd from 19th last year, with its CPI score dropping to 7.1 from 7.5 in the 178-nation index, which is based on independent surveys on corruption.

This was the lowest score awarded to the United States in the index's 15-year history and also the first time it had fallen out of the top 20.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69P0X620101026

[pampango]

1. Nancy Boswell, president of TI in the United States, "There's an integrity deficit."

"Nancy Boswell, president of TI in the United States, said lending practices in the subprime crisis, the disclosure of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme and rows over political funding had all rattled public faith about prevailing ethics in America.

"We're not talking about corruption in the sense of breaking the law," she said. "We're talking about a sense that the system is corrupted by these practices. There's an integrity deficit.""
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BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11625623

"The worst country is Somalia, followed by Burma, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore tie for top place as the world's least corrupt countries, with the UK 20th.

In its latest report, Russia is rated as among the worst for corruption, in 154th place. And Italy, down in 67th spot, now comes below Rwanda.

Meanwhile, emerging economic powerhouse China is in 78th place."

Global corruption: Biggest changes
Improving* 2009 rank 2010 rank Rise

1. Haiti 168 146 +22

2. Ecuador 146 127 +19

3. Gambia 106 91 +15

4. Bhutan 49 36 +13

Getting worse* 2009 rank 2010 rank Fall

1. Madagascar 99 123 -24

2. Niger 106 123 -17

3. Greece 71 78 -7

4. Hungary 46 50 -4

4. Italy 63 67 -4

* Countries where source data remained the same. Source: Transparency International
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The results are at Transparency International's website: http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2009

[ixion]

2. Systemic corruption: rotten to the core.

When do we start demanding accountability and ethics?

[rucky]

3. Link to the full list (Flash):

http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2010/results

[No Elephants]

4. We prop up the second most corrupt regime. Shouldn't that have affected our rank?

And then, there's Pakistan.

[ronnie624]

5. Yeah, but the bribery scheme that finances U.S. political campaigns is 'legal',

so it's all good.

[tomp]

6. singapore? tied for #1? are they sure? nt