Charles Hugh Smith – Political corruption isn’t hard to define: confidentially leveraging the power of one’s position in the State for private gain.

This covers the spectrum of using State power for personal gain from freebies, bribes, sweetheart deals, obtaining insider information, revolving doors between private sector and state positions, influence-peddling, selling tax breaks, subsidies, permits, etc., bloated speaking fees and so on, in a nearly limitless profusion of private financial gains generated solely by one’s position of power within the State–the legislative and regulatory government, central bank, military and judiciary–gains that are cloaked from public disclosure and scrutiny. Continue reading →