Pranab Bardhan in Sidecar:
It is now widely recognized – a recent editorial in the New York Times proclaimed it openly – that the Trump presidency is by far the most corrupt in American history, a history characterized by several none-too clean presidencies. The continuous self-dealing, brazen self-enrichment of Trump and his family, involvement in sleazy crypto-currency deals, numerous cases of insider trading (3,600 lucrative stock trades reported in the first quarter of this year alone, in what looks like a scam run from within the Oval office itself), presidential pardons for crooks in a well-organized system of quid pro quo, now attempts to exempt Trump and family from auditing by tax authorities, a pre-emptive exoneration of the Trump family from financial crimes, as well as looting from taxpayers to create a slush fund to reward cronies and other criminals – the list goes on and is unprecedented. As for the country itself, according to the Transparency International ranking – which, though flawed, is one of the few of its kind available – in 2025 it reached its worst ranking ever: 29th. In other words there are 28 countries less corrupt than the US.
India, of course, has generally been more corrupt than the US. Its Transparency International ranking in 2025 was 91. But the country’s political leadership is by no means as kleptocratic. In fact, the current regime came to power in 2014 after a major backlash against the corruption scandals of the previous government (though it turned out that these were somewhat overblown by the media and the incoming BJP, as well as a government audit agency that had an exaggerated estimate of the amount of money involved). With much fanfare, the new regime promised to clean up India’s act.
More here.
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