Billionaire Rich List ranks swell to record number | afr.com
Australia added eight new billionaires in 2017, lifting the number to 33, while their overall wealth increased by around $38 billion and their total wealth sitting at around $115.4 billion.
Miners make up a large proportion of the nation’s top 10 billionaires, Gina Rinehart, her daughter Bianca Rinehart, and Andrew Forrest – who made their wealth through iron ore mining – are joined by property and shopping centre magnates Harry Triguboff, Frank Lowy and John Gandel, Visy manufacturer Anthony Pratt, James Packer, Linfox transport owner Lindsay Fox, and Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes.
Australia sees massive leap in billionaires
Australia sees massive leap in billionaires - The Sydney Morning Herald
"The US faces a wide range of domestic challenges related to the abuse of entrusted power for private gain, which is Transparency International’s definition of corruption. Key issues include the influence of wealthy individuals over government; “pay to play” politics and the revolving doors between elected government office, for-profit companies, and professional associations; and the abuse of the US financial system by corrupt foreign kleptocrats and local elites. The current US president was elected on a promise of cleaning up American politics and making government work better for those who feel their interests have been neglected by political elites. Yet, rather than feeling better about progress in the fight against corruption over the past year, a clear majority of people in America now say that things have become worse. Nearly six in ten people now say that the level of corruption has risen in the past twelve months, up from around a third who said the same in January 2016. A new survey by Transparency International, the US Corruption Barometer 2017, was carried out in October and November 2017. It shows that the US government and some key institutions of power still have a long way to go to win back citizens’ trust. The results show:
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Perhaps those who hysterically condemn Trump as a means of expressing their own virtue need to consider that if their aim is to portray themselves as more tolerant and urbane than the US President, they might be setting a pretty low bar.
As the MEdia Dragon suggests “Read the whole thing.“
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"The US faces a wide range of domestic challenges related to the abuse of entrusted power for private gain, which is Transparency International’s definition of corruption. Key issues include the influence of wealthy individuals over government; “pay to play” politics and the revolving doors between elected government office, for-profit companies, and professional associations; and the abuse of the US financial system by corrupt foreign kleptocrats and local elites. The current US president was elected on a promise of cleaning up American politics and making government work better for those who feel their interests have been neglected by political elites. Yet, rather than feeling better about progress in the fight against corruption over the past year, a clear majority of people in America now say that things have become worse. Nearly six in ten people now say that the level of corruption has risen in the past twelve months, up from around a third who said the same in January 2016. A new survey by Transparency International, the US Corruption Barometer 2017, was carried out in October and November 2017. It shows that the US government and some key institutions of power still have a long way to go to win back citizens’ trust. The results show:
- 44 per cent of Americans believe that corruption is pervasive in the White House, up from 36 per cent in 2016.
- Almost 7 out of 10 people believe the government is failing to fight corruption, up from half in 2016.
- Close to a third of African-Americans surveyed see the police as highly corrupt, compared to a fifth across the survey overall.
- 55 per cent gave fear of retaliation as the main reason not to report corruption, up from 31 per cent in 2016.
- 74 per cent said ordinary people can make a difference in the fight against corruption.
- Office of the President seen as most corrupt…”
Washington Post – “More than three-quarters of the members of a federally chartered board advising the National Park Service have quit out of frustration that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke had refused to meet with them or convene a single meeting last year. The resignation of 10 out of 12 National Park System Advisory Board members leaves the federal government without a functioning body to designate national historic or natural landmarks. It also underscores the extent to which federal advisory bodies have become marginalized under the Trump administration.
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