In the academic analysis of economics, corruption is a clear and present danger. “Efficient allocation of resources is the key to the capitalist system,” said Karim Salameh, managing director at Saradar Investment House and member of a new generation of Lebanese economists. “In the textbook answer, corruption cripples because it diverts resources away from their efficient use and directs them into the wrong pockets. Corruption is money badly spent.” Here is a textbook evil that has become recognized to be a huge economic liability, or as The Economist once wrote in a scriptural allusion, “a worm that never dies.” The best available estimates put the cost of corruption at a magnitude of more than $80 billion worldwide, annually. Other studies by international agencies see the detrimental effect of corruption on Foreign Direct Investment in the hundreds of millions of dollars per each afflicted developing economy. Unfortunately, what is obvious damage
