A Sentence Worthy of the WSJ Editorial Page

We can only hope that the special Infrastructure supplement in today’s edition of The Pink One was written and/or edited by a PwC, not an FT, employee.  Otherwise, how are we to explain Michael Peel’s curious declaration in “Unweaving a Tangled Web” that:

…[there is a] continued prevalence of corruption around the complex, lucrative, and transnational global infrastructure industry, despite limited efforts in the past few years to root it out. [emphasis mine]

Let’s see: complex (difficult to understand and therefore regulate), lucrative, transnational (easier to create transactions and translational exposures), and facing “limited efforts” at control.  Would anyone—even William Easterly—even consider the possibility that this is not an area more subject than most to regulatory capture at best, and corruption as the norm?

Other sentences we should expect from Mr. Peel:

SEC enforcement officials remain overburdened and behind despite Christopher (“Uh, two plus two?  Pass me a calculator.”) Cox having been replaced as its Chair.

BP leadership still want their lives back despite their recent ability to capture almost 10% of the oil escaping from their Deep Horizon drilling site.

Chernobyl-area lumber sales continue to be made primarily in the grey market to unsuspecting customers despite the leak that irradiated those trees being almost twenty years old.

Feel free to add your own in  the comments section.