That agency's former head, Peter Williams, well remembers Hong Kong's bad old days. He had first-hand experience of corruption entrenched at the highest levels of power. The officials impose their own illegal rules of conduct on the public, and the lawful rules of the government for which they work are blatantly ignored. When corruption reaches this stage, the situation is certainly grave, and inevitably produces a crisis in which either drastic countermeasures are imposed or society lurches further downwards. Not many, according to figures assembled in a 1996 World Bank study.
Corruption is a misallocation of capital, where resources are directed for noneconomic purposes.
Corruption inevitably leads to political decline. A Poor Excuse Corruption also eventually inspires people to take to the streets. Not only because it can be bad for the long-term stability of political systems or companies. Those it hurts the most and the soonest are not the rich and powerful. They are the hapless consumers in the country in question especially the poor, who suffer the most when prices of essential goods rise.