Official corruption can speed environmental destruction, accelerate the drug trade, even encourage the smuggling of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons materials. Economically corruption represents an arbitrary, exorbitant tax. It can lead to wasteful government spending, bigger deficits, greater income inequality, and a crisis of confidence that can spark capital flight, crash the economy, destabilize governments, and put people halfway around the world out of work. While the debate can rage all night about the precise role of corruption in the global financial crisis, there can be no serious doubt that the crisis has been aggravated by corruption. No country can seal itself off from the impact of corruption beyond its borders, and therefore every nation must work with every other nation to fight corruption wherever it is in the world.
None has a corner on corruption.
And no nation has the right to lecture any other. We are attentive to it. We are addressing it. And I want to welcome each and every one of you to the United States, and thank you for coming to this conference to join us in this critical three-day conversation on fighting corruption. A sample of any week's newspapers, TV, and magazines might suggest corruption is on the rise.