Economics -- New Democratic Style

[Octafish]

25. Taking the M out of the BRICS works. (What a speech to G-S sounds like)

The Almighty Dollar trumps Democracy, which seems to be the problem.

Like an opaque miasma of conflicting interests and individuals, all helping each other keep their heads-up above what looks like oily water.

Bill Clinton Speech in Malaysia Irks Investors

By DON VAN NATTA Jr. (From The New York Times of December 05, 2008)

Mr. Clinton spoke before nearly 3,000 people in Kuala Lumpur at the invitation of Vinod Sekhar, a Malaysian businessman whose foundation paid Mr. Clinton $200,000, according to several people with knowledge of the fee. The figure is on the lower end of the scale that Mr. Clinton usually commands for his speeches.

“You should be proud of this man,” Mr. Clinton told the audience, pointing at Mr. Sekhar, the 40-year-old chief executive of the Petra Group, a privately held rubber technology company.

SNIP...

Mr. Clinton often praises companies that pay him to speak. In 2001, he received $125,000 from an Illinois management consulting company called International Profit Associates. It was later revealed that the Illinois attorney general was investigating accusations of deceptive marketing tactics by the company.

After a start-up Web search site named Accoona donated $700,000 worth of stock to his foundation, Mr. Clinton praised the company at a corporate event in December 2004.

“I hope you all get rich,” he told Accoona executives, “but, remember, you are doing something good for humanity as well.”

SOURCE: http://pgoh13.com/clinton_onmalaysia.php

It feels hypocritical, pointing out what I might do were I making big bucks off the billionaire class, until I think of what's happening to the planet and my country. Thanks for the important heads-up, amborin!