This Giant Beast That Is the Global Economy - Season 1 Episode 8

Why is that people in power so often use that power for personal gain? Host Kal Penn explores the wide range of corruption — from petty bribery to grand corruption — and how it can cripple entire economies. Traveling from San Francisco to Prague, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, and Singapore, Kal witnesses the various ways governments and individuals are fighting to keep their countries corruption-free. Kal begins his journey at UC Berkeley, where former US Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, gives him a crash course in corruption. From there, he travels to India, where petty bribery is part of everyday life. Back in New York, Kal talks to New Yorker journalist Adam Davidson about how you know when corruption goes beyond a few bad apples and has infected the larger system. Interested in getting a front-row seat to corruption in the wild, Kal takes a "CorrupTour" in Prague, and then meets with a spokesman for Transparency International, the world's foremost anti-corruption agency, to hear about the uphill fight against corruption. The next part of Kal's journey is a tale of two countries — Malaysia and Singapore. Malaysia was recently rocked by its biggest corruption scandal ever. In the aftermath of a historic election, which forced the corrupt government out — Kal talks to activists and politicians about how corruption on a grand scale hurt Malaysia's economy and trickled down to the pockets of the populace. From there, he travels to Singapore, which has a squeaky clean reputation, mostly based on a zero tolerance policy for corruption. Kal talks to government officials and a local about how Singapore adopted these hard-core policies, and whether it's possible to eradicate corruption entirely. Kal ends his journey back in India, where a former economic advisor to the country lays out a simple but radical approach to stopping corruption: legalize it. This episode includes appearances by Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, and Jason Sudeikis.