Mexican Corruption

Acemoglu and Robinson, authors of Why Nations Fail, argue that political institutions have a direct correlation to the economic success of nations. Living conditions in Mexico vary greatly with those of the United States. A reason for these differences is the difference in the solidty of the nations'  central governement. Mexico's central government is considerably weaker than that of the United States and is full of corruption which has crippled the nation's ability to advance for decades. In, Corruption in Mexico, Once Rarely Exposed, Is Starting to Come to Light  , Karla Zabludovsky writes about the corruption of Mexican governor, Andrés Granier. Granier says in a recording, “We go to Fifth Avenue and buy a pair of shoes; $600. I took clothes to Miami, I took clothes to Cancún, I took clothes to my house, and I have leftovers. I’m going to auction them off.” This is an interesting lifestyle for a government official who makes a reported $92,000 a year. It is also very interesting that Granier lived this lavish lifestyle considering his successor discovered that about $190 million in government funds were unaccounted for under Granier. This money could have been used to improve state programs and institutions for the people of Mexico, but instead was used to fund the extravagant lifestyle of a corrupt government official. Corruption in Mexico's central government is the reason there is so much poverty in Mexico today.