Bribe a foreign official now Legal Again

Just seems kind of stupid to me that in business school, they make a big deal about rationality in markets and then are like "but if you need to do bribery I say, do it!." Me on my macro economics exam: "Well see normally the cost of guns and butter would be too high, but if you bribe the minister of finance that markup doesnt matter and you get the contract."

 

We just fired someone in our Vietnam office for “cost of doing business” bribes. That won’t change with this announcement. Large entities like Berkshire Hathaway and all it’s subsidiaries won’t suddenly make this an allowable business practice.

 

For true multinationals the fact that the same conduct would still potentially subject them to prosecution under the UK Bribery Act, as well that pesky issue of the FCPA’s statute of limitations being longer than Trump’s term, almost guarantees that no one smart will be changing their conduct based on this.

Said differently, Trump has identified an actual valid policy debate, but what they did doesn’t do anything meaningful to advance this policy other than potentially bail out people who had already violated the FCPA years before this order.