In an earlier blog post to this site, I mentioned the possible comparison of the crisis of Japanese banking and societal corruption being paralleled here.

Author Barry Eisler has written a series of six novels on a fascinating character, beginning with the first, "Rain Falls".  A Japanese American living in Japan, he is a modern multi-cultural analog to the great character of Dr. Hemlock created in the 1970's by the author Trevanian. 

In the Acknowledgements section at the end of the book, he thanks the following in particular.

"To Benjamin Fulford, Forbes Tokyo Bureau Chief, for his courageous and unrelenting reporting of the corruption that plagues Japan -- corruption that acts as an underpinning for this story (meaning the novel) and that should be more widely heeded by the people it most directly affects."

Following is a key quote of one of his characters, a Japanese FBI (Keisatsucho) Inspector:  "In Japan, the corruption is the society.  The rust has penetrated so deep that the superstructure is made of it.  You cannot simply rip it all out without precipitating a collapse of the society that rests on it."

Veiwed as paraphrasing, this can only be viewed to parallel the Mencken quote that corruption is the structure holding America together.

As we view the almost inexplicably self-serving conduct of our enforcement and regulatory officials, only this explanation makes any sense at all.