How do explain doing business in Japan and Korea? They are famous for stamps, applications, and exceedingly complex rules and regulations. Yet, there are relatively low corruption. I heard Germany and Austria are also very heavy on paperwork and bureaucracy. They essentially have zero obvious corruption.

Corruption is a weird thing. Why do some countries have more of it than others -- holding GDP per capita constant? I cannot explain it. Look at the United States -- "googols" of money spent to influence lawmakers. It cannot be healthy and looks like legalised bribery in comparison to other highly developed democracies.