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Holman W. Jenkins Jr. in The Wall Street Journal on Wal-Mart's Mexico scandal Last weekend, The New York Times published a lenghty expose on Wal-Mart's Mexico operation, where executives paid huge bribes to smooth their path as they made an enormously successful rise in the country. The case raises difficult questions for businesses operating in cultures with rampant corruption. "It's a world that economists, being economists, have investigated with theories and models exploring when and how corruption might be 'efficient,'" Jenkins writes. That "efficiency" Jenkins says, comes from the jobs Wal-Mart created and the corrupt businesses it disrupted. Bribery was an ambiguous price they paid for this efficiency, Jenkins says. "After heads have rolled, after careers have been ruined, will Wal-Mart shareholders be secretly thankful that Wal-Mart executives sacrificed themselves in order to secure a winning place in Mexico? That's one of the interesting, unmentionable questions raised by this ambiguous and disturbing affair."
John Dickerson in Slate on avoiding Marco Rubio Florida Senator Marco Rubio is often suggested as Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick, but he'd be a bad one, Dickerson argues. "Romney’s key critique of President Obama is that he lacks [...] experience. In evaluating possible veeps, Romney has said, above all else, he wants to pick someone who can step into the job if necessary. That means Romney’s No. 2 must have the same kind of experience—or at least some of it." John McCain picked Sarah Palin although he campaigned on his own foreign policy experience and she had none. But Romney has less leeway to deviate from his message, given his history of shifting political views. "Romney has shown a laudable ability to ignore the day-to-day madness of the presidential cycle, keep his eye on what’s important. Romney may face his toughest test yet in avoiding the allure of Marco Rubio."