Reporters Joachim Dyfvermark, Sven Bergman and Fredrik Laurin won Sweden’s most prestigious journalism award ….”

A PBS Frontline documentary on that investigation is revealing. You can watch it free online. (By free, I also mean commercial free.)

Their documentary series, “Gripen: The Secret Deals,” which uncovered a massive network of alleged bribes, shell corporations and secret contracts around the marketing of the Gripen aircraft. Using hidden cameras, the reporters posed as business intelligence agents and were able to capture what seems to be an on-air confirmation from Jan Kavan, a prominent Czech politician and former president of the United Nations General Assembly, describing how Czech politicians across the political spectrum had accepted bribes to approve the Gripen deal. The reporters also tracked down an array of contracts signed by the then-marketing director of Saab, which detailed multimillion dollar commissions promised to agents if the deal was successful.

When it aired in 2007, the documentary caused an international outcry and prompted prosecutors in at least seven countries to open investigations into the suspected bribery. Investigations are ongoing in Sweden, the Czech Republic, Britain, South Africa, Switzerland, Austria and the United States. Last week, the international investigations yielded its first arrest. Count Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly, a BAE lobbyist profiled in the film, was arrested in Austria for alleged money laundering and bribery in the Gripen deals. …

They point out that a Jet Fighter deal for a developing country like South Africa might happen … because the bribe to the politicians would be bigger than the bribe they can get spending the money, for example, on an AIDS program.

South Africa has already bought 24 Grippens. …

This documentary reminded me of The Airbus Affair in Canada:

… allegations of secret commissions paid to members of the Government of Canada during the term of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, in exchange for then-crown corporation Air Canada’s purchase of a large number of Airbus jets. …

After getting voted out of Office, Mulroney has admitted to accepting from Karlheinz Schreiber, a European lobbyest. Mulroney stuffed $225,000 from Schreiber, in cash, into his pockets. And then not reporting this in his income tax returns until eight years later. (When the jig was up.)

Even today, Mulroney has paid taxes on only half the money from Schreiber. Money he got in 1993-94.

Mulroney is not in jail. But, last I heard, Schreiber is.

Until this past week I’ve been predicting the economy in Calgary would bottom out and start an upswing by Summer 2009.

After all, how long can the world delay purchasing Oil and Gas?

Looks like I’m wrong:

… it’s official: we’re not going to escape the global recession. Nor, for that matter, are we going to get off easier than a lot of other cities, as so many forecasters intimated back in October and November of 2008.

As the CED revealed this week, 2009 is looking mighty iffy, economically speaking. And we’ll be well into 2010 before things start looking up–which is more or less what a few of us have been saying for some time.

“It is likely going to get worse before it gets better,” says the CED report, authored by Legge. “The ride shall be rough during this downturn. We should all be prepared for that, and expect that it will be here for at least another 12 months.” …

… And this week, Conoco offered up a pointed reminder of just where we are at, economically speaking, when it handed out pink slips to 190 employees.

… And, of course, there is the wild card of energy pricing. Where oil prices will go, literally nobody knows–although many forecasters are calling for $55 oil through this year and $65 oil in 2010. …

The Calgary Herald – Calgary financial truth hurts

I only have 2 Calgary friends laid off, so far.

Too bad.

One less big box electronics store.

It’s a sad day for electronics shoppers: Circuit City, the second-largest retailer of consumer electronics, has announced it is forced to close all its remaining 567 U.S. stores and sell all its merchandise. The closing also leaves 34,000 Circuit City employees out of a job. …

PC World

Wikipedia – Circuit City

Best Buy, the biggest dog in the industry, is still strong.

Note: The Source by Circuit City in Canada is untouched. All 765 stores are open for business. The Canadian economy is much healthier than the American.