Brooklyn State Supreme Court Judge Arthur Schack discusses his decision to turn down bank foreclosures for bad paperwork.
(Beware, this has a commercial.)
It’s 4:27 long.
The New York judiciary has gotten tough on the Mortgage industry.
James Pilant
Category: business ethics
Five Mortgage Myths Debunked
This is from CNN Money. I found it on You Tube. It’s useful information, so I pass it on to you.
It’s 4:12 long.
(Watch out, it has a commercial in the front.)
James Pilant
You Can Have My Huge African Fortune
I got this e-mail, today. This is priceless. They must have run out of royal families. I feel sorry for them. With all their royals dead, all they have to scam you with are African banks flooded with dead people’s cash.
Why are they writing scams when they could write novels? Look at the detail they put into this story! You have a Concord crash and all the relatives are dead. I mean isn’t this just like one of those Alistair MacLean novels?
But, of course, they quickly got down to the nitty gritty with the killer sentence – Therefore to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as arranged, you must apply first to the bank as relations or next of kin of the deceased indicating your bank name, your bank account number, your private telephone and fax number for easy and effective communication and location where the money will be remitted.
It really killed the flow of the story.
Well, I am foolishly untrusting! So, if you want my African fortune, you can have it. You don’t even have to send me a thank you.
Here is my “letter.”
{By the way, did you like the picture? Like my African bankers, these are crooks! (shepherd’s crooks in this case)}
AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING MANAGER,
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK.
OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO,WEST AFRICA.
Dear Friend,
I am the manager of auditing and accounting department African Development Bank (A.D.B). I got your address in Burkina Faso chamber of commerce through yahoo details. In my department i discovered an abandoned sum of $25.7 m US dollars (Twenty five. Seven Million US dollars). In an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer who died along with his entire family in a concord plane crash in the year 2004 in Paris that almost took the whole life of the passenger’s on board. Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim.
It is therefore upon this discovery that I and now decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and i don’t want this money to go into the Bank treasury as unclaimed Bill. The Banking law and guideline here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after six years, the money will be transferred into the Bank treasury account as unclaimed fund. The request of foreigner as next of kin in this business is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Burkina be cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner.
We agree that 40% of this money will be for you as foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a foreign account, 10% will be set aside for expenses incurred during the business and 50% would be for me. Therefore to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as arranged, you must apply first to the bank as relations or next of kin of the deceased indicating your bank name, your bank account number, your private telephone and fax number for easy and effective communication and location where the money will be remitted. Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the letter of demand for you to apply for the claim immediately.
I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch free and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer. You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this letter. Trusting to hear from you immediately.
Yours faithfully
DR WAHEED ABDUL
AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT. (A.D.B) BANK.
Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the letter of demand for you to apply for the claim immediately.
I hope this got a laugh. It’s all it got from me.
Best Wishes,
James Pilant
Benjamin Franklin, Business Ethics, Newspapers And Teaching
From the John Torrey Morse, Jr. biography of Benjamin Franklin (pages 23-24)
But the famous almanac was not the only pulpit whence Franklin preached to the people. He had an excellent ideal of a newspaper. He got news into it, which was seldom done in those days, and which made it attractive; he got advertisements into it, which made it pay, and which also was a novel feature; indeed, Mr. Parton says that he “originated the modern system of business advertising;” he also discussed matters of public interest. Thus he anticipated the modern newspaper, but in some respects improved in advance upon that which he anticipated. He made his “Gazette” a vehicle for disseminating information and morality, and he carefully excluded from it “all libeling and personal abuse.” The sheet in its every issue was doing the same sort of work as “Poor Richard.” In a word, Franklin was a born teacher of men, and what he did in this way in these his earlier days gives him rank among the most distinguished moralists who have ever lived.
I, myself, am a teacher and a good one. Franklin is very good. He is fond of facts, fascinated with reason and inclined toward discussion, both intelligent and moderate.
But do not think for a moment that Franklin was not willing to be angry or unwilling to use strong language. He knew that civility is not a one way street. He was a leader in revolution, at times, a soldier and a master of spies.
We need Franklin’s example now, more than ever. Franklin believed in virtue, virtue ethics like those practiced by the Greeks. That system says that we do the right thing because it is a better way to live, that it has benefits and we profit by them.
Those benefits are generally internal, how we feel about ourselves, others, this life or the next one. But Franklin takes it to a place where we can see that you can be virtuous and effective, honest and successful, hard-working and prosperous. He takes virtue ethics and shows how when applied with diligence and intelligence, a balanced life is possible.
The Greeks of the Classical Age believed in the moderation in all things. I do not. Neither did Franklin.
However, we can certainly say that Franklin believed in moderation in most things and recommended such to others.
Let that be our lesson today.
James Pilant
500 Posts
I have posted more than 500 times.
I could not have done without your encouragement and kindness.
My Thanks!
James Alan Pilant
Girl Scout Uniforms To Be Made In China?
Jackie Evans Inc. a small textile company in New Jersey has been in business for 10 years making uniforms for the Girl Scouts.
Passaic, New Jersey—Jackie Evans, Inc. employs 90 people in a town with a population of about 67,000 people and an average household income of $29,904.
The Girl Scouts of America told the company a few weeks ago they will be seeking bids from four companies. Two are from overseas, one of them is China.
If Jackie Evans, Inc. loses the bid it could be forced to shut down and the 90 employees will be out of a job. Their only client is Girl Scouts who they make uniforms and sashes for.
The phrase, “Is nothing sacred?” leaps to mind.
Do the Girl Scouts believe in patriotism? Well you can get an award for it.
American Patriotism Interest Project Award
For Girl Scouts 11-17
American Patriotism Interest Project Award. © GSUSA. All rights reserved.America is a unique place to live and work. It offers many freedoms, and each one comes with responsibilities. Girl Scouts 11-17 can find out what those freedoms and responsibilities are by doing this Interest Project.
Complete two activities in the Skill Builders section, one activity in each of the other three sections, and two other activities in any section you choose.
I looked through the activities. The Girl Scouts offer a multitude of alternatives but I’m sure there will be a new one next year. It will go like this – Visit the Girl Scout Uniform factory in old Shanghai. Oops, I’m sorry, that the Chinese Patriotism Award.
Maybe the American Patriotism Award can be gained for visiting the empty building where the American factory that used to make Girl Scout uniforms was or perhaps they could put together a food basket for one of the laid off workers. That’s patriotic, isn’t it?
James Pilant
Steven Mintz AKA Ethics Sage Comments On My Post – The Legacy Of An Inspirational Teacher Is Felt Throughout The Ages.
The post ended on an explanatory note about league tables. These are the English variation of our school rankings under No Child Left Behind (an abomination of a law). Steven Mintz begins his comment at that point.
I couldn’t agree more about “league tables.” Newsweek reported the best high schools in the U.S. in June 2010 and based its selections on how hard school staffs work to challenge students with advanced placement college-level courses and tests. Nowhere in the ranking is the fact that the best high schools are those that serve all of the students not just the very best among them. As a college professor I find it to be disturbing that so many students lack a strong work ethic and motivation to learn for learning sake. How do we measure whether a high school instills these values that are so important to success in college and to create the thirst for lifelong learning? We also should recognize that what a teacher should and does accomplish in the classroom may not be known for years. Perhaps Henry Adams said it best: “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell, where his influence stops.”
The Ethics Sage (Steven Mintz) can be found here. I recommend his web site. It is on my blog roll.
(The Ethics Sage’s current post deals with Jeff Skilling (Enron) and his appeal which if successful could release him from prison.)
James Pilant
Home Ownership At 66.9 Percent
That’s the lowest level of home ownership in the United States since 1999.
After the housing bubble burst, the rate has been declining gradually.
About 18.8 million homes, or 14.4 percent of all houses and apartments, were vacant, according to the government survey. Without vacation homes, that rate would be 11 percent.
The number of vacant homes has soared over the past four years from about 16 million at the start of 2006. It has been hovering around 19 million since the end of 2008. There are around 131 million housing units nationwide, according to the Census Bureau.
About 2.5 percent of all primary residences were vacant and for sale and 10.3 percent of all year-round rental units were listed as vacant and for rent.
Isn’t this just sad. Americans believe in the dream of home ownership, and it’s a mirage for many millions. And if that isn’t enough irony, almost 19 million homes are sitting empty.
We can do better than this.
James Pilant
Fox News Badgers And Repeatedly Interrupts Guest Calling The Bank Actions Fraud (Four On One)
This is bizarre. They only invited the guy to use him as a punching bag. We never did discover what he had to say. The narrative that the network is pushing is “personal responsibility.” It’s, of course, a one-way responsibility, only for those who bought homes. The banks and mortgage foreclosure companies, the financial firms that packaged these mortgages as gambling chips, they don’t appear to have any responsibility for what happened.
That’s an amazing clip. I really wanted to know what he had to say. I never will know. Doesn’t a guest deserve two uninterrupted minutes to explain his idea?
So, much for the state of television news.
James Pilant
Just For Fun – Wells Fargo Repossesses Automobile They Don’t Own
This is a little film clip of Wells Fargo taking someone’s car that is actually paid for.
Watch and enjoy. Also, be sure and when someone remarks about how the great corporations function like finely tuned watches, that you giggle quietly and politely for one does not disturb the mind’s quiet repose.
James Pilant
Pilant's Business Ethics Blog 
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