Category: business ethics

World Cup Ethics And Flexible Ethics In The Wake Of The BP Disaster

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics

Two extremes, right? The title represents Chris MacDonald’s last two blog entries. His June 15th entry discusses worker productivity and the World Cup. Here MacDonald asks the question, “How should an important-but-time-consuming cultural event like the World Cup be integrated into the workplace?” You should give it a read.

His other entry is for June 14th. Here he discusses whether or not ethical obligations appear differently under conditions of stress, in this case, in the aftermath of BP’s contribution to the environmental movement. He makes comparison between the Katrina aftermath and the current gulf situation. He concludes with a pretty paragraph. Let me quote it in full.

Now there are of course differences in the two cases. In the Katrina and Haiti cases, people were literally fighting for survival — it was literally life-or-death. Presumably no one in the Gulf Coast tourism industry is literally going to starve to death. But still, the general question remains interesting: to what extent can ethical rules legitimately be bent, when someone’s interests are seriously threatened?

Not a Churchillian statement by any measure but a good summing up.

You could probably avoid a number of my posts by simply putting MacDonald in your favorites and checking him every couple of days.

James Pilant

The Supreme Court Is Right.

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics, Government Failure

I despise the Roberts court. After the Citizen’s United case in which the court addressed an issue that wasn’t even brought up in the case to give corporations the same rights as human beings meaning that they could spend unlimited amounts for advocacy. It seemed to me then and now that a paper entity and a citizen of the United States have striking differences.

Many, many people including me get upset when the obviously guilty walk free. I remember when Imelda Marcos evaded conviction with some anger and I could name some more. One of the most loathsome characters in the history of the United States and Canada is Lord Black also known as Conrad Black. This odious figure used a non-compete clause to enrich himself by many millions of dollars. Jeff Skilling, one of the architects of the Enron debacle, is also likely to walk free. It is difficult to contemplate any number of common criminal thefts and robberies that can close to Skillings incredible career of monetary destruction. Yet, it seems today that their convictions will be thrown out because of a Supreme Court decision.

Conrad Black should be in prison. He is a criminal.

Jeff Skilling is a criminal. He should be in prison.

But the Supreme court is right. The issue at question is the “honest services” law. Under the law if you fail to offer honest services you have committed a crime. The problem here is obvious – what are honest services? If you are late to work, are you late, stealing from your employer and thus liable under the law? The law gave enormous discretion to prosecutors, actually the word incredible come to mind. It was more a license to convict than a law. Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman was convicted under the law. His crime was to appoint a contributor to a position in exchange for his financial support for a campaign for a statewide lottery. It was a non-paying position that he had been appointed to several times under previous governors. That’s grounds for a federal prosecution?

What is worse about this whole stinking prosecutorial mess is that I believe that under the law, there were legitimate statutes under which to try most of these men, particularly simple fraud. The time is up for new criminal filings. Because the prosecutors opted for the easiest possible legal theory, there will be no convictions at all.

James Pilant

HOW TO BECOME A SYSTEMS ANALYST (via Lizette Grace Sabanilla’s Blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism

Ms. Grace explains with commendable clearness the business of being a Systems Analyst and what that entails. To my delight she mentions a knowledge of business ethics in a positive light, not just as a painful and annoying course that one must get through. She has my appreciation. If System Analyst is your thing, a better into would be hard to find.
James Pilant

The World Wide Web is an everyday expanding system. Most businesses use the Web in order to exchange information and close deals because its scope is global so it’s easier to access information specially ones with international range, and it offers a 24-hour service so you can access it whenever you want. With the business world going digital, it’s quite natural for companies to hire computer experts and professionals to use technology to meet th … Read More

via Lizette Grace Sabanilla's Blog

Zachary Burt

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Zachary has some distinctive ideas on business ethics. He also has some interesting comments on networking (I am in total agreement on the uselessness of business card swap meetings.).

His web site is called Zachary Burt’s Blog.

Derivative Napalm

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Alain Sherter (BNET)  is on the hunt today. The enemy is New York Democrats seeking to weaken financial regulations at the behest of the that very same financial industry.

In his article Sherter discusses those trying to weaken the bill and notes that –

In defense of preserving the current rules on derivatives Rep. Mike McMahon said:

Wall Street is to New York what cars are to Detroit and corn is to Iowa.

To which Sherter responds –

And derivatives are to the U.S. economy what napalm is to human flesh, but who’s quibbling.

If words were daggers, McMahon would look like a pin cushion.

Read the article. It’s rage, reason and satire, you don’t see that much. Not many people can write like that. It should be appreciated.

James Alan Pilant

David Lazarus: Retail Credit Card Fees, Who Should Pay?

On By southwerkIn business ethics

David Lazarus writes for the Los Angeles Times. His column today deals with who should pay retail credit card fees.
Whenever you buy something from a retailer with a credit card, they pay an additional fee for processing, apparently about 1%. However, on a $300 dollar purchase that $3 and after a while it adds up. Congress has before it a new bill which will place supervision over these fees. The retailers want to be able to charge extra to consumers for using credit cards. The banks want things to stay the way they are. But what the banks are really frightened of is revealing how much it actually cost them to process these transactions.
These fees may have made sense in the early days of slow computers and inexperience, but your current computer be it a laptop or desktop could run thousands of transactions by itself. Does it cost a dollar to process a one hundred dollar credit card transaction? I don’t think so.
Lazarus has an elegant solution. Find out what the transactions cost and lower them to a more reasonable level. Banks are entitled to profit from their activities but without consumer and retailer knowledge of what actually takes place here, we have less of a service than a magical transference of your money by a priest of finance. That is not fair.

James Pilant

Ethics Columnists Round Up 6/14/2010

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

Mitchell Schnurman writing for the Fort Worth Star Telegram discusses Radio Shack continued push for more incentives to stay in the Fort Worth area. Schnurman is upset about the whole matter and after you read the article I bet you get upset too. It’s a good two pages and most of it is spent discusses the great deals Radio Shack is already getting. This guy is fighting the good fight. I wish there were more people like him. Give ’em hell, Mitchell!

Loren Steffy has a picture of a crab sporting a new camo paint job courtesy of its friends at British Petroleum.

Steffy’s June 10th essay asks that interesting question, “Do the Chinese want to organize a takeover of BP?”

Jon Talton talks about the poorly performing stock market and asks his readers to vote on what they expect it to do. (It’s going down.)

Jay Hancock asks, “Why is anyone surprised that Moody’s downgraded Greek debt to junk status?” He’s right. The most casual reading of the newspaper would tell someone the country was in trouble. A tiny, little reading of the material disclosed Goldman Sachs’ involvement in the debt crisis. Haven’t you seen enough of Goldman Sachs to realize that all their clients are expected to be “sophisticated investors?” Doesn’t always work out, does it?

Edward Lotterman says what I have already known for a long time: the internet can be a reliable source of information. He recommends using official government reports and cross checking them with other government agencies. I consider it to be a matter of experience and judgment tempered by a willingness to keep on hunting until you are sure you have the answer, and if you can’t find a definitive answer, the willingness to explain where you found the data and that it may not be accurate. (I firmly believe that humility is seriously lacking in this culture.)

Ethics Blogs, Monday, June 14, 2010

On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments

Lauren Bloom blogs that employers should allow workers the freedom to deal with family problems such as illness. Currently with the great difficulty in finding jobs, there is certainly a temptation to put the hammer down. Bloom believes this is counterproductive.

 

 

 

 

Gael O’Brien discusses the World Health Organization’s problems. The WHO has been criticized for over estimating the danger of a flu pandemic and advising governments to stockpile enormous quantities of drugs as preparation. The three scientists who recommended these steps all have ties to the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture the drugs recommended. The article is long enough for a good analysis and achieves that goal. The article has links to two reports, one from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the other from BMJ (it used to be the British Medical Journal). Neither report is complimentary.

The Ethics Of A Soccer Ball

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Chris MacDonald writes in his blog, The Business Ethics Blog,  of the controversy over the design of soccer ball used in the World Cup. It is often the case that an examination of an extremely small part of reality or some basic component of a larger system can lay out larger patterns or allow the formation of the most basic elements of an ethical analysis. The soccer ball controversy is argued at different levels, play experience and scientific analysis. These two arguments can be broken down further for ethical analysis. MacDonald explains the questions raised by the change in the kind of ball.

Chinese Worker Suicides, What Are The Ethics?

On By southwerkIn business ethics

“Andrew,” an Australian, writing on his web site, Good Honest Dollar $$, analyzes the suicides at the Hon Hai Precision Industry Company. Since, these companies produce electronics for a number of American companies including Apple, there are concerns in the United States that the Chinese company is mistreating its workers. Andrew concludes that based on the evidence before us, no action should be taken. He believes that only after further investigation, should actions be considered. But this analysis is definitely ethical in construction. So, it merits a read.