Category: business ethics

Newspaper Columnists I Follow

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FThese are my current choices among newspaper columnists. There are going to be a lot of changes over time. It’s taking me a lot of reading to find authors who delve into ethics (which I believe includes reporting and explaining evil doing with a requisite level of outrage). Some that at first appear to be promising turn out to be less than level headed if read for a length of time. Each columnist, once discovered, is favorited to an intermediate category and only moved to my regular reading after a period of probation. I was writing one of my regular recommended authors when I pointed out that I seldom criticize and my writing tends to be very complimentary. So, I wanted him to know that I don’t like to hurt people’s feelings (there is little people are more sensitive about than their writing) and bad writing carries its own reward. If I find writing offensive, incompetent or crankish, it gets deleted from my favorites never to be seen again. I think that counts as criticism.

MY CHOICES
Mitchell Schnurman of the Fort Worth Star Telegram.
Loren Steffy of the Houston Chronicle (He has a Blog and a column.)
Jon Talton of the Seattle Times. His column is called, Sound Economy.
Keith Chrostowski of the Kansas City Star.
Jay Hancock of the Baltimore Sun. (He combines the occasional item related to ethics with consumer advocacy on consumer and sometimes very local issues, so he will only appear when I believe he is on point.)
Edward Lotterman writes for Twin Cities Pioneer Press.
David Moon writes for the Knoxville News.

Ethics Roundup – Blogs 6/11/10

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Chris MacDonald considers the ethical elements of what is owed the shareholders of British Petroleum. His conclusion is dramatic. (And I think giving the comments a read is a good idea on this one.)

Lauren Bloom takes on the question of Helen Thomas and what should have happened in the light of her remarks. She wants to know why Hearst Corporation didn’t provide any help for her in the crisis. (I was surprised to discover that my opinion in the matter was identical with Ms. Bloom’s.)

Alain Sherter is on fire today, at first, angry, satirical, and then he segues into a discussion of what constitutes a sophisticated investor and then he gets indignant and angry again. It’s the kind of writing I expect from him. Sherter is extremely knowledgeable about the world of finance, outraged at the unprosecuted and protected bandits of our economy and dismayed by the public’s lack of concern, the government’s craven inability to act and the docility and foolishness of beltway comedians who call themselves journalists. If a few hundred people shared his convictions and ability, wall street would be a different place.

Alain Sherter at BNET

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When re-organizing my favorites to tighten up my review of important sites, I lost Alain Sherter who is not only one of my favorite authors but an extremely adept analyst of the often arcane financial dealings of Wall Street. He is back on my list with considerable regret on my part for having left him off for a week and a half. His post today is cautionary tale of corporate value amid changing fortunes and different styles of leadership. He concludes that leaders should stick with what they do best.

Newspaper Columnists – Ethics Roundup 6-9-10

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Loren Steffy (Houston Chronicle) asks the rhetorical question: “Should BP be paying its shareholders a dividend?”

Ben Bernanke predict a sort of, kind of, maybe, might be, probable recovery. (I’m overjoyed.) Jon Talton feels the same way. Discussing Bernanke’s testimony before Congress, Talton writing for the Seattle Times laments the paralysis and stupidity of our political class. He points out the easily discernable budget busters and then points out there is no one willing to deal with them.

Jay Hancock of the Baltimore Sun argues that increasing taxes on manufacturing makes no sense in the light of the enormous losses of those jobs in the Baltimore area over the last years.

Edward Lotterman writing for Pioneer Press argues that even with a good number of bank closings, there are many choices left for those seeking banking services. I’m a little surprised he didn’t discuss the ramifications of his state of Minnesota losing six banks this year.

Chris MacDonald’s Latest Post: Boycotting BP Is Futile and Unethical

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Professor MacDonald has an interesting post today (It’s dated June 9th.).

Here is an excerpt –

Professor Chris MacDonald

… there’s the fact that a boycott of BP gas stations won’t actually hurt the organization you’re trying to hurt. In practice, “boycotting BP” means boycotting BP-branded retail outlets. And as an editorial in the LA Times pointed out, “BP stations are independently owned, so a boycott hurts individual retailers more than London-based BP.” So, sure, boycott BP stations — that is, if your goal is to hurt a bunch of small businesses already operating on razor-thin profit margins. Put a few minimum-wage gas jockeys and cashiers out of work. The difference simply will not be felt at BP’s head office. (The same naturally goes for vandalism of BP stations, which is both unethical and criminal.)

I wanted to do something to hurt the company’s profits. But MacDonald is quite right. A boycott would be ineffective.

His reasoned argument is better than my emotional response but isn’t that the way it always is, reason defeats emotion if given time?

I can add to his argument, that Loren Steffy of the Houston Chronicle business page has been suggesting in his last three blog posts that British Petroleum is likely to wind up in bankruptcy or acquired by another company. What effect will a boycott have on that situation? None as far as I can tell. Not to mention that the enormous losses arising out of the current disaster are far more economically damaging then anything a boycott could approach. It seems likely that the company will perish on its own.

James Pilant

Business Ethics Blogs, Who I Follow

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I currently follow the postings on the following blogs:

Chris MacDonald – The Business Ethics Blog

Lauren Bloom’s Blog

Gael O’Brien The Week in Ethics

Jonathon Tasini Working Life

Karen Fraser  Ethical Reputations

Julian Friedland Business Ethics Memo

Robert A. G. Monks

Jeffrey Seglin The Right Thing

Jeffrey Pfeffer Rational Rants

Richard Eskow Night Light

Karl Stephan Engineering Ethics Blog

Shel Horowitz Principled Profit

David Gebler Blog: Business Ethics

Changes To This Blog!

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I am dividing my ethics round ups into sections, one for bloggers and one for newspaper columnists. I have four more sections developing, my favorite being a look at ethics writing in other parts of the world.

James Pilant

Ethics Round up – Blogs – 6/8/2010 Tuesday

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Lauren Bloom writing on her blog whether or not governments can be effective when they intervene in corporate disasters. Many had thought that industry was self regulating. I quote from the article – “Now we’re seeing what happens if companies fail to self-regulate and, in particular, fail to prepare for serious problems.”

Jeffrey Pfeffer writing in his blog, Rational Rants, discusses how unemployment and other economic factors are just different in Spain. (Good read!)

An ex-AIG executive protests AIG bailouts. This is from the blog, A Night Light. You just have to read this one!

Ethics Round Up – Newspapers – 6/8/10 Tuesday

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Tony Pugh in a new article he wrote for McClatchy cites a new report that calls for reorganization at the Food and Drug Administration, a new emphasis on enforcement and a focus on detecting food problems before they get into distribution.

McClatchy was kind enough to include links to two other reports, The Long-Term Health Outcomes of Selected Foodborne Pathogens and Enhancing Food Safety: The Role of the Food and Drug Administration.

Don Blankenship of Massey Energy goes on the offensive stopping just short of claiming that the federally mandated fan system for clearing methane gas caused the accident in the coal mine where 29 miners died. (The comments to this article are not friendly and as of this time, he has not a single supporter.) This is a pdf file of the letter Blankenship sent to four governors.

Mitchell Schnurman writing on McClatchy’s home page section commentary suggests that since this country is in budgetary trouble that we stop giving money to private corporations. (Sounds good to me.)

Loren Steffy writing in the Houston Chronicle discusses the probably bankruptcy and end game for British Petroleum.

Jon Talton discusses the effect a massive increase in city fees for a skyway might have on a department store. It’s business ethics at its most basic level. Who should pay taxes? How much? How should the amount be calculated?

Keith Crowstowski writing for the Kansas City Star explains the corrosive effect of crony capitalism. This is some fine writing. I strongly recommend it.

Ethics Problems Around the World

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Ivory Coast – Toxic Waste Dumping.

Nigeria – In that country illegal gold mining puts lead into the water systems resulting in the deaths of children.

South Africa – Rigged bidding on a soccer stadium results in cover up, assassination and devastation to the local community.

Egypt – African migrants work their way to Egypt in order to cross the border into Israel.

Australia – Australia is putting out advertising to tell people of its new, tough laws on sexual tourism. Australian citizens who commit crimes against children in other nations can still be prosecuted in Australia.

Australia – Australian government investigates Google for privacy breach.

China – The county of Qingshuihe in far Northern China decided to relocate a town. So they built a new one. At least they started. After spending about 880 million dollars (translating the expenditure into American money), they have a few empty buildings in the middle of nowhere.

Burma – There is some evidence Burma has embarked on the construction of a nuclear weapon.

Russia – There are claims being made that Russians looted the bodies of the Polish citizens of the ill fated flight that crashed in April.

Germany – Banned genetically modified corn has been planted on acreage in several southern German states.

France – Jerome Kerviel is going on trial soon for breach of trust, forgery and unauthorized computer use. He is blamed for the loss of 4.9 billion Euros in losses by a French bank. (That’s about 6 billion American dollars.)

Scandinavia and the Baltic – Nordic bank Nordea has sold all its shares in British Petroleum. (That’s right. The oil spill will never reach them and they have the sense to punish wrong doing.)

India – Courts in India have found 8 people guilty in the Bhopal disaster and sentenced them to 2 years in prison. The Bhopal disaster resulted in the deaths of up to 18,000 people (those injured number up to 600,000) and occurred in 1984. So, the wheels of justice have been grinding for 26 years. These are the first convictions they have and one of those sentenced is dead and presumably is not concerned about his conviction. While there is definitely a business ethic element to the story, even the most casual reader will find it fascinating from purely an entertainment perspective and a cautionary tale of a nation that does things “differently.” (India is a glorious nation with an incredible history but 26 years to get your first convictions and a two year sentence for destroying a small city’s worth of people is not a recommendation for your justice system.)

Bangladesh – In the city of Dhaka, poorly constructed building housing hundreds are little more than death traps should they catch on fire.