Category: Capitalism

Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual (human) rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned.

Niall Ferguson Gets Return Fire

On By southwerkIn Capitalism
English: The ten largest economies in the worl...
English: The ten largest economies in the world and the European Union in 2008, measured in GDP PPP (millions of USD), according to the International Monetary Fund. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

I read the Huffington Post almost every day. Niall Ferguson has written three attacks on Paul Krugman which have appeared in that publication which has me wondering about what’s going on? I was under the impression that Ferguson’s hit piece on Obama has been so awful that his credibility had taken a substantial hit but apparently not a substantial enough hit for the Huffpost not to publish him. I find Ferguson’s beliefs appalling, his attacks on Krugman ridiculous and I am pleased that so many are firing back at Ferguson’s attacks. Here is one from the web site, Beat the Press.

James Pilant

The Ravings of Niall Ferguson, the Real World, and the Needless Suffering of Tens of Millions | Beat the Press

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/the-ravings-of-niall-ferguson-the-real-world-and-the-needless-suffering-of-tens-of-millions

But it is hardly worth wasting time and killing electrons in a tit for tat with Ferguson. What matters is the underlying issues of economic policy. These affect the lives of billions of people. The absurdities pushed by Ferguson and like-minded people in positions of power, in direct defiance of massive evidence to the contrary, have ruined millions of lives and cost the world more than $10 trillion in lost output since the crisis began.

First, contrary to what Ferguson claims, the downturn is not primarily a “financial crisis.” The story of the downturn is a simple story of a collapsed housing bubble. The $8 trillion housing bubble was driving demand in the U.S. economy in the last decade until it collapsed in 2007. When the bubble burst we lost more than 4 percentage points of GDP worth of demand due to a plunge in residential construction. We lost roughly the same amount of demand due to a falloff in consumption associated with the disappearance of $8 trillion in housing wealth. (FWIW, none of this was a surprise to folks who follow the economy with their eyes open. I warned of this disaster beginning in 2002, see also here and here.)

The collapse of the bubble created a hole in annual demand equal to 8 percent of GDP%

via The Ravings of Niall Ferguson, the Real World, and the Needless Suffering of Tens of Millions | Beat the Press.

From around the web.

From the web site, This is Ashok.

http://ashokarao.com/2013/10/06/the-three-contradictions-of-niall-ferguson/

As I have documented in detail before,

Niall Ferguson’s grand theory is devoted to a time of big government,

but of a different kind. He yearns for the day when big governments

taxed the poor to finance colonial adventures and fought with each other

for glory and nothing else. Indeed, as he’s written before, he yearns

for the day when “Britannia bestrode the globe”.

We today owe our intellectual and humanitarian heritage to Franklin

Roosevelt. Not because he vindicated principles of easy money or public

finance. Not because he vindicated principles of modern liberalism. But –

for the first time in the history of our nation and all nations – he

demonstrated that government can exist for the great benefit of the many

at the minor cost of the few. For almost a century both political

parties have lived by this end, if disagreeing on the means.

There is an ideology that accommodates the worst of efficient

markets, supply side economics, and neoliberal economists like Milton

Friedman. It is called right wing hackery, with Niall Ferguson as its

high priest.

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Government Shutdown is Making U.S. an Object of Ridicule

On By southwerkIn Capitalism1 Comment

 

 

English: US Capitol, Washington DC, the seat o...
English: US Capitol, Washington DC, the seat of government for the United States Congress. Nederlands: Het Capitool, de zetel van de volksvertegenwoordiging van de Verenigde Staten. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

I am appalled by what’s happening. I freely confess I don’t know what will happen if this last beyond the 17th and we go into default. It could be anything from very little happening to a worldwide economic catastrophe culminating in a decade long Depression. If I were a legislator, I like to think I would want to avoid going into default where the unknowns are so perilous. But I do not believe I can count on the intelligence or judgment of those willing to shut down the government as a form of blackmail. It was irresponsible to begin with, and it has only become less moral, less ethical and less intelligent as the days have gone by.

 

 

 

James Pilant

 

 

 

Trudy Rubin: Shutdown repercussions | Opinion | McClatchy DC

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/10/11/205106/trudy-rubin-shutdown-repercussions.html

 

 

 

 

 

How far we have come since the heady days of the 1990s, when eager civic activists from ex-communist and third-world countries looked to U.S. experts to show them how a multiparty system worked.Indeed, America\’s longtime allies are bewildered by a system where a small minority of legislators can hijack Congress. They also can\’t understand why Congress has to vote separately to authorize the borrowing of funds to pay for expenses it has already approved. Perhaps because no other modern democracy except Denmark has such a system.The commentary in friendly countries has been scathing.\”For a country that fancies itself the greatest democracy on Earth, the fact that a small band of outliers in one party can essentially shut down the federal government over a petty political brawl seems woefully undemocratic,\” Lee-Anne Goodman of Canadian Press told the Talking Points Memo blog. Le Monde columnist Alain Frachon told the New York Times that \”Washington is looking more like the Italian political system, with its permanent crises.\”David Usborne wrote in the British newspaper The Independent: \”America is indeed exceptional, at least in terms of its place in the global financial system,\” but \”in almost every other respect right now it is starting to look exceptionally silly.\” Even if a budget and debt-ceiling deal is completed in the next two weeks, he add …

 

 

 

 

 

via Trudy Rubin: Shutdown repercussions | Opinion | McClatchy DC.

 

 

 

 

 

From around the web.

 

 

 

 

 

From the web site, Newsworks.

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/national-interest/item/60524

 

 

 

 

 

For instance, the BBC intoned,

“That leaders of one of the most powerful nations on earth willingly

provoked a crisis that suspends public services and decreases economic

growth is astonishing….Even in the middle of its ongoing civil war,

the Syrian government has continued to pay its bills and workers’

wages.” In western Europe, a think-tank scholar tweeted, “Next time you

blame the woes of developing nations on ‘poor governance,’ think about

how the U.S. government arrived at today.”

 

 

 

 

 

In France, the newspaper Le Monde assailed the “grotesque” shutdown, and aimed its editorial message at one of America’s founding fathers: “Jefferson, wake up! They’ve gone crazy!” In Germany, Der Spiegel Online declared, “A superpower has paralyzed itself,” and the business daily Handelsbatt depicted the Statue of Liberty in chains, capped by the headline, “The Blocked World Power.” In Spain, the El Pais newspaper marveled at America’s “suicidal madness.”

 

 

 

 

 

Granted, some of these reactions have a touch of schadenfreude,

taking pleasure in our misfortune. That’s especially true with the

French, who always love to tweak us, even while forgetting that if not

for America 69 years ago, they would’ve stayed under the Nazi heel. But

why give them an excuse to treat us as a laughingstock?

 

 

 

 

 

And the current scoffing spans the continents. In China, an

entertainer tweeted, “Chinese must be wondering – When will America

embrace real reform? How long can this system survive? Where is

America’s Gorbachev?” In China, a government-run news website said

the nation should be “on guard against spillover of irresponsible U.S.

politics.” In India, business executives told the Voice of America that

they couldn’t fathom how an advanced nation like America could allow its

government to close, and a college student in New Dehli said it was

“sad and shocking.” In the Philippines, an editorial writer asked, “How

did the world’s lone superpower come to such a sorry pass?” In Malaysia,

a news website ran the headline, “U.S. shutdown leaves the world

scratching its head,” and the story said that some Malaysians “had

trouble suppressing smirks.” And The Australian newspaper said that the shutdown “doesn’t say much for the budgetary process in the world’s largest economy.” And so on.

 

 

 

 

 

From the web site, Esquire.

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Shutdown_Blues

 

 

 

 

 

In the year of our Lord 2010, the voters of the United States elected

the worst Congress in the history of the Republic. There have been

Congresses more dilatory. There have been Congresses more irresponsible,

though not many of them. There have been lazier Congresses, more

vicious Congresses, and Congresses less capable of seeing forests for

trees. But there has never been in a single Congress — or, more

precisely, in a single House of the Congress — a more lethal combination

of political ambition, political stupidity, and political vainglory

than exists in this one, which has arranged to shut down the federal

government because it disapproves of a law passed by a previous

Congress, signed by the president, and upheld by the Supreme Court, a

law that does nothing more than extend the possibility of health

insurance to the millions of Americans who do not presently have it, a

law based on a proposal from a conservative think-tank and taken out on

the test track in Massachusetts by a Republican governor who also

happens to have been the party’s 2012 nominee for president of the

United States. That is why the government of the United States is, in

large measure, closed this morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hong Kong’s Monster Parents

On By southwerkIn Capitalism2 Comments
SVG map of Hong Kong's administrative districts.
SVG map of Hong Kong’s administrative districts. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

I think something similar has been happening here for some time. It’s because of neoliberalism, the doctrine that education is a good to be purchased like a car or a vacation house. We, Americans, strive for an education to get and keep a job forgetting that education has other vital purposes like the creation of whole and vital human beings. The Chinese in Hong Kong also pursue an education for a job but also for social status, and, of course, their system of high school ends in a test that determines who goes to college and who does not. Less than half will qualify. Our testing regime is hideous beyond words but it does not carry that penalty, at least not yet.

 

I have a lot of sympathy for Monster parents. There is unfairness for some students. One of my son’s high school teachers told him that he would never go to college. Since my wife (now ex-wife) and I have two degrees apiece, we thought he probably would go to college (he’s attending one now). I let the matter blow over but there is a part of me that wanted confrontation, a confrontation that teacher would not have forgotten.

 

Still, however sympathetic I may be, I can’t see putting a child through a childhood absent play and solitude.

 

James Pilant 

 

 

The Existential Angst of Hong Kong’s ‘Monster Parents’ | Yuen Chan

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yuen-chan/hong-kong-monster-parents_b_4058306.html

 

For a story about the pressures of early childhood in Hong Kong, my students recently interviewed the mother of a four-year-old who has soccer class on Mondays, piano and violin on Thursdays, extra English and maths on Thursdays and Fridays and music on Saturdays. She was also considering Mandarin and swimming, and all this on top of kindergarten. This may be an extreme case, but there is constant pressure for parents to put their kids on the treadmill and a lucrative industry to promote it.

 

Unsurprisingly, there was much hand-wringing when a survey published by a local university found Hong Kong\’s school children scored higher than those in the United States, Britain and Australia in a questionnaire that detects antisocial traits. Researchers warned that monster parents were creating a generation of over-confident, spoilt brats with a tendency towards aggression and violence to get their way.

 

But it seems too easy to point the finger at parents, simultaneously accused of fostering cowering, over-dependent children and violent narcissists. Parents are trapped in a pressure cooker — an education system that emphasizes academic achievement, as measured in test results, above all else, a culture that deems those without university degrees as failures.

 

What\’s worse, more and more students are attaining the minimum grades needed to qualify to study …(Please visit the web site and read the whole article. jp)

 

via The Existential Angst of Hong Kong’s ‘Monster Parents’ | Yuen Chan.

 

From around the web.

 

From the web site, Education in Japan Community Blog.

 

http://educationinjapan.wordpress.com/parenting-potpourri/monster-parents-and-monster-kids/

 

These days, in Japan at least, there is a great hoo-hah over the

issue of Monster Parents, on the heels of an earlier debate over the

overindulged, selfish and adrift youngsters.

 

These issues are of course not confined to Japan. A quick google on

the internet and you will see that the Monster Parents in India, in the

USA, and the issue of overindulged kids surfaces often in China where

the one-child government policy has resulted in children so precious,

and thus overindulged by society at large. If you ever manage to catch

Super Nanny the British (virtual TV of sorts) series, it’s good for a

jolting confrontation with screaming brats and yelling dads, etc.

 

Nor is the issue as many experts say it is, a phenomenon of our

times. Catching up on a Jane Austen fest on cable TV, and rereading many

Victorian (Regency) classics in the past two weeks, I realized that

“monster parents” and spoilt brats were very much shown up in nearly

every book and often caricatured in ways totally recognizable to us.

 

The Victorian classics were written by young women like Jane Austen

or Charlotte Bronte, who were, being from slightly reduced financial

circumstances, forced to be sensible and to move in the circles of the

clergyhood or governnesses. As such they were highly attuned to the

idiosyncracies, selfish behavioral displays, highhandedness,

snobbishness, vulgarity even, of privileged parents of Victorian high

society…as opposed to the necessary humility, down-to-earthness of the

working or servant classes.

 

Unconditional Income in Switzerland?

On By southwerkIn Capitalism
Switzerland!
Switzerland! (Photo credit: nicolasnova)

RT takes a look at at a proposal before the Swiss Parliament to make everyone eligible for a guaranteed income.
James Pilant

From around the web.

From the web site, RapidBI Ecademy.

http://rapidbiecademy.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/will-switzerland-introduce-an-unconditional-basic-income-for-everyone-lucas-wyrsch/

Dear Ecademists,

Signatures are being collected for a proposal aimed at introducing an unconditional basic income for everyone living in Switzerland.

Organisers of the initiative, launched in Bern on Thursday last week, consider a guaranteed income a civil right and stressed it was neither a redistribution initiative nor a call to abolish social welfare.

The group, including a former senior government official and an ex-chief economist of a leading Swiss bank, has 18 months to collect at least 100,000 valid signatures to force a nationwide vote on the issue.

They believe that with a basic income of CHF2,500 – children would receive one fourth of that – everyone could live in “dignity and freedom”, without being plagued by existential fears.

From the web site, weekidmuze.

Unconditional basic income = for all, CARE & FREEDOM !!!

Development aid, economic growth policies and other measures have failed to tackle poverty effectively. Hundreds of millions of people are still suffering from poverty and hunger. Based on the current policies poverty will persist for many more decades to come. Therefore, developing countries are considering alternative ways. In Brazil, Namibia and South Africa a basic income is now by many considered to be the best way to end degrading poverty once and for all. Brazil is the first country worldwide that has adopted a law that calls for the gradual introduction of a basic income. In South Africa and Namibia, the trade unions, churches and many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are trying to persuade their governments to introduce a basic income. And in Namibia, the BASIC INCOME GRANT COALITION has conducted a two-year pilot project. The positive results have exceeded expectations.

From the web site, Boiling Frogs.

http://boilingfrogs.info/2013/06/03/basic-income-initiative-switzerland/

Launched one year ago by two basic income groups from Basel and Zurich, the swiss initiative for basic income still has until august to make sure it has the 100.000 signatures to succeed and trigger a referendum, as specified under the Swiss law.

Yet, basic income activists were happy and smiling when welcoming me at the train station in Geneva two weeks ago. With more than 110.000 signatures collected so far, much of the job has been done already.

A referendum within two years?

But even though the press is now unanimous that they are on the verge to succeed, the activists now aim at collecting 130k signatures by august, just to make sure they reach the quorum.

If this goal is reached, then the government will submit their proposal to a votation, where all swiss electors will be invited to vote yes/no to the proposals of the initiative which aims at embedding the principle of basic income into the constitution, like it already is the case in Brazil.

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Make as Much Money as Possible–Typical Business Rule?

On By southwerkIn Capitalism1 Comment

029-1Do businesses have ethical obligations beyond what the law and shareholders require? | The CQ Researcher Blog

“In a free-enterprise, private-property system,” Friedman wrote, “a corporate executive is an employee of the owners of a business. He has direct responsibility to his employers. That responsibility is to conduct the business in accordance with their desires, which generally will be to make as much money as possible while conforming to the basic rules of society, both those embodied in law and those embodied in ethical custom.”
In this view, going beyond those basic requirements — for instance, as Friedman wrote, spending more to reduce pollution than “the amount that is in the best interests of the corporation or that is required by law” — amounts to improperly spending money that belongs to the shareholders.
The U.S. concept of free-market capitalism is not, of course, universally accepted. Karl Marx, the intellectual father of communism, saw profit as the result of capitalist exploitation of workers. Socialist and communist systems assert that some or all of business profits rightfully belong to society.
But among those who embrace capitalism, many say ethical obligations go well beyond simply making a profit.
A survey of business executives from around the world by consulting firm McKinsey & Co. found that only a minority wholeheartedly embraced Friedman’s view. Sixteen percent of respondents agreed that business should “focus solely on providing the highest possible returns to investors while obeying all laws and regulations.” But 84 percent said the role of large corporations should be to “generate high returns to investors but balance [that] with contributions to the broader public good.” [Footnote 14]

Do businesses have ethical obligations beyond what the law and shareholders require? | The CQ Researcher Blog

Does business believe in the absolute pursuit of profit to the exclusion of all other goals? A study by McKinsey and Co. indicates otherwise. This is an unexpected result based on my perceptions but, of course, I live in the Southern United States where free market worship is one very short step below the more traditional forms of worship.

I hope the study is correct. We need business leaders willing to be valuable members of our communities. Without their participation, the ties that bind us together as a people, a civilization, weaken.

James Pilant

From around the web.

From the web site, Business Talk.

http://businessadministrationblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/goal-of-the-firm-maximize-profit-maximize-shareholder-wealth-stakeholder-wealth/

Wealth maximization is long term process. It refers the value of the company generally expressed in the value of the stock.

Value maximization says that managers should make all decisions so as to increase the total long run market value of the firm. Total value is the sum of the value of all financial claims on the firm- including equity, debt, preferred stock and warrants.

Here, the executives undertake investing in new projects, maximizing profits from existing products and services, controlling cost, and adding value to the company through process, which reflects in the price of the stock, but always in the increase in Net Asset Value and Equity Per Share.

The wealth of corporate owners is measured by the share price of the stock, which in turn is based on the timing of returns (cash flows), their magnitude and their risk. Maximizing share price will maximize owner wealth.

Cash flow and risk are the key decision variables in maximizing owner wealth.

When investors look at a company they not only look at dollar profit but also profit margins, return on capital, and other indicators of efficiency. Profit maximization does not achieve the objectives of the firm’s owners; therefore wealth maximization is better option than profit maximization.

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Response to Rep. Marsha Blackburn: A True Conservative Tech Policy (via The Prelator)

On By southwerkIn Capitalism2 Comments

This article is concerned with net neutrality. A good part of the article focuses on this issue. But the article takes on some other critical issues. One is Congress’ bizarre lengthening of the copyright privilege to seventy years plus the life of the author. It’s tragic in literature but in the tech world it ties up technology is a disastrous fashion. He also discusses new laws under consideration that would make suppliers of net access vulnerable to legal action over the content of their various customers. This would provoke massive censorship of the web not because there is illegality but to avoid the slightest possibility of illegality.

It’s a good article and his conclusions are very close to my own. I wish the author well.

James Pilant

On January 18, Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn gave a speech purporting to give a conservative view of technology policy. As a strong conservative myself, I was deeply saddened to read this speech, which not only displays a deep lack of understanding about important policy issues facing the tech world, but a misunderstanding of the true tenants of conservatism in favor of the very corporate cronyism which Republicans are all too often accused of. … Read More

via The Prelator

Net Neutrality: The More Things Change… (via The PSSI Blog)

On By southwerkIn Capitalism

Is a major factor in the battle over net neutrality the consolidation of the industry by companies like Google? History suggests that after a period of development the market tends to consolidate and it consolidates with companies that make things simpler. From the author –

The question today is whether this is happening again, and if the Internet is slowly becoming monopolized. Here, think Google, with 70 or 80% of global search volume. Likewise, in social networking, Facebook has become predominant. Apple’s iTunes rules content download in the music sector. We’re consolidating.

See what you think. Read the article and ask yourself if consolidation makes the end of net neutrality inevitable.

James Pilant

Net Neutrality: The More Things Change… The FCC recently cast its vote in creating a net neutrality law.  Basically, this means it’s illegal for a major carrier, say Verizon or AT&T or any of the others, to block or tamper with the speeds of content providers.  In an example posited by Tim Wu, the Columbia Law professor who is said to have originally coined the term “net neutrality,” it would prevent, say, Verizon in partnership with, say, Google speeding up YouTube while slowing d … Read More

via The PSSI Blog

Despite China’s might, U.S. factories maintain edge (via MSNBC.com)

On By southwerkIn Capitalism1 Comment

U.S. factories out-produce Chinese manufacturers by more than 40%

Surprising statistic. My impression gathered from the media is that manufacturing is long gone. But America is still number one.

Yet America remains by far the No. 1 manufacturing country. It out-produces No. 2 China by more than 40 percent. U.S. manufacturers cranked out nearly $1.7 trillion in goods in 2009, according to the United Nations.

The story of American factories essentially boils down to this: They’ve managed to make more goods with fewer workers.

The United States has lost nearly 8 million factory jobs since manufacturing employment peaked at 19.6 million in mid-1979. U.S. manufacturers have placed near the top of world rankings in productivity gains over the past three decades.

That higher productivity has meant a leaner manufacturing force that’s capitalized on efficiency.

China is using its political power to enhance its manufacturing, offering tax free zones, only allowing companies to enter their markets if they build in China, and bending or breaking the rules whenever possible. And yet, the United States still wins the contest.

The United States will be the number one economy in the world for the next fifty years. That is my belief.

I find America’s largest competitors to be a pretty sorry lot.

China is a totalitarian state. In terms of quick economic growth, they have great advantages over more democratic societies. They can do what the Chinese are doing. Let me make a brief list for you – subsidize any critical industry to make sure foreigners cannot make inroads in that area; require foreigners to “partnership” with locals for admittance to the economy; use the resources of the state, particularly the intelligence sources and the military to enhance competitive advantage; act ruthlessly against parts of the nation or its population or its minority groups while favoring others; and manipulate economic statistics to paint a rosy, optimistic picture of progress. They might even say something like, “We will bury you.” Perhaps not.

China is a Communist state. It seems at times, that this part of the equation simply doesn’t figure in economic and political discussions. What about the words, Communist State, do American and multinational corporations not get? There were 12 Communist nations in 1989. Now there are five. Does history favor the Communist system?

Will China be the world’s greatest economic power? No. Their economic statistics may one day say so, but reality will still be reality.

If we believe in the idea that capitalism is the most efficient and productive form of economy, how does China even figure in that? Look at the rules and regulations for business in China. Is that the free market?

In Communist China, the law is a creature of the state. In the United States business law is extremely stable and predictable. Is this a predictable safe business environment?

Let me predict what is going to happen to these foreign investments in China.

They will end badly. They will end whenever the Chinese see a profit in doing so. They will end whenever China has an international dispute with a country whose citizens are involved in that investment. And they will end whenever corrupt Chinese officials decide it is profitable and they have a good chance of safety.

China will not be the next great power on earth. What they will become is in many ways is not clear but the one thing we can be sure of is that a Communist dictatorships will not end well.

James Pilant

The dynamics of employee dissent: whistleblowers and organizational jiu-jitsu (via FAA Whistleblowers Alliance)

On By southwerkIn Capitalism

In the modern age, whistleblowing is one of the most effective means of bringing corporate organizations to justice. It is hard to understand what is going on inside a giant organization from the outside. Modern corporations, have their own buildings, their own security systems, their own police forces (security), their own legal systems (company policy, administration and legal staff).

Corporations are hybrids, not quite businesses and not quite independent states. They are a monolithic stack of sole proprietorships and partnerships melded together.  In organization they are most like municipalities. They have a certain resemblance to the city states of Ancient Greece, each city loyal to Greece but fiercely guarding its own independence and its own prerogatives. 

Enforcing the law against these types of organizations is more a matter of espionage than criminal investigation. Detecting a corporation committing a crime is like trying to penetrate the security apparatus of a small foreign country.

Law enforcement can scan through newspapers and magazines, tap the rumor mill and watch the multiple civil suits filed for and against these organizations. But even then, what do they really know about an organization with thousands of members spread over three or four continents? Not much.

But take one individual inside the organization and combine that one person with just a little authority to access data and a computer work station, and you can gather more data about organizational crime in twenty minutes than independent sleuthing for weeks.

These individuals are a precious last line of defense against corporate wrong doing.

This society should welcome and protect these people. It has been said, “Let justice fall like rain.” It seems a garden hose sprinkle is more acceptable in the popular and business press. They don’t like whistleblowers, and could that be a surprise to anyone? Power and the money it brings may well be the biggest religion of the 21st century, the first truly international religion.

Against the religion of Power equals Money, the notions of law, duty and religious devotion probably appear a little quaint, more than a little obsolete.

Nevertheless, the whistleblower is important to maintaining some element of the rule of law in this country. And remember, the whistleblower is very close to the sole line of defense in discovering corporate wrong doing in other nations directed at the United States.

This article discusses how a whistleblower can use strategy to survive the inevitable fallout more successfully.

You may very well find yourself in the position of knowing what you should not and having to live with the decision of what to do. Read the article, put some knowledge on your plate, so you don’t have to start out cold when the crisis comes.

James Pilant

The dynamics of employee dissent: whistleblowers and organizational jiu-jitsu By Brian Martin with Will Rifkin Go to Brian Martin’s publications on whistleblowing Brian Martin’s publications on backfire (political jiu-jitsu) Brian Martin’s publications Brian Martin’s website We thank Bill De Maria, Hugh DeWitt, Wendy Varney, Tom Weber, Deena Weinstein and an anonymous reviewer for valuable comments on drafts of this paper. Abstract Whistleblowing … Read More

via FAA Whistleblowers Alliance

China Takes American Jobs

On By southwerkIn Capitalism4 Comments

From The Ethics Sage, Steven Mintz – The article is called, Offshoring in the Phillipines and China.

Here’s an excerpt.

In an effort to foster growth in its outsourcing industry, China  announced that the government will not be levying operating taxes on offshore service outsourcing business in 21 cities until 2013. The policy covers firms specializing in IT outsourcing, business process outsourcing and knowledge process outsourcing. The initiative is expected to boost China’s already robust growth in the industry, where the country enjoyed a 21 percent year-on-year increase to $23.6 billion in 2009.

China

So, the Chinese are pursuing a deliberate national policy of moving jobs to their country, jobs from the United States.

Don’t we have legislators and a government? Oh, I forgot, out sourcing is good for the financial industry. There is no concern for the rapidly dwindling middle class. It’s as if we had a government for and devoted to observing the flight of jobs in a thoroughly disinterested manner like a scientist examing microbes under a microscope. The middle class microbes have to be watched. They could interfere with profits.

James Pilant

A thought?