Category: ethics

Foreclosure Freeze – The Best Sites

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics, Government Failure, Philosophy of Business, White Collar Crime4 Comments

Absolutely number one – Foreclosureblues. The writing is excellent and they are doing very well on staying on top of the situation. Read it! Here’s a quote –

The failure to uphold fiduciary duties of even a few larger institutions will put the entire banking system in doubt. What we witnessed in 2008 and early 2009 was a loss of trust, faith, confidence. It was a classic solvency crisis masquerading as a liquidity crisis – with doubt about which specific institutions had engaged in reckless behaviour putting a cloud over every bank in the entire system and causing liquidity to dry up economy-wide. When banks engage in unsafe and unsound business practices, they put the entire economy at risk in a way that you see in no other sector of the economy. This is why regulators in the US are supposed to take prompt corrective action in closing insolvent institutions and those institutions with unsafe and unsound business practices.

Rortybomb is fantastic. Read it! This guy is sharp and he keeps an eye on the rest of the internet that I can only envy.

I think a simple dose of game theory helps with these things. Given that servicers are being sued by their investors, wouldn’t they want a moratorium, want the government to step in with a heavy-hand and lend credibility? Nobody believes them, and nobody has a reason to. And I can’t tell what is scarier: that Bank of America knows it isn’t credible here, and just wants to hope it goes away, or Bank of America is simply too large, complicated and poorly functioning to figure out and/or learn whether or not they have a problem here.

How’s that returns to scale in banking working out for everyone?

Another site I recommend you check regularly with is National Foreclosure News. They keep tabs on the news across the nation on the foreclosure crisis. It gives you a good feel for how the whole thing is playing out in the media. It doesn’t take long to scan one days entry. So, it’s a good place to go for a summary picture of the foreclosure mess.

The web site, Living Lies, is very good place to go. However, it’s really for attorneys. Nevertheless for the layman there is still a lot of interesting stuff there.

$hame the Banks is another good web site. It’s definitely got some teeth. I really like it. There is a lot of material on this site. Here’s a quote.

After years of high-flying success and millions of dollars in profits, the future suddenly looks grim for the Law Offices of David J. Stern. The firm, which was the subject of a long MoJo investigation published in August, used to be one of the nation’s most powerful “foreclosure mills,” those assembly line-like operations that handle hundreds of thousands of foreclosure cases for the nation’s largest mortgage companies.

(In 2009 alone, the Stern firm handled 70,382 foreclosure cases.) But in the past few months, the corner-cutting and alleged fraud in the foreclosure business, as described in my August story, erupted into a national scandal. As a result, the Stern firm has seen its fortunes plummet, with major clients, like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Citigroup, cutting ties to Stern. Stern’s operation has also laid off hundreds of employees in recent weeks.

This is a realtor site but the guy has some independent thoughts. It’s a brand new site, so you might check it from time to time and see how it develops. It’s called Gilbertazrealtor’s Blog.

That’s my best advice at this time. As the crisis continues there will be other web sites dealing with the issue. I’ll try to get them up as quickly as I can.

James Pilant

Bankers Sometimes Commit Financial Crimes And Get Away With It – Now They Can Run Over People On Bicycles Too!

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics, Government Failure

From the Huffington Post –

Martin Joel Erzinger, who manages more than $1 billion in assets for Morgan Stanley in Denver, is being accused only of a misdemeanor for allegedly driving his Mercedes into a cyclist and then fleeing the scene, Colorado’s Vail Daily reports. The victim, Dr. Steven Milo, whom Erzinger allegedly hit in July, suffered spinal cord injuries, bleeding from his brain and, according to his lawyer Harold Haddon, “lifetime pain.”

Wow, fleeing the scene, didn’t call for an ambulance, hurt the guy bad, boy! I bet he gets in trouble for that!

Oh, wait a minute. It’s a banker!!!

This is America. Bankers are special. I mean “really” special.

This quote is from the District Attorney Mark Hurlbert –

“Felony convictions have some pretty serious job implications for someone in Mr. Erzinger’s profession, and that entered into it,” Hurlbert said. “When you’re talking about restitution, you don’t want to take away his ability to pay.”

“We have talked with Mr. Haddon and we had their objections, but ultimately it’s our call,” Hurlbert said.

Don’t you love that last sentence! The DA’s office is worried about this turkey’s ability to pay but when they asked the victim he wasn’t worried about getting money, he wanted justice. God, is he stupid or what?

This is a banker.

Let’s hear the victim –

“Mr. Erzinger struck me, fled and left me for dead on the highway,” Milo wrote. “Neither his financial prominence nor my financial situation should be factors in your prosecution of this case.”

I’ve been accused of being shrill. Well, I guess it shouldn’t bother me that if I hit a cyclist, severely injure him, then run from the scene, that I’m probably going to do about three years in the state penitentiary. It’s no big deal that a financier gets treated a little different than me. I mean how utterly, incredibly, stupid, moronic, can I be to think there is just one law? No, there’s two. One for people that matter and then there’s me (most of you too).

You have to feel sympathy for Mr. Erzinger. He’s got blood all over his car and he’s gonna’ have to replace a fender and maybe even the grill. He’s going to have to drive to the DA’s office and talk to people he’s not used to associating with. There may be criminals there. Doesn’t your heart go out to him?

This guy is suffering. Think what would have happened if he killed the cyclist. The damage to his car would have been more extensive. Of course, with the principal witness dead, he would have had to bear the guilt and shame all by himself.

I think we should all say a prayer for Mr. Erzinger in his time of need.

Right now in this very country, there are people with the thinnest justification saying cruel things about him.

Like me.

James Pilant

BP Cleared By Presidential Inquiry

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics, Government Failure, Philosophy of Business, White Collar Crime

lol

Right! The President covered for the oil company for months. They restricted press access to the affected waters. The declined the recommendations of their own scientists. They underestimated the amount of oil leaking from the disaster.

We already know that BP was drilling deeper than they were supposed to. We know they had accumulated an awesome number of violations of regulations and had violated the regulations on a regular basis. We know their conduct in the 2002 gas explosion and their maintenance of the Alaska pipeline were disastrous. We know that they had good reason to believe their cement was substandard, this cement being one of the causes of the incident.

In short, the White House has a strong interest in giving British Petroleum a clean bill of health.

We also know that considering BP’s conduct that such a clean bill of health is not credible.

I am far more interested in the outcome of the lawsuits by the states and individuals harmed by this disaster.

The tragedy is that these findings may not be public for at least seven years. By that time, the heat on the government and that corporation will have long dissipated.

Whatever, you may think of the finding, in the long term it will be effective in blunting criticism and, more important, buying time.

Cynicism is merited.

James Pilant

Steven Mintz Comments On My Post – “Business Confidence Ratings”

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics, Philosophy of Business

Steven Mintz commented on one of my posts. The comment is below. I pass on comments from time to time, and my suspicion is that I will have the pleasure of doing so many times in this gentleman’s case. He has his own web site.

I just saw the movie “Inside Job” that explores the failures in the banking industry and how it created the financial services-driven recession in 2008. I highly recommend the movie to learn more about how and why the banking and financial services industry was able to bring down the economy. After seeing the movie I wonder why the bank confidence level isn’t even lower!

I have recommended the film myself. Here is the trailer –

You should read Steven Mintz, he knows his subject. He fights for ethics. He calls his site, The Ethics Sage.

James Pilant

Business Confidence Ratings!

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, Economic measurement, ethics, Government Failure, Philosophy of Business2 Comments

Bank confidence level is 22%.

Well, that’s awe inspiring.

What about big business? 16%

That’s less than Congress.

I bet they worry at night.

I bet they’re scared.

If there was an actual political party willing to defend the public and enforce the law, they might find some votes.

What do you think?

James Pilant

P.S. Those are the 2009 numbers. In 2010, their approval rating went up dramatically – 23%.

They’re Afraid!

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics, Government Failure, Philosophy of Business2 Comments

The business community finds the President to be confrontational. He has viciously criticized them. They don’t think he’s really devoted to free markets. They’re worried.

This is incredible. President Obama barely touched them. His anti-business talk was so limited it barely existed. This is their reaction to the small amount of criticism they got from the President.

This is from Politico –

And business leaders, even the few who continue to be Obama-friendly, say they are convinced he is hostile to free markets and the private sector. Some of these executives have balance sheets flush with cash but are reluctant to add jobs or expand in part because they don’t trust Obama’s instincts for growth.

“He used anti-corporate, confrontational rhetoric too for legislative gain, and kept doing it after folks found it gratuitous,” a top executive said. “During health reform it was the bad, evil hospitals. . . Same with financial regulation: It was fat cats, greed, corruption.”

They can’t take even the mildest criticism. Is this pitiful or what? The President cuts deals on health care with the industry. The President declines to prosecute or go after the banks politically. The President protects British Petroleum. The President guts financial reform. The President refuses to create a foreclosure moratorium or to change his HAMP program to get more people out of foreclosure.

And this is their response! He’s confrontational. When?

These guys live in an alternate world. Any criticism is just totally unacceptable in their minds. In spite of all that has happened over the last decade, the great corporations are guiltless. In spite of bonuses, in spite of the destruction of millions of American jobs, in spite of regular defiance of the law ranging from the environment to playing the stock market, in spite of acting as if their duty to their country, their states and their communities was non-existent and in spite of a level of patriotism, Aaron Burr would have found acceptable, their feelings are hurt.

What is this? Are they the political equivalent of a 12-year old girl at her first cotillion?

What do I draw from this?

First, their contact with the vast majority of Americans is about non-existent.

Second, they’re political wimps. They can’t take it.

Third and the main point, they live in fear of those great unwashed masses. You know, the ones they have mercilessly exploited, them guys. They realize that there could be accountability

They realize that they are one step away from being cut, from people walking over to the other side of the street, from criticism in the press, from being named as what they are. They’re cowards, closer to cartoon villains.

They should be made to watch the movie, “They Live,” once a year.

Part science fiction thriller and part dark comedy, the film echoed contemporary fears of a declining economy, within a culture of greed and conspicuous consumption common among Americans in the 1980s. In They Live, the ruling class within the moneyed elite are in fact aliens managing human social affairs through the use of a signal on top of the TV broadcast that is concealing their appearance and subliminal messages in mass media.

Maybe twice.

James Pilant

Why Did The Democrats Get Wasted?

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics

I don’t always agree with Greenwald but he is dead on in his analysis in this case. Over and over on television, it’s as if jobless and foreclosed on Americans simply don’t exist.

From Glenn Greenwald –

People are suffering economically and Democrats have done little about that. Beyond that, they failed to inspire their own voters to go to the polls. Therefore, they lost. By basing their power in Congress on Blue Dog dependence — rather than advocating for the views of their own supporters and implementing those policies — they failed, and failed resoundingly. Building their party around a large number of muddled, GOP-replicating corporatists not only creates a tepid and failed political image, but far worse, it prevents actual policies from being implemented that benefit large number of ordinary Americans. Democrats repeatedly refrained from advocating for such policies in deference to their Blue Dogs, failed to do much to alleviate the economic suffering of ordinary Americans, and thus got crushed. Anyone who thinks that Democrats lost because they were “too liberal” — rather than because Americans are suffering so much economically — is wildly out of touch, i.e., is a multi-millionaire cable TV personality who has spent decades wallowing in trite D.C. chatter.

It was American suffering that drove the voters.

No one at any time or any place told me they were voting against the Democrats because they had suddenly found a new political philosophy. People told me they wanted to vote against anyone in office anywhere, that they were all worthless, that they were all incompetent, (and most commonly) that they were all (insert seven or eight of the most vicious cuss words imaginable).

That’s not voter realignment unless you call wanting them all dead a political philosophy.

Americans want to be a vital concern for the government, not second to the banks, etc, etc,. but number one. They want help with their education, they want help finding jobs, they want government policies that keep jobs in the United States, they want a fair tax system.

Sometimes I tell people, friends and students, about some bizarre thing the government does (like allowing businesses to deduct the expenses of moving jobs overseas from their taxes – we pay for outsourcing). They ask me who they can write to, who they can e-mail or call.

I get to tell them the truth.

There is no one.

Every Senator and Representative in my state has voted to maintain those tax breaks and will continue to do so. There is no place to go. Not now, maybe not ever.

And if you have the foolish thought that an election is coming up in 2012 and you can get someone different. Well, the name of the candidate will be different, maybe the party affiliation will be different, but I can assure you they will vote to maintain those tax breaks.

American democracy does not work very well. There are only some issues that voting can effect.

Moving jobs overseas is a priority of both the Republicans and Democrats. They are both devoted the financialization of this nation and the destruction of its industrial basis.

There is nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, no one to turn to. The door of the federal government is closed.

James Pilant

The American Standard Of Living!

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics

Where does the United States stand in relation to other countries in standard of Living? Here’s our placement.

UN Development Index 15th

Human Poverty Index 16th

The Economist’s Quality of Life Index 13th

This is not very impressive. We have an incredible amount of money, power and resources in this nation – 13th at best?

How did this happen?

In 1973, we were number one.

James Pilant

P.S. If you click on the graph, it goes to full size. jp

Giving Credit For Agreeing With Me!

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics, Government Failure, Philosophy of Business1 Comment

I like most people like being told how smart I am. The next best thing to being told how smart you is to find agreement with your ideas. Here’s agreement with my thoughts. I get a certain guilty pleasure putting it up. This is a book review from the web site – Audiobooks Today Blog. Once I discovered the web site, I immediately favorited it. I’m not an audio book guide preferring to read but the book reviews are wonderful. You would enjoy it.

From the article –

THE BETRAYAL OF AMERICAN PROSPERITY by Clyde Prestowitz is a chilling examination of why the American Century is over, and how emerging countries like China will own the 21st. It unravels the history of our giving up production while increasing our consumption of imports, and what this portends for the U.S. unless a radical change of course is undertaken now, (and Americans get back to work doing what they once did six decades ago). Ominously, few in America act as if our affluence or standard of living will ever change, and instead continue to look to the government for bailouts while watching ball games on TV, yet when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner visited Beijing University in 2009—and told students there that the dollar was safe—their response was that THEY LAUGHED. Not only are our remaining high tech jobs moving overseas, along with the plants that make computer chips, but service jobs are moving to India too. To top it off, even as our infrastructure is failing and our debt is increasing, our baby boomers are now starting to retire in record numbers, expecting the government to help support them. Narrated by Erik Synnestvedt, the audiobook pulls no punches in attacking the shrug-away “don’t worry” attitude of the Bush administration, and a universal shortsightedness that focused on quarterly statements while muleishly wearing blinders about the future. Unless we start exporting something other than soda and cigarettes, Prestowitz reveals, Americans will soon be forced to give up the “something for nothing” mantra that has characterized our accumulation of debt on the backs of “third world” producers (including cheap oil for much longer) as they acquire “first world” status from us by owning all our industries.

Like me, the author finds the policies of the United States to be disastrous over the long term. Soon, a visitor to South America, no matter what nation, will notice the obvious similarities to our nation except some of them have much better statistics. What I mean by statistics is infant mortality rate and life span. Some of these nations has overtaken us in these areas.

This country is 38th in life expectancy. The United States of American is second rate in life expectancy in comparison to Costa Rico (and Cuba).

Just great. What’s next? A high infant mortality rate?

Oops! We’re 33rd. For every 1,000 births in this country, more than six children die. Guess who we’re behind this time? Cuba and Slovakia.

There’s 195 countries on the list. I wonder with our infrastructure disintegrating and our hospital system headed toward disaster, how low we can go. Maybe we can hit a round number like 100? What do you think?

James Pilant

Best of the Week- 7 November 2010 (via Sonia Jaspal’s RiskBoard)

On By southwerkIn ethics

Sonia Jaspal is always telling me things I don’t know. If you know me, you realize that this doesn’t happen all the time. Currently, the President of the United States is in India negotiating trade deals and explaining to the nation of India that taking American jobs is really a good thing for us. He was there during the celebration of a major holiday. Sonia Jaspal in this post explains the holiday and its importance.

Learn something New! Give it a read.

James Pilant

Best of the Week- 7 November 2010 This week India celebrated the festival of lights, Diwali. The sound of firecrackers is still ringing in my ears and everybody has binged on sweets and dry fruits. Everybody is spending Sunday recuperating from the excesses of Friday and Saturday. On Diwali, Hindus celebrate Prince Ram’s return to his hometown Ayodya after living fourteen years in exile. Let me go a bit back in Hindu philosophy. As per Hindu cosmetology, the world has a cycle of … Read More

via Sonia Jaspal's RiskBoard