Category: ethics

Hotel Throws Couple Out After Accusing Them Of A Negative Online Review

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics3 Comments

From USA Travel –

A British couple says they were kicked out of their hotel after the hotel manager accused them of writing a negative review on TripAdvisor and called the police.

Adrian Healey, 33, tells the Blackpool Gazette that earlier this month, he’d booked a room a hotel in the seaside resort of Blackpool, England, to take his first vacation with his girlfriend Sherrie Andrews, 33, since being diagnosed with cancer 18 months ago.

But the Golden Beach Hotel’s manager asked them to leave two days into their paid, three-night stay, they told the Gazette, adding that the manager stormed into their room, accused them of writing an online review and called the police.

Is this the future? Google has suggested and apparently believes that all online users should have their identities clearly labeled as they travel the web. In this case, the hotel was guessing. What are you going to do when services like hotels can examine your postings to see if they want to serve you?

James Pilant

4 things buyers need to know about robo-signing and the foreclosure freeze (via Keyproperties’s Blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics, White Collar Crime

I really like the advice this web site gives. Its explanations are wonderfully clear. Some of you may be thinking of buying homes or have purchased a home that has been foreclosed on. You’ve got some questions and their answers seem to me intelligent and well phrased. So give them a look!

James Pilant

from Tara @Trulia.com NOTE: This post will be continually updated, below, as more foreclosure freeze news breaks. I double-dog dare you to watch a TV news show or spend more than 5 minutes on the web without hearing about the massive "robo-signing" foreclosure scandal that is rapidly encompassing the biggest banks in the country. Here are 4 things home buyers need to know about this breaking real estate news, and how it impacts them. (Hint: I thr … Read More

via Keyproperties's Blog

What I’m Beginning To Suspect About The Mortgage Fiasco?

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

At the moment, the mortgage crisis occupies a considerable amount of space on the web and the regular news, both popular and financial. I have been observing problems in the process for a long time.

The first thing that I observed was that banks were almost never re-negotiating their mortgages which struck me as extremely odd. Since the homes were priced during the housing bubble, the bank made much, much more money extending the loan then they did foreclosing, when they could only resell the house at its current market value.

The second thing was a constant drumbeat of stories where the banks were making foolish mistakes, foreclosing homes they didn’t own, or re-negotiating home mortgages and having done so, then foreclosing the house. Pretty strange stuff to see from well financed and lawyered up organizations.

As the crisis began to develop, I noticed that the high speed processing involved lying to judges perhaps several million times with false affidavits. I pointed out in postings that it would be hard to get lawyers to sign off on these things, Judges being the way they are. Then, of course, we found that they had hired every kind of person to sign off on these documents. Why would you want to do that?

I recognized that speed increased profits but you can get speed without incompetence. Considering the threat of later lawsuits and the chances of getting caught, we’re back to the question, “Why would you want to do that?”

One of the background issues that has been reported on a good number of times is that a high proportion of these mortgages were created at the height of Wall Street speculation in mortgage based securities. It was pointed out that in some of the reported cases, when challenged for the actual documents showing ownership, the banks have on occasion, been unable to do so.

Look guys, only a very small proportion of mortgages have been challenged in court. If you’re getting hits in those few cases (you’re finding properties without actual ownership documents), you are looking at the very tip top of the iceberg.

My suspicion is that the banks don’t have proof of ownership not in dozens, or hundreds or thousands of cases but in the tens of thousands. I am beginning to believe that all these bank assurances that the process would not have been any different if they had done their work is PR staving off inquiries as long as possible.

I believe the banks are desperate to get these matters settled before the deluge, to get as many foreclosures out of the way as possible so that when the eventual revelation occurs they can claim that the damage to the larger economy does not merit prosecution.

I suspect we are about to go into a second banking crisis similar to the one in 2008.

I hope I am just over suspicious and jaded.

If my scenario is accurate, we and the economy are in for a rough ride.

James Pilant

WSJ Writes Balanced, Intelligent Article – End Of World Imminent

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics

Since the purchase of the Wall Street Journal by Rupert Murdoch, I consigned it to the ash heap of history. I was doing my usual research into the crimes and misadventures of the banks in this foreclosure crisis. Suddenly, there was this article. I read through it and decided to post it. Imagine my surprise when I got to the top of the page and found where it came from.

Isn’t this the newspaper that just a few days ago told the world that lying to judges with false affidavits was just a matter of “paperwork?” Aren’t these the guys who honor the basic right of property ownership to the death just as long as an average American doesn’t attempt to assert it?

There is no explaining this. There must be some cognitive dissonance at the Journal. I hope no one on the editorial board dies of shock having seen a fact for the first time.

Well, give this article a read, it’s a good account of the current crisis in mortgage forclosures.

James Pilant

ABC Dropped From Favorites

On By southwerkIn ethics

I used ABC as a source for some stories. When I went in today to look for something interesting, my first look got me an obnoxious and loud commercial. There is no way to turn it off. I just wanted to read the articles. So, I carefully chose one without a camera sign by it. I got nailed again.

I’m not going to be treated that way. I’m not on the computer to get more television. I’m on the computer to avoid television.

There’s plenty of sources that aren’t ABC. I’ll be there.

James Pilant

Could A Foreclosure Freeze Damage The Housing Market?

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

Well, of course, it will. Massive wrong doing has consequences for the innocent. That is the nature of illegal acts. That is the nature of speculation and greed. People without fault are injured.

So, we have competing values here. Should the health of the economy and the suffering of the innocent be a bar on prosecuting thousands upon thousands of mortgages done outside the rules of the law.

I’m going to come down on the side of the rule of law.

I teach business ethics. You can’t have business ethics just through teaching and exhortation. They have to be backed up by penalties. If the suffering of the innocent is a bar to prosecution, it sends a clear signal that cutting corners, skirting the law, deliberately disobeying the law, have little or no consequences as long as the perpetrators can point at economic hostages and say, “Oh, but we can’t harm them.”

You cannot avoid prosecuting the guilty in the business community over and over again without them getting the message that there are no consequences. They will realize (or have realized) that the law does not apply to them.

Once they know this, what will happen to the rest of us?

Here’s the CBS News Story – Beware it has a commercial.

James Pilant

A View On The Mortgage Fiasco From A Georgia Professor

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics, White Collar Crime

What’s the academic view point on this disaster you might ask. Well, one sign is this professor’s comments from the University of Georgia. It’s a brief comment and there are no commercials. Enjoy –

James Pilant

Narcissistic Mindset in Financial Institutions (via Sonia Jaspal’s RiskBoard)

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

I exchanged e-mails with Alain Sherter and asked him what he thought about the amazing sense of entitlement among Wall Street executives. Although, he replied very politely and tactfully, there was a certain element of “What planet have you been on?” And he was right, I should have picked up on it a long time ago. Once I did, I encountered more and more examples of this phenomenon. It was astonishing. These individuals who had every advantage from birth could swear on a Bible that every last atom of their success had been earned through their hard labor. They knew that they were the important producers of value in this society and flew in unimaginable higher intellectual circles than the poor ingrates beneath them. They know that everyone who is not in their class is lazy and undeserving. They know that any, down to the tiniest amount, of taxation is a blow to their productive capability, totally unfair, and an unearned charity to the great mass of lazy, unmotivated citizenry.

Sonia Jaspal blogs on this mindset. It’s a fine article. She writes a blog from an extremely well educated background, not an assumed or pretentious academic style, but an educated approach as hard as stone. You know that her evidence is strong and her facts correct.

I recommend the article to your attention.

James Pilant

Financial institutions are again grabbing headlines for the wrong reasons. This time it is because of the foreclosure of mortgages without adequate due diligence.  As Senator Robert Menendez wrote to the heads of JPMorgan Chase and Co, Bank of America Corp and Ally Financial Inc- “It is simply inexcusable that proper oversight proceedings were not in place, especially when dealing with matters as monumental as the seizure of a family’s home.”  Wh … Read More

via Sonia Jaspal's RiskBoard

Does History Repeat Itself – The Stock Market Crash?

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, Economic measurement, ethics, Government Failure, White Collar Crime

“The past is prologue?” Are we in the same place that America was in during the first years of the Depression? I worry that this economic downturn is just the beginning of long term destabilization of the economy.

(You should probably avoid my blog if you want to put a happy face on the economic situations because I find it hard to find things just to be content about.)

I found a wonderful set of history films about the early days of the Great Depression. They provide a lot of insight into how people thought and reacted to the events as they unfolded day by day. We look at what people were saying, what they were reading, what music they were listening to. We can wonder if we wouldn’t have done the same things. It’s a better way to understand history than the summaries in textbooks.

If you listen to the incredible confidence that the moneyed and political class had in the economy and the sureness they had in an immediate recovery, you have to wonder about those in out system today, who say we’ve turned the corner.

We have not.

Part 1 –

Part 2 –

Part 3 –


Part 4 –

Part 5 –

I want to be wrong about all this. I want the economy to thrive, everyone to have a job, and as much as possible for people to become prosperous.

We’ll see.

James Pilant

President Obama Is Lagging Behind Public Opinion

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

I’ve been saying this for several days. The public, the states, the courts, are all moving toward a consensus that a foreclosure freeze is necessary. The President does not think so and he has sent his minions to be sure we understand his position.

Andrew Leonard writing in Salon, an article entitled “Obama’s foreclosure nightmare,” describes the situation in terms very similar to mine.

Once again, the President lines up with the financial industry and the banks against the interest of middle class Americans.

Drawing on Leonard’s article and adding my own spin, the situation is like this. Now, generally speaking, I do not waste my time on the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page, but have heard a rumor that their take on this situation is that all this stuff about not having the proper documents is just a matter of procedure and is really not something to get that excited about.

This is the United States. In this country you cannot transfer any land whatsoever without a written contract, that’s LAW 101, the statute of frauds. If you can’t produce your paperwork, you don’t get the property. Why? Because in Western Civilization, land has been considered the primary measure of wealth and status for hundreds of years. Therefore, the law was made to protect those interests.

How come the banks don’t have good records of who owns the property? Well, that has to do with the enormous speculation(casino capitalism) of the latter part of this decade. The great wall street investment houses were buying and packaging mortgages into packages of securities. But if they followed careful procedures they wouldn’t have had as much as they wanted. So, they “cut some corners,” “skipped a few steps,” “overlooked a rule here or there,” to get those mortgages as quickly as possible. What was the result? Incomplete paperwork, missing documents, and general confusion were the result of that speculative era. So, the banks had a problem with foreclosures. If they followed proper procedures they were hit with a double whammy. First, there was no way they could process the number of mortgages they wanted foreclosed without hiring a lot more staff and spending a lot more time doing the work right. Second, if they examined the documents carefully they would run across all the problems bequeathed them by the previous financial speculators. So, they solved both problems. They processed the mortgages without looking at them. It was an elegant solution. It was thrifty, cost effective almost beyond belief, and not legal.

I am outraged. I’m not the only one. The general public is only at the edge of this issue. It’s only been running hot in the media for almost two weeks. This issue has built up power in a politically brief period of time. But it’s not hard to tell the direction that public opinion is going. On one side we have banks refusing to obey the rules, while on the other we have story after story of homeowners tossed from their homes without legal justification. How do you think it’s going to go? If this were a Western, who’s wearing the black hats and bushwhacking their enemies?

The President should declare a moratorium on mortgage foreclosures. It does not have to be a blanket ban. He could ban the ones where it is known that there have been problems with a provision to extend it to other firms if similar wrongdoing is found. That would be adequate. In my opinion, a full blanket ban is the smarter move politically but that’s really not important.

I know the President is worried that this will stall the recovery. Of course, if you follow my blog, you know that I believe this is a lull before more serious problems appear and not a recovery at all.

To the President I would say, “This nation can handle a steeper economic downturn better than the continued wrong doing by some of the most important and most influential people in the financial industry. At some point, justice has to take priority over economics.”

I might add.

“Mr. President, I can feel the anger out there. How much more can people take? The basic facts appear to be out. The financial industry breaks the rules and knows that nothing will be done. The money will continue to flow. Their stock will go up. The bonuses will get bigger. The great mass of American citizens do not believe that if they did these things that they would be handled so gently and rewarded so thoroughly.”

“So, what’s it gonna’ be. Are you going to confirm to the great majority of Americans that there are two kinds of law, one for them and another for the foreclosure industry?”

“At what point, will you decide to enforce the law, seek out the guilty and bring them to justice?”

James Pilant