Ethics Roundup – Blogs 6/11/10

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Government Failure1 Comment

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.

Only One Blog Entry On Friday!

On By southwerkIn ethics

This is me surviving a sinus attack!
This entry may still make Friday but not by much. I suffer from chronic sinusitis and the great demigod of pollen beat up on me badly Thursday night and Friday morning. I am better and will get some stuff up. Thanks for your patience!
James Pilant

BlogCatalog

On By southwerkIn Uncategorized

Explore the Blogosphere!
BlogCatalog

In an attempt to build web traffic I have added a Blog Catalog Icon to the site. If you want to give me a boost hit it and follow the instructions. The more recommendations I get the more people come and look at this blog. Now if you look over my page, you will see no advertisements. I don’t do this to make money. So if you do assist me you will not be adding a horde of those utterly offensive get rich quick ads, etc. Thanks!

Alain Sherter at BNET

On By southwerkIn business ethics

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.

The Second Great Depression?

On By southwerkIn Economic measurement1 Comment

In The Business Insider, The Money Game, there is a series of charts comparing the stock market numbers from 1929 crash and the 2008 market disaster. There are a good number of other charts, graphs and numbers demonstrating similarities between our situation and that of the 1930’s.

I have pointed out repeatedly to my classes of Business Law Students that the 1929 stock crash did not immediately result in the Great Depression. It was a spiral downwards that culminated in 1933. There were stock market rallies from time to time but the numbers never reached the previous rally high. That’s what I watch for. We started at around 14,000 in 2007. We dropped at the worst of the crisis to above 7,000 and then rallied back to around 10,000. If we continue to cycle down (if the crisis continues), we will fall to some disastrous number but never make it back to 10,000, and then we will fall again and rally and never make it back and so on. I am in no way confident that there is a sustainable recovery. Our government has never in any way fixed the problems in our banking system. I hope that we all do well and prosper but those individuals who have the power to defend the nation against disaster have failed in their duty and little more than luck defends us from another or a continuing financial disaster.

James Alan Pilant

Newspaper Columnists – Ethics Roundup 6-9-10

On By southwerkIn business ethics

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

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

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

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

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!

On By southwerkIn business ethics

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

On By southwerkIn business ethics

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!