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

On By southwerkIn business ethics

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

On By southwerkIn business ethics, ethics, Government Failure

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.

Ethics Roundup – June 7th, 2010

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Government Failure2 Comments

Josh Lipton writing on Minyanville discusses the major historical bills regulating Wall Street as compared to the current effort. (It’s got a video!)

Karl Stephan writing in the Engineering Ethics Blog (his blog) talks about the lessons of Nuremberg for engineers and everyone else. The Nuremberg trials were the war crimes trials held by the victorious Allies at the end of the second world war. Many prominent Nazi’s and other war criminals were sentenced to death or to long terms of imprisonment. Stephan believes that the primary lessons of Nuremberg were the reduction of human beings to objects to be manipulated. He says that culminated in abortion, euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research.
(I am quite familiar with the Nuremberg Trials and the death camps and many other Nazi not to mention Japanese and Italian war crimes. I in no way agree with Karl Stephan’s conclusions. Nevertheless, it’s a good read.)

Simon Propper writing on the web site, Ethical Corporation, discusses the corporate responsibility movement and British Petroleum. BP was an enthusiastic user of the CR model and things have not worked out well. Propper discusses the ramifications of these events.

Epic.org, the Electronic Privacy Center, wants it known that internet privacy has become a major issue in the California governor’s race.

Loren Steffy writing in the Houston Chronicle predicts a high likelihood of skyrocketing oil prices in the wake of British Petroleum’s disaster.

Chris MacDonald writing on his site, the Business Ethics Blog, discusses the phenomenon of “Greenwash.” (I recommended an article from the site, Ethical Corporation, which discusses some of the same issues. I recommend reading MacDonald’s take and then checking out Simon Propper’s views.) MacDonald’s perception is tough on BP and accurate.

David Gushee writes about marriage. Normally I would just have gone on by his article since its relevance to business ethics is very limited. But Gushee is excellent in his analysis of ethical issues from a Christian perspective and I want to encourage that. So I include it.

Jon Talton writes about a world in which “entire professions have been vaporized.” I boil with rage over off sourcing, temps instead of real jobs, – every kind of pain placed on the producers in this economy and it never stops. It has gotten worse every year that I have been alive and it shows no sign of improvement. Can we live in a country without well paying jobs and far too few of any kind of job? This is not a problem of personal initiative or re-training. This is a political problem only solvable by action at the national level. But even in Talton’s article he quotes another writer thusly,
“You have to stay on top of what’s changing, how that affects your industry and your specific job and how you’ll remain relevant and valuable. Most people don’t change until they feel the heat. Sometimes, that’s too late …” Also, “Prepare for ‘hurricanes, sinkholes and manana,’ which is all about what to do so you’re not caught off guard, but instead prepared.” As for older workers, “look for ways to demonstrate you’re ‘not old’ in your thinking, in your attitudes, in your skills and how you look.”
When whole professions have been vaporized, personal initiative is useless. When there is one job for every six applicants, there is no amount of personal drive and guts that can get more than one of those six that job. When the entire economy of the United States and the world has been severely damaged, telling everyone to tighten their belt and get tough is no cure. It’s just nonsense. At what point do you look at an international catastrophe and stop saying if we individually get tough enough we can ride it out. At what point does the nonsensical cure of personal initiative, of there’s always dawn after the darkness, light at the end of the tunnel, only thing left after you hit bottom is up, think and grow rich, have optimistic thoughts and opportunity will find you and this continuing empty drivel of self help, when the only thing that can make a difference is collective action. Is it just impossible to say that the government should implement policies to protect American jobs? It is too radical to suggest that shipping American jobs overseas is unpatriotic and counter productive? It is just plain bizarre to suggest that making the absolute last dime is not the most important thing for an individual, a company or a nation? Can we think seriously about the problem or just stay in a land of fantasy where the exercise of a mythical absolute free will makes us demi-gods upon the earth?

Let’s Do Real Banking Reform!

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Government Failure

Richard W. Fisher spoke to the Southwest School of Banking on June 3rd. His speech was called “Financial Reform or Financial Dementia?” He tells us what reforms are likely to be effective, what reforms are are likely to be ineffective and how to get the best outcome. Is anybody going to pay any attention?

Fisher discusses the financial crisis in 2008 –

Ethics Roundup – Sunday – June 6th, 2010

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Government Failure

Could British Petroleum cease to exist? Check out this article from Minyanville.

Chris MacDonald in his June 5th blog entry discusses the play between rapidly developing technological complexity and regulatory science. MacDonald quotes from Kenneth Rogoff’s article, The BP Oil Spill’s Lessons for Regulators.

Chris MacDonald in a totally successful effort to keep my off balance has a new post on June 6th. Entitled Galarraga’s Corvette, MacDonald while admitting that everyone is entitled to an opinion points out that even though tax payer dollars are involved in the company’s continued operation that doesn’t mean every corporate action should be second guessed. He says managers are there to manage. I doubt that Chris MacDonald will be very surprised (or bothered) that I don’t always agree with him but he’s dead on this time. Nit picking day to day decisions is a waste of everybody’s time and the giveaway was a shrewd PR move. jp

Dani Rodrik writing in Project Syndicate, A World of Ideas, argues that the nation-state, globalization and democracy are all incompatible with each other and that at the most we can only have two of the three. It’s a thought provoking argument.

Gael O’Brien writing on her blog, The Week in Ethics, discusses the message of John Wooden. During his lifetime, Wooden created a “pyramid of success” comprised of fifteen elements. (The diagram is included in the article.)

Edward Lotterman writing in Twin Cities dot com discusses how salaries in different currencies vary, can be compared effectively and when they can’t be compared effectively. It’s a pretty piece of writing.

Jeffrey Seglin writing in his blog, The Right Thing, tells us that Panera Bread is opening a store where you pay what you believe is appropriate for their baked goods. The new store is opening in Clayton, Missouri. Seglin is interested in your opinion. I’d go to his site and let him know. (There was only one comment when I left.)

Rod Dreher writes that the BP spill is a rolling apocalypse.

Michael Hiltzik writing on the Los Angeles Times business page discusses online privacy. He is a champion of preserving the rights of the individual and when he talks people should listen. This is an issue of considerable importance to me.

Marian Wang writing in ProPublica reports that illnesses reported by the clean up workers on the gulf coast are caused by the oil and not by the host of other possibilities the oil company or the government will cook up.

Elizabeth Warren prophecies the coming collapse of the middle class.

Diminished Expectations.

On By southwerkIn Economic measurement

We live in a country where the expectation that over time we will improve our economic status may be a thing of the past. The AP has a story on our current “recovery.” It’s pretty sad, but it has been an unfortunate situation for years now, getting worse year by year for the last thirty years. ALLEN G. BREED and RICH MATTHEWS wrote the story and their insights are impressive.

Julia Baird

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Uncategorized

Julia Baird is a senior editor for Science, Society and Ideas at Newsweek. I am adding her to my list of columns to check regularly. Her piece this week is nothing short of inspiring. The idea of the internet as a human right is one I find compelling. I have written before on the need for similar privacy expectations for e-mail as we have for snail mail. I believe some day our e-mails will become more our property than they are now.

100,133 Comments

On By southwerkIn Uncategorized

That’s the number of comments that have been lodged on Yahoo News on the story entitled, Anger grows as disaster reaches Panhandle beaches. That’s a very large amount of anger. Now, I freely confess I can’t read more than a hundred thousand comments (not without considerable monetary incentive), but I believe that there is considerable frustration with the federal government on this issue. And by federal government, I mean the President of the United States who appears increasingly angry but still doesn’t seem interested in taking any action.

You Can Make Money With The Flu! (and not just a little)

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Government Failure

“Scientists who drew up the key World Health Organisation guidelines advising governments to stockpile drugs in the event of a flu pandemic had previously been paid by drug companies which stood to profit, according to a report out today.”

This is the first sentence in the Guardian’s article on the trio of experts who wrote the WHO report. The news article authored by Randeep Ramesh, the Social Affairs editor at the Guardian finds all three scientists has ties to drug companies that would profit by the stockpiling recommended by their report.

Britain alone spent more than a billion pounds stockpiling medicines like tamiflu. All together the stockpiling of drugs by the various countries involved wound up costing more than seven billion dollars.

A Small Failure Of Judgment

On By southwerkIn Uncategorized

This is not a matter of ethics just poor judgment.

“Not to mince words, Mr. Epstein, but we don’t like your boys’ sound. Groups are out; four-piece groups with guitars particularly are finished…The Beatles have no future in show business.”
— Decca Records Executive, 1962

This is from a blog posting by Jarrod Dicker on Minyanville, Your Money and Your Life.