Business Morality

Ben Stein basically asks what is socially responsible Investing, and why should We engage in it. The idea enjoys much favor among a certain class of Investor, but it place the emphasis in the wrong place. We must not ask what type of Profits are acceptable, it only leads Us into a vicious circle of Changing nothing, while costing the Profitability from the best investments. The direction We must adopt is the definition of responsible Corporate leadership, where Military Weaponry meets its Design specifics under Combat Conditions, understands that the Incursion into Iraq was based on World Oil Price maintenance rather than protection of the flow of Oil, and that effective Securities regulation require a universality of enforcement. When these Concepts are firmly embedded in Our mentality, We can begin the difficult process of correcting the Excesses of the Business world.

Louis Uchitelle attempts to explain that the UAW Contract Agreement with GM will not even begin to sell more Cars. It was a very good effort to explain why GM basically wants to move their production Overseas. It does not mention that the Contract Agreement granted GM an escape from the Pension obligations of previous Labor Contracts. This Escape brought GM release from Labor liens on GM Profits, and will not guarantee American labor any Job security. Dissidents to the new Trust might try a Court challenge, citing a denial of Contract obligations without a recognizable financial consideration forwarded. The trouble here lies in the fact that Republican-packed Courts will not accept common Contract litigation obligations involving Labor issues. This article, though, would state I am being too harsh in this Assessment of the UAW/GM Contract; I still wonder at the loss of $20 billion for a Guarantee to keep the 16 Plants open, when GM needed those Plants anyway to meet adequate performance in their Distribution network.

Joseph Stiglitz reviews Naomi Klein’s new book: The Shock Doctrine. The primary thesis of the book must be considered Wrong, but as Stiglitz comments, there remains too much reality is the circumstantial evidence. He attributes the basic trouble which both Klein and himself witness as wrong turns, faulty policies, and basic unfairness. I would say there is a much greater evil at work; not a great Conspiracy, which it never has been, but a lack of ethical morality on the part of Corporate leadership. The Later believe it is Right to do Anything where they can escape detection, while they lack a real sense of humanity. Klein does not come out and flat state that it is all the fault of the same Social Set who brought Us the McCarthyism of the early 1950s–though she should have mentioned the personnel transference to the Corporate world. lgl