PERRspectives: Business Archives

Business Archives

	Harvard MBAs Debut Oath for the Most Dishonest Profession On Friday, the New York Times profiled a group of Harvard Business School students who have taken an "MBA oath" to act responsibly and "serve the greater good." The ethical pledge of "responsible value creation" can't come too soon for America's future business leaders. After all, a February 2009 Marist poll found that in the wake of the nation's financial meltdown, a majority of Americans give corporate leaders a D or F for their honesty and ethical conduct. And as... more Posted on May 30, 2009 \| Comments (2)

	UBS, the IRS and Phil Gramm News that the Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Swiss banking giant UBS is just the latest chapter in the curious case of Phil Gramm. Just one day after UBS agreed to pay a $780 million criminal fine and admitted to conspiring to defraud the IRS, the DOJ demanded access to 52,000 accounts as part of its broad tax evasion probe. Which is more than just a little ironic. After all, before he became a UBS vice-chairman in 2002,... more Posted on February 20, 2009 \| Comments (11)

	CBS Falsely Portrays Stanford as Democratic Bagman On Wednesday, federal authorities reported they did not know the whereabouts of Texas banker and scammer Allen Stanford. But what we do know for certain about the financier whose frauds may yet rival the $50 billion Madoff Ponzi scheme is that he donated generously to both political parties in Washington. Of course, that would be news to viewers of CBS Evening News. Because while Stanford gave early and often to Texas Republicans John Cornyn, Tom Delay and George W. Bush,... more Posted on February 18, 2009 \| Comments (0)

	Bush Administration Slashed Probes of Stock Fraud As the fallout from the meltdown of the American financial system continues to poison the U.S. economy, the laissez-faire dogma and deregulatory zeal of the Bush administration rank high among the usual suspects responsible for it. Just days after the New York Times and the White House exchanged shots over the President's key role in the cascading calamity, a new study from Syracuse University revealed that investigations for stock fraud by the Bush SEC and Justice Department have virtually disappeared.... more Posted on December 28, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	Romney to Detroit: Drop Dead During the Michigan primary in January, former Massachusetts Governor and son of auto magnate Mitt Romney blasted John McCain for saying he didn't want to raise "false hopes that somehow we can bring back lost jobs." Now as the American auto industry teeters on the brink of collapse, Romney in a New York Times op-ed Wednesday has a much different message for Detroit: drop dead. In January, Romney was singing a different tune about the need to save Michigan's car... more Posted on November 19, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	John McCain, This Bud's for You While John McCain's awkward appearance Monday with President-elect Barack Obama was a reminder of what he had lost, he and wife Cindy nonetheless received a consolation prize. Belgian beverage giant In Bev completed its acquisition of Anheuser-Busch, the beer company in which Mrs. McCain holds millions of dollars of stock. As it turns out, John McCain left the presidential campaign trail with quite the parting gift. The $52 billion acquisition of Anheuser-Busch means the McCains will be adding to their... more Posted on November 18, 2008 \| Comments (0)

	McCain's Five Stages of Grief over the Economy The implosion of Wall Street last week resulted in a near-death crisis for John McCain's presidential campaign. His post-Palin bump eviscerated, McCain was staggered by the reemergence of the economy as the dominant issue in the 2008 election. His daily-changing positions revealed that McCain, a man who has repeatedly admitted his ignorance of economics, is struggling to cope with his diminished presidential prospects. Armchair psychologists might call the process John McCain's five stages of grief over the economy. Denial. McCain's... more Posted on September 22, 2008 \| Comments (1)

	McCain Keating Five Flashback: "You're a Liar" The implosion of Wall Street this week comes as a triple-dose of bad news for John McCain. No doubt, his daily-changing response to the crisis confirmed McCain's self-proclaimed ignorance of economics. Perhaps even more damaging, America's financial nightmare conjured images of the savings and loan scandal 20 years ago, one in which McCain's close ties to political sugar daddy Charles Keating almost ended his career. And to be sure, flashing back to McCain's 1989 temper tantrum in response to his... more Posted on September 21, 2008 \| Comments (5)

	McCain Support for New Trust Resurrects Keating Five Role Karl Marx famously said that historical events occur twice, first as tragedy and the second time as farce. Truer words were never spoken of John McCain's new-found support for a Mortgage and Financial Institutions (MFI) trust, the very type of agency he strenuously opposed until just this week. But completing the tragic-comedy is the fact that McCain is now inadvertently shining a spotlight on his own dark past in the 1980's Keating Five scandal, an episode central to the last... more Posted on September 19, 2008 \| Comments (2)

	FISA, Yahoo and the GOP Double-Standard on Telecom Immunity As the Senate Judiciary Committee prepares to debate the renewal of FISA revisions made in August, President Bush and his Republican allies in Congress are endorsing a unique double-standard when it comes to immunity for telecommunications firms. Within the United States, they argue, service providers such as AT&T and Verizon must cooperate with U.S. government demands for access to Americans' electronic communications and should be immune from citizens' lawsuits. But in China and elsewhere, as Republican reaction to this week's... more Posted on November 14, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Yahoo, Communist China and Bush's America In Washington Tuesday, members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee savaged Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and General Counsel Michael Callahan for the company's involvement in the 2005 jailing of a Chinese dissident. But if their bipartisan criticism of Yahoo's behavior - cooperating with a Chinese government "subpoena-like document" to supply information about journalist accused of the "illegal provision of state secrets" - sounds disingenuous, it should. After all, those are trademark tactics of the Bush administration and its Republican amen... more Posted on November 7, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Romney's Seasonal Visa Program Begins at Home On the campaign trail in Michigan on Saturday, GOP White House hopeful Mitt Romney announced his support for more seasonal visas for foreign workers laboring in tourism, agriculture and other sectors of the economy. As well he should. After all, Romney routinely hired illegal aliens to do the landscaping for his tony Boston area home. Never one for irony, Romney offered his prescription for addressing peak labor market shortages and the undocumented workers they attract. During a stop in northern... more Posted on October 15, 2007 \| Comments (1)

	Google Gets Political As the Washington Post reported this week, Internet giant Google has deployed a substantial lobbying team in the nation's capital. The company, whose corporate mantra is "Don't Be Evil," hopes to avoid Microsoft's anti-trust woes of the 1990's by getting its hands dirty in the gritty world of Washington politics. Of course, when it comes to issues of privacy and censorship, Google's hands weren't exactly spotless. Google's lobbying efforts are already having an impact. Its bipartisan team of heavy hitters... more Posted on June 24, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Red States Opposing Employee Free Choice Act Need It Most In Washington this week, the Senate will take up the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Passed by the House 241-185 in March, EFCA would make it much easier for unions to organize. Predictably, red state Republican Senators backed by an alliance of business groups led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will likely prevent the measure from coming to a vote. Which is too bad. After all, from wages and benefits to job opportunities and collective bargaining rights, it is... more Posted on June 20, 2007 \| Comments (8)

	Google Plays Politics with McCain - and Advertisers If anyone had any lingering doubts about the unique role of Google as a social, cultural and political force in the United States, a Friday appearance by John McCain at its company headquarters should put them to rest. The special forum hosted by CEO Eric Schmidt let GOP White House hopeful McCain bring his views directly to Google employees - and the world. It's just too bad Google doesn't always treat its advertisers the same way. McCain's visit to Google... more Posted on May 5, 2007 \| Comments (0)

	Corporate Treason: Halliburton, Dubai and Iran With Sunday's announcement of its headquarters relocation to Dubai, Halliburton completed its transformation from mere war-profiteer to corporate traitor. The motivations for the move are simple: death and taxes. Shifting its corporate headquarters not only allows Halliburton to shaft American taxpayers. It enables Dick Cheney's old firm to comfortably expand its large and growing business with Iran and other declared terrorist enemies of the United States. The company, which raked in $2.3 billion in profits on revenue of $22.6 billion... more Posted on March 12, 2007 \| Comments (2)

	Cheater in Chief: Bush as the MBA President With each passing week, Americans are provided more insight into the deeply flawed character and mounting sins of their President. The latest comes in the form of a study by the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University showing that more MBA students cheat than those pursuing other professions. In what should come a surprise to few, George W. Bush, America's putative first MBA president, is the poster boy for the country's most dishonest profession. Ironically, the Duke University report... more Posted on October 30, 2006 \| Comments (2)

	Troubling Trends on Americans' Incomes Despite grandiose claims from the White House regarding the strength of the U.S. economy, a flood of new data helps explain Americans' continued feelings of insecurity. While the unemployment rate (4.7%), GDP growth (2.9%) and productivity gains (2.3%)look impressive, below the surface the picture for wages and income grows bleaker still. Whether the incumbent Republicans pay a price in November for that dismal performance remains to seen. The disturbing trends for Americans' incomes are beyond dispute. Since President Bush took... more Posted on September 4, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Warren Buffett Defends the Estate Tax On Monday, billionaire financier Warren Buffett made two important contributions to the public good. First, he announced a staggering gift of $30 billion of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Perhaps more important for America's future, Buffett came out swinging in defense of the estate tax. During his press conference, Buffett offered a strong progressive argument in support of the estate tax: "I would hate to see the estate tax gutted. It's in keeping with the idea... more Posted on June 27, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Bush Lies About Ken Lay A jury in Houston has just spoken and found former Enron CEO Ken Lay guilty on all six counts. Bush family sugar daddy Lay, who gave his close friend George W. Bush over $500,000 for his various campaigns, now faces a long stint in prison and perhaps the Grandma Millie treatment. It will be interesting to see what President Bush has to say today, given his past denials regarding his long friendship with Lay. After all, when the Enron scandal... more Posted on May 25, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	The Chinese Economic Miracle Continues Signs of China's rapid growth into an economic superpower are everywhere. The latest indicator comes in a report from the China National Bureau of Statistics announcing a staggering 9.9% rise in Chinese GDP in 2005. With its $2.26 trillion economy, China has leap-frogged the UK, France and Italy to become the fourth largest in the world. As Perrspectives has written before, China's explosive economic growth, aggressive military upgrading and diplomatic muscle-flexing pose a myriad of challenges for the United States.... more Posted on January 25, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Ford Joins GM on the Brink The American manufacturing sector took another body blow today as Ford announced massive layoffs beginning in 2007. As many as 30,000 employees at 14 Ford plants in North America, up to 21% of the company's hourly workforce of 82,000, could be impacted by 2012. The announcement by the #2 American automaker comes within weeks of similar devastating cuts at General Motors. As at GM, the United Auto Workers agreed to dramatic reductions in health care benefits at Ford, shifting expenses... more Posted on January 23, 2006 \| Comments (0)

	Engine Trouble for the Economy To kick-off his 2006 campaign for permanent - and dangerously irresponsible - tax cuts, President Bush crowed on Friday about his economic stewardship. "The American economy," Bush boasted, "heads into 2006 with a full head of steam." New economic data released on the same day, however, suggests that the American economic locomotive may be experiencing some engine trouble. After a stellar November, December produced only new 100,000 jobs, roughly half of the gains anticipated by analysts. Paradoxically, the .1% drop... more Posted on January 8, 2006 \| Comments (1)

	Bush League Economy Nothing, apparently not even the growing opposition to the war in Iraq, frustrates President Bush and the Republican Party more than Americans' consistently negative view of the economy. Despite 215,000 new jobs in November, stout 4.3% Q3 GDP growth and a whopping 4.7% gain in productivity, only 37% of Americans approve of Bush's handling of the economy. As one Wall Street analyst moaned on the RNC blog, "No matter what happens, no matter what data are released, no matter which... more Posted on December 8, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	GM and the War on Labor You can learn a lot about the state of class warfare in America just by reviewing the reaction to General Motors' recent announcement that it will lay off 30,000 workers and shutter a dozen plants in North America. While E.J Dionne at the Washington Post offered a thoughtful piece on the political responses to the impact of globalization and spiraling health care costs on manufacturing giants such as GM, Rich Lowry of the conservative National Review does what the right... more Posted on November 29, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	Fox in the Hen House One of the recurring themes at Perrspectives is the growing Achilles Heel of the conservative movement. Dormant for two presidential elections, the yawning chasm between economic and social conservatives is reemerging, and with it, a serious threat to the Republicans' majority status. In the wake of its Schiavo disaster and the revolt over the Harriet Miers nomination, conservatives are coming to blows yet again. This time, the battleground is television content. The family values merchants at the Parents Television Council... more Posted on October 20, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	Banana Republicans During a week when Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean tried to rally his party in a quixotic effort to block the confirmation of John Roberts, Republicans at all levels of government may have given him the keys to Congress. For Democrats, ending the epidemic of GOP corruption, patronage and cronyism has to be one sure fire theme for next year's mid-term elections. Memo to Dean: Clean Up the Mess in '06. The Republican rap sheet for the past week... more Posted on September 26, 2005 \| Comments (18)

	Trojan Horse: The Bush Plan for Katrina Last Thursday�s speech by President Bush in New Orleans� Jackson Square kicked off the administrations� cynical campaign to snatch political victory from the jaws of defeat in the wake of its disastrous Katrina response. Karl Rove�s strategy for the coming 2006 mid-term elections will modeled on his 2002 GOP success with the Department of Homeland Security. With the Gulf States devastated, hundreds dead and thousands displaced, President Bush and the GOP will lace a popular recovery program featuring massive federal... more Posted on September 19, 2005 \| Comments (9)

	Estate Tax or Dynasty Dividend? In the wake of Katrina's devastation along the Gulf Coast, Americans should be united in providing relief, resources and support to all in need. But sadly, that massive relief effort will take place during a time divisive - and fundamental - debate about the very meaning of national unity in the United States. As New Orleans struggles for survival, the President and his amen corner are waging a full scale assault on the estate tax, what they derisively (and effectively)... more Posted on September 4, 2005 \| Comments (2)

	French Twist The rejection of the EU constitution by French and Dutch voters this week has raised a host of questions about the future of the European project. But while Euro-optimism absorbed a body blow, Americans may be just waking up to the prospect of a transformed alliance. Perrspectives has written repeatedly about the rise of the European Union as a economic and strategic counterweight to the United States. That development is tranforming the trans-Atlantic partnership, as growing economic competition (for example,... more Posted on June 3, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Paris Hilton and the Right Wing Food Fight The Parents Television Council is taking to the air waves to protest the new Paris Hilton ad campaign from West Coast burger chain Carl's Jr. The controversial and widely viewed ad depicts the vapid and scantily clad Hilton gorging on Carl's burger while performing a masturbatory car wash. But while right-wing watchdogs like PTC's L. Brent Bozell are predictably up in arms over the raunchy and tasteless promo, one aspect of the story has gotten virtually no attention. That is,... more Posted on May 25, 2005 \| Comments (3)

	Stem Selling: The Ronald Reagan Life Legacy Act The momentum of politics and science is now with the Democrats in the battle to drive stem cell research in the United States. This week's announcement by South Korean researchers successfully producing healthy stem cells from the DNA of damaged tissue brought home the danger of the United States losing its leadership in the biotech sector. And new bi-partisan legislation in the House co-sponsored by Mike Castle (R-DE) and Diana DeGette (D-CO) shows that increasing numbers of Congressional Republicans will... more Posted on May 24, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Still Doing Evil: Google and Political Speech Almost a year after Perrspectives' run-in with Google, it seems that the Internet giant is continuing to arbitrarily trample on the opinion speech of its advertisers. Apparently, the company whose corporate mantra is "do no evil" is persists in doing just that. The San Jose Mercury News reports that Google has gotten embroiled in the Tom Delay ethic wars. While Google was running an anti-Delay and from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), they refused a virtually identical anti-Nancy Pelosi... more Posted on May 7, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	Lessons of Enron Revisited As President Bush took to the national stage on Thursday to try to salvage his failing second term agenda, a damning new documentary about Enron and close Bush friend was releases to critical acclaim. The film, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, details the massive behind the scenes fraud the company perpetrated against its employees, its shareholders, and the American public. As reviewer David Edelstein noted, the documentary is at its most enraging when detailing the impact of the... more Posted on April 29, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	Microsoft's Insecurity Complex If you had to choose one word to describe the current mind set at Microsoft, it would probably be "insecure." Insecure about the growing market share of Linux at the expense of the company's flagship Windows operating system. Insecure also describes the Microsoft platform itself, software essentially under siege from viruses, spyware and worse, a situation the upcoming Longhorn release is supposed to address. Unfortunately, "insecure" also describes the company's response to intimidation from the radical religious right. Last week,... more Posted on April 26, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	When Markets Attack Yesterday, AOL hero turned villain Steve Case announced his next new thing. Launching a company called Revolution with $500 million of his money, Case has the outsized goal of transforming the health care system for American consumers. But while the health care market may succeed in making Steve Case richer still, it will almost certainly continue to fail millions of Americans. Marrying his unique combination of consumer zealotry and business opportunism with an apparent growing awareness of his own mortality,... more Posted on April 5, 2005 \| Comments (1)

	On the Wrong Side of History Once in a rare while, tectonic historical change occurs with the span of only few days. The dramatic fall of the Berlin Wall heralding the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union, was one of those watershed moments. And for many Americans, the events of the last 10 days of January, with the Rice confirmation, the Bush second inaugural, and the Iraqi elections, represent a democratic tide sweeping the Middle East, a sea change the whole world is watching. Sometimes, though,... more Posted on February 1, 2005 \| Comments (5)

	A Google Lovefest on 60 Minutes For those of you who missed, CBS offered a fawning portrait of Google on last night's installment of 60 Minutes. Aside from a brief mention of the Microsoft threat, Leslie Stahl's lovefest had little negative to say about everyone's favorite Internet company. Well, not quite everyone. As we reported last year, Google the Internet darling can also be Google the Internet danger when it comes to respecting the speech and web site content of its advertisers. As Perrspectives, The Nation,... more Posted on January 3, 2005 \| Comments (0)

	The Bush Top 10 Flip Flop List Four years ago, George W. Bush accepted the Republican nomination for President, and famously set the moral tone - and expectations for his presidency: "So when I put my hand on the Bible, I will swear to not only uphold the laws of our land, I will swear to uphold the honor and dignity of the office to which I have been elected, so help me God." It has not, of course, worked out that way. As we pointed out... more Posted on October 1, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	A Google-Perrspectives Truce For those who have been following the controversy created by Google's ban on advertising from Perrspectives, a Najaf-like truce of sorts has been reached. On July 23, Google reversed course and upon further review concluded that Perrspectives did not violate its guidelines on advocacy speech. Unfortunately for all involved, however, Google did not change its dangerously broad "language that advocates against" standard as we proposed. For that reason, Perrspectives for now will not resume its ads on Google - this... more Posted on August 25, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	A Google Freedom of Information Act 2004 could be a big year for Internet search giant Google. Its IPO will be one of the biggest crossover business, technology and social news stories of the year. The launch of its Gmail service could put the company in the forefront of web-based email services while creating a major new revenue stream. Its pervasiveness among users (�to Google�) and advertisers alike could make Google a likely candidate to join those lofty iconic, market-defining brands like Kleenex, Xerox, Coke, and... more Posted on July 12, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Laying the Blame With the indictment of former Enron CEO and Bush sugar daddy Ken Lay, many Americans are hoping to see justice served. The real Enron scandal, though, is not the loss of billions of dollars by Americans shareholders or even the manipulation of the California energy market. No, the real and apparently unlearned lesson of Enron is that market deregulation and privatization of basic public services poses a major threat to the public interest. And that danger remains very real. For... more Posted on July 10, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Google's Gag Order Every once in a while in America�s consumer society, a company, product or service rises above its mere utility to achieve iconic status in the culture. Its very novelty, innovation, or just manufactured �cool� allow it to enter the daily American lexicon. As nouns, brands like Kleenex (facial tissues), Rollerblade (in-line skates), or Coke (any soft drink south of the Mason Dixon Line) are equated with an entire product category, eclipsing all competitors. Others achieve the even loftier status of... more Posted on June 20, 2004 \| Comments (0)

	Enron, Markets ad Grandma Millie Once is a rare while, conspiracy theorists get it right. In the case of Enron, this occasional conspiracy theorist and ex-Californian hit it right on the head in 2001. As the audiotapes of its traders released by CBS News clearly show, Enron clearly manipulated the newly deregulated California energy market to extract outrageous � and illegal � profits from Golden State ratepayers. The real scandal of Enron, though, is so much broader than that. It�s not just that Enron conspired... more Posted on June 2, 2004 \| Comments (0)