Have America’s commercial giants lost their ethical compass?

BOOK REVIEW

What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, Author: Michael Sandel.

By John Farmer Jr. – Bank of America has agreed to pay $11.8 billion to settle charges related to mortgage servicing abuses, such as fabricating affidavits of title; Intel has agreed to pay $1.25 billion to settle antitrust charges that it retaliated against computer manufacturers who refused to put the Intel inside; Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $550 million to settle claims that it sold subprime mortgage instruments that it had designed to fail.

It also turns out that they are quite adept politically, these constitutionally recognized “persons” who (thanks to the current majority on the U.S. Supreme Court) can spend virtually unlimited amounts of money influencing the political process. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., it was disclosed last week, has been lobbying to change the federal law prohibiting bribery of foreign officials, a law that it is alleged to have violated in Mexico. Wal-Mart denies lobbying, though it belongs to groups that do.

The problem clearly runs deeper than a rogue financial adviser or two; it extends beyond Wall Street, and even Main Street USA, to some of the most powerful corporations in the world. It involves thousands of “real” people acting under the corporate umbrella.

What are we to make of this spate of corporate scandals? more> http://is.gd/QH1o9P

Related articles

• WalMart Involved in a Scandal? Really? (jl10ll.wordpress.com)
• Mexico Bribes: Another Wal-Mart PR Nightmare (pamil-visions.net)
• 6 Burning Questions on the Wal-Mart Corruption Scandal (alternet.org)
• Amid Mexico scandal, Wal-Mart works to clean up its image (kansascity.com)
• Wal-Mart Bribery and Bad Examples (businessethicsblog.com)
• Options Take: Pressure To Remain On Wal-Mart Woes (WMT, TGT, DG, BIG) (247wallst.com)
• Wal-Mart Now Faces Investigation by Mexican Government for Allegation of $24 Million Bribery Scheme (hispanicallyspeakingnews.com)
• Memo to Corporate America: Bribery doesn’t pay (finance.fortune.cnn.com)
• Wal-Mart shareholder sues over bribery scandal (news.yahoo.com)

Cybersecurity and False Hope

By John C. Dvorak – I finally realized this law is something like Sarbanes-Oxley in that it’s a fix for a problem that was never a problem. Sarbanes-Oxley essentially added paperwork overhead to already burdened American companies. It did nothing about the numerous and ridiculous Ponzi schemes that have been uncovered since the housing crisis. Nothing.

(Current) Cybersecurity is all about compliance.

Compliance inspections will be needed. Now, what companies are we talking about? Pretty much any large networked company can fall under the auspices of this law. IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, Intel, Comcast, come to mind, plus thousands more. Once these infrastructure companies are named, they have to write report after report on how they intend to fix their problems. How we determine the problems requires compliance reports based on certain standards that need to be developed by some government agency—over coffee I, suspect… more> http://tinyurl.com/72e3b2r

Related articles

• U.S. Companies Need Flexible Laws to Boost Cybersecurity (theneteconomy.wordpress.com) ↓
• Cybersecurity Legislation Should Force U.S. Government to Listen Less and Speak More ↑
• Senators sharply divided over bill to regulate cybersecurity (theneteconomy.wordpress.com)
• McCain, GOP Leaders Intro Cybersecurity Bill Alternative (theneteconomy.wordpress.com)
• Civil libertarians slam McCain cybersecurity bill, Joseph Menn, Reuters/chicagotribune.com
• The Cybersecurity FUD Campaign begins its big push…, Sean Kalinich, DecryptedTech
• Leslie Harris: NSA’s Cyber Power Grab (huffingtonpost.com)