The full essay is at Institutional Conflicts of Interest, available at Amazon.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Goldman's Ethical Conflict of Interest: Obviated or Enabled?
The full essay is at Institutional Conflicts of Interest, available at Amazon.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Computer Technology Revolutionizing Industries: Books and Films
Crude oil was first drilled in 1859 in northwestern Pennsylvania (not in the desert of the Middle East). It was not long before oil lamps became ubiquitous, lengthening the productive day for millions beyond daylight hours. Just fifty or sixty years later, as electricity was beginning to replace the lamps, Ford’s mass-produced automobile was taking off, providing an alternative use of crude oil. For those of us alive in the early decades of the twenty-first century, electric lighting indoors and cars on paved roads have been around as long as we can remember. As a result, we tend to assume that things will go on pretty much as they “always” have. Other than for computer technology, the end of the first decade of the 21st century looks nearly indistinguishable from the last thirty or forty years of the last century. As the second decade of the 21st century began, applications based on computer technology were reaching a critical mass in terms of triggering shifts in some industries that had seemingly “always” been there. Books, music and movies were certainly among the fastest moving, perhaps like the dramatic change in lighting and cars beginning a century and a half before with the discovery of crude oil.
Part I: Publishing and Book-Selling
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Business Ethics in the Business World: A Glimpse from Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs’ ethics code reads in part, “[We] expect our people to maintain high ethical standards in everything they do. . . . From time to time, the firm may waive certain provisions of this Code.”[1] The explicit conditionality is notable and significant. I contend that among other reasons, a negative impact on the bank’s financial position and/or profits is apt to trigger such a waiver not only at Goldman Sachs, but from the business standpoint more generally.
The full essay is in Cases of Unethical Business, available at Amazon.com.
1. William D. Cohan, Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came toRule the World (NY: Doubleday, 2011).
A Structural Conflict of Interest in Feinberg's BP-Claims Disbursement Office
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Conflicts of Interest for Public Officials: How Broad?
Michael Carrigan, a member of the City Council in Sparks, Nevada, “says he was trying to make sure his vote on a proposed casino, one that his campaign manager helped develop, did not pose an ethics problem.”[1] Carrigan backed the Lazy 8 casino project proposed by Red Hawk Land Co. Carrigan’s friend and campaign manager, Carlos Vasquez, worked as a consultant on the project. The question is whether the elected official’s relationship to his campaign manager who was a consultant on a project to be voted on constitutes a conflict of interest sufficient for the official to have not voted. The Sparks city attorney told Carrigan that he could vote on the project as long as he publicly disclosed his relationship with the project consultant. The attorney was obviously thinking in terms of transparency. Carrigan made the recommended disclosure. The Nevada Ethics Commission, however, claimed after the vote that Carrigan had a conflict of interest and should have abstained even with the transparency. In its reprimand, the commission cited ethics law that says public officials must not vote when their judgment could be affected by a commitment or relationship to someone in their household, a relative, business partner, or a person “substantially similar” to those specified. The commission classifies the campaign manager in the “substantially similar” category because Carrigan’s loyalties to his campaign manager would have affected his judgment. Caren Jenkins, executive director of the Nevada Ethics Commission, explains, “Here was a friend, a buddy, a close confidant. If Mr. Carrigan ever thought it was in his best interest to vote against the project, would he have?”[2] Carrigan sued the commission for its reprimand, claiming it violated his free speech rights. The Nevada Supreme Court sided with Carrigan, who pointed to the fact that he was not in business with his campaign manager. The Nevada Supreme Court said the catch-all category the commission cited failed to “limit the statute’s potential reach (or) guide public officers as to what relationships require recusal.”[3] The state court said the law “thus chilled speech.” In its appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the lawyer representing the commission argues, “State and local legislators have no personal ‘free speech’ right to cast votes on particular matters, much less ones in which they have a personal interest.”[4] The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press similarly claims that rules such as Nevada’s are important to ensure politicians don’t vote based on personal interests.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Contending Healthcare Social Contracts: A False Choice?
Friday, April 15, 2011
Goldman's Ethical Conflict of Interest: Obviated or Enabled?
The full essay is at Institutional Conflicts of Interest, available at Amazon.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Achieving Balance in American Federalism: On the Crusade of Texas’ Rick Perry
The complete essay is at Essays on Two Federal Empires.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Tax Avoidance at GE: On Corporate Income Taxation
1. Robert Samuelson, "The Real GE Scandal," Newsweek, April 11, 2011, p. 21.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
President Obama's Role in Budget Negotiations: Undercutting His Role in Presiding
Doug Mills, The New York Times