Perfectly Legal, But Wrong
When “perfectly legal” is a lame excuse for doing the wrong thing
Business Ethics
Zuck’s Bafflegab Up on the Hill
Zuckerberg ducks a direct question: will he take responsibility for harm to teenagers caused by Facebook?
Elon Musk: Tech Giant, and Moral Midget?
A tech genius? Surely. A moral maven? Nope.
A Silicon Valley “Race to the Bottom”
by Don Mayer, June 28, 2023 The antics of Silicon Valley “alpha dogs” have reached a new and disturbing level. In the public interest, PLBW offers some extraordinary writing by Lora Kelly of the Atlantic magazine. By way of preface, your “perfectly...
Promises, Promises: A Pity (and a Pittance?) for East Palestine
By Don Mayer It’s fairly commonplace for CEOs of U.S. companies to move quickly into crisis management mode after a public relations disaster. Alan Shaw, CEO of Norfolk Southern, was in just such a mode after the February 2023 train derailment in East Palestine,...
Revolving Doors and Serious Bank Failures
Some myths die hard. Or, don’t die at all. One is the myth of the self-regulating market; rational bankers would not (surely not!) take such risks with their own and their depositors’ money that their institutions would be bankrupt (or need a government...
Demolishing the American Dream of Home Ownership
One big reason why Americans can’t find affordable housing? Wall Street investors.
CYA: Cover Your Assets, Corporations!
A real justice system would consistently ensure that that people are held accountable for harms they do to others. That goes for corporations, too. But our legal system, with its many “loopholes,” can create oodles of un-accountability, especially when high-powered lawyers enter the picture. And they surely have.
Vultures and Zombie Debts
Do you know what a “zombie debt” is? Well, let’s say you have a debt, and it doesn’t get fully paid. It started out as $1565.39 years and years ago, and you paid it down some, but only until you lost your job and had unexpected medical expenses. The...
Red Alert: Your Boss Can Force you to Attend a Socialist Political Rally!
It’s true, and it’s so wrong. As U.S. laws are written, employers can fire or demote you for any number of reasons, as long as they don’t offend federal or state statutes. These include statutes that protect employees from discrimination based on race,...
Kasky vs. Nike and the quarrelsome question of corporate free speech
The year of 2001 probably was not Nike, Inc., finest moments given that misleading statements that it made to the press and to the public about its operations in Southeast Asia labor activist opened a whole can of worms about whether the First Amendment applies to corporations making false or misleading statements.
After the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review the decision, numerous business interests aligned with Nike’s appeal. Twenty-eight organizations and the U.S. government filed briefs as “friends of the court” to argue that Nike’s statements should be fully protected by the First Amendment.