Category: Ethics
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Sept 23, 2010 Well it's Premier time, yep a mere 23 years later Gordon Gekko is back. And of course you can depend on Professor Elam to be fashion cutting edge. So here is a link to a column on the look of Money Never Sleeps. Hmm, $6500 suits? Perhaps my Target knit shirt and…
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Thursday Sept 23 2010 An earlier post featured reactions to Charlie Munger's talk at the University of Michigan. Munger thought the bailouts were justified and that the rest of us needed to suck it up. Mish posted some more reaction to what all, including myself, are calling a Marie Antoinette moment. Charlie Munger is Warrent…
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Tuesday May 4 2010 In class I roughly summarized what has happened with Goldman. Three days ago we pointed out that Buffet had come to the defense of Goldman. We pointed out that GS stocks was dropping uncomfortably towards Buffet's strike price for the GS options. Now a Rolling Stone write sums is all up.…
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Tuesday May 4, 2010 The WSJ now reveals that various Congressman in their own accounts bet on the falling markets in 2008. This occurred at the same time many were calling to reign in firms that were doing the same thing. Year ago a cartoon character named Pogo made the famous observation We have met…
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Monday May 3 2010 This is a good background article on British Petroleum. The CEO has been trying to turn things around but seems to keep facing problems, safety and otherwise. Transocean RIG had suspended bonuses this past year over safety violations. Yesterday on one of the news shows, Bill Kristol made the point that…
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Sat May 1, 2010 Warren Buffet defended Goldman Sachs to his BRK investors at the annual meeting in Omaha. Readers will recall that Buffet invested $5 B in GS preferred in 2008 with a whopping 10% dividend, as Warren puts it, $500 M a year, $15 a second. Reading the article note this is a…
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Well there is no joy at the BP headquarters today. And as the Federal govt piles on claiming BP is not doing enough, we fail to hear any constructive suggestions of what they should do. Drilling for oil is dangerous business, especially with the pressures a mile deep in saltwater. From an ethics standpoint, here…
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Sat May 1 2010 The initial run up in the stock market from 1982-87 was accompanied by the development of the junk bond market. An enterprising trader named Mike Milken realized that a lot of unrated or low rated debt was the lifeblood of many entrepreneurs. He argued that those entrepreneurs would not default as…
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Friday April 30 2010 It's a tough call, all the fat cats at Bear, Lehman, Goldman, paying themselves as their very firms fell apart, John Thain redecorating the office for $1 M, demanding $10 M in bonus for saving Merrill an hour before Lehman evaporated, Blankfein denying Goldman bet against their clients, a true rogue's…
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Wed April 28 2010 Greg Itzin plays Charles Logan a former disgraced US President. He is back in the last season of 24, scheming as ever and has the current President's ear. I haver maintained that we could watch 24 each week and easily have an hour's discussion on the ethical challenges that the characters…
