The Ethical Barometer

Mark S. Kirk is a candidate for the U.S. Senate in the grand state of Illinois.  He has been spinning some yarns about, what else?  Military Service.  His Naval Reserve service statements have raised some fact checkers’ eyebrows. Big deal, take a number on telling stories about candidates “misspeaking” about their military service.  Yes, but Mr. Kirk had more. His tales of working in a nursery school found the fact checkers wagging a finger and shaking their heads. So, the little senate candidate who cried wolf or coyote or really big dog one too many times had skeptics emerge with demands for proof of the tale of his boating accident in 1976 (more…)

Hell hath no fury.  Never mind that. No fury needed here — just cull through your ex’s e-mails during divorce discovery!  Karen Kaiser used to be married to David Zilkha who used to work for Microsoft who then went to work for Pequot Capital Management, which was founded by Arthur Samburg who agreed to pay the SEC a$28-million fine to settle charges that he obtained inside information from David Zilkha who was married to Karen Kaiser, oh, and there you (more…)

During the 2000 Olympics the gymnasts were yipping about Dong Fangxiao, a member of the Chinese women’s team.  Their yipping boiled down to, “There’s no way she is 16!” The yipping was ignored because her birth date was allegedly verified as January 20, 1983.  Fast forward 8 years later for a big oops!   (more…)

Boeing has been getting some bad press for delays in delivery of its 787 Dreamliner.  The company has faced everything from supplier lag to failed stress tests and is now 2.5 years behind schedule on its deliveries. The profits are postponed, customers have canceled, analysts are skeptical, and Boeing must ante up penalties for delays.   But, in the words of the youth, we may be “way harsh” on the company.  The Barometer cannot gauge the supply chain issues; they are best left to my esteemed colleagues in that field.  However, last year and again just two months ago, Boeing engineers found 787 design issues that could lead to structural failure. Bless their hearts; they threw down the flag.  However, the engineers threw down the flag in December 2009.  Boeing announced the delay at that time but attributed it to supplier lag.  In May 2010, a blogger reported (more…)

He was a young car-hop at the time.  The 17-year-old witnessed a salesman at the car dealership sell a woman a “new car.”  But the young employee knew that the car was not new; it had an engine that had been rebuilt and had also had some fairly extensive body work.  He was worried. Should he tell someone?  He needed his job but he knew it “just wasn’t right.”  He watched as the saleman handed the keys to the car over to the proud owner.  He took a few steps toward her.  He was going to tell her and let the cards fall where they may. (more…)

During the filming of their movie, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” representatives of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt (the movie’s stars) denied that there was any romance, affair, or other activities untoward for the then married Mr. Pitt (his wife was Jennifer Aniston).  However, in an interview that appeared in the New York Times on October 19, 2008, Ms. Jolie indicated that she was looking forward to the time when the couple’s six children could watch “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” because, “Not a lot of people get to see a movie where their parents fell in love.”  Uh-oh.  We can’t keep a falsehood straight.  Truth does percolate.  Thanks to pop culture for a reminder of this principle through a vivid Entertainment Tonight moment.

The Graduate Management Admissions Council announced that it was canceling the GMAT scores of 84 applicants and students.  The Council found that the students were active users of a now shut-down website, scoretop.com, a site with origins in China that posted live questions from the GMAT.  The site had 5,000 to 6,000 subscribers who paid $30 per month for access, but the Council is only canceling the scores of those against whom it feels it has an airtight case.  Two of the students whose scores were canceled are currently enrolled at the University of Chicago’s MBA program and another has already graduated from Stanford’s MBA program. Twelve of the students whose scores were canceled had posted questions on Scoretop.com and the remaining 72 allowed the site to post their testimonials that they had seen the Scoretop.com questions on their GMAT.  Ten of the 72 students had applied to Stanford but were denied admission — if you are going to cheat, at least make it worth your while!  The Council also announced that it would begin using a “palm vein” scan to eliminate proxy test taking.  The FBI broke up a ring of six test takers who had taken the GMAT for 590 applicants, at a price of $3,000 each.