Category Archives: Analysis

The headline was striking for a story about women caring for their parents. Even more striking was a quote within the article from a woman who was once a paralegal but dropped that career in order to take care of … Continue reading →

Google’s code of ethics had an overarching theme in its early days, “Don’t be evil.” When Alphabet came along, the motto morphed to “Do the right thing.” Now, commentators are accusing Google of morphing further beyond its ethical roots by … Continue reading →

The Barometer always enjoys it when the experts offer their solutions, post-scandal. To fix the too-big-to-fail problem, we passed legislation that has resulted in even bigger banks. To punish auditors for their complicity in Enron, WorldCom, etc., we doubled down … Continue reading →

NOTE: This piece was submitted for publication at a national outlet on September 4 — no response. So, posting the piece here. Just wanted to note that many articles on this very issue began to appear during the last few … Continue reading →

Companies, agencies, organizations, and Little League teams, for all the Barometer knows, use all three. In fact, they pay through the nose for experts to come in and run all three. There are two problems. The first is that the … Continue reading →

Jon Corzine, the former chairman and CEO of the collapsed MF Global Holdings, is in court battling with the Commodities Futures Trading Commission over liability as the person in charge when the brokerage firm hijacked customers’ account to support its … Continue reading →

When the new stories, statements, and press releases that result from ethical lapses are published, there are certain quotes and phrases that jump off the page. The mind reads, revisits, and rereads the quotes and phrases and concludes that an … Continue reading →

Wal-Mart received the accolades that have long kept their distance from the company when it announced that it would be increasing its employees’ wages. Bully! The advocates of the $15 minimum wage were thrilled. If Wal-Mart can do it, anyone … Continue reading →

The case against the Atlanta Public School System began with cheating and ended with prison sentences. There were 35 educators and administrators indicted. Two of them died before they could be tried, including Beverly Hall, the former superintendent of the … Continue reading →

The Barometer and others understand that we don’t know everything about Ebola. We also understand that panic does not always walk on the same side of the street as rational thought. However, panic is tough to conquer when a disease … Continue reading →

For as long as the Barometer can recall, the mantra, “There are no absolutes,” has been repeated with reverence, deference, and unequivocal conviction.  The facile response has always been, “Well, there are no absolutes except that one that you just … Continue reading →

Jon Corzine began as a bond trader at Goldman Sachs in 1975. Through a climb that made him head of bond trading and then CFO, Mr. Corzine eventually became chairman of Goldman in 1994. After leaving Goldman in 1999, he … Continue reading →

The federal criminal investigation into Washington Mutual’s lending practices has been closed. Further, it looks as if similar investigations into the mortgage lending of IndyMac Bancorp and New Century Financial are dormant and likely also to be closed. These three … Continue reading →

In June 2011, The Spine Journal let loose with its findings on Medtronic’s Infusion, a bioengineered material used in spinal fusion. The special issue of the medical journal concluded that research sponsored by Medtronic resulted in misleading conclusions – overstated … Continue reading →