Category Archives: News and Events

Describes new books, articles, and upcoming speeches.

Third-Grade Teacher Spouts Off on White House’s Stephen Miller

Nikki Fiske taught Stephen Miller in third grade. Ms. Fiske thought it appropriate to share with Hollywood Reporter that Mr. Miller was a “strange dude” in third grade. Weren’t we all? The Barometer had cat-eye glasses and a seriously flawed … Continue reading →

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Suspect Stole $1.2 Million in Wine From His Boss: Jumps From 33rd Floor

Nicholas De-Meyer was a former assistant to Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon. One of his responsibilities was to receive wine deliveries at Solomon’s Manhattan apartment and then transport them to Solomon’s East Hampton home. De-Meyer allegedly lifted some of the … Continue reading →

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Audi Employees Suspected of Falsifying Road-Worthiness Certifications

Wow — do they not read the papers in Germany? News of VW’s false emissions problems seems to have escaped notice by employees in the automaker’s other subsidiaries. There is a basic ethical standard here: Don’t make stuff up!

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Carlos Ramos: A Stickler for the Rules at the U.S. Open and Always

Carlos Ramos, the chair empire at the Serena Williams U.S. Open final, where there actually was another tennis player who actually won the match (Naomi Osaka). But Ms. Osaka is a footnote as U.S. Opens go because Ms. Williams railed … Continue reading →

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“Is It O.K. To Press Your Spouse To Have A Vasectomy Before You Ditch Him?”

The dilemma “The Ethicist” addressed on Sunday, October 7, 2018 in the New York Times. The Barometer is speechless, although not without questions: Why is this a worry if the relationship is so damaged that you are leaving? Why is … Continue reading →

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“Their truth,” “Her truth,” and “His truth.”

The Barometer keeps hearing the description of the “right to speak their truth.” The Barometer is not clear on what that means, but the truth is not a personal thing. There is one truth, no matter how much people believe … Continue reading →

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Is It Ethical to Choose Your Baby’s Eye Color?

The title of a Wall Street Journalarticle on how fertility clinics are offering parents new options, including DNA tests on embryos to predict their baby’s eye color. That way they and pick and choose embryos. The unknown is parenthood, with … Continue reading →

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And 24 Hours Later . . . Elon Musk Will Step Down as Tesla Chairman

Mr. Musk will settle the SEC suit he vowed to fight only yesterday morning. He will pay $20 million and no longer be chairman of the board of Tesla. Yowzers. When entrepreneurs go off the rails at full speed, it … Continue reading →

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SEC Files Complaint to Have Elon Musk Ousted

It took the SEC about two weeks to figure out that when Elon Musk tweeted that he had funding for going private at $420 per share, he was puffing. “Puffing” is a charitable description. The complaint alleges Mr. Musk misled … Continue reading →

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Brazil’s Petrobras Settles Bribery Case for $853.2 Million

The investigation began in 2014, and was called Operation Car Wash. The investigation focused on construction companies, and Operation Car Wash discovered that the construction companies over-billed Petrobras and bribing Brazilian officials and Petrobras executives for the privilege of over-billing … Continue reading →

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The Calpers CEO and the Controversy Over Her Education

In 2016, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (Calpers) hired Marcie Frost, the former director of the Washington Department of Labor & Industries, as its new CEO. Since the time of her appointment, Calpers is about to have it third … Continue reading →

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Sloan Kettering Does Not Get the Whole Conflicts Thing

As described here a week ago, one of Sloan Kettering’s cancer researchers, Dr. Jose Balsega, had received compensation from pharmas that was not disclosed either to Sloan Kettering or to the editors of the journals publishing his research on the … Continue reading →

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[There were] serious shortcomings in the organization of Danske Bank, where risk appetite and risk control were not in balance.”

Report commissioned by the bank and completed by a Swedish law firm that found there was money laundering that was brought to the bank’s attention in 2007. The interesting part is that it was the Russians who warned the bank … Continue reading →

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Mark Cuban Pays $10 Million, Hires an Ethics and Compliance Officer, and Installs a Hotline

The Mavericks workplace must have been one wild place. Executives viewed pornography and made sexual advances to co-workers, according to a 43-page report based on an NBA investigation. The report did not implicate Mr. Cuban, but employees told investigators that … Continue reading →

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