Category Archives: News and Events

Andrew Fastow, the former CFO of Enron, who entered a guilty plea to fraud and other charges as part of a plea bargain, has left federal prison in Louisiana for a Houston half-way house. Mr. Fastow’s six-year sentence ends on … Continue reading →

In 2004, The Wall Street Journal called Loretta Fredy Bush, the founder of Xinhua Finance, one of its “Women to Watch” for 2004. We may have misunderstood the meaning of the term “watch.”  Ms. Fredy Bush was indicted on May … Continue reading →

Paul Wolfowitz resigned in 2007 as head of the World Bank after a tale emerged of his HR intervention on behalf of a bank executive he was dating. Managers not dating those who report to them is one of those … Continue reading →

“Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity.”  Mark Zuckerberg, founder, co-founder, whatever (depending on litigation) and CEO of Facebook Well, except that Facebook hired a PR firm to cajole, convince, and coax op-ed writers … Continue reading →

Raj Rajaratnam looked much thinner and very much frightened as he made his way, with his ankle monitor, from the federal court building.  A jury had just given the prosecution convictions on all 14 counts of securities fraud and conspiracy.  Insider trading is … Continue reading →

Warren Buffett was asleep at the wheel.  And he didn’t wake up when he realized that one of his lieutenants who was likely to succeed him had purchased stock in a company and then pitched the idea of Berkshire Hathaway … Continue reading →

There is a certain thrill to a line of logic that skates along with facts that lead to one unassailable conclusion but then loops through a back swizzle and a camel spin to land in a solution that finds our … Continue reading →

There’s something about Cincinnati.  There was the puffing, swilling, je ne sais quoi of the late Marge Schott, former owner of the Reds.  Her malapropisms entertained and outraged nearly as much as Pete Rose and his gambling – on the … Continue reading →

Note to Mr. Bryant’s handlers/PR team and the NBA:  Apologizing for offending someone is not an apology.  Mr. Bryant needs to apologize because what he did was wrong, period.  We made this point back during the Super Bowl XXXVIII wardrobe … Continue reading →

It was not an April Fool’s Day joke when, as a comedian says, Southwest’s flight from Phoenix to Sacramento took off as a hard top and landed as a convertible. The fuselage of one of the airline’s Boeing 737 jets … Continue reading →

In the summer of 2010, Clearwire Corp. hired Goldman Sachs to offer its advice on whether the company should sell its wireless division to Sprint.  In February 2011, Goldman let the Clearwire folks know that it was resigning its position … Continue reading →

I am a single parent, so, hell yeah, I have the motivation to want to have good scores. I don’t want to lose that money. Think about the teachers who are monitoring their own students who are taking those state … Continue reading →

The Barometer recalls the 80s when we here in the USA feared that the Japanese would take over the world because they were so good with cars, real estate, and production.  Their lost decade found us pulling ahead.  And there … Continue reading →

This ethics stuff is fairly straightforward when there’s not much to lose.  We tend to go wobbly when so much is on the line. However, BYU yanked the eligibility of one of its star basketball players as it heads, with … Continue reading →