The Ethical Barometer

The sentencing for the five aides to Bernie Madoff have been sentenced by a federal judge. In addition to their prison sentences, which range from 2.5 years to 10 years, the five defendants have been held jointly liable for $155.2 billion. What that high-dollar amount means is that there will be forfeitures of their property in order to bring some relief to the victims of the Madoff Ponzi scheme.

One of the defendants sentenced was Annette Bongiorno, Mr. Madoff’s personal assistant. At the trial, Ms. Bongiorno said she just followed her boss’s instructions and had no idea what was going on in the business. However, the federal judge who sentenced her said that the fraud “unfolded right in front of her.” She stated Continue reading →

Candice Anderson, who was at the wheel of her fiancé, Gene Erickson’s, car, a Saturn Ion, when the car crashed. Mr. Erickson was killed. And with no skid marks and a trace amount of anti-anxiety medication in her bloodstream, Ms. Anderson was charged with manslaughter. She entered a guilty plea to negligent homicide and was sentenced Continue reading →

Facebook published a study that indicated it was fooling around with newsfeeds to its users (unbeknownst to those users) to determine whether its scientists could affect users’ emotions with positive and negative news. The problem is that the 700,000 users who were the subjects in the 2012 one-week study were unaware that they were part of the experiment. Those users are fit to be tied, as are government regulators in Britain and Ireland. However, COO Sheryl Sandberg of “Lean In” book and foundation fame, has some reassuring words, “We clearly communicated really badly about this, and that we really regret. We do research in an ongoing way, in a very privacy-protective way, to improve our services, and that was done with this goal.”

Some questions for Facebook users about this statement: Continue reading →

The IRS has given schoolchildren everywhere new insights for homework excuses.

That’s the label the GM engineer who designed the faulty ignition switch that was first used in 2003 gave to his own baby. Oh, and when engineers learned that the ignitions were going into the off position, thereby shutting off the engine, randomly, at highway speeds, they labeled it an “issue of customer satisfaction, not safety.” Sure, it is a pesky thing to have your car stop suddenly on I-95. Being a sitting duck on a freeway whilst cars approach at 70 mph is a bit more than a “I’m not crazy about my Cobalt” type of complaint. In 2011, lawyers warned GM that it “could be accused of egregious conduct” because it was not following up on accidents, deaths, customer complaints, and continuing problems with the switches and airbag deployment. Still, no action was taken.

As amazing as these disclosures in the Anton Valukas report for GM are, what is worse are the conclusions. “Dysfunction,” “Bureaucracy,” but no “conspiracy.” CEO Mary Barra has fired 14 people and reorganized the company so that there are now reporting lines to officers regarding vehicle design and safety. Now there’s a novel idea — executives knowing what’s going on in their companies? What next? Accountability?

Mr. Valukas offered a lawyer’s report. The report threads the needle to prevent its use in product liability suits for possible punitive damages. But, by focusing on legal issues of “no conspiracy here,” the report misses the cultural issues. The report does not answer this basic question, “Why would these engineers and anyone else who was aware of the problem believe that it was okay to not fix the switches, to not follow up on root-cause analysis, and to not make the information public?” We know that they were bureaucratic. We know that they remained silent. We know that things were not fixed. We knew that before the first gumshoe headed out to gather 14 million documents from the company. What we still don’t know is why. Continue reading →

Worried that their sports’ demographic consists of the 55 and above crowd, the movers and shakers of golf are trying to determine why those under 35 are not taking up the sport. According to the New York Times, the answer is “it takes too long to play, is too difficult to learn and has too many tiresome rules.” Ah, the trophies don’t come as easily as they did in their youth.

So, rather than devote the work, practice, and time that it takes to master a difficult sport, the young ‘uns have some solutions: There will be entry-level golf — with 15-inch holes. And then there is kickball golf — you kick the ball from hole to hole. For those who are in a hurry? Six-hole golf.

One comment from those encouraging new golf is that the changes are akin to Little League where young ‘ins are introduced through T-ball and gradually work their way up to the big leagues. Oh, and they all get trophies along the way. Even with pizza-size holes, if they miss, well, “Close enough!”

Once again, the adults lift the rules, take away the challenge, decline to demand time and effort, and wonder why they still have children living at home.