I'm guessing one of my neighbors hasn't yet mastered the fine art of microwave popcorn.
Last night around 8 we heard a crash and looked out to see a 2-car wreck right outside our terrace. I called 911 to report no injuries, but that cops and a wrecker were needed. Within seconds we had 3 fire trucks, 3 cops, and an ambulance swarming all over us. Turns out they were already on their way to a fire call at our apartments, and the fender bender was just a bonus.
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It seems the new "in" major at university business schools is Grand Larceny. Management, Marketing, Accounting, and all the rest are now so blase. Now "GL" is where it's at.
It has become a daily occurrence for one company or another to admit to doing something illegal and being fined millions....BILLIONS of dollars, even. Yesterday SAC Capital was fined $1.8B for insider trading, in addition to the $616M they were fined earlier in the year.
BP was recently tapped for $4B, GlaxoSmithKline was fined $3B, and even Johnson & Johnson, the baby powder maker (and pharmaceutical company) was fined $2.2B for urging doctors to prescribe some of their meds to treat ailments the FDA hadn't approved them for. And of course JPMorgan Chase has agreed to a $13B settlement related to mortgage fraud, and billions more have been paid for interest rate rigging by all the world's major banks. And there are plenty more I could mention, too, but I don't want to write all day.
I'm a staunch capitalists. "Profit" is a good word. But damn, people, doesn't anyone know how to make money without ripping someone else off in the process? Seems to me we'll continue to have problems like these until we start playing hardball with them.
Let's turn some pinstripes into jail stripes. And/or maybe shutting down and breaking up companies who are serial offenders. Talk about some pissed off stockholders! Maybe then they won't be so insistent on demanding every last penny profit they can by any means possible, legal or not.
Only when the crime costs more than the potential profit will Management be a more desirable degree than Grand Larceny.
S
