Last month (May 14) after JPMorgan Chase Chief Jamie Dimon acknowledged “sloppy, stupid” mistakes that led to a $3 billion (maybe more) loss by the big and risky bet division of the United States’ largest bank, I wrote that “Dimon needs a lot more intelligent decision-making, and at the top of that list I would put: HUMILITY. So, how has...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a stunning announcement on the steps of the Capitol today, scientists from four leading research centers believe they have found a direct link between the ethics scandals of the last five years – perhaps going back as far asfive decades – and a chemical imbalance in the brain. The new disease, which scientists are calling “Involuntary Ethics...

Last Friday’s post talked about business ethics. One reader asked about a potential conflict between the needs of a shareholder to make money versus needing to do right by employees. “Can you be equally ethical to both? Is it ethical for a company to deprive shareholders of additional money in order to maintain an ethical working environment?” Creating and maintaining...

Several years ago, I was speaking to a business group. The people sat in the room according to hierarchy: managers sat with the sales force in front; the administrative staff and lower echelon work force sat in back. During the Q&A, one individual from sales asked, “Don’t you think that sales should have a different set of standards than others...

On Sunday morning’s Meet the Press, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon declared, “We were dead wrong,” with respect to a $2 billion (possibly $1 billion more) loss by the largest U.S. banking firm. Last month, with the loss in the rumor mill, Dimon called it a “complete tempest in a teapot.” Does anyone remember Enron, WorldCom, BP, Goldman Sachs, G.E., Merck,...

… you opened the morning paper and discovered there were no ethics scandals in the news? No stories about cheating, lying, broken promises, bad faith excuses; no individual fudged the numbers, misled or deceived a co-worker, family member or friend? At the end of a recent talk, one person confided, “With all the ethics scandals going on, your talk could...

The defense always seems the same. Enron’s Jeff Skilling: “I didn’t get the memo… notes… e-mails,” “I do not recall.” BP CEO Tony Hayward reacting to the worst oil spill in U.S. history: It’s “relatively tiny” compared to the “very big ocean.” Robert Murdoch tweeted: “No excuses for phone hacking. No argument. No excuses either for copyright stealing, but plenty of ignorant...

Global Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs lost $2.15billion of its market value the day after London-based employee Gregory Smith told the world in a New York Times Op-Ed that the company is not only “toxic and destructive,” but is only interested in “How much money did we make off the client?” In 2009 Rolling Stone story, reporter Matt Taibbi called Goldman...

Hold on to your cynicism, kiddies, it’s my end of the year wrap-up of the highs and lows. Here’s just part of the past year’s craziness summarized in words: “The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal-consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short.” – Standard and Poor’s, in a statement regarding the downgrade in the U.S....

When the Oracle of Omaha speaks not enough people…correction… not enough of the right people in Washington listen. By now, Mr. Buffett’s Op-Ed has circled the political and financial globe enough that most are aware of the basics. “Our leaders have asked for ‘shared sacrifice,’ Mr. Buffett said in the New York Times last month. “But when they did the asking,  » Read more about: Buffett on...