In my Honesty and Trust report (Aug. 2006), The Center for Cultural Studies and Analysis wrote, “The survey reflects a growing perception of a large gap between the values of corporations and government institutions and the values of the American middle class. Values gaps are always perceived as threatening, and a perceived threat to the middle class inevitably leads to social action as it...

Once upon a time, in a country wide and beautiful, there was a very audacious and flamboyant financier who liked to wear very nice clothes. (Here he is in his gold tie and pinstripe finery.) One day, this very daring man saw a need in the housing market, and lo, with a skill for salesmanship and the help of the...

I don’t know about you, but I am sick and tired of the current process used to elect public officials. Local, state, national, it makes no difference. The process is far too long, uses questionable “facts,” relies on negative campaigning and wastes too damn much money. How much?  According to the U.K.s Guardian, the Obama presidential campaign, including the transition and...

  This just may be the most explosive story of the last… 8 minutes! Men, right now, as I write this, my pants, you’re pants could be lying to you! “Come on, Jim. You’ve lost it, this time!” That’s right. You heard me correctly. You’re favorite ol’ blue jeans, Dockers, Calvin Kleins and others could very well be brought up on ethics charges.  » Read more about:...

Baseball is a game obsessed with the number nine: nine players on each team; nine innings; ninety feet between the bases; and if you’re a pitcher with “stuff,” three strikes against three batters total nine and you’re out of the inning. Think of the players that wore the number 9: Roger Maris, Bill Mazeroski, Minnie Minoso, Enos Slaughter, Reggie Jackson...

The first ethics talk I gave was in September 1995 before 400 California teachers. I remember checking into the hotel about five hours before I was due to speak. I don’t know how other speakers prepare, but I am constantly writing and rewriting – sometimes just before I go on – all in an effort to include the most current news stories....

Watching BP CEO Tony Hayward respond to questions by the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on oversight and investigations reminded me of Enron Chief Jeff Skilling’s testimony in February, 2002. Skilling: Congressman, Enron Corporation was an enormous corporation. Could I have known everything going on everywhere in the company? Hayward: We drill hundreds of wells a year around the world. Skilling: I don’t recall that…...

During the 1920s, Americans enjoyed sports like never before, and why not when they could enjoy the likes of baseball’s Babe Ruth, boxing’s Jack Dempsey, football’s Red Grange, and tennis champ Bill Tilden. However, none exemplified the truest principles of sportsmanship better than Robert Tyre “Bobby” Jones, Jr. During the 1925 U.S. Open, Jones’s ball ended up in the rough...

Clearly, the most contentious issue facing the country in the last 18 months has been health care reform.  While a majority of people believe that reform is necessary, the details of that reform have driven most to distraction. PolitiFact.com is a collective of reporters and researchers for the St. Petersburg Times whose purpose is to “find the truth in politics” by examining “statements by members...

Last week, I spoke to four High School classes about the importance of honesty and trust. As part of their take-home assignment, I asked them to answer a six question survey – part of a national survey given to High School students across the country by The Josephson Institute of Ethics. They only have to respond “Yes,” or “No.” 1. In personal...