A recent LinkedIn post by Roderick Mann lamenting how Americans have become numb to corporate and other widespread wrongdoing has been weighing on me. Upon considerable reflection, I’ve concluded the issue isn’t that Americans have become inured to immoral and ethically challenged behavior. It’s that so many are willing to embrace and participate in it.
My argument as to why Fidelity Investments ranks among America’s most extraordinary companies.
The media did investors a great disservice not picking up CNBC’s Scott Cohn story about the $24.5 million Merrill Lynch was forced to pay former New Hampshire governor Craig Benson for allegedly unauthorized trading in his account. The settlement serves as yet another painful reminder how badly Bank of America sullied what was once one of America’s greatest brands.
The Wall Street Journal’s home page this morning inadvertently highlighted with stark clarity America’s wealth divide. Regardless of who wins the election, the chasm will most definitely widen.
The rise and fall (and possible rise again) of Nikola Corp., an aspiring electric truck company with imaginary products and virtually no revenues, exemplifies the “Greater Fool Theory” and explains why knowledgeable market insiders like CNBC’s Jim Cramer dismiss retail investors as “dumb money.”
Digital marketing is all the rage, but Ron Wynn became one of America’s top real estate brokers relying on an instrument that was pioneered in the Stone Age.
Nonprofit companies prey on the public’s mistaken belief they are altruistic organizations doing God’s work. Much too often, they are merely legal tax dodge schemes. Some, like Consumer Reports, engage in business practices they purport to oppose.
Given the current climate to support black businesses and entrepreneurs, one might expect that it would be a walk in the park for Khalid David to raise a modest $500,000 for his fledgling software company. David’s pioneering app is already being used by a major construction company and his educational background includes degrees from MIT and Columbia.
David is working harder than ever on his fund-raising efforts. His biggest challenge? Overcoming white stereotypes of black entrepreneurs.
She’s back! Eighteen months after a damning report revealing that Sheryl Sandberg was a ruthless executive ultimately responsible for smearing a prominent Facebook critic and Holocaust survivor with false accusations of anti-Semitism, Sandberg is again fashioning herself as a feminist activist and promoting a dubious Facebook small business program. These are good “make work” activities because indications are Sandberg has quietly been shunted aside.
Do the names Tim Bray and Christian Smalls mean anything to you? If you’re concerned about the pervasiveness of corporate wrongdoing and the widespread toadyism that enables it, they should.
I’m a journalist and television pilot writer. I previously was president of a New York City-based PR and crisis communications firm. Earlier, I was a business reporter with major newspapers in the U.S. and Canada. I also worked as an advertising copywriter. Born and raised in Toronto, I’ve lived in London (the one famous for snowsqualls), Montreal, Boston, Detroit, New York, San Francisco, and Marin County. I post regularly on LinkedIn and can be reached at: