Too many posts to handle? If you missed out on a great post from last month, here’s a quick digest of the top posts that you may want to check out:
- Did You Say “Fraud,” Mr. Mozilo?
When Countrywide Financial’s Angelo Mozilo told a Congressional committee in 2007 that there was a lot of fraud in the subprime business, we thought at the time it might be a prophetic statement. The Securities and Exchange Commission apparently agrees, as this week it laid civil charges of securities fraud against the company’s former CEO. What we sometime ago dubbed as Mr.
- The Bankruptcy of General Motors and the Fall of the Business Era that Produced It
It is not just an American icon that has foundered, but an age that has too long emphasized the wrong values, and sometimes no values at all.And so the unthinkable has finally happened. The company that was once the marvel of the world, its largest industrial corporation and the first stock listed on the NYSE, has become the biggest industrial bankruptcy in history.
- The Missing Question in the Obama Regulatory Reforms: Where Was the Board? | Part 1
Had there been no board at all at AIG, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, General Motors and so many others, it is hard to imagine how the outcome could have been any worse for those institutions and their investors. This is a stunning indictment of a vital and much relied upon function of modern business that creates real systemic risk.
- There is Madness in the Madoff Punishment, Too
Posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 in Bernie Madoff – Comments: (1)
Are we looking here at a return to the kind of circus-like justice found in the Roman Colosseum two thousand years ago, designed as much to entertain as it was to penalize?Many things come to mind with the sentencing in Manhattan federal court of Bernard Madoff for the almost incalculable fraud he inflicted upon so many victims. Unfortunately, what stands out most about yesterday’s courtroom drama is that the extravagance of the crime appears to have been surpassed only by the exaggeration of the punishment.
- Who Killed Nortel?
More than two years ago, we asked the question “How long can Nortel go on being Nortel?” The final answer came this weekend, when it was announced that the remains of the company would be broken up and sold off, leaving not much except a once- respected, but long since discredited, name.You might wonder what happened to Canada’s most valued corporate prize–this bastion of innovation that put Canadian technology on the map around the world.
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