There was so much scandal in February that I have had to blog in 3 parts. The theme in today's blog is "Texas and the World."
On February 23, 2008, three British bankers were convicted of fraud in connection to their work dealings with Enron. Yes, because David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew and Giles Darby worked with the Texas company Enron, they are now going to jail.
I want to emphasize that when Texans are involved with swindles, we can can hurt people around the world.
We had bank fraud committed right here in Plano, Texas some years ago and I'm guessing the perpetrators thought, "so what, it's just numbers in a ledger." But we have to think along the lines of Emmanual Kant's catagorical imperative: what if every body cheated?
Our Texan President permitted the bankers here to commit massive fraud with sub-prime mortgages. Our country is now in a recession. The Federal Reserve Bank is bailing out investment bankers. And the disease of Mortgage Backed Securities is rocking banks around the world.
On February 19, 2008, Julia Werdigier wrote, "Brown Defends Takeover of Ailing British Banker," in the New York Times. The Northern Rock Bank in England was failing because they believed American bankers were honest and responsible. The government had to nationalize it to keep it open.
That was February. On March 23, 2008, the Financial Times of London reported that the central banks of Europe might have to buy Mortgage Backed Securities (MBSs) to reduce the damage done to European banks by the American sub-prime mortgage swindle.
We must understand that what we do matters. Fraud committed in Texas can hurt people across America and around the world.
You cannot be a competent leader if you are unethical. Ethics is a core competence.
We are in a Leadership Crisis. We desperately need better leaders, ethical leaders.
Robert
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Obama and Confucianism
Barack Obama gave a speech in Philadelphia on March 18, 2008 in response to repeated airing on news broadcasts of Jeremiah Wright's inflammatory damnation of America. The speech is 37 minutes long. You ought to read it or hear it. You can do both at this link to the New York Times, although I suggest you look for a website that allows you to download the speech in its entirety so you can listen to in uninterrupted by data stream buffering.
When he says that he cannot break his relationship with Jeremiah Wright because, "he is like family to me," he is expressing a Confucian quality.
Chang Yun-Shik, in "Mutual Help and Democracy in Korea," says (p. 99):
... a social bond once established is not supposed to be terminated.
Within the uiri network of interpersonal relationships, emphasis on the person is likely to override impersonal concerns of the wider world... should there be a conflict between the two. Shifting loyalty from the person to nonpersonal concerns does not take place easily.
When Barack Obama said he disagrees with Wright on some issues, but cannot disown him because he is like family, he means there is a personal social bond that is not to be broken, as described by Chang in his article about Korean Confucianism.
A lot of Confucian ideas are rooted in our humanity, making them international in nature and applicable to American culture.
By the way, there is a higher density of Confucians in Indonesia than America and Obama spent part of his youth in Indonesia.
Robert
The article mentioned is from Confucianism for the Modern World, Edited by Daniel A. Bell and Hahm Chaibong, Cambridge, 2003.
When he says that he cannot break his relationship with Jeremiah Wright because, "he is like family to me," he is expressing a Confucian quality.
Chang Yun-Shik, in "Mutual Help and Democracy in Korea," says (p. 99):
... a social bond once established is not supposed to be terminated.
Within the uiri network of interpersonal relationships, emphasis on the person is likely to override impersonal concerns of the wider world... should there be a conflict between the two. Shifting loyalty from the person to nonpersonal concerns does not take place easily.
When Barack Obama said he disagrees with Wright on some issues, but cannot disown him because he is like family, he means there is a personal social bond that is not to be broken, as described by Chang in his article about Korean Confucianism.
A lot of Confucian ideas are rooted in our humanity, making them international in nature and applicable to American culture.
By the way, there is a higher density of Confucians in Indonesia than America and Obama spent part of his youth in Indonesia.
Robert
The article mentioned is from Confucianism for the Modern World, Edited by Daniel A. Bell and Hahm Chaibong, Cambridge, 2003.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Leadership Crisis in America: February, Part 2, Killer Leaders
Adrianne Jones, a 16 year old Texan girl was murdered in 1995 by a boy, David Graham, from the Air Force Academy and a girl, Diane Zamora, from the Naval Academy. The Dallas Morning News in "David Graham full of remorse" by Debra Dennis, Feb. 10, 2008, reported that Zamora bragged to class mates that her boyfriend murdered a girl for her. One of her classmates turned her in. Now Graham and Zamora are serving life sentences in prison.
But what if her classmates had said, "cool," instead of turning her in? That day could come. Already we have had murderers enrolled in two service academies. What if there are students now in the academies who will kill to get ahead? I do mean literally murder someone for personal advancement.
We have so many kids in America going nuts and killing other kids that it is simply a matter of time before we have kids with this kind of killer mentality in the academies again, or in the boardroom in a Fortune 500 company, or in a Washington agency.
Oliver Stone in the movie JFK suggested the CIA might have been involved in the murder of John Kennedy. It might be true.
Vincent Foster died under suspicious circumstances in the Clinton White House. It is a fact that "the White House and Hillary Clinton in particular handled Foster's files and documents immediately after his death [and] became an issue of much investigation itself."
Germany was an educated, cultured nation when Adolph Hitler and his band of murderers got into power. Something like this could happen in America. This is why we have films out now like Michael Clayton, about a corporate executive committing murder, and Absolute Power, about a US President committing murder.
You might have heard me say "morality is the root of education." If you do not pay attention to morality, then you will be like Harvard, accepting Jeff Skilling and giving him the opportunity to commit massive fraud.
Simple fraud that destroys a couple of companies and ruins the lives of thousands of people pales in comparison to complex fraud, like the sub-prime mortgage swindle, that can push the entire nation into recession.
And all this financial swindling pales in comparison to the threat of having murderers in high positions of power. It might have already happened, but can we survive as a democracy if it happens again?
Killer leaders might be in our future if we continue to promote people without regard to their character.
Robert
But what if her classmates had said, "cool," instead of turning her in? That day could come. Already we have had murderers enrolled in two service academies. What if there are students now in the academies who will kill to get ahead? I do mean literally murder someone for personal advancement.
We have so many kids in America going nuts and killing other kids that it is simply a matter of time before we have kids with this kind of killer mentality in the academies again, or in the boardroom in a Fortune 500 company, or in a Washington agency.
Oliver Stone in the movie JFK suggested the CIA might have been involved in the murder of John Kennedy. It might be true.
Vincent Foster died under suspicious circumstances in the Clinton White House. It is a fact that "the White House and Hillary Clinton in particular handled Foster's files and documents immediately after his death [and] became an issue of much investigation itself."
Germany was an educated, cultured nation when Adolph Hitler and his band of murderers got into power. Something like this could happen in America. This is why we have films out now like Michael Clayton, about a corporate executive committing murder, and Absolute Power, about a US President committing murder.
You might have heard me say "morality is the root of education." If you do not pay attention to morality, then you will be like Harvard, accepting Jeff Skilling and giving him the opportunity to commit massive fraud.
Simple fraud that destroys a couple of companies and ruins the lives of thousands of people pales in comparison to complex fraud, like the sub-prime mortgage swindle, that can push the entire nation into recession.
And all this financial swindling pales in comparison to the threat of having murderers in high positions of power. It might have already happened, but can we survive as a democracy if it happens again?
Killer leaders might be in our future if we continue to promote people without regard to their character.
Robert
Saturday, March 01, 2008
Leadership Crisis in America: February, Part 1, American Failures
So much happened in February that I will make a 3 part posting on the Leadership Crisis. This installment will touch briefly on American failures. The purpose of this post is to emphasize the seriousness of the Leadership Crisis. We have weekly, almost daily reminders of the depth of the problem. If you are not already convinced we are in a Leadership Crisis, then I hope you will believe after these posts.
I want to move beyond preaching how we are in a Leadership Crisis and start considering how we got into this mess and how we might get out of it.
The New York Times, Wed. Feb. 6, 2008, "Papers Show Wachovia Knew of Thefts" by Charles Duhigg reported that Wachovia Bank was a knowing participant in theft from the accounts of Wachovia customers. Yes, Wachovia helped crooks rob Wachovia customers because Wachovia found a way to profit from the theft. What a betrayal of their customers. And not just a few, but thousands of their customers.
Forbes, Yahoo Finance, and the Wall Street Journal (Sat. Feb. 23, 2008) said Bank of America, which purchased Countrywide Financial Corp., made David Sambol would head its combined consumer mortgage operations. Sambol, Countrywide's President, drove Countrywide into the jaws of bankruptcy. Sambol ruined Countrywide so BoA could purchase it cheaply and he gets rewarded for failure.
Remember I said we should consider how we got into this Leadership Crisis? Promoting proven failures is one of many reasons we are in this Leadership Crisis.
The New York Times on Tue. Feb. 26, 2008 published "Guilty Verdict for 5 in A.I.G. Case" by Lynnley Browning. Among the five newly convicted business persons are Ronald Ferguson, CEO of Gen Re, Elizabeth Monrad, Gen Re CFO, and Robert Graham, Sr. VP and Asst. General Counsel: convicted on 16 counts of fraud and conspiracy to manipulate financial statements. (Gen Re means General Reinsurance.)
Imagine the number of business leaders who belong in jail numbering in the hundreds, maybe in the thousands. This is a sad situation.
Also consider the unspoken premise for all this fraud: thousands of American business leaders do not know how to grow their business, which is why they resort to fraud, so they can fake success.
Why are we in a Leadership Crisis? Perhaps too many business persons have been promoted to leadership positions by faking success. Lying about schedules, budget, and performance to the CEO is not a crime. But when a faker is promoted to CEO or CFO and fakes financial statements, then yesterday's fibs become today's crimes.
Robert
I want to move beyond preaching how we are in a Leadership Crisis and start considering how we got into this mess and how we might get out of it.
The New York Times, Wed. Feb. 6, 2008, "Papers Show Wachovia Knew of Thefts" by Charles Duhigg reported that Wachovia Bank was a knowing participant in theft from the accounts of Wachovia customers. Yes, Wachovia helped crooks rob Wachovia customers because Wachovia found a way to profit from the theft. What a betrayal of their customers. And not just a few, but thousands of their customers.
Forbes, Yahoo Finance, and the Wall Street Journal (Sat. Feb. 23, 2008) said Bank of America, which purchased Countrywide Financial Corp., made David Sambol would head its combined consumer mortgage operations. Sambol, Countrywide's President, drove Countrywide into the jaws of bankruptcy. Sambol ruined Countrywide so BoA could purchase it cheaply and he gets rewarded for failure.
Remember I said we should consider how we got into this Leadership Crisis? Promoting proven failures is one of many reasons we are in this Leadership Crisis.
The New York Times on Tue. Feb. 26, 2008 published "Guilty Verdict for 5 in A.I.G. Case" by Lynnley Browning. Among the five newly convicted business persons are Ronald Ferguson, CEO of Gen Re, Elizabeth Monrad, Gen Re CFO, and Robert Graham, Sr. VP and Asst. General Counsel: convicted on 16 counts of fraud and conspiracy to manipulate financial statements. (Gen Re means General Reinsurance.)
Imagine the number of business leaders who belong in jail numbering in the hundreds, maybe in the thousands. This is a sad situation.
Also consider the unspoken premise for all this fraud: thousands of American business leaders do not know how to grow their business, which is why they resort to fraud, so they can fake success.
Why are we in a Leadership Crisis? Perhaps too many business persons have been promoted to leadership positions by faking success. Lying about schedules, budget, and performance to the CEO is not a crime. But when a faker is promoted to CEO or CFO and fakes financial statements, then yesterday's fibs become today's crimes.
Robert
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