Leadership Crisis in America: February, Part 3, Texas and the World

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