Perfectly Legal, But Wrong
When “perfectly legal” is a lame excuse for doing the wrong thing
Business Ethics
“Company Over Country” ~ Zuck Sucks up to China
What do U.S. companies owe to the U.S., its people and the nation that gave them birth? It’s a question that has been hanging around since the 1980s, in the go-go years of globalization, when U.S. and E.U. companies vocally claimed to be “de-nationalizing” their...
From Twitter to (now) the “Free Speech” of X: More Hate, More Violence
Recent rioting in Great Britain has been fueled by right wing extremists using social media. Right now, Elon musk's social media site, X (formerly known as Twitter) has been a primary source of hate speech. Hate speech is a ill-defined category U.S. law, but it's...
The Bottification of Airbnb
So we called our “host,” someone purportedly named Paul, to let him know the situation. Here’s where it gets weird:
Zuck’s Bafflegab Up on the Hill
Zuckerberg ducks a direct question: will he take responsibility for harm to teenagers caused by Facebook?
Elon Musk: Tech Giant, and Moral Midget?
A tech genius? Surely. A moral maven? Nope.
A Silicon Valley “Race to the Bottom”
by Don Mayer, June 28, 2023 The antics of Silicon Valley “alpha dogs” have reached a new and disturbing level. In the public interest, PLBW offers some extraordinary writing by Lora Kelly of the Atlantic magazine. By way of preface, your “perfectly...
Promises, Promises: A Pity (and a Pittance?) for East Palestine
By Don Mayer It’s fairly commonplace for CEOs of U.S. companies to move quickly into crisis management mode after a public relations disaster. Alan Shaw, CEO of Norfolk Southern, was in just such a mode after the February 2023 train derailment in East Palestine,...
Revolving Doors and Serious Bank Failures
Some myths die hard. Or, don’t die at all. One is the myth of the self-regulating market; rational bankers would not (surely not!) take such risks with their own and their depositors’ money that their institutions would be bankrupt (or need a government...
Demolishing the American Dream of Home Ownership
One big reason why Americans can’t find affordable housing? Wall Street investors.
CYA: Cover Your Assets, Corporations!
A real justice system would consistently ensure that that people are held accountable for harms they do to others. That goes for corporations, too. But our legal system, with its many “loopholes,” can create oodles of un-accountability, especially when high-powered lawyers enter the picture. And they surely have.