Tag: ethics
How Do You Pull Off a Ponzi Scheme? : Stupid Regulators | Securities and Exchange Commission Files
Don’t worry about government regulating health care, get them to regulate the financial markets:
Madoff said it was “amazing to me” that he didn’t get caught … because they specifically asked him, “Are these securities at DTC? (Depository Trust and Clearing Corp.)” They further pressed, “What is your account number.” He replied, “646.” Madoff stated that it was “obvious they thought that something was amiss.” He went on to say that when they asked for the DTC account number, “I thought it was the end game, over. Monday morning they’ll call DTC and this will be over… and it never happened.”
Madoff stated that when … Enforcement did not follow up with DTC, “I was astonished.”
But the real question is, can the industry be regulated at all:
Madoff noted that the industry is growing incredibly complicated. He gave the example of when his firm put up a credit default swap and didn’t know how to do the books. Madoff said he didn’t know … He said he called Merrill Lynch, Lehman Bros, five firms total, all of which didn’t know. He said the NASD had no clue. Madoff stated that today, lots of trades are done off the books because people don’t know what to do with them.
Cartels Face an Economic Battle | washingtonpost.com
If anyone needs an argument about why marijuana should be legalized, this would be it.
The shifting economics of the marijuana trade have broad implications for Mexico’s war against the drug cartels, suggesting that market forces, as much as law enforcement, can extract a heavy price from criminal organizations that have used the spectacular profits generated by pot sales to fuel the violence and corruption that plague the Mexican state.
Anyone who says they believe in ‘free markets’ should be for the immediate repeal of the marijuana ban. The free market will eliminate the drug underworld because ultimately, it’s less competitive. Billions can be used in more productive ways. We will have a new green industry for America (and these are jobs Americans would do). And finally Hershey, Coke and Taco Bell would see huge increases in revenue. Win-Win-Win-Win.
Ending the War on Drugs itself would reduce state and federal expenses government expenses by $50 billion dollars a year, almost enough to bail out a bank. We have spent over a trillion dollars, if you count back to 1971, when this all began. With that money, we created an organized crime machine more diverse and powerful than the Mafia, which was also created by a prohibition.
The War on Drugs should really be called the ’50 Years War On Drugs’ or ‘The Industry Against Drugs We Can’t Make Money On’. Or maybe it’s really the War on Drugs because everybody involved in it are taking drugs; Oxycontin, Viccodin, Viagra, Ambien….zzzzzzz….
William F. Buckley, a thought leader in the U.S. conservative movement believed all drugs should be legal on both libertarian and fiscal grounds. Come on all you free marketeers and fiscal conservatives. We’re wasting time and money when we should just be wasted.
2009 World’s Most Ethical Companies | Ethishpere Magazine
2009 World’s Most Ethical Companies | Ethishpere Magazine
Just when you thought you needed to abandon hope, something like this comes along. Check out the performance of ethical companies vs. the S&P 500. Quite cool. Read Article
Dispatches From The Front 