Showing posts with label ethics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ethics. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Morally bankrupt Goldman Sachs...
A GS Director has just resigned and declared the top brass at the European division of GS to be "Morally Bankrupt". Ouch.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
More on News Corp.
Felix Salmon talks about the latest News Corp scandal which I blogged about yesterday.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Mutual funds without morals.
A must read for anyone who buys actively managed mutual funds. Ron Elmer explains how mutual funds game the system by merging, closing or changing style to make their bad returns look good.
Yet another reason to index. You do index don't you????
Yet another reason to index. You do index don't you????
The Wall Street Journal has been running a circulation scam
I used to subscribe to the Wall Street Journal - it was an excellent newspaper. Then Rupert Murdoch took it over in 2007. I now get my financial news at breakfast time from the Financial Times. I got tired of the pseudo sensationalism that started to dominate the paper.
Murdoch's company, News Corporation, is without a doubt, one of the most crooked, ethically bankrupt companies in existence. The latest scandal that has emerged is the finding that the Wall Street Journal was buying up copies of its own paper to boost circulation numbers. Full details are here. In classic News Corp style, the initial reaction of the company was to deny it, and then, when this didn't work, go ahead and fire someone.
Let's not forget that News Corp is also still embroiled in the phone hacking scandal in the UK in which the "sister" publication of the WSJ, the News of the World, hired hackers to hack and delete phone messages from the cell phone voice mail of a missing girl. In doing so, the parents thought that their daughter was still alive, because she was accessing her voice mail. News Corp employees also hacked the phones of the relatives of deceased British soldiers, and also victims of the July 7 London terrorist attacks, as well as numerous phones of celebrities and politicians. All this occurred with the full knowledge of senior News Corp officials.
Recently Rupert Murdoch has said that the focus by shareholders on the hacking scandal is "disproportionate".
Murdoch's company, News Corporation, is without a doubt, one of the most crooked, ethically bankrupt companies in existence. The latest scandal that has emerged is the finding that the Wall Street Journal was buying up copies of its own paper to boost circulation numbers. Full details are here. In classic News Corp style, the initial reaction of the company was to deny it, and then, when this didn't work, go ahead and fire someone.
Let's not forget that News Corp is also still embroiled in the phone hacking scandal in the UK in which the "sister" publication of the WSJ, the News of the World, hired hackers to hack and delete phone messages from the cell phone voice mail of a missing girl. In doing so, the parents thought that their daughter was still alive, because she was accessing her voice mail. News Corp employees also hacked the phones of the relatives of deceased British soldiers, and also victims of the July 7 London terrorist attacks, as well as numerous phones of celebrities and politicians. All this occurred with the full knowledge of senior News Corp officials.
Recently Rupert Murdoch has said that the focus by shareholders on the hacking scandal is "disproportionate".
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Stock picks by the House of Representatives
Following an earlier study that found that Senator's stock trades earned significant abnormal returns, a new study shows that the same effect exists for members of the House of Representatives.
I have no comment, at least none that is fit to print.
FYI: the original study was published in 2004 in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (a top finance journal). The abstract states:
The actions of the federal government can have a profound impact on financial markets. As prominent participants in the government decision making process, U.S. Senators are likely to have knowledge of forthcoming government actions before the information becomes public. This could provide them with an informational advantage over other investors. We test for abnormal returns from the common stock investments of members of the U.S. Senate during the period 1993–1998. We document that a portfolio that mimics the purchases of U.S. Senators beats the market by 85 basis points per month, while a portfolio that mimics the sales of Senators lags the market by 12 basis points per month. The large difference in the returns of stocks bought and sold (nearly one percentage point per month) is economically large and reliably positive.
HT: George
I have no comment, at least none that is fit to print.
FYI: the original study was published in 2004 in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (a top finance journal). The abstract states:
The actions of the federal government can have a profound impact on financial markets. As prominent participants in the government decision making process, U.S. Senators are likely to have knowledge of forthcoming government actions before the information becomes public. This could provide them with an informational advantage over other investors. We test for abnormal returns from the common stock investments of members of the U.S. Senate during the period 1993–1998. We document that a portfolio that mimics the purchases of U.S. Senators beats the market by 85 basis points per month, while a portfolio that mimics the sales of Senators lags the market by 12 basis points per month. The large difference in the returns of stocks bought and sold (nearly one percentage point per month) is economically large and reliably positive.
HT: George
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
The MBA Oath
Apparently 300 graduating MBAs from Havard have taken the "MBA Oath" this year and pledged to make a positive impact on society.
While this seems a positive development, it is worth remembering that MBA programs have historically had a bit of an ethics problem. A study done in 2006 reported that 56% of MBA students admitted to cheating.
While this seems a positive development, it is worth remembering that MBA programs have historically had a bit of an ethics problem. A study done in 2006 reported that 56% of MBA students admitted to cheating.
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