Corporate Criminals: Who is the worst?
Are the Indian promoters who destroy shareholder wealth the worst in the world? Or are there some who are worse than that?
In the American context there were AIG, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, Lehman, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae…
or should we talk about the worst environmental disaster by BP?
Well well, the list is long is it not? Just because you and I have benefited as a shareholders of some of these companies (well I have not made an Indian list – but it would be long won’t it?)..are we guilty? For example holding shares of ITC means you are spreading cancer? Then what about holding Unilever India preying on the Indian ‘fair and lovely weakness’ of Icici bank giving a loan to ITC or a SBI giving a loan to ITC ….difficult call on morality.
Most importantly morality and money are not necessarily connected. I know employees who buy competitor products (L O L) …so let us say what fool has to say…read on…this is about the most rascal of the companies. It is a tough toss up between GS and BP.
Pravin
you have to be kidding me. the BP accident is not a criminal action.how about feeling bad for BP? or have you already decided that BP must have done this deliberately?.
i dont see the same amount of anger towards people like Manmohan chacha -those who claim to work for the ‘people’ but are all wolves in sheep’s clothing?
an accident is different from having vile intentions while pretending to be a do gooder.
Puneet
Beat this:
Transocean, the firm hired by BP to operate the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig, has just announced that it will distribute $1 billion in dividends to shareholders even as oil continues to pour into the Gulf of Mexico.
.
AND
.
Transocean has also announced that it will make a $270 million profit on the insurance policy for the rig.
Sources: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37740.html
Dr Mohammed Ali Khan
The worst criminals were the Communist governments of Soviet Russia, China, Cambodia and others..
They murdered millions of people, created famines and shortages on a massive scale because of their misguided economics, and created environmental disasters because of their callous disregard to anything other than their own ideology.
Compared to these ” Worker’s Paradises” the companies you mentioned are small babies… Also these companies created thIS mess because of Government interference in the housing market.
As for BP spill, it was an accident, criminal incompetence maybe, but NOT criminal
Pravin
well Puneet, i dont understand why that is outrageous. should one feel offended because the farmer is trying to profit off my hunger?
subra
Pravin
go back in history and see what things Oil companies have done. Throwing democratic govts, getting rid of environment activists, …God has kept Oil in Uganda, Kenya,…and oil companies have had the resources to play dirty. This accident must be a series of cost cutting that they did. An accident of this magnitude does not happen because of one man’s mistake..of course nothing will come out of the probe…and life will go on. BP will pay dividends and bonus – is GS not paying?
subra
to me Dr. Manmohan Singh and Narayana Murthy are at the same level – good in academics and the media tells me they are honest. Period.
Srinivas Muthadi
Pravin
farmers profiting from your hunger? A big joke. How can that happen when the product that he (the farmer) produces is priced not by him, but by Babus sitting far far away in AC rooms in towns/cities.
A good read would be P.Sainath’s articles on the state of farmers and rural economy in general.
Pravin
puneet and subra: to me the problem is clearly not the businessman alone. the problem is the power they get because they govts help them.the BPs of the world provide genuine services to people .only because the govt can dare to run roughshod over the freedom of people do they dole out favors to votebanks and big companies.
cleally the root of the evil here is the power the govt assumes and not the mere fact that companies are trying to make profits.dividends etc are red herrings in this debate.the moot point is the ability of the govt to make or mar BP. you cant prevent the BPs and GS from trying to curry favor -it is a tough competitive environment.if the govt were powerless to dole out goodies to the GS and BPs and merely concerned themselves with the rule of law, we would have tort law and not criminal law handling such cases.
Puneet
@pravin: Get a realty check dude!
I am a hard core conspiracy theorist..so not the right person to comment more on this. In short: things are *not* what they look like.
Ignorance is bliss..believe me.
Pravin
puneet,
hardly -your theories are plain out of the marxist or socialist school.you wouldnt find a more conspiracy theorist than me. my homepage is bookmarked at lewrockwell.com -that should explain how much i like the contrarian view.
Pravin
btw, i did read sainath’s book -or actually a collection of his TOI reports . his description of the rural condition is correct,but his leftist analysis doesnt surprise me. has he tried the libertarian analysis?. all he suggests is that instead of focusing on actually providing the fundamental right to property,the govt should listen to him and engage in redistribution of wealth. thats nothing new -in fact thats the avowed purpose of all theft like nrega etc