One of the more curious things about the Mark Sanford case is how long it took for him to get caught. Here was a guy using taxpayer money to pay for high-priced airline tickets to see his mistress down in Argentina — a total of 18 times. (The law requires state officials to use the lowest-cost airline tickets; we assume that extends to trips to see the mistress.) The question is, how was the governor able to pull off  so many trips without getting caught? Was there no one at the state level t... Read Full Story

F. Scott Fitzgerald once said there were no second acts in America. He hadn’t met Eliot Spitzer. Recently, the former New York governor was invited to deliver a lecture on ethics at Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics. Before I get to the ethics of this matter, let me just say: I have no interest in attacking Spitzer. Nor do I hold any personal judgment against the man for the events that forced him from office in March 2008. But I do think if you’re going to spe... Read Full Story

Recently, “Pay Czar” Kenneth Feinberg slashed compensation for executives at seven large financial firms (all TARP recipients) by an average of 50 percent — and he’s not backing down. That move has set off heated argument over economic theory. Lost in the shuffle is a more basic question: Is Feinberg’s action constitutional? Because he is not a properly appointed officer of the United States, Feinberg’s executive compensation decisions were unconstitutional, argues Mic... Read Full Story

Is it ethical for a company to use what you freely post on a social networking site as part of their decision making process? I posed that question the other day to a group of students at Queen’s Business School in Kingston, Ontario.  The answers I got were interesting; they generally saw sites like Facebook as just that: a social networking tool. And they didn’t generally connect that a prospective employer has an ethical right to base their hiring decision on what a candidate posts online i... Read Full Story

The other week, I asked whether business schools were effectively teaching ethics. That question was answered, at least in part, the other day when I spoke at Queen’s School of Business in Kingston, Ontario. In talking with many of the 200-plus students gathered for the event, I discovered something encouraging: All is not lost on the ethics front. For the past several years, the university has been holding annual corporate social responsibility weekends. The impetus for these events was the ... Read Full Story

When it comes to Ponzi schemes, it always amazes me how seemingly intelligent and well-educated people can fall prey to them. (At least, you’d assume that anyone who’s made a sizable chunk of money has a basic level of intelligence when it comes to how it is invested.) It’s a question I’ve thought enough about through the years that I’ve come up with a three-pronged answer: Promise. Illusion. Trust. Or, what I like to call “the PIT.” The PIT formula pretty much explains nearly eve... Read Full Story

Since I began speaking about business ethics, I’ve started to see some encouraging signs. Business schools from Harvard to Stanford have begun adding classes that examine the role that social responsibility can play in business. Some schools are now even offering a degree in it. Case in point is the New England College of Business and Finance (NECB). It now offers an online master’s degree in business ethics and compliance, which it calls a “first-of-its-kind in the nation.” Personally, I’m a... Read Full Story

Here’s a question for you: If you had a service to provide — and someone asked you to provide it for free, or at a radically reduced price — would you do it? No, right? Now try this on for size: If you were a doctor, and someone asked you to provide a service at a rate that didn’t reimburse you for the total cost of care, would you do it? In nearly every line of business, one maxim holds true: “If you can’t pay, we don’t play.” So, why should doctors be viewed any different? That’s the questi... Read Full Story

Are business schools effectively teaching ethics? That’s a good question to ask, especially now. The other day, North Dakota State University’s longtime president, Joseph Chapman (right) resigned amid growing criticism over his expensive new presidential residence. Presidential is the operative word. Cost overruns exceeded $2 million, compared with the original $900,000 that had been budgeted for the project. But the good news doesn’t stop there. The Forum, a Fargo newspaper, reports that the... Read Full Story

It’s no secret, at least among certified financial planners: Most ethics courses are as boring as can be. They don’t have to be. In conjunction with my consulting group, Barclay’s has created a webinar on ethics for CFPs to get their continuing education hours. So, if you go to Barclays, and register as a CFP, you’ll have access to this webinar. Non-boring. For a change. Check it out! Read Full Story