Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Morality and the Economic Meltdown, Cont.

The Chairman of HSBC Bank said yesterday that the banking industry should apologize to the whole world for causing the economic meltdown, according to the BBC. "The industry collectively owes the real world an apology," Stephen Green said.

Mr Green, in Istanbul for the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, admitted the banking industry collectively owed the world an apology for the financial crisis.

"It also owes the real world a commitment to learn the lessons. Some of them are about governance and ethics and culture within the industry," he said.


Here at Ethics in the News, the Parr Center's blog, we have tried to follow "morality and the economic meltdown" as a theme. Although our research cannot claim to have been comprehensive, early on it seemed the only things to post about were outraged accusations of immoral behavior. Except for here, here and here, there was not much, so to speak, meta-discussion about the interrelation of morality and finance or morality and capitalism. If you've been reading any, post links to what you've read in the comments.

Anyway, a moment on google indicates that last year HSBC Bank asked philosopher A.C. Grayling to talk about morality and business.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Have you noticed this Bloomberg posting relating to one of America's "Leading: businesses-Peter Lynch VP of Fidelty--
Fidelity Fined in SEC Probe of Private Jets, ESCORTS, , Ecstasy, Marijuana

Bloomberg-

Former Fidelity trader Thomas Bruderman, 39, allegedly received Ccstasy pills and Marijuana from brokers ``on a number of occasions,'' the SEC said in its complaint yesterday. It was his three-day bachelor party in Miami in 2003 that cost brokers $160,000, the agency said.

(Bloomberg) -- Fidelity Investments Vice Chairman Peter Lynch, former head trader Scott DeSano and 11 employees accepted more than $1.6 million worth of gifts from brokers jockeying to trade for the world's largest mutual-fund company, U.S. regulators said.

Fidelity will pay $8 million to settle the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's claims, the agency said yesterday in a statement. The brokers' inducements included a $160,000 junket to Miami, where bachelor party attendees were entertained by female ESCORTS and supplied with ECSTACY pills, the SEC said.

The settlement concludes a three-year probe that tainted the Boston-based money manager, known for policies aimed at protecting fund investors. The company failed to seek the best terms when trading for the funds because employees routed the transactions to brokers who doled out Super Bowl tickets and private-jet trips to Mexico, the SEC said.

Lynch, the former manager of the flagship Fidelity Magellan fund, received ``numerous'' free tickets to concerts, theater and sporting events from Fidelity's traders, according to the SEC. He agreed to forfeit more than $20,000, representing the value of the gifts, plus interest.

Lynch, 64, also got 14 three-day passes to the Ryder Cup golf tournament at the Brookline Country Club in suburban Boston, where he had once been a caddy.


The closely held company's independent trustees fined Fidelity $42 million in December 2006 after probing what Chairman Edward ``Ned'' Johnson III called ``improper behavior.'' Fidelity was founded in 1946 by Johnson's father with $3 million in mutual-fund assets. The company now oversees $1.6 trillion and serves 24 million customers.

A report on the trustees' 2006 investigation, released by the SEC yesterday----

In one case, a trader at the firm used a broker to buy 8 million shares in Tyco International Ltd., days before the broker flew him on a private jet to the Super Bowl in Houston in 2002, the report says. The trades cost the Fidelity funds as much as $18 million, though that may have been partly due to unexpected market events, according to the report.

`
Marijuana, Concorde(!!! My Fidelity Certainly Does Leads the Way!!!)


Another former Fidelity trader, David Donovan, 45, took 24 trips in which brokers covered most expenses, according to the complaint. Travel included at least two first-class flights on the supersonic Concorde airliner, it said. ( Fidelity, Leading the Way!)

DeSano, the 47-year-old former head trader, knew some orders were steered to brokers who provided entertainment, travel and gifts, or with whom Fidelity traders had family or ``romantic relationships,'' the SEC said.

Jefferies Settlement

The SEC and the NASD, now renamed Finra, fined brokerage Jefferies Group Inc. almost $10 million in December 2006 for plying Fidelity staff with gifts, including a party hosted by Playboy magazine, to win trading business.

Jefferies and its equity trading chief settled the case without admitting or denying wrongdoing. The regulators said Jefferies gave Fidelity traders chartered flights, bottles of Chateau Petrus wine, golf clubs, and tickets to events including the Wimbledon tennis tournament.

Jefferies spokesman Thomas Tarrant said at the time that the New York-based firm had ``enhanced safeguards and supervisory practices.''

To contact the reporters Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam in Boston at sbhaktavatsa@bloomberg.net; David Scheer in Washington at dscheer@bloomberg.net.