The Magazine of Corporate Responsibility

Tag Archive for ‘Financial Crisis’

Among Global Corporate Executives, Wide Range of Views on Social Responsibility

The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) — the idea that companies directly contribute to the common good — is gaining adherents throughout the business world. However, what constitutes responsible corporate behavior is open to interpretation by the firms themselves and the larger cultures in which they operate.

Why No Financial Crisis Prosecutions? ‘It’s Just too Hard’

Years after the financial crisis, there have still been no prosecutions of top executives at the major players in the financial crisis. Why’s that? Well, according to a now-departed Justice Department official who used to be in charge of investigating such matters, the Justice Department has decided that holding top Wall Street executives criminally accountable is too difficult a task.

Scandalous Leadership and Organization Culture: A Theme Runs Through It

While there’s no excuse for recent leadership scandals, Art Stewart writes, “it is also irresponsible to dismiss outright our own role in engendering a culture of duplicity, incompetence, and corruption as if it all could manifest from unsupported solo acts.”

Crony Capitalism? Hank Paulson’s Extraordinary Meeting

A new report by Bloomberg News suggests that in July 2008, then-Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson met with “a dozen or so hedge-fund managers and other Wall Street executives” to discuss a possible scenario for placing mortgage enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into “conservatorship.” Pulitzer Prize-winner Jesse Eisinger says Paulson’s meeting with his former Wall Street peers draws “a picture of a Treasury Secretary who took care of his buddies while allowing the system to blow up.”

Margin Call: A Small Movie Unveils Big Truths About Wall Street

Reporter Jake Bernstein – who won a Pulitzer Prize for a series of stories on questionable Wall Street practices – says Margin Call is a “briskly paced and marvelously acted” film which tells “the story of a Wall Street that has evolved from an economic helpmate to an economic predator.”

VIDEO: Jon Stewart Dissects Jon Corzine and MF Global

Has anything changed in banking regulation since the crisis of 2008? Consider the case of MF Global Holdings Ltd., a New York-based securities firm that filed for bankruptcy protection on Oct. 31 after disclosing sizable exposure to derivatives and other investments related to billions of dollars in European sovereign debt. The firm was headed by Jon Corzine, a former CEO of Goldman Sachs who subsequently went into politics and was elected U.S. Senator and, later, Governor of New Jersey. In this video clip, “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart compares and contrasts the positions and behavior of Jon Corzine, the politician, with Jon Corzine, the CEO banker.

The Rise in Unemployment and the Loss of Civility

An executive recruiter in the compliance field says he’s recently noticed a disturbing trend: as the global economy stagnates and seemingly worsens, and job cuts are announced daily, tensions rise. “Frustration, irritation and the loss of common decency pervades,” he says. “It has truly become a dog-eat-dog environment.”

What’s Happened to the Big Players in the Financial Crisis?

Widespread demonstrations in support of Occupy Wall Street have put the financial crisis back into the national spotlight lately. So here’s a quick refresher on what’s happened to some of the main players, whose behavior, whether merely reckless or downright deliberate, helped cause or worsen the meltdown.

Improve Public Trust: Transform the Nominating Committee

Corporate governance expert Paul Strebel says there’s need for a “fundamental change” in the way board directors are nominated, with members of the nominating committee drawn from a more diverse group of stakeholders than has been the case. “To improve public trust in business, the search for board directors has to extend beyond the world of top executives,” he says.

Deutsche Bank Lawsuits: The Question of Trust

Deutsche Bank AG was sued last week by the City of Los Angeles, which called the world’s fourth largest bank one of the city’s largest slumlords. The bank was also sued by the federal government on separate charges of fraud and lying to benefit from mortgage insurance offered through a subsidiary. Columnist Gael O’Brien thinks both cases say a lot about the destruction of trust – a quality needed by business in the long-term.