This was a technical discussion on how to handle stock options from an accounting point of view. At the time, the issue was whether stock options should be expensed. I was overruled by the accountants, but my arguments were better.
President Obama made a number of speeches about the need, as he sees it, for high income earners to pay more in taxes. Warren Buffett, a long time friend and a person I greatly admire, supported Obama’s assertion with an extraordinary example. He pointed out that his secretary had a higher income tax rate than he did and this was wrong. I thought the whole discussion was nonsense. If you read all my essays, you’ll see I dealt with this version of class warfare a number of times. When Warren made his public comment, I thought a rebuttal was in order. The number and vitriol of the letters written in response to my op ed was really interesting. I enjoyed reading all those comments at the time. My op ed in the WSJ certainly got people’s attention
During one of the perennial discussions about whether globalization was good or bad, I decided to enter the discussion and did so with this essay. I think my points are valid today, particularly both parties are becoming more populist in their thinking about trade.
In our now fashionable “woke” culture, corporations are being asked to push programs for social justice and elevate employees, customers and the general public good as legitimate and equal stakeholders in the decisions of the management in businesses. Corporations latest fad is to support the entirely Marxist enterprise under the banner of the Black Lives Matter organization and they are providing that support in large numbers. In essence, they are refuting the teachings of Milton Friedman and the wisdom accumulated over centuries about what makes a happy and prosperous society.
This is an important issue and I wrote this essay quickly to deal with it. I will revise this essay over the next few weeks as I hear from you and think further on the points I need to make and the inevitable criticisms I will hear about. Please write your thoughts in the comments section. Thank you.
This is an essay written by Andrew Ross Sorkin for the New York Times. He takes issue with Milton Friedman’s understanding of corporate social responsibility which is to maximize long term value. Sorkin seems to support a more currently fashionable view that Corporations have a broader social responsibility serving customers, employees, the general public as equivalent stakeholders to shareholders. I completely disagree and will write an essay refuting this insipid and mushy notion. In the meantime, I wanted my subscribers to read this article and give me their thoughts until I do write my rebuttal.
This is an editorial from the WSJ discussing the good news in the jobs report for August. (This post was not able to copy the chart in the editorial, but the text will suffice.
A short essay by Jim Pethokoukis describing why capitalism is a moral good. Well worth reviewing because of all the nonsense about how capitalism is evil. just ask any college student.
Glenn is Dean of the Columbia Business School and one of my favorite economists. He wrote this with a colleague dealing with the question about who a corporation is responsible to – shareholders, or more broadly, stakeholders. I’m on the side of – “corporations’ job is to create long-term value for its owners.” To do that effectively, it must consider doing well for employees, customers and the broader community, but serving those constituencies is not the corporation’s objective; it is a requirement for succeeding in business.
The latest job report shows the economy is coming back. You wont see this number in the media. Ill leave this entry up for a while, then delete it.
This is a good technical analysis of the Fed’s announced new policy. For the non economist, it’s a difficult read. Try it anyway, you’ll learn a lot
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