Yes, I've been taking a bit of a blog vacation (yet still kicking my feet around in the dirt with Plainsman at drink me). Just a quick advisory -- if you're planning to take the August administration of the MPRE, you should register now before you miss the deadline (which is July 1). After that the $52 fee doubles! You...

If you think the Trent Lott debacle was bad, get a load of this one. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the extreme far-right Vice Speaker of the Russian Duma, visited Iraq four months ago and had some illuminating words on America, Bush, and a potential war on Iraq. The following is from a video of him (apparently completely loaded -- the tape was...

Citigroup "wants to rid [Salomon Smith Barney] of the legal and regulatory problems confronting it." So it's moving Citi's COO (and former lead counsel) over to Salomon Smith Barney to become its new CEO. Buffett did the same thing in 1991 when one of the bank's traders was caught manipulating the market for US Treasury Securities. Somehow a former exec...

Dean Schmalensee says that "management schools are not nurseries for felons" (but see my earlier comments). Other schools are being more proactive in the fight against unethical behavior among b-school graduates. Something about Sloan's attitude towards ethics really rubs me the wrong way. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it could be the arrogance in assuming that...

Ernie ponders on the difference between ethics and professionalism. Sam Heldman adds his own perspective. Eugene Volokh has this* to add (sorry, couldn't help myself). * See the 5:46pm entry. [Which was blank. In my twisted little sleep-deprived mind, it was funny. Really.]...

Corporate board members are going back to school to learn how to play fair. These industry leaders were delighted to learn all manner of fun things, like the definition of retained earnings (even I could tell you that one!) and to whom they owe their fiduciary responsibility (shareholders, stakeholders, or the CEO). It shouldn't surprise you that most of them...

MIT's Sloan School of Business won't be adding courses on ethics because there is no need to. I kind of imagined the problem was that business ethics wasn't properly taught in business school. Dean Schmalensee's argument for the status quo (he gives no concrete examples of how teaching ethics will be integrated into the curriculum) just makes no sense. You...

Mr. Grasso, Chair of the New York Stock Exchange, forgot to tell anyone he owned stock as a director of Computer Associates, International. Well, actually, CAI's lawyers advised him he didn't need to report it. If one is required to make these public disclosures, the determination to do so should not be made by the entity that has an interest...

Some people think my views on attorney-client privilege and reporting fraud, or possible fraud, or reporting of confident client information by over-zealous attorneys (you get the picture) are the very thing that corrupted the accounting industry in the first place. Not so. I do indeed understand that the shareholder is the client (as do, I suspect, others who share my...

On Monday, incoming first-years at the University of Utah were rounded up into court as part of their five-day orientation to the wonderful world of law (see the Salt Lake Tribune). There they participated in a ceremony similar to the lawyer's oath, swear[ing] to "obey and defend the Constitution," "discharge the duties of law student and future attorney with honesty...

Check out the cover of a gardening catalog from Plant Delights Nursery I received today. They always have good ones, but this one really takes the cake. Click even if you hate plants. p.s. If you want to get your own copy, you can, but be nice and send them stamps or chocolate. p.p.s. You should just send me chocolate....

The New York Times reports that it is damned near impossible to teach ethics to business school students. Robert Prentice, professor of business law at the UT-Austin b-school suggests employing actual lawyers to teach business law to management students. He makes a good point about the business of ethics: in economic terms, "any business strategy or activity that does not...

The Miami Herald reports Vinson & Elkins, who advised Enron on its shady transactions, is touting its experience in hiding cash as a client-attracting strategy. The former lead counsel for Enron says, ''We have nothing to lie low about." As you might remember, Enron hid its debt in the off-shore special-purpose entities Vinson & Elkins is so skilled at creating....

A few days ago Kausfiles reported the LA Times' comparison of Doris Kearns Goodwin's No Ordinary Time and the sources she "allegedly" filched from. You can see my spin here. This week, Alex Beam of the Boston Globe reports Nussbaum and Ropes & Gray are at it again: The LA Times article is ''junk journalism,'' Nussbaum says. ''Any time you...

The question this morning, dear readers, is, do you feel better? About the economy, that is! That's what the Boston Globe is asking, anyways. Should we feel better? Is there anything to feel good about? Anyone involved in the recent accounting scandals is likely to have signed off on the new SEC certification. In fact, they've probably improved their fraudulent...