Carly Fiorina: There Is No Substitute for Ethics
By Heather Monday Dec 22, 2008 5:30pm
Carly Fiorina on Late Edition Nov. 21, 2008. Too bad she didn't apply some of these same standards to herself when she headed HP.
BLITZER: Carly, what's the most important lesson people out there, around the world, right now, should learn from this Bernard Madoff scandal, this alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme -- not only wealthy people losing everything but a lot of charities losing everything as well?
What happened here? What's the most important thing we have to learn from it, to make sure it could never happen again?
FIORINA: Well, I think two things. And I recently wrote an op- ed in The Wall Street Journal, saying this. First, every financial instrument and all financial institutions, regardless of their nature or their type, need to be visible and transparent to appropriate regulators, period.
We cannot have huge pools of capital that are simply opaque to regulation.
BLITZER: So much more regulation?
FIORINA: We need a strong and sensible regulatory framework that doesn't choke capitalism but that can see and act on what it sees. But, secondly -- and this is my message to business people all over the world -- there is no substitute for ethics. Yes, people need to be responsible about their investing, but dishonest business people need to go to jail. They need to have the full extent of the burden of the law brought to bear.
This is a terrible blotch on the credibility of business, just as, by the way, so many failed companies are, right now, because it is not true to say that only a credit crisis has caused these companies, whether they're automobile companies or banks, to fail. They are failing because management and boards have taken unwise decisions.
I'm not saying everybody was dishonest. But there's a level of responsibility, here, that business leaders, I believe, must step up to. At a minimum, let's be ethical. And at a maximum, let's be responsible to something more than the short-term stock crisis.
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i was hoping she was done showing her face. i really got tired of her and the whining she was doing for
palin. i guess she gets a couple 15 minute of fame allotments.
Sooooo...does that mean the banks shouldn't have been bailed out according to Fiorina? Arrests should be made? Oh no, silly me, she means just that guy that defrauded RICH people. Oh he should be soooooo ashamed.
Corporations calculate the cost of complying with the law.
They calculate the cost of breaking the law.
If the cost is less to break the law, that is what they do.
Elect a bunch of Reptiles, whether they are Republican or Democrat, it matters not so much, and you get lax enforcement.
Ergo, even greater lawlessness by the Corporations.
I am reminded of a Tina Turner song: 'What's Ethics Got to Do With It'.
of breaking the law. Some just calculate wrong.
No sane criminal commits a crime in the expectation that the cost will be more than the gain.
The guy who breaks into your home to steal your stereo expects not to get caught and, therefore, to pay no price for breaking the law. It's not corporations specifically, it's just human nature.
There should be a law:
For every person laid off, the CEO's pay is cut by $10,000...
Fiorina would now be cleaning hotel rooms.
Is it even remotely ethical, that news media personalities get cushy government jobs?
So when you can no longer do political shows, you can become a senator!! What a f**ked up world!
is about as significant a government post as the tour guides at the White House.
How does that give her any claim to ethic's?
Politicians = ethical
Everyone else = unethical
In the media world anyway.
Back in business. Thanks, site team.
Ethichs shmetics. We are a country that is supposed to be ruled by law. The rules are there for all to follow whether in government or banking. Unfortunately you can have all the rules in the world, but if those who are supposed to enforce those rules aren't doing their jobs, the system collapses on itself as we're witnessing now.
We now have a Congress that has given a cash cow to Paulson and Bernanke without any oversight. We have a Federal Reserve with Bernanke at its helm that refuses to answer where two trillion dollars of American tax payer funds have gone. Now Barney Frank says if Paulson wants the other 350 billion, we want to know where it's going? The man is a mental moron. Where was Congresse's ethics when they gave these idiots our money to bail out the bankers who caused the problem to begin with? No wonder Obama has been saying for several weeks that hings are going to get a lot worse before they start getting better. These people know how bad things are and yet the best they can do is use the MSM to spoon feed the masses. There will be hell to pay and we the people will be happy to start the barn fire and get the ropes.
Loopy C***!!
to death on the second day of her being in deadwood
these calls for "transparency" are a smokescreen. Most companies release the relevant numbers; they're just hard for laypeople to decipher, and the past 20 years of Repug rule (I consider Clinton a moderate Repug) have gutted oversight by investigators as well as regulations. The corporate vultures have done an outstanding job of freeing themselves from law and regulatory enforcement while gaming the political system in their favor. The "free" market in action.
In other news, business schools still teach that executives have no responsibility to anyone except their shareholders; expecting sociopaths to change their behavior is foolish. Control is imposed from without or there's no control at all.
Once again, the only way out is to clean up government, first by instituting public funding of campaigns and banning corporate contributions. Or we could just take a firehose to Congress and start over again.
correct. Which is why replacing the suits at the Big 3, while it may seem like a needed step, is meaningless. They will be replaced by more corporate swine whose job is to inflate the stock price, take their payoff and move on to wreck the next company. A management by asshole degree or MBA for short, is simply organized an crime syndicate diploma. These dirtbags aren't taught ethics. The schools crank out sociopathic over-achievers who have given us usurious credit card rates, NINJA loans, a devastated industrial base, 10 trillion dollar debt, and an economy that produces few value added products.
I think I shall print out your comment and FRAME IT! Yeow!
Bob Roberts disagrees, however.
You are complaining about a small fraction of the financial elite. There are tens of thousands of MBA grads every year, most of whom work in small to medium sized businesses.
Also, FYI, business schools do teach ethics. MBA students are also taught about the externalization of corporate costs, the dangers of groupthink, the benefits of corporate citizenship, the merits of corporate social responsibility, etc.
contend it's a bullshit degree. Maybe you're right about the percentages, but the damage done by this small fraction is substantial. As for ethics, they're taught just enough to stay on the legal side of the line, not because they are altruistic.
but the MSM does what they like to do - spread the misinformation.
Carly came late to get that free Taxpayers money. Yes she jumped on board with old man McCain in hopes of being his VP choice. She saw Sarah was the pick and spoke out the truth which is something loyal Republican can't do. Carly said publicly neither McCain or Palin knew anything about Economics nor could either be a CEO. That was Carly's end. Now she will have to wait about 20 years or so for another Republican to be President. By that time the US Economy will be stronge and we'll have a big surplus for Republicans to come back and steal.
she is so ethical that she took millions of dollars in 'bonuses' and huge piles of cash while the compan she ran tanked. my wofe used to work there. they announced that her job was moving to mexico (Ole') and that she could not go there and have it even if she wanted to. a month after they started shipping jobs there, they realized that fortune 500 clients who just bought a million dollars worth of your servers will pretty much refuse to speak to people who cannot speak the english language.
what a stupid bitch!! and then she proves me right by goung out and being a 'consultant' for McBush. HAHAHAHAHAHA!
have fun trying to bilk money from other companies. with your track record, they will have you thrown out of the building wherever they are.
.....he asks Leo, "what can you trust? For a good return you gotta go bettin' on chance, and then you're back with anarchy. Right back inna jungle. On account of the breakdown of ethics. That's why ethics is important."
When you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar, the first thing you want to do is SCREAM BLOODY MURDER that there should have been better federal regulation on the controls applied to the opening of said jars... and on who has access to the lids of the jars... and also mandates on transparant class for the cookie jars... and...
Isn't it GREAT that Carly has an opportunity to talk about this issue... because, of course, you remember that those stupid politicians AREN'T SMART ENOUGH to run their own companies!
a regulatory framework needn't be complex or burdensome. it merely needs to have provision for pubic beatings, carried out with lightweight sticks by a team made up of aggreived parties. i've got it... economic Sharia laws.
CAN'T STOP LAUGHING.... HELP!... NEED AIR!...
You can't make it up!
Pot meet Kettle.
She couldn't run a lemonaid stand. She would ask for the money up front, then say the lemonaid was on the way and skip.
Considering her history of mismanagement and lack of ethics shown at HP, I'd say they are consulting an expert here.
After her star turn with McInsane, I was sure she would be their next woman candidate; however, she may be neck-and-neck with Impaled - both Rethugli-Con stars in the making.
Loyalty shouldn't be a substitute for gov't-functioning and competence, as has occured over the past 8 years.
Now the major home builders want a bailout. Why no just open Fort Knox and give it all away, unless there isn't anything left to give away.
we need (more) failed republican CEO's telling us what we need.
Yeah. that's what we need. We need more people in charge like 'Sorry' Carly Fiorina.
(not)
What’s the opposite of a MILF?
"I wouldn't nail her with someone else's dick"
MINF??
The world is spinning out of control. The word ethics actually came out of Fiorino's mouth.
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Yeah....let's be ethical. As in, when has this capitalist repug machine EVER been ethical?? The bottom line is "make all you can as quick as you can...and get out!" It has NOTHING to do with ethical. It has everything to do with "fuck your neighbor and run".
This is the world the repugs have built us. How comical it is to hear such dumb bitches as this slut call for "regulation", when all they have done is stripped it away to create this nightmare they have unleashed on us.
Nice try, beaaaatch!!
Sure is easier to dispense wisdom than actually troubling yourself to follow it, right Carly? Maybe you wouldn't have gotten crossways with HP if you had actually listened to your own advice. I wouldn't have a problem with your insolent preaching if you had just admitted that you were wrong in the past. Oh that's right---Neocons make up their own rules and blame others when things inevitably go wrong. Thanks for reminding us why you people are such failures.
"I mean - I looked - couldn't find a thing. Not at the Wal-Mart (where you'd think they'd have their brand version) -- not at the grocer or even at the hardware store. Nothing. There's no substitute to be had for ethics"
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for stating the obvious...of which will never happen
greed, for a better term...is not good
you dumb bitch
Carly Fiorina, "a terrible blotch" on the credibility of business.
At a minimum, let's be ethical. At a maximum let's lay off a whole shit-load of loyal workers because "e-business" was 'all the rage' even though I'm not really certain what the Hell I'm doing as CEO of the world's premier test and measurement paragon! God I'd love to kick her where it counts!
This is like bush or cheney providing counsel to Obama urging him to follow the Constitution.
When will this woman just STFU - along with blitzer (isn't he supposed to be pulling a sleigh or something this time of year?).
... about business ethics its like Hugh Heffner giving advice on monogamy.
The Duh and Huh Team work the airwaves at CNN.
Disgusting.
If Wolfie doesn't KNOW THE FACTS about Carly then why doesn't his staff?
Next on CNN, Wolfie Interviews Cheney on the WHY YOU MUST SERVE IN THE MILITARY.
NO EXCUSES. NO OUTS.
And she like Clinton has none!
Gee, Carly think people of business should know right from wrong.
What of Carley's ethical race to the bottom for middle class employees she displayed and how she drove HP down the dark cavern. She wasn't very open about it at the time.
Thank Obama we do not have Carly coming in to the new Adm with McCain at the helm....!
Why is this self-serving, narcisitic piece of horse manure getting so much air time? She despised technology and engineers. She destroyed The HP Way. She elevated BS artists at HP. She offshored thousands of jobs. She ended up getting fired for her incompentence. And still, we have to listen to her tell us how the business world should work?
If C&L Readers don't know it, there is a huge parallel between the 8 years of Bush as the U.S. President and the 6 years of Carly as the HP CEO. Everything, everything was based on propaganda to promote themselves. Bush was 24x7 campaigning for Bush; Carly was 24x7 promoting Carly. These people are maggots.
That the MSM puts her on so much is a sad testament to where the USA has gone. Everyone complains about Fox but there is really no independent media anymore in the US. Even PBS has huge biases.
Unforunately, 80% of the population actually believes the crap they hear on the MSM and Carly Fiorina is one of the premier purveyors of it.
Why do you have to speak ill of Maggots?
when people like her move their lips.
That is laugh out loud funny coming from Carly Fiorina. She is the absolute worst.
-AF
The kettle called, said Fiorina is just as black
dark pools of liquidity (er, capital) she speaks of is actually the blood of main street spilled by corporate slaughtershops. Ethics ain't Fiorina's bag.
Fiorina...
Cougar queen!!
Capitalism is dead. Gone the way of Communism.
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