Pilant's Business Ethics

By James Saft (Reuters) – Italy is going to need considerably more – in luck, growth and cohesion – than is likely to be delivered by premier Mario Monti’s technocratic charms. Monti, unelected and a former European Commissioner, is so much more reliable and authoritative than the opera buffa figure of Silvio Berlusconi that it […]

By James Saft (Reuters) – A strengthening U.S. jobs picture is the best news in months, carrying within it confirmation of the fruits of a pleasant rebound in American manufacturing. That said, of the three sources of power for a recovery – private activity, public activity and monetary policy – only one will be a […]

By James Saft (Reuters) – Can Americans build a sustainable recovery based on borrowing money to buy cars to drive to debt-financed cosmetology classes? Perhaps not, but they appear to be trying, driving a surprising mini-recovery in the economy and, in the process, fueling a heck of a financial rally. Consumer borrowing in the U.S. […]

Bernanke did not create this world, but his policies helped to foster its growth. It's unclear if or how the U.S. goes back to being a place where your typical 60-year-old is coming close to having paid off her house, but we can be sure that the forces that might make that happen will be opposed by almost everyone making economic policy now . […]

Mortgage Fraud Exposed: Subprime Loans, Fraudulent Foreclosure Practices and Robo-Signings The month of February has seen darks days for the largest mortgage companies in the U.S. Federal and state officials on February 9 announced a landmark $25-billion agreement with the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers to settle investigations involving foreclosur […]

The Ethics of Corporate-University Partnerships I have previously blogged about "The Selling of American Universities". In this blog I examine the ethics of university-corporate partnerships in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. The depressed economy in the U.S. coupled with federal deficits, lack of state funding, budget cutbacks for […]

ROME — The European Union has finally agreed on its latest 130 billion euro bailout plan that should save Greece from going bust next month.Now all it has to do is help the country pull out of a five-year recession, get the one-in-five unemployed Greeks back to work and make sure that Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy don't end up sharing a similar fat […]

Rachel Maddow last night adeptly covered my story from Friday on the tactics repeatedly used by the Romney campaign's national finance co-chair, Frank VanderSloot, and his company (Melaleuca), to silence critics by threatening (and commencing) lawsuits against them. Numerous people have asked whether Salon or I have heard anything from lawyers for Vande […]