Enron, Global Crossing, Worldcom, Xerox..... Is there no end to it? I see the dollar is almost parity with the Euro.

Is it the end for the short termism of shareholder value and the screwing of any notion of corporate responsibility to labour and the wider commmunity? Only time will tell. Personally, I'm all for a few more ninepins. Maybe then the world will really start to take a look at the monster that the financial markets have become.

The lessons of the Great Depression have been forgotten. Most of the controls put in place after the almighty crash that took place have been pulled apart.

Now we maybe will start to realise that they were put in place for a purpose, to guard against the financial piracy, mayhem and free for all that the markets have become.

Dollar bill for bog roll, anyone?

*LOL* Instead of firing and blaming employees, these corporations need to fire the CEOs who did this, and make them pay back all those billions of "bonuses" they paid theirselves for "cooking the books" to make it look like they were making big profits.

I suggest they make the CEOs sell their million dollar houses, and use it to help their over-worked and under-payed employees find jobs with reliable companies. *LMAO*

It's corruption to the bone what brings em down, sit back and watch em go down !

The system that allows executive bonuses to be tied to share price performance is mad. We have the same thing in Britain. In my opinion, it is not at all a positive thing. Basically, CEOs are thus motivated to go for solutions that boost earnings short term, but actually do nothing for the company's long term health. As you say, it also encourages book cooking, but there's more to it than that.

Perfectly good companies can be ruined by following policies that send messages that the markets like, but are disasterous in the long term. Look at Boeing. Look at Marks & Spencer. And many others.

Is business for the benefit of ordinary people and the wider community, or are people there purely as fodder for big business? In Britain and the US, it would seem the latter. Things need to change.

[ 06-29-2002, 02:16 PM: Message edited by: Silver Cheetah ]

The system that ties executive bonuses to share price performance is mad. We have the same thing in Britain. In my opinion, it is not at all a positive thing. Basically, CEOs are thus motivated to go for short term solutions that make the company look on target for growth, and boost earnings. As you say, it also encourages book cooking, but there's more to it than that.

Perfectly good companies can be ruined by following policies that send messages that the markets like, but are disasterous in the long term. Look at Boeing. Look at Marks & Spencer. And many others. Sustainability has for too long taken a back seat to market rapaciousness. Is business for the benefit of people and the wider community, or are people there purely as fodder for big business? In Britain and the US, it would seem the latter. Things need to change.</font>[/QUOTE]Same here in Holland, even in hospitals they have managers that get paid so extremely much, that some hospitals got in to big financial problems and some even had to close, it's totally insane !

Yes of course, but we will not see change, since those in power will fight every little piece of socially progressive legislation tooth and nail.
Also at some point, they’re going to have to start rolling back the labour reforms in the first world as well, so maybe then we will see alienation on a large scale,
Hmm… quite possibly Marx got the time scale wrong, we could truly be heading towards the era of global capitalism that he postulated.
If that is true, then revolutions and dissatisfaction that wracks the globe could not be far off, perhaps with our lifetimes even, or maybe not.

Yes of course, but we will not see change, since those in power will fight every little piece of socially progressive legislation tooth and nail.
Also at some point, they’re going to have to start rolling back the labour reforms in the first world as well, so maybe then we will see alienation on a large scale,
Hmm… quite possibly Marx got the time scale wrong, we could truly be heading towards the era of global capitalism that he postulated.
If that is true, then revolutions and dissatisfaction that wracks the globe could not be far off, perhaps with our lifetimes even, or maybe not.[/QB]</font>[/QUOTE]They've rolled back quite a few labour reforms already in the UK. Ours is the most 'flexible' labour market in Europe, as far as I know, to the detriment of the workers.

As for 'revolutions and dissatisfactions that wrack the globe', well of course. I would have thought even the blind could see it coming. (Except when they are seated in and around The White House at the beginning of the 21st century perhaps. Those blinkers are truly awesome in their size and impermeability.)

it sucks that all of this is happening.....

One of the problems lies with the American right, they seem to believe that they are absolutely and unconditional and wholly right (so to speak) and will not brook any argument to the contrary.

I suspect that the advent of the 3rd wave economies shift will start to make it even worse soon; I mean there are still some countries, which are feeling the advent of the industrial revolution.

It's gonna probably get a lot worse before it gets better.

We can already see Tony and his cronies trying to threaten the freedom of information and speech the internet brings with those damnable internet monitoring and records access rules.

So, why do you think it is happening? Don't you think that we need far more transparency and openness when it comes to corporate accounts?