Free Republic

When Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took office in late 2015, he was a political golden boy who seemed destined to build on the legend of his father, who led the country for more than 15 years. But six months ahead of an October election, polls suggest the 47-year-old politician with the broad smile and a penchant for colorful socks could become the first prime minister to lose power after a single majority mandate since the 1930s. Trudeau is mired in a relentless scandal over alleged interference in a corporate corruption case that has led to the resignations of two...

Sensing public outrage over business corruption in America is waning, some in the corporate community are seizing on the shift in mood to try to roll back reforms, say top U.S. officials and academics. "There's clearly a rearguard action going on," said Maryland Democratic Sen. Paul Sarbanes in an interview three years after the Enron debacle that led to his co-authoring of landmark corporate governance and accounting reforms in 2002. Business scandals are now daily fare for Americans, from the prison sentencing on Friday of a former top Boeing Co. executive to revelations of abusive trading in the mutual fund...

L. Dennis Kozlowski wants to be clear: the $6,000 shower curtain wasn't his idea. The shower curtain, bought by his decorator on Tyco International's tab for an extravagantly furnished Manhattan apartment, became perhaps the most notable symbol of an era of corporate excess and conspicuous consumption. "I understand why a $6,000 shower curtain seems indefensible," Mr. Kozlowski, Tyco's former chief executive, said on the eve of his retrial on charges of looting the company. "But I didn't know about it. I just wasn't even aware of it. If somebody had come to me and said, 'Do you want to spend...

NEW YORK - Hollinger International Inc., a newspaper publisher caught up in a widening financial scandal, is looking into an investment the company made to a venture capital fund with links to defense adviser Richard Perle and Henry Kissinger, both directors of the company. The investigation is part of a wider probe at the company which has already resulted in the resignation of several senior executives, including Canadian-born press baron Conrad Black as Hollinger International's CEO. However, Black remains chairman and controlling shareholder of the Chicago-based company, which publishes the Chicago Sun-Times, The Daily Telegraph in London and The Jerusalem...

<p>Martha made us feel guilty. Now it's her turn.</p> <p>That's my best explanation for the venom with which politicians and prosecutors have pursued Martha Stewart and the glee with which critics have greeted her arrest.</p> <p>Stewart is being burned at the stake for conduct we all know is commonplace (among men) in the corporate world.</p>

Summary With the fraud scandals of Enron, WorldCom, and other corporate giants roiling the stock market, along comes Amtrak to announce a shutdown unless it gets an emergency $200 million cash infusion. But the government should stop subsidizing the failed national rail service, which has wasted billions of tax dollars, and allow the market to punish mismanagement with bankruptcy—exactly as it is doing with the corporate malefactors. Posted: Friday, August 02, 2002 Amtrak: The Federal Government’s Own Corporate Financial Scandal By  Mr. Barrett Kalellis ISSN: 1093-2240 With the mismanagement and fraud scandals of corporate giants Enron, Global Crossing, Tyco, ImClone,...

The American Capitalist System July 30, 2002 by John J. Abele The Capitalist, Free Enterprise economic system, as established in the United States today, has proven to be the most efficient and successful economic system in the history of the world. More people have a higher standard of living than at any other time or place in history. The tacit implication is that most Americans understand how a business enterprise is started and is operated. It is my guess that most people know very little about it, and understand less. I am one of the majority. Information has always been...

The House that Clinton/Gore Built

House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) has told senior Democrats that the party could pick up as many as 40 House seats if the continuously unfolding corporate scandals can be kept on the political radar screen until November, according to sources. The figure far surpasses any that has been suggested previously - even privately - by Gephardt or any other top Democratic campaign official, all of whom have consistently indicated that the House will be won or lost by a slim margin. "He said if this thing plays out right, we could pick up 30 to 40 seats," said one...

<p>In October 2000, a critical question confronted America Online Inc. as it sought to clinch the largest merger in U.S. history: Was it feeling the effects of an industry-wide slowdown in advertising?</p> <p>AOL's president at the time, Robert W. Pittman, offered a resounding answer: "I don't see it, and I don't buy it," he told Wall Street stock analysts and the media.</p>

Posted on Thu, Jul. 11, 2002 Our own greed fueled an economic downfall My Random House College Dictionary defines the word greedy as "excessively or inordinately desirous of wealth." It seems to me that we've all become a little too greedy for our own good. Take the stock market, for instance. Only months ago we were all basking in the sunlight of a roaring bull market and predicting a Dow in excess of 15,000 and a NASDAQ of 7,000. Brokers were touting each new dot-com as the next Microsoft. Mom and pop were hocking their homes to jump into the...