Here are eight recent examples of corporate corruption and of the overall corruption of our current system of capitalism, in which a lack of regulation of large corporations and Wall Street allows greed to run rampant. The frequency of these incidents is astounding; they are reported on a daily basis. The varied examples below document a breadth of greed-driven corruption that puts lives in danger, destroys news reporting that is essential to a well-functioning democracy, and makes the stock market vulnerable to manipulation and our financial system vulnerable to criminal money laundering. (This previous post highlighted three other examples of corrupt capitalistic behavior.)
Example #1: The power outage in Texas has dramatically illustrated what happens when the private sector is not properly regulated. This is, of course, particularly important when we rely on the private sector to deliver a vital public service (e.g., electricity or water) or an essential public product (e.g., health care supplies or food). In Texas, the private electric power generation companies and the private electric grid manager decided in the 1930s to avoid federal regulation by refusing to participate in the national power grid. Then, they got Texas regulators to let them cut corners to maximize profits. The result is an electric power system that doesn’t have the capacity to respond in an emergency and, therefore, left millions of people in the dark and cold, jeopardizing their health, safety, and, indeed, their lives, during a recent mid-February cold snap. [1]
Example #2: The wild fluctuations in GameStop stock, a small, previously little-known company, have focused attention on weaknesses in the regulation of the stock market and of the companies that facilitate stock trading. GameStop stock shot up from $4 to $5 a share in August to $20 in mid-January to $483 in late January. It then fell back to $41 by mid-February. This roller coaster ride has highlighted the risks and often unfair environment that individual investors face in the stock market, which is dominated by sophisticated, powerful, and wealthy traders, who too often are further advantaged by access to inside, non-public information. [2]
Example #3: Three big drug distributors (Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, and McKesson) and Johnson & Johnson are paying big fines (a total of $26 billion) as part of the settlement for fraudulently marketing and selling opioids, which led to drug addictions, overdoses, and tens of thousands of deaths. However, they are deducting these fines from their taxes, reducing what they owe the government by a combined $4.6 billion. Under the settlement, the four companies will avoid having to admit to any guilt, wrongdoing, or legal responsibility. Many people involved with this case feel that the fines are too low based on the damage that was done and that the tax deductions and the lack of any admission of guilt are insulting to the victims. [3]
Example #4: Tribune Publishing, one of the last newspaper chains not already owned and gutted by private equity or hedge fund vulture capitalists, is being bought by the Alden Global Capital (AGC) hedge fund. AGC, along with other vulture capital newspaper purchasers, has consistently maximized financial returns by cutting the newspapers’ staffs, selling their real estate, busting their unions, and eliminating their pension liabilities, while pocketing as much cash as possible and loading debt onto the newspaper companies, often pushing them toward bankruptcy. The Tribune papers that will almost certainly be similarly decimated are in Chicago, Baltimore, Hartford, Orlando FL, New York (the Daily News), Annapolis, Allentown, Newport News, and Norfolk VA. AGC now owns over 200 newspapers. This purchase (and the others like it) is possible because of a lack of antitrust enforcement and special tax law provisions that favor debt-financed acquisitions and payment of special dividends from companies operating at a loss. [4]
Example #5: An investor lawsuit against Boeing is moving forward based on claims that the Board of Directors and management failed to uphold their responsibilities to shareholders relative to the safety issues and crashes of the 737 Max airplanes. Two of the planes crashed in the spring of 2019 killing 346 people. The suit questions the Board’s and management’s roles both in the initial testing of the plane and its software, and their actions after the crash of the first plane, when they decided not to ground all the 737 Max planes. Boeing has already agreed to pay more than $2.5 billion to resolve criminal charges that it conspired to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) during the plane’s safety review and certification. The Board did fire Boeing’s CEO in 2020, but gave him a $62 million severance package. [5]
Example #6: Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi, who jointly market the blood-thinning drug Plavix, were ordered by a judge to pay the State of Hawaii over $834 million for illegally marketing the drug. For 12 years, they failed to properly warn consumers about health risks and didn’t disclose that the drug was ineffective for up to 30% of users, both of which put some users’ lives at risk. They engaged in these practices in order to maximize their profits. [6]
Example #7: Google has agreed to pay a $1.3 million fine to French fraud and competition regulators for displaying misleading rankings for French hotels on Google Maps and in Search results. [7]
Example #8: Citigroup, parent of Citibank, was fined $400 million for deficient financial controls and related technology. In an ironic example of its lack of controls, Citibank, in what it says was a mistake, transferred over $500 million to a client’s lenders while intending to make a much smaller interest payment. A judge recently ruled that the lenders do not have to return the money. [8]
[1] Cox Richardson, H., 2/16/21, “Letters from an American blog,” (https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-16-2021)
[2] Rosen, A., 2/18/21, “Mass. Investor ‘Roaring Kitty’ says he wasn’t part of any coordinated effort to boost GameStop,” The Boston Globe
[3] MacMillan, D., & Schaul, K., 2/12/21, “Drug companies seek billion-dollar deductions from opioid settlement,” The Washington Post
[4] Kuttner, R., 2/17/21, “Private equity swallows up yet another newspaper group,” The American Prospect blog (https://prospect.org/blogs/tap/private-equity-swallows-up-yet-another-newspaper-group/)
[5] MacMillan, D., 2/17/21, “Boeing directors misled on safety, investor lawsuit claims,” The Boston Globe from the Washington Post
[6] Bloomberg News, 2/16/21, “Bristol-Myers, Sanofi must pay $834 million over Plavix,” The Boston Globe Talking Points
[7] Associated Press, 2/16/21, “Google fined $1.3M for misleading French hotel rankings,” The Boston Globe Talking Points
[8] Bloomberg News, 2/17/21, “Citigroup loses $500 million legal battle over transfer blunder,” The Boston Globe Talking Points
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