The weekly Staff meeting here did not run smoothly. Our Revered Investment Guru (the R.I.G.) was in a snit, partly due to the yield on U.S. Treasury bonds rising, and partly because of the brisk dismissal of the CEO of Boeing, a randy gent. The bond irritant was that the rise in rates was some three years late, according to the R.I.G., who had been duly punished by betting too soon. Our Ethicist, more given to meditation, fell into a dispute about the firing of CEO Stonecipher [good name] for fooling around with a female exec. The R.I.G. thought that CEOs ought to be judged by the money they made for stockholders, not their moral purity. The Ethicist thought that CEOs, like baseball players, ought to be pillars of virtue. The Senior Counsel, called in to arbitrate, pointed out that no one knew what really went on, and besides, he ruled, the error was not in the hanky-panky, but in committing the liaison to the firm’s e-mails. Hence, said Counsel, if an exec doesn’t know better than to footle about by e-mail, where Attorneys General excavate daily, the exec is stupid and should begone. The OO said we should stand for virtue coupled with silence, and thanks to Barron’s, was able to quote Cardinal Richelieu: “Never write a letter and never destroy one.” Does that apply to columns?

Send to e-mail address:*

From e-mail address:*

Your comment to this article:

* Required fields

<< back