Corporate Integrity Project

Scandals involving Enron, Tyco, Global Crossing, Boeing and WorldCom have shaken confidence in America's corporate leaders. NLPC seeks to promote integrity in corporate governance, including honesty and fair play in relationships with shareholders, employees, business partners and customers. In doing so, NLPC places special emphasis on:

  • Asserting that the social responsibility of the corporation is to defend and advance the interests of the people who own the company, the shareholders. True responsibility is fidelity to one’s own mission, not someone else’s, or someone else’s political agenda.
  • Exposing the seeking of influence on public officials by corporations, which is the inevitable result of high levels of government spending and intervention in the marketplace.
  • Combating practices that undermine the free enterprise system, including philanthropic giving to groups hostile to a free economy.
The Protestors ALREADY Occupy Wall Street
Peter Flaherty
10/11/2011 - 13:02

Wall Street protest photoAre the anti-Wall Street protestors demonstrating against themselves? The richest and most prominent Wall Street executives overwhelmingly supported and bankrolled Barack Obama's presidential campaign in 2008.

And on Wall Street, little distinction is made between liberal Democrats and avowedly socialist activist groups. The big banks financed ACORN. Although ACORN has disbanded in the wake of scandal, the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, formerly headed by White House Chief of Staff William Daley, continues to fund similar groups committed to undermining capitalism and debasing democracy.

view
FERC Says Merger Would Further Entrench Duke Energy Monopoly
Paul Chesser
10/07/2011 - 10:05

Jim Rogers photoThe merger hearings for Duke Energy and Progress Energy before the North Carolina Utilities Commission were supposed to be the last major hurdle for the deal to be approved, but now the concerns of a small coastal city and a federal government regulatory agency have cast last-minute doubts. It turns out the demands by environmental groups for Duke to pay more money into weatherization boondoggles were minor irritants compared to the threat posed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

view
Government Motors Selling Volts Cheap as Elections Near
Mark Modica
10/04/2011 - 14:15

General Motors continues to claim that demand will drive Chevy Volt sales and 10,000 of the vehicles will be sold in 2011, even as September sales came in at a still disappointing dismal rate of 723 units sold. GM has staked its credibility on the success of the much-hyped hybrid. The Obama Administration also risks another embarrassment if Volt sales continue to underwhelm following the Solyndra scandal that saw a similar failed green energy initiative lead to a 500 million dollar loss on its taxpayer funded gamble. Now we learn that GM has been selling the $40,000 plus vehicles for as low as $29,500 each according to the gmauthority.com site. How far will GM and the Administration go to pump sales figures to persuade the public that the Chevy Volt is a green success story that justifies the spending of billions of taxpayer dollars on such initiatives?

view
The Solyndra - Walmart Connection
Paul Chesser
09/29/2011 - 09:05

solar graphicA lot has been said about the ties of George Kaiser, a campaign contribution bundler for President Obama’s 2008 campaign, to the Solyndra bankruptcy scandal that likely has cost taxpayers $535 million thanks to a Department of Energy loan guarantee. Kaiser’s investment firm, Argonaut Venture Capital, held over 35 percent of the failed solar company’s stock – more than anyone else.

view
Tax the Banks to Cover Auto Bailout Losses?
Mark Modica
09/29/2011 - 08:25

funneling money graphicA recent article on Newsmax.com by John Berlau exposes another scheme by the Obama Administration designed to redistribute more wealth in an effort to cover taxpayer losses in the General Motors and Chrysler bailout fiasco. The plan is to have financial institutions with assets of more than $50 billion to continue to pay a "financial crisis responsibility fee" until TARP losses by firms like GM and Chrysler are recouped. Of course, cronies at GM and Chrysler are not on the hook for the losses. It seems that the old playbook used by Obama to have others pay for the costs of failure at GM and Chrysler is still being used.

view
Taxpayer Funding of Chevy Volt to Create Jobs – In China
Mark Modica
09/26/2011 - 11:12

Akerson and Volt photoIt seems the promise of job creation for taxpayer funded green initiatives, such as the Chevy Volt development, is partially being kept. The only problem is that many of those jobs are going to China. General Motors confirmed last week that it would develop an electric vehicle platform in China. USA Today reports that GM Vice Chairman, Steve Girsky, stated that GM and Chinese auto company, SAIC, will develop a new electric vehicle that would draw upon the Chevy Volt's technology. Girsky also hinted that future Chevy Volts will be built in China in order to qualify for Chinese subsidies of about $19,000 per car. Girsky claims that neither China nor SAIC are demanding that GM share Volt technology. Whether they are demanding it or not, it is obvious that they will get it.

view
Duke Energy Juggernaut Won't Stop Shakedown Artists
Paul Chesser
09/26/2011 - 11:02

Jim Rogers photoIf it wasn’t already obvious, then a report in Friday’s Raleigh News & Observer about the merger hearings between Duke Energy and Progress Energy into the nation’s largest utility makes it clear: That Duke’s strategy is continued growth into “a political juggernaut.”

That’s what came out of the final day of testimony about the deal before the North Carolina Utilities Commission, which appears to be the final major hurdle for the merger’s approval. The N&O cited “hints” by company executives about “further acquisitions down the road,” in which Duke would wield even more power than they do now.

view
GM and GE Go All-In for Chinese Subsidies
Paul Chesser
09/26/2011 - 11:00

immelt photoProfessional subsidy-sucking General Motors, which seems content to marinate in its taxpayer "investment" indefinitely, is getting ambitious. No, not in the sense of paying back the $50 billion U.S. government bailout, or in producing vehicles people actually want to buy, but instead in finding other governments to subsidize its products.

Not surprisingly the new partner - in a 50-50 joint venture with the state-run auto industry - is China. And also unsurprisingly, General Electric will join GM in a related partnership in the communist nation.

view
How Deep Does GM Boycott Run?
Mark Modica
09/22/2011 - 08:09

Media headlines about General Motors trumpet events that would lead one to believe that the company has successfully transformed itself into a self-sustaining, profitable American corporation. Readers are to believe that thousands of jobs are now being created at GM and the taxpayers are on their way to reaping the rewards of their so-called "investment" of $50 billion in an ownership stake of the company, even as Wall Street pricing of GM shares indicates otherwise. However, there is a portion of Americans who do not buy into the GM success story and now refuse to purchase vehicles from the company based on moral grounds.

view
LightSquared Scandal Explodes
Peter Flaherty
09/16/2011 - 11:06

Obama photoAllegations that we first made in February about White House political favors for a company called LightSquared are starting to get the attention they deserve.

LightSquared is owned by the Harbinger Capital hedge fund, headed by billionaire investor Phil Falcone. He visited the White House and made large donations to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Soon after, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted LightSquared a highly unusual waiver that allows the company to build out a national 4G wireless network on the cheap.

view
Syndicate content