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.
Why Goldman Sachs (and Warren Buffett) Always Win
Fred N. Sauer
08/17/2011 - 15:24

Lloyd Blankfein and Warren Buffett photoLast week's stock market turmoil was a reminder that America continues to struggle to recover from the financial collapse of 2008-2009.  Benchmarks of our economic progress, or lack of it, are over 40 million people on food stamps, unemployment rates stuck over 9%, and GDP growth slowing, as it just missed expectations of 1.3% growth.  The Obama Administration's massive deficit spending has almost doubled the publicly held debt which was $5.808 trillion on 9/30/08, or 40% of GDP, to an estimated $10.672 trillion as of 9/30/11, or almost 71% of GDP.  This is all just in 3 fiscal years.  The road to recovery for most people looks longer than anyone expected.

But the American economy, being what it is, there are bright spots for some people. From the March 15, 2011 Wall Street Journal:

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Bailed-Out GM Creates 800 Jobs – In Indonesia
Mark Modica
08/16/2011 - 11:55

AFP reports that General Motors is investing $150 million on a West Java, Indonesia plant. The move is expected to create 800 jobs in the region. GM has about $20 billion left as cash and cash equivalents after having received about $50 billion from taxpayers a little over two years ago. While taxpayers may have reason to be unhappy about the investment overseas, at least GM is making a move that seems not to be based on politics.

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Will Comcast Reveal Ties to MSNBC Anchorman-in-Waiting Al Sharpton?
Carl Horowitz
08/15/2011 - 01:31

Sharpton photo"Al Sharpton, anchorman" - the phrase has an undeniably odd ring. Yet on MSNBC it's already a part-time reality. And his close relationship to MSNBC's parent, Comcast Corp., may enable him to become full-time permanent host of the cable network's 6 P.M. news slot. If Sharpton gets promoted - the announcement could come any day - it would be the ultimate coup in his ongoing campaign to obtain respectability to cover a long history of racial incitement.

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A Cadillac Volt – Are You Kidding Me!?
Mark Modica
08/12/2011 - 11:27

Akerson and Volt photoAccording to a USA Today report, General Motors has decided to offer a Cadillac version of the Chevy Volt called the Converj. This follows reports that the Obama Administration will continue to hold its stake in GM. That makes sense, since a decision to build a Cadillac version of the Volt could not be based on economic considerations, but political ones.

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Duke Energy Can Burn Forests for ‘Green’ Credits
Paul Chesser
08/10/2011 - 16:20

forest fire photoIt’s (once again) the law of unintended consequences for Green groups: In order to fulfill a 2007 state mandate that they derive 12.5 percent of electricity from so-called “renewable” sources, a North Carolina appeals court has ruled that Duke Energy – which will soon be more or less the only investor-owned utility in the Tar Heel state – may burn whole trees to comply with the regulation.

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General Motors to Remain Government Motors?
Mark Modica
08/10/2011 - 09:02

Geithner photoAccording to a WSJ report, "people familiar with the situation" said on Tuesday that the Obama Administration has put on hold its decision to sell the taxpayers' stake in General Motors. The article also states that "Treasury officials had anticipated GM's share price would increase following its public stock offering last November at $33 a share." It would seem that Treasury anticipated wrong.

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Bigger Role Seen for CEO James Rogers in Duke Energy Scandal
Paul Chesser
08/09/2011 - 11:15

Jim Rogers photoDuke Energy’s business approach has been to reap favors, tax breaks and advantages by virtue of its cozy relationship with government, with benefits that have redounded to them in the form of subsidies, tax shelters, government grants and mandates for wind farms (despite its failure to provide energy on a broad scale, even though it has been around forever) and other unproven cockamamie ideas.

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GM’s 'Crown Jewel' Losing Luster as China Sales Fall
Mark Modica
08/06/2011 - 11:47

A few months back General Motors CEO, Dan Akerson, made claims that future profits at GM would be driven by China sales and the Chevy Volt. It has become apparent that the Volt is a non-issue, so let's take a look at the performance of what Akerson described as the "crown jewel" of GM.

China sales in July for GM actually fell 1.8% year over year. GM and its "joint ventures" sold 173,398 vehicles in China for the month of July. Of this number, 77,944 units were sold by SAIC-GM-Wuling. It is another overlooked half-truth by GM that they count these as GM sales, even though GM is a minority owner of the division.

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Taxpayers To Get Hosed as GM Shares Hit New Low
Mark Modica
08/04/2011 - 20:13

Today's drop in GM's share price to a new low represents a one-day, half-billion dollar loss for taxpayers. From the time that Treasury could first file to sell the taxpayers' stake in GM, the losses have reached about 2.5 billion dollars. Of course the total cost of the bailout was well above this, but the Obama Administration does not seem to want to cut its losses.

GM announced earnings this morning and the numbers appeared to be good on the surface. Media friends of GM trumpeted the good news but the celebration did not last long. The festive mood was replaced with GM apologists trying to explain the negative share price reaction.

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Taxpayers Get Hosed on Duke Energy's Wind Farm Buying Spree
Paul Chesser
08/04/2011 - 20:09

Jim Rogers photoDuke Energy, along with General Electric and General Motors, are three of the major companies that are often criticized for their rent-seeking ways by free-market minded people, because their corporate earnings focus seems to depend more on subsidies and tax breaks from government rather than sales of their products. That all three support cap-and-trade policies (although it appears GM has left the US Climate Action Partnership) – as long as the gaming of the credit-trading system falls in their favor – is one example of this.

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