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.
Executives at Bankrupt A123 Now Want Bonuses
Paul Chesser
10/25/2012 - 10:01

A123 logoTaxpayer stimulus waster A123 Systems has not only declared financial bankruptcy – its executives also seem to be driving toward moral bankruptcy as well.

CEO David Vieau and his lieutenants, after receiving well over $279 million in Recovery Act funds and at least $135 million from Michigan taxpayers, have run the company into the ground. Yet they have asked a bankruptcy court judge for his blessing to receive up to $4.2 million in executive and retention bonuses to see through the company’s takeover, likely by Johnson Controls.

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Bailed-Out Chrysler to Build Jeeps in China
Mark Modica
10/23/2012 - 10:06

ObamaAmerican taxpayers should prepare themselves for another slap in the face, courtesy of the much-ballyhooed Obama auto bailouts. After spending about $85 billion to bail out Chrysler, General Motors and Ally Financial (formerly known as GMAC), taxpayers are being rewarded by Chrysler's parent company, Fiat, announcing that it is preparing to build its Jeep brand vehicles in China. In addition, according to a Bloomberg report, Fiat may end up building all of its vehicles in China, threatening the loss of more manufacturing jobs should the decision be carried out to move Chrysler manufacturing out of America.

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Obama’s GM Bailout Nothing to Brag About
Mark Modica
10/18/2012 - 09:03

Obama debate photoAs the presidential election nears we continue to hear about what a great job the Obama Administration did "saving" General Motors. The claims are that millions of jobs were saved and Mitt Romney wanted to let Detroit go bankrupt. A review of the facts reveals that the auto bailout process that cost taxpayers billions of dollars is hardly anything to brag about.

When President Obama says he "saved" GM, what he means is that his administration guided a bankruptcy process for the company, funded with taxpayer dollars. The repeated statements by Obama that Romney would have let the company go bankrupt are deceptive. Let's be clear, GM DID go bankrupt.

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Will Fiat/Chrysler Need Another Bailout?
NLPC Staff
10/12/2012 - 12:09

NLPC Associate Fellow Mark Modica was interviewed Wednesday by David Asman on the Fox Business Network on Moody's credit downgrade of Fiat. The Italian automaker, which owns Chrysler, is facing financial difficulties, even as President Obama is ballyhooing the "success" of the auto bailout. Here's a transcript:

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More Green Energy Money Down the Drain
NLPC Staff
10/10/2012 - 19:41

NLPC Associate Fellow Paul Chesser is interviewed on Fox Business Network's Money With Melissa Francis. Here is a transcript:

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GM Bankruptcy Misrepresentations Prefaced Libya Attack Controversy
Mark Modica
10/10/2012 - 09:44

The 2012 election campaigns have seen accusations thrown about that both President Obama and Governor Romney have been less than honest at times. After Obama was soundly trounced in the first debate, the defense for the President's poor performance (other than Al Gore's theory that it was the high altitude) was that Mitt Romney lied. While that unsubstantiated charge might make Governor Romney an accused liar, the facts surrounding the General Motors bankruptcy process reveal that those in the Obama Administration are proven liars.

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Ask GM Bondholders and Delphi Retirees About Obama's 'Economic Patriotism'
Mark Modica
10/04/2012 - 10:45

Obama debate photoPresident Obama called for a "new economic patriotism" during last night's presidential debate. Well, hold on to your wallets as this new buzz phrase seems to be a euphemism for "wealth redistribution." Just ask old General Motors bondholders or non-unionized Delphi retirees about how Obama's so-called "shared sacrifices" are more about cronyism than patriotism.

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Chevy Volt Leases Costing Taxpayers $10 per Gallon of Gas Saved
Mark Modica
10/02/2012 - 14:01

General Motors reported that it sold 2,851 Chevy Volts in September. The number is sure to be touted as a great success, even though the annualized rate of sale is still well below initial sales goals for the vehicle and nowhere near what conventionally-powered, mainstream cars sell. What is sure to be less publicized by the media is that the majority of the Volt "sales" were heavily subsidized leases that are costing taxpayers millions of dollars.

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Taxpayer-Funded EV Company Abandons IPO It Thought Would Save It
Paul Chesser
09/24/2012 - 08:01

Frito Lay Electric TruckThe failing British electric vehicle company that pretended to become an American one in order to save its U.K. investors has scrapped its planned initial public offering that it hoped would save it in Kansas City.

Smith Electric Vehicles, recipient of $32 million in taxpayer stimulus, had reportedly fantasized it would raise $76 million (down from $125 million) via an IPO by selling roughly 4 ½ million shares at $16 to $18 each. CEO Bryan Hansel bowed to reality Thursday night and rescinded those plans.

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Government Stimulus Can't Overcome 100 Years of EV Battery Shortcomings
Paul Chesser
09/20/2012 - 07:34

Nissan logoIt’s the battery.

Contrary to the excuses that Nissan has supplied about the loss of capacity for owners of the all-electric Leaf in the desert Southwest – especially super-hot Phoenix – a tightly-controlled test of a dozen of the vehicles showed that all of them experienced reduced range. Even a month-old Leaf could not recharge to 100 percent.

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