by Effie Moore Salem

Created on: December 09, 2008   Last Updated: December 15, 2008

A lack of business ethics combined with a euphoric sense of never-ending profits and a total lack of understanding the overused phrase, what goes up must come down, caused the present economy to plummet. It did so under its own weight. This type of business where hay is made under artificial light when the sun refuses to shine, nearly always outdoes itself and forces a collapse. One website I have just now visited, suggests that negative and bad publicity is fanning the flame of indecision, and causing the stock market to see saw. Maybe so, but if wrong ways and means tactics are being employed, shouldn't investors and buyers and the public know of it?

In effect, what this Jerusalem Post is asking is, "Is the current stock market crash a self-fulfilling prophecy as Aumann and Sharf suggest?" (Aumann and Sharf are a Nobel Prize Laureate economist and an Israeli Treasury consultant.) The author, Asher Meir's article "Ethics @ Work? Is irresponsible reporting aggravating the crisis?" is a good question.

Of course it is. The same goes for irresponsibility in any form or fashion. To be irresponsible, one must know what his responsibility is and in spite of that knowledge act irresponsibly. Now let's ask ourselves who are the players in the more recent business dealings? Who were irresponsible knowingly and who acted responsibly or thought to? It all boils down to decision making: whether to be honest or whether to get rich no matter the outcome.

Now I move on to Bussinessweek.com and get in on their debate: The debate concerns whether or not the US auto makers should get their hats full of money from the US Government. There are pros and cons. Personally, if I were to make the decision I would attach strings to the proposal: No more gas guzzlers, common sense business dealings, and a promise in writing to make their cars environmental friendly.

One responder to their debate question suggest that to bail them out would send wrong messages to the car makers in other countries - Japan in particular - that this country does not stand for what it suppose to stand for. I agree. How's that for ethics not only business dealings but in communications as well?

Onward online: .simmons.edu, a school of management in Boston, MA suggests that "business ethics are back in the business school spotlight . . . and that light is shining brightly and hotly." (Deborah Merrill-Sands) She understands the problem and this school is out to see that their students learn the basics of good business.

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