We’ve listened for a very long time to the whining CEOs complain about just how bad the business environment is in the country, how they sure would love to bring in the billions of dollars they’ve evaded paying taxes on throughout the years, how they kick and scream about all the rules and regulations that supposedly hobble the free market. Meanwhile, there are record corporate profits and obscenely lucrative paydays for this group of (usually) older white guys. Ok, I’m fine with them capitalizing on what this country provides them. What I’m not fine with is just how completely gutless they are when it comes to the bankruptcy expert. Ironically, or maybe not, a CEO who finally stood up to the petulant child is an African American, Kenneth Frazier, chief executive of Merck. In Andrew Ross Sorkin’s story in the New York Times, Frazier’s actions are chronicled, as the question is asked why other CEOs don’t take similar stands of principle.
But we know the answer to that question. These guys made their millions and billions by not allowing much to get in the way of the profit motive. I’ve written about disgraced John Stumpf, the ex head of Wells Fargo. It isn’t even what a crooked operation he ran and that we’re still not sure we’ve heard of all the cheating that was done on his watch. Nope, it’s that he was such the darling to Wall Street, to Warren Buffet, to much of the financial media. Almost no one called him out. They just sit silently, espousing no principles. And so too it is with the vast majority of corporate chieftains. They listen to the venom, the bigotry, the hate, the ignorance pouring out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And instead of being repulsed and speaking out, they amble in, lemming-like, for a photo opp. What a sorry group this is.