Titans of Industry category archive
Hostage Takers 0
Bayer’s slogan is “Science for a Better Life.”
By the way, you can’t blame this one on American corporate culture. Bayer is a German outfit.
Blame corporate culture as a whole.
Koch Heads Exposed 0
Koch donor list slips out. And the donors are just the sort of folks you’d expect.
Spill Here, Spill Now 0
Duke Energy joins the party. Some of its party favors (emphasis in the original):
Estimated tons of coal ash — which contains toxins including arsenic, lead, mercury, and radioactive elements — that were released to the river: 50,000 to 82,000
(snip)
Number of rail cars the toxic pollution could fill: 413 to 677
Rank of the spill among the largest coal ash spills in U.S. history: 3
No one noticed because Stupor Bowl!
Duke it out with more fun facts at the link.
Walmart SNAPs To 0
It’s an inconvenient truth that economic help for the poor helps the economy, because the poor put that money right back in circulation.
Case in point: Walmart misses itself them food stamps.
Billions of dollars were cut from the program last year, which left food-stamp recipients who shop at Wal-Mart with less money to spend at the world’s largest retailer, the report says.
Responsible Fiscals 0
This could get interesting.
(snip)
According to the complaint, that left First Choice, and other similar financial institutions, with “significant costs associated with, among other things, notifying its members of issues related to the Target Data Breach, closing out and opening new customer accounts, reissuing members’ cards, and/or refunding members’ losses resulting from the unauthorized use of their accounts.”
I’m torn.
There is an emotional appeal to the thought that companies should be held accountable for such massive screw-ups. Yet, we don’t know that Target was directly responsible. Target’s point-of-sale devices contained malware; my reading tells me that many outfits contract out their point-of-sale technology to vendors.
Is Target a legitimate target, is its vendor, or do we get a circular firing squad? May we as customers sue our banks when they get penetrated (after all, they penetrate us all the tim–never mind).
If the suit encourages American card companies to adopt the chip-and-PIN technology used in Europe, which they have resisted because it’s “inconvenient” (yet massive data breaches are somehow “convenient”) (Edit: and the change would cost money), it might be all to the good.
For a good discussion of the Target breach by computer security experts, listen to the latest NetSec podcast.
The Fee Hand of the Market 0
I was at a gathering recently with someone who considers himself a “Libertarian.” He was a nice guy, but, for some reason, not receptive to my position that “Libertarianism is a sophisticated rationale for amoral selfishness that refuses to recognize the sociological reality of original sin” (that is, the innate capacity and willingness of humans to do bad things because they can get away with them). (I was slightly more tactful than that, but not much.)
Discourse with ideologues is difficult. No mind is more closed than that of a true believer.
I did not pull out my “A Libertarian is a Republican who is ashamed to admit it” argument. I am saving that for a future encounter . . . .
Image via Bartcop.
Everybody Must Get Fracked . . . 0
. . . but tell no one.
Spill Here, Spill Now 0
Oily spill leads to oil slick lawyers.
Self-Abuse 0
They sell you out and then sell you souvenirs.
One Shop Stop 0
Strange.