The April 30 issue of The New Yorker has a fascinating article about the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Trivandrum, India. Over centuries, people have made donations to the temple’s deity, Vishnu, and a huge fortune has accumulated. As in – possibly $20 billion in gold and precious stones. Indian property law has an interesting twist…. [Read More]
Blog
Category: Political Discourse
Fraud! Fraud! Fraud!
This Monday brought news of suspected bribery at Walmart and fraud charges against the former head of CalPERS. It’s a useful reminder about the limits of human frailty and of social investing. Walmart is one of the most environmentally conscious companies out there, and CalPERS runs a great shareholder activism program. But both play in… [Read More]
Bribery and Transparency
Today’s New York Times had a great article about new efforts to expose bribery in developing countries. All it takes is a little exposure. People sometimes justify bribes by dismissing them as gifts or tips. It’s part of the culture, they say. I was a waitress for a while in college, and I can assure… [Read More]
Fiduciary Responsiblity and Susan G. Komen for the Cure
At this point, we all know what happened: Susan G. Komen for the Cure decided to cut grant funding for Planned Parenthood, the executives gave conflicting stories about why it was cutting funding, and people all over raged on Facebook, Twitter, and what have you. Once criticism that I saw, several times, was the idea… [Read More]
Waiting on Congress
Like everyone else, I’m waiting to see what happens in Congress on the debt ceiling. We need to raise the debt ceiling, raise revenues, and cut spending. All three are necessary. There is no magic solution, and default will be ugly. I love my country. I wish everyone in Washington did, too. It seems like… [Read More]
