The new MBA morality

When I read something like this -- that 20% of Harvard MBA students are signing a new "Promise to Be Ethical in an Era of Immorality" -- it simply makes me suspicious.

First, MBA students protesting that they'll be all concerned about "the common good" -- oh, and that doesn't mean they can't take big-salaried jobs -- makes me wonder if they have any concept of how the world of business works.

There are six things that must be in place -- by the government -- for the free market to work:

1. System of property rights with enforcement
2. System of contract law with enforcement
3. Ban on coercion and fraud, with enforcement
4. Prohibit trade in dangerous (i.e. poisonous, malfunctioning) products
5. Prohibit collusion and monopolistic practices by employers
6. Protect workers from unsafe working conditions

All of these are necessary. All of them come from government.

Oregon Governor would rather raise taxes than talk to Republicans

What a surreal exchange. At the City Club of Portland today I asked our Governor how it is that we're short of money, yet the state government will grow 8%, and the Democrat-controlled House has passed 20 bills that raise spending 7.5% over the previous budget.

And I asked him whether he was going to look at the Republican's alternative that suggests ways to fully fund education and public safety without raising taxes. He summarily dismissed the Republican budget, yet couldn't offer any details as to why he was dismissing it other than to call it names.

I wonder if he even read it. He came across as partisan -- as if he'd rather take a "not invented here" mind set, ignore anything that comes from the Republicans simply because he dislikes them, and if that means he enacts job-killing tax increases during a recession, he's okay with that.

And finally, he says he's going to create a team of efficiency experts to help him find ways to reduce government costs... starting in July of 2009. Where was that in January 2003 when he first took office? And why wait until July of this year?

This is a shameful performance.