Why do we hold ordinary corporate employees to a higher standard than members of Congress? We've created a "broken pyramid of scrutiny," in which we monitor and scrutinize the least powerful the most.
Happy new year! Thank you for airing an inequity that is so basic, yet so unexplored by more mainstream outlets. I’m currently job hunting (laid-off tech worker), and I spend ridiculous amounts of time correcting resume-slurping job app software that tries to turn my “BA studies in... “ qualification into “BA in ...” because I’m not trying to claim that I graduated.
This government was founded under the assumption that people of honor would rise to the most powerful positions. Instead we’ve got “Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.”
Thanks for your thoughtful comment, Freda (and sorry to hear about your layoff). Yes, I think one of the problems with modern democratic politics is that so much is on autopilot. The US Constitution is an amazing document, but it’s supposed to grow and change as times change. It’s clear that there’s a crisis of imagination in modern democracies, where the questions are always framed in the “politics of the possible,” which is sometimes a useful way of thinking about legislation, but other times stymies bigger debates about the kind of society we want to live in. I, for one, want to live in a society where powerful people face more scrutiny, oversight, and mandated training than the rest of us. Thanks for reading and commenting!
You speak the ugly truth. The powerful write the rules and we plebians suffer. I find it infuriating to acknowledge our pyramid of scrutiny, yet we're all so busy trying to make a living that mobilizing for change is a mirage as the masses don't/won't engage. I can post a picture of my dogs on social media and get 100 likes, but if I post your excellent, on-point article only 5 people will "like" it and fewer will comment. It's exhausting to attempt to get others to join the call for change. So where's our MLK for common sense in workplaces and government?
Thanks for reading, Jeanne. I know what you mean about disengaging from politics (and I can’t blame them for liking photos of your dog -- I am a dog obsessive). But that’s part of the playbook we’re up against: exhausting people is a useful tactic to grind away at democracy. The key is to keep advocating for what’s important, even if it fees futile sometimes. Ripples matter. Thanks again for reading and commenting!
Brian, as always great insights and a happy 2023! Had not thought about corruption and accountability in the manner in which you have laid out so thank you for doing that. But the fundamental question is why do the powerful usually avoid and elude accountability? In my humble opinion, it comes down to the old, well worn knowledge that the powerful make the rules, and it is always rules for thee but not for me. I’m this way the powerful can point to systems of rules and accountability whether it is to the media, researchers, and other interested stakeholders and claim they have it under control. It is a bit of a shell game. And the powerful protect each other, or are protected by those who face accountability today, with the promise of reaching the next step tomorrow when they are not accountable.
ENRON is a great example. I worked for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in the late 90s to 2000. We have oversight of wholesale power trading and approval of market rules. We could see from those filings ENRON was not making the kind of money that showed up in headlines. I personally had to tell ENRON to not file something they were trying to manipulate or circumvent the market as it was easy to see the game. They yelled and screamed that I word wrong and did not understand markets (I am PhD Economist). I held my ground because I was not insecure or intimidated by money. In spite of all the bluff and bluster, this particular proposal was never filed. They were a bully and needed to be punched in mouth hard. Along with all this we started reading their quarterly SEC filings and could see the kinds of things being done to inflate earnings using market yo market accounting. But we were told quietly, yet forcefully, that was outside of our regulatory domain (it was an SEC matter) and told to drop it. Somebody above us was protecting ENRON, who exactly is unknown, but the message was clear.
Following my stint with FERC I worked with international development agencies in the power sector and could see how ENRON was doing business in other countries...money flowed freely to politicians. Deals got done (signed) that would profit the ENRON execs on these deals immediately before anything was ever done. Corporately it looked like and internal Ponzi scheme.
But we have learned nothing from ENRON. It has only gotten worse.
Great comment as usual, Paul, and of course you’re right. But the great (and often unfulfilled) promise of democracy is that it can be the great leveller where powerful people must answer to those who aren’t powerful. I am really pessimistic about the state of American democracy in the short term, but pretty optimistic for global democracy over the long run. I believe there’s a universal human impulse to want a say in key decisions that affect our lives, and the question is how long people tolerate a system that protects powerful and corrupt figures. Your personal experiences are fascinating -- will need to interview you for a future book, it sounds like!
Brian, enjoy the dialogue back and forth and we should connect on an interview. It gets worse unfortunately. In recent years, I have had discussion with colleagues to hold C Suite people accountable and boards of directors equally so for not stepping in. In practice they like the idea, but when the run it up to their C Suites, the idea gets rejected because they do not want to set a precedent that executives and board members are fair game because it means they will also face the same scrutiny and possible removal, so they will not take the action. What this shows is not only a tacit powerful protecting the powerful, but executives and board members consciously ignoring their fiduciary responsibility to shareholders (PE holdings or publicly traded companies) when removal of executives elsewhere would help them!!! The incentives for self interest and protection outweigh fiduciary responsibility. I cannot get into more detail here, but we can talk offline. It is a sick and twisted mentality.
Is there any way to wrest back decency and integrity? Historically, King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta but how can we do something like that these days? (Magna Carta Summary, Petition of Right - Human Rights: In 1215, after King John of England violated a number of ancient laws and customs by which England had been governed, his subjects forced him to sign the Magna Carta, which enumerates what later came to be thought of as human rights.
Honest people trying to contribute to society, just get slaughtered. Here are two examples:
How Kevin Van Ausdal lost everything after running for Congress against QAnon and Marjorie Taylor Greene - The Washington Post: “I am heartbroken to announce that for family and personal reasons, I cannot continue this race for Congress. The next steps in my life are taking me away from Georgia …” And that was the end of 31 days.
He Declined FBI Informant Offer, Then His Life Was Ruined
“It is very typical to hear about someone pressured to become an informant who refuses and suffers retaliation in the form of being placed on the no-fly list,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union National Security Project. Khan had no way to clear his name or fix his shattered reputation. To this day, he has never been accused of any wrongdoing. “I’ve lived a clean life and never got into any kind of trouble at all anywhere in the world. No one has ever even accused me of doing anything, so I can’t see where the justice is in any of this. It feels like one guy in the FBI just decided that he was going to ruin my life for no reason.”
It’s a terrible dilemma. Is there a practical plan to overcome this massive corruption? Recently, the young people of Iran have been sacrificing their lives to overcome the thugs running their government. I sincerely hope they will succeed. Wondering what kind of chance they had, I googled “ successful revolutions.” Ironically, what is considered the most successful revolution is the one that overthrew the Shah of Iran, implemented by the thugs that are in power now.
Happy new year! Thank you for airing an inequity that is so basic, yet so unexplored by more mainstream outlets. I’m currently job hunting (laid-off tech worker), and I spend ridiculous amounts of time correcting resume-slurping job app software that tries to turn my “BA studies in... “ qualification into “BA in ...” because I’m not trying to claim that I graduated.
This government was founded under the assumption that people of honor would rise to the most powerful positions. Instead we’ve got “Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.”
Thanks for your thoughtful comment, Freda (and sorry to hear about your layoff). Yes, I think one of the problems with modern democratic politics is that so much is on autopilot. The US Constitution is an amazing document, but it’s supposed to grow and change as times change. It’s clear that there’s a crisis of imagination in modern democracies, where the questions are always framed in the “politics of the possible,” which is sometimes a useful way of thinking about legislation, but other times stymies bigger debates about the kind of society we want to live in. I, for one, want to live in a society where powerful people face more scrutiny, oversight, and mandated training than the rest of us. Thanks for reading and commenting!
You speak the ugly truth. The powerful write the rules and we plebians suffer. I find it infuriating to acknowledge our pyramid of scrutiny, yet we're all so busy trying to make a living that mobilizing for change is a mirage as the masses don't/won't engage. I can post a picture of my dogs on social media and get 100 likes, but if I post your excellent, on-point article only 5 people will "like" it and fewer will comment. It's exhausting to attempt to get others to join the call for change. So where's our MLK for common sense in workplaces and government?
Thanks for reading, Jeanne. I know what you mean about disengaging from politics (and I can’t blame them for liking photos of your dog -- I am a dog obsessive). But that’s part of the playbook we’re up against: exhausting people is a useful tactic to grind away at democracy. The key is to keep advocating for what’s important, even if it fees futile sometimes. Ripples matter. Thanks again for reading and commenting!
Brian, as always great insights and a happy 2023! Had not thought about corruption and accountability in the manner in which you have laid out so thank you for doing that. But the fundamental question is why do the powerful usually avoid and elude accountability? In my humble opinion, it comes down to the old, well worn knowledge that the powerful make the rules, and it is always rules for thee but not for me. I’m this way the powerful can point to systems of rules and accountability whether it is to the media, researchers, and other interested stakeholders and claim they have it under control. It is a bit of a shell game. And the powerful protect each other, or are protected by those who face accountability today, with the promise of reaching the next step tomorrow when they are not accountable.
ENRON is a great example. I worked for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in the late 90s to 2000. We have oversight of wholesale power trading and approval of market rules. We could see from those filings ENRON was not making the kind of money that showed up in headlines. I personally had to tell ENRON to not file something they were trying to manipulate or circumvent the market as it was easy to see the game. They yelled and screamed that I word wrong and did not understand markets (I am PhD Economist). I held my ground because I was not insecure or intimidated by money. In spite of all the bluff and bluster, this particular proposal was never filed. They were a bully and needed to be punched in mouth hard. Along with all this we started reading their quarterly SEC filings and could see the kinds of things being done to inflate earnings using market yo market accounting. But we were told quietly, yet forcefully, that was outside of our regulatory domain (it was an SEC matter) and told to drop it. Somebody above us was protecting ENRON, who exactly is unknown, but the message was clear.
Following my stint with FERC I worked with international development agencies in the power sector and could see how ENRON was doing business in other countries...money flowed freely to politicians. Deals got done (signed) that would profit the ENRON execs on these deals immediately before anything was ever done. Corporately it looked like and internal Ponzi scheme.
But we have learned nothing from ENRON. It has only gotten worse.
Great comment as usual, Paul, and of course you’re right. But the great (and often unfulfilled) promise of democracy is that it can be the great leveller where powerful people must answer to those who aren’t powerful. I am really pessimistic about the state of American democracy in the short term, but pretty optimistic for global democracy over the long run. I believe there’s a universal human impulse to want a say in key decisions that affect our lives, and the question is how long people tolerate a system that protects powerful and corrupt figures. Your personal experiences are fascinating -- will need to interview you for a future book, it sounds like!
Brian, enjoy the dialogue back and forth and we should connect on an interview. It gets worse unfortunately. In recent years, I have had discussion with colleagues to hold C Suite people accountable and boards of directors equally so for not stepping in. In practice they like the idea, but when the run it up to their C Suites, the idea gets rejected because they do not want to set a precedent that executives and board members are fair game because it means they will also face the same scrutiny and possible removal, so they will not take the action. What this shows is not only a tacit powerful protecting the powerful, but executives and board members consciously ignoring their fiduciary responsibility to shareholders (PE holdings or publicly traded companies) when removal of executives elsewhere would help them!!! The incentives for self interest and protection outweigh fiduciary responsibility. I cannot get into more detail here, but we can talk offline. It is a sick and twisted mentality.
Is there any way to wrest back decency and integrity? Historically, King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta but how can we do something like that these days? (Magna Carta Summary, Petition of Right - Human Rights: In 1215, after King John of England violated a number of ancient laws and customs by which England had been governed, his subjects forced him to sign the Magna Carta, which enumerates what later came to be thought of as human rights.
https://www.humanrights.com/what-are-human-rights/brief-history/magna-carta.html )
Honest people trying to contribute to society, just get slaughtered. Here are two examples:
How Kevin Van Ausdal lost everything after running for Congress against QAnon and Marjorie Taylor Greene - The Washington Post: “I am heartbroken to announce that for family and personal reasons, I cannot continue this race for Congress. The next steps in my life are taking me away from Georgia …” And that was the end of 31 days.
He Declined FBI Informant Offer, Then His Life Was Ruined
https://theintercept.com/2021/11/30/fbi-informant-watchlist-reputation-damage/
“It is very typical to hear about someone pressured to become an informant who refuses and suffers retaliation in the form of being placed on the no-fly list,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union National Security Project. Khan had no way to clear his name or fix his shattered reputation. To this day, he has never been accused of any wrongdoing. “I’ve lived a clean life and never got into any kind of trouble at all anywhere in the world. No one has ever even accused me of doing anything, so I can’t see where the justice is in any of this. It feels like one guy in the FBI just decided that he was going to ruin my life for no reason.”
It’s a terrible dilemma. Is there a practical plan to overcome this massive corruption? Recently, the young people of Iran have been sacrificing their lives to overcome the thugs running their government. I sincerely hope they will succeed. Wondering what kind of chance they had, I googled “ successful revolutions.” Ironically, what is considered the most successful revolution is the one that overthrew the Shah of Iran, implemented by the thugs that are in power now.
Truly, power corrupts.