Goldman Sachs: Ethics for Sale

At the end of their 4-page Code of Business Conduct and Ethics Goldman Sachs declares that they reserve the right to “waive” certain provisions contained in the document. Well that certainly makes for an easy conscience, doesn’t it? American Public Media’s Kai Ryssdal interviews Greg Unruh, director of the Lincoln Center for Ethics who argues that at the end of the day “companies don’t like to miss out on profits, so the safety valve is allowing them to sacrifice their ethics if the price is right.” Why bother creating a document setting forth moral obligations when one reserves the right to waive them all along?

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Lift My Chin, Lord 

Jennifer Reeser

Lift my chin, Lord,Say to me,“You are not whoYou feared to be,Not Hecate, quite,With howling sound,Torch held…

Letters

Two delightful essays in the March issue, by Nikolas Prassas (“Large Language Poetry,” March 2025) and Gary…

Spring Twilight After Penance 

Sally Thomas

Let’s say you’ve just comeFrom confession. Late sunPours through the budding treesThat mark the brown creek washing Itself…