Benefiting at work from Brain Based Insights

Eliot spoke recently as the Rotary I attend and somebody there asked him: “How do you find out about this corruption?” Eliot replied, “It’s easy… people get tired of my rooting around in their accounts and they call my office out of frustration … to get rid of me … and they report their friends who are breaking even more laws ... so that I will go after the next case….”

It surprised me today to read ROGER LOWENSTEIN’s article in the NY Times on Eliot Spitzer who is pegged the bad guy because he is bringing business corruption into the public eye.

Still, I am glad to see that Eliot is not buckling under the anger. Not yet anyway…. He racked up the first successful wins against corruption that any politician in a long times had dared… and for the most part he met success. The Times put it this way…

“With the Securities and Exchange Commission slowed by the leaden leadership of Harvey L. Pitt, Mr. Spitzer creatively employed an 80-year-old New York statute to investigate first Merrill Lynch and then the entire national securities industry. In his biggest success, he discovered e-mail evidence that securities analysts were not so wowed by the stocks they recommended as they let on in public … and to their customers.

As the Times put it… “Mr. Spitzer forced the major brokerage houses to liberate their analysts from the prejudicial influence of investment bankers. (One will recall that analyst “sell” recommendations had been as rare as snow in June.) Though the S.E.C. by then had gotten on board and was a party to the settlement, the author is right to credit Mr. Spitzer with prompting the reform.”

Other successes followed for Spitzer — as mutual fund and insurance brokerage industries that must have been reported by their clients or their competition.

The Times questioned: Is he truly hostile to business, is he just outraged by wrongdoing or is he opportunistic? It seems to me that Eliot is helping business by uncovering illegal practices that are sending our nation to the back of the global economy because of bad business practices. On the other hand he saw what many wanted – an end to fast growing corruption, and appeared to use this as his political target. The Rotarians stood behind his message and thanked him for the hope it seemed to restore in our communities.

Let’s face it – change comes hard at the best of times – but why do we criticize the change agent we’ve needed to restore a measure of integrity to business organizations? If exposing and charging business corruption gets Eliot the vote as Governor– more power to him. If it adds courage to other politicians who may fear standing up for what is right…that’s an added bonus. What do you think?