Campbell, Ashburn, Massa, Rangel... politicians behaving badly. Are traditional businesses turning to freelancers and outsourcing? Later, Money for Nothing. John Gillespie on how corporate boards are dragging down the economy.
Politicians gone wild
Tom Campbell is under fire for a letter of support he wrote for an old colleague who advocated extreme forms of jihad. California State Senator Roy Ashburn was picked up on a drunk driving charge—and then compelled to admit he is gay, despite votes to deny gay rights. And New York former Rep. Eric Massa has become an unlikely conservative icon, saying the White House forced him out over his position on health care, not his salty language and suggestive behavior with male aides. Which aspects of political bad behavior bother you most? Politicians who act as though they are above the law? Those who contradict themselves? Or, who do not act as moral leaders? Larry Mantle takes your calls.
Guest:
Mark Barabak, political correspondent for the Los Angeles Times
Are freelancing and outsourcing the answer to unemployment?
As employers are looking to shed in-house staff they are replacing them with contract workers, who don't receive benefits and can do a variety of jobs including Web development, marketing, blogging, writing, and translation at home or in any case, off-site. As a result, many people who were unable to land permanent jobs have established themselves as freelancers instead. Larry takes a look at the growth of free-lancing in the labor market and how this affects the world of work.
Guest:
Brian Goler, vice president of marketing, ODesk, a Menlo Park-based company that helps companies hire, manage and pay online freelancers
Are corporate boards bad for business?
A Bank of America director questioned the CEO’s $76 million pay package in a year when the bank laid off 12,600 workers. She was dropped from the board a few months later. The General Motors board gave its CEO a 64 percent raise in 2007, the same year the company took $39 billion in losses. In his book Money for Nothing, author John Gillespie chronicles these and other corporate excesses. But he places the blame on the shoulders of elite but dysfunctional boards that fail to reign in corporate leadership. He argues that this is the true source of the recession and, that if we don’t reform corporate governance, another economic catastrophe is inevitable.
Guests:
John Gillespie, author of Money for Nothing: How the Failure of Corporate Boards is Ruining American Business and Costing us Trillions (Free Press)