The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 19 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
McLean: Employees cannot objectively perceive wrongdoing when their pay depends on it
“If you're inside a company and your pay depends on that company, that's that great Upton Sinclair quote, right? You can never tell a man anything if his wallet depends on him not hearing it. That's something like that. If you're inside a company and everybody …”
McLean: Modern capitalism lets top executives reap rewards while shifting risk downward
“I do think either accidentally or deliberately our system has evolved to one in which the people who should be taking the really big risks and then reaping the really big rewards, it's turned into a system where those people can reap the really big rewards, bu…”
McLean: Fracking is financially unviable due to steep year-one well decline
“A fracked well declines really sharply after the first year, which means in order to keep production levels up, you have to keep reinvesting. So you're on this capital treadmill, and that's why the industry has not been financially viable, because you have to …”
McLean: Corporate management and long investors are as biased as short sellers
“Company management is biased. The analyst who has a buy rating on the stock is biased if for no other reason than confirmation bias, right? And portfolio managers who own the stock are biased, and so yes, a short seller is biased too, but everyone is.”
McLean: Companies that make enemies on the way up face vicious reversals
“But I think about this a lot, that if a company makes a lot of enemies as it's on its way up, you have to be a lot more skeptical about that company than about an average company, because when the tide turns, it's going to turn viciously.”
McLean: Shareholder Primacy Has Narrowed Executive Ethics to Profit Alone
“As the focus has been on shareholder value and profits above all, it's just narrowed the prism through which executives see the world, and it's become very tempting to say, well, if it makes money, then it's good.”
McLean: Fake corporate altruism is almost worse than single-minded profiteering
“That belief that a company has a broader purpose can become a cover, an excuse for a lot of bad behavior too, right? Because fake altruism is almost worse than single-minded profiteering, right?”
McLean: White-collar crime stems from ego and rationalization, not deliberate malice
“I've really come to believe that very few white-collar crimes or stories of business gone wrong are done by people who deliberately set out to deceive other people. Usually it's this odd mixture of Rationalization. Arrogance. Some greed, yes, but usually greed…”
McLean: Wealth Accumulation Beyond Basic Needs Serves Ego, Not Utility
“Money over a certain point, if it's your goal, is for sure not in service of material goods or making your life nicer. It's just about comparing your balance to those of other people so you can feel bigger than they are, and so that's what I mean by greed in t…”
McLean: Many visionaries lie to keep investors funding their dreams
“Because a lot of visionaries from Thomas Edison through have lied at various points in time and have said things that weren't true in order to keep their employees and their investors believing in them so they can keep getting the money to fund their dreams.”
McLean: Inevitable corporate frauds are the price society pays for world-changing ambition
“And I think that's the inevitable frauds and blow ups are the price we pay. And I think it's good to have these big, grand, ambitious plans. Life would be really boring if you didn't have that. And I think reflexive cynicism about this sort of thing is just as…”
Bethany McLean: Good journalism is transparency and honesty, not infallibility
“I don't think it's necessarily getting it right, because I think really provocative stories may prove to be wrong. I think it's transparency and intellectual honesty, so being clear about what the facts are and where things are coming from, so that people can …”
McLean: Skepticism in Business Stays Within Small Circles
“In the business world, you can't, because skepticism about business tends to travel in a very small circle. Companies won't speak ill of their competitors, at least not, not publicly, or very rarely will they. Employees can't speak publicly without being fired…”
McLean: The business world is emotional and biased toward belief
“There's this idea that the business world is hard and cold and rational, and it's not, it's incredibly emotional. And everybody is biased toward belief because most people stand to make money. If a stock goes up”
McLean: Inspiring a Grand Vision Makes CEOs Blind to Failure
“It's very hard to be the leader of a company, I would think, if you yourself aren't a believer, and aren't biased toward belief, because you need, as the CEO or the leader, to be able to inspire other people, right, with your grand vision. And so how, if you'r…”
McLean: Public Investment Banks Took Greater Risks Than Private Partnerships
“When investment banks were private partnerships where people had their own fortunes and their own financial well-being on the line, you saw very different behavior than you did in the years leading up to the financial crisis where they were playing with other …”
McLean: Investors succumb to charismatic founder worship over evaluating business profitability
“And I think we're particularly guilty of that today because the lure of the founder is, is so strong. And so there's this idea that the right charismatic person can build anything. And so I People latch on to that. We all want to find that person we can believ…”
McLean: Intimidating executive cults of personality undermine collaborative workplace cultures
“So I think people tend to see this intellectual charisma or the ability to intimidate others around you into belief as a good thing, because we all follow that kind of blindly, but I think that's probably not a good thing, at least if you believe that a collab…”