Ethical Dilemmas and Business

Drexel Burnham Lambert suffered from its employment of Michael Milken, who quickly became known as the king of junk bonds. Milken perfected the art of bringing together investors and companies, particularly for commercial paper which would have been difficult to place elsewhere. Junk bonds (called high-yield bonds by Drexel) are bonds which offer high return in exchange for high risk. In some cases, the bonds were formerly investment grade, but have suffered a downturn in fortune due to a lack of confidence in the issuing company. Milken brought together companies willing to invest in junk bonds, and created a highly complex web of investors and investing companies. By the time the investigation was concluded, Drexel was implicated in insider trades, access to proprietary information, and fraudulent billing (with relation to Ivan Boesky). Milken and Boesky paid high sums in fines a

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on dogs that it did not reveal to the FDA when it obtained approval for the silicon implants. While the company has not revealed exactly why it did not release the studies, one can conclude that the company assumed that the studies would make it difficult to obtain approval for the product if the FDA were aware that the product did apparently cause an adverse reaction in some cases. But the company went ahead and marketed the product, downplaying or ignoring its own findings that suggested the implants could have long-term health effects for the women who had the procedure done. The ethical issue here stems not only from the decision to market a potentially dangerous product (a ethical problem that confronts tobacco manufacturers and liquor distributors, as well as other companies), but from the decision by the company to cover up evidence that the product was not as safe as it claimed. Milken's situation is not as straightforward as the Dow case in that his actions did not result in anyone's life being put directly at risk. However, because of Milken's actions, a pool of investor companies was formed which essentially purchased each other's junk bonds. Pension funds and other institutional investors were thus put in the po
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Dow Corning, Pentagon Presumably, Milken Boesky, Michael Milken, Milken Drexel, Burnham Lambert, junk bonds, dow corning, inside information, bidding process, Drexel Burnham, drexel burnham lambert, business result, ethical questions, financial position, ethical issue, unfair advantage, health effects,
Approximate Word count = 1293
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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