The problem to be investigated is looking into shades of gray when it comes to ethical behavior. For years, companies have been operating within the law yet displayed very questionable behavior. Companies like Goldman and Sachs utilizing questionable trading techniques in order to gain a financial profit while leaving behind companies in the dust and eliminating hundreds if not thousands of jobs in the process. Ethics is more than doing what’s right or wrong. It’s a way of life and how we can have an effect on others.
Question 1: Go back through the case and make a list of each action or practice that could be called a gray area.
The Layering Strategy: This was formulated in the late 1920 as a way to utilize one company’s money to invest in another. In the case of Goldman, he used his own customers to make money. He created an investment company and buys 90% of the shares in that company with its own money. Because the shares have sold so well, the public wants a piece of the company. So, the shares that Goldman initially bought for, say, $100, it is able to turn around and sell to the public for $110. He would then continue the cycle with another company and the price would climb.
The Laddering Strategy: In 1990, the birth of the Internet age just started its peak. Goldman found another way to capitalize on this boom. Much like Goldman’s layering strategy, the Laddering strategies end result is also a crash. With the laddering strategy, this was reserved for Goldman’s best clients. Laddering is a trick, a sort of insider scam by the underwriter only allowing the select few that agreed to laddering would be granted the IPO. The underwriter would lock in the recommitted buyers at a price above the initial price and the shares of the IPO are guaranteed to rise. They would be next in line for a certain portion of the IPO at a pre-established price. For