Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart is renown in the United States for being oh so wonderfully perfect. She has a television show and a magazine about how to live life really perfect. Here is this month's issue
She always has amazingly creative ideas. Her television show features cooking and crafts, and is filmed in this amazing soft glow technique (the same they used for the television show Touched by and Angel) so that Martha always looks as nice and kind as an angel.
But in fact she is a very shrewd business woman. She runs a multimillion dollar corporation with many subsidiaries.
I was thinking about her because of the story in the news here in Iceland about Baldur Guðlaugsson who, as far as I understand it, was on the board of Landsbanki, and when he heard the bank was about to collapse, before this information became known to the general public, he quickly put his shares up for sale. And HE THINKS THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS!
Well, Martha Stewart, being a smart lady, has her money invested in lots of things, including the stock market. She owned a few stocks in a pharmaceutical company called Imclone, and when she heard through a friend, who was on the board of Imclone, that a new drug they were testing was not going to get approved (before the announcement became public) she sold her stock. She was arrested on charges of insider trading and after conviction, served 5 months in prison, then had to wear a magnetic cuff around her ankle for another 5 months at home, to monitor that she never went anywhere other than work and home. Once that was over, she had to go once a month to a probation officer for another 2 years. The funny thing is that although the stock did drop after the drug was not approved, the company has since recovered, so Martha should have just hung onto her stock and waited it out. But she didn't. She saw an opportunity and she ceased it.
The reason this sort of thing is illegal is that the person who bought the stock from Martha cannot go back to her a few days later, the way one can if one buys something from the store and it does not work right, and get a refund.
Clearly, Martha needs to come here to Iceland, not just to teach cooking and crafts, but also to share her new found appreciation for business ethics. If she came before Christmas, that would be ideal, because I need someone to decorate a Christmas tree for us at Vikingaheimar.
She always has amazingly creative ideas. Her television show features cooking and crafts, and is filmed in this amazing soft glow technique (the same they used for the television show Touched by and Angel) so that Martha always looks as nice and kind as an angel.
But in fact she is a very shrewd business woman. She runs a multimillion dollar corporation with many subsidiaries.
I was thinking about her because of the story in the news here in Iceland about Baldur Guðlaugsson who, as far as I understand it, was on the board of Landsbanki, and when he heard the bank was about to collapse, before this information became known to the general public, he quickly put his shares up for sale. And HE THINKS THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS!
Well, Martha Stewart, being a smart lady, has her money invested in lots of things, including the stock market. She owned a few stocks in a pharmaceutical company called Imclone, and when she heard through a friend, who was on the board of Imclone, that a new drug they were testing was not going to get approved (before the announcement became public) she sold her stock. She was arrested on charges of insider trading and after conviction, served 5 months in prison, then had to wear a magnetic cuff around her ankle for another 5 months at home, to monitor that she never went anywhere other than work and home. Once that was over, she had to go once a month to a probation officer for another 2 years. The funny thing is that although the stock did drop after the drug was not approved, the company has since recovered, so Martha should have just hung onto her stock and waited it out. But she didn't. She saw an opportunity and she ceased it.
The reason this sort of thing is illegal is that the person who bought the stock from Martha cannot go back to her a few days later, the way one can if one buys something from the store and it does not work right, and get a refund.
Clearly, Martha needs to come here to Iceland, not just to teach cooking and crafts, but also to share her new found appreciation for business ethics. If she came before Christmas, that would be ideal, because I need someone to decorate a Christmas tree for us at Vikingaheimar.
Comments
I wonder sometimes if the English language wouldn't be improved, if more Icelanders wrote in English, or more foreigners generally speaking, since sometimes it seems to me English writers suffer from the weight of latinates. But Erica clearly does not.
... _seized_ it. To lay hold of, to capture.
... _ceased_ it. To cause to come to an end, especially gradually.
Karen