Top 10 Worst Moments for Free Enterprise in 2005

You’ve probably seen those “Dirty Dozen’ polluter awards that environmental groups offer each year. They use the power of image to get baby steps of progress from materially inefficient manufacturers. Typically, nomination of a company to such a “red faced” list is based on hard numbers. The Toxic Release Inventory (TRI), overseen by USEPA, has been the preferred metric for US nominations, for example. Now, from the parallel universe of the National Conservative Weekly we are offered a broader-scoped, inverse ranking called “Capitulating Capitalists: Top 10 Worst Moments for Free Enterprise in 2005”. Any imitation is usually a flattery for us TreeHuggers; and, true to the corrolary, the linked article is appreciated for its helpfulness. It’s a lot of work finding the best big companies to write about. So, thanks guys.

The central thesis of the Conservative Weekly’s publication, “Human Events Online”, in which the "10 Worst" ranking is offered, is that the listed entities are "companies who have most egregiously abandoned their fiduciary and moral responsibilities to their shareholders and our free enterprise system". Oooh. 'That’s a powerful hit', we thought. So we hopped over to a stock trade site and got the Analyst Recommendations for several of the well known publicly traded firms on the list. Note: what follows is only a snapshot for Monday the 19th of December. Better check elsewhere for advice before you buy any stock (not wanting to get in trouble with the SEC or anything); but here are some of the analysts’ “Wall Street Consensus” statements we found.

Northern Trust Bank -- "Accumulate"
GE -- "Hold"
Duke Power -- "Buy"
Wal-mart -- "Strong Buy"
Microsoft -- "Strong Buy"
Wells Fargo -- "Strong Buy"

No "Sell" recommendations; so, no baby back-steps seem likely to come solely from the fiscal impact of 'capitualtions'.

TreeHugger like Free Market. Ugh!