From President Obama to lawmakers to the public, rounds of condemnation have been uttered about bonuses handed out by American International Group, a mega-bailout recipient, to its employees. But none perhaps were as severe as remarks made by Senator Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa, yesterday (and again today), as he demanded that American corporations adopt some of the ways of societies like the Japanese, whose executives — when shamed — may commit suicide or publicly express deep regret.
In a conference call with Iowa reporters this morning that’s posted on his Web site, Mr. Grassley tried to clarify the remarks he first
made yesterday to a radio station in his home state, saying he was not calling for corporate executives to commit suicide. But he still offered up the example of harakiri as he denounced the lack of accountability
by corporations receiving bailout money.
Mr. Grassley said today:
What I’m expressing here obviously is not that I want people to commit suicide, that’s not my notion. I do feel very strongly that we have not had statements of apology, statements of remorse, statements of contrition, on the part of C.E.O.’s, of manufacturing companies, or banks or financial services or insurance companies that are asking for bailouts.
That they understand that they are responsible for running their corporation into the ground and now they’re coming to the taxpayers for help and have been coming to the taxpayers for help for the last six months. And it’s very difficult for the American people to understand the justification for it. And one thing that would help with the justification is if these executives would make an apology.
I say that other societies accept this, and i’ve seen other writers write about what the Japanese do. and Japanese CEOs either go out and commit suicide and probably in most cases, they don’t.
And when they don’t, they come out before the public and bow very very deeply and express regret, and may resign or may stay on, but the point is they accept full responsibility and the entire society knows they accept full responsibility.
And I haven’t heard this from CEOs, and it just makes it very difficult for the taxpayers of my district to just keep shoveling money out the door. …
Here are his remarks from the interview with WMT radio in Iowa interview yesterday:
The attitude of these corporate executives and bank executives, and most of them are in New York, that somehow they’re not responsible for their company going into the tank.
I suggest, you know, obviously maybe they ought to be removed, but I would suggest that the first thing that would make me feel a little bit better towards them — if they would follow the Japanese example and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say I’m sorry, and then either do one of two things: resign or go commit suicide.
Mr. Grassley added, “In the case of the Japanese, they usually commit suicide before they make any apology.”
Now the senator’s aides and the senator himself note that he has used the Japanese ritual for accountability in the past. According to a transcript provided by his office, he made similar remarks to reporters back in October as Congress considered the bailout: “I’ve suggested it wouldn’t be a bad thing that the leadership of these institutions would take a Japanese-style approach to corporate governance, and I’m not talking about going out and committing suicide as some Japanese do in these circumstances, but I am talking about scenes I’ve seen on television where in belly-up corporations the CEOs go before the board of directors, before the public, before the stockholders and bow deeply and apologize for their mismanagement.
“Something like that happening among Wall Street executives would go a long way toward satisfying my constituents and many Americans that help might be needed and would more gracefully be given by the taxpayers of this county.”
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