Waksal Should Have Read Ayn Rand

The Rational Argumentator ^ | June 24, 2003 | David Holcberg

[G. Stolyarov II]

David Holcberg, a former civil engineer and businessman, is a writer living in Southern California.

[G. Stolyarov II]

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[new cruelty]

...(unless bound otherwise by contract).

That says alot.

[elbucko]

If Waksal had read Ayn Rand, he too may have walked free.

If Waksal had read Ayn Rand, he would have kept his mouth shut.

[Pukin Dog]

Nice read, thanks.

[vp_cal]

waskal, if guilty of the accused crme, is morally guilty as
well. We all agree to play by certain rules when trading in the stock market. If these rules are not skirted by a few, many other people could get hurt financially and the long term effect will be that no one will particiate in the stock market.

[lelio]

"Insider trading" should not be considered a crime because there is no violation of rights in a voluntary trade between individuals, where no force or fraud are involved.
While I like to agree with all things Rand, this article is a little off base. Part of the requirements of having a public company is that you don't tell your friends to sell their stock so that the entire system doesn't appear rigged.
How many people would attend basketball games if both coaches could huddle near the end of the game and decide the score? Hey, its just a voluntary agreement between two individuals. See how many people stick around to watch the next game if this happens. Likewise with the stockmarket.

[SolidSupplySide]

The utter lack of morality is what repels me from objectivism. This article exemplifies objectivism's lack of morality.

[lady lawyer]

Sorry, Waksal knew his stock was going to plummet, and knew the poor non-insider schmuck who bought it was going to get shafted. This was not a victimless act, like the one in Atlas Shrugged.

[mass55th]

I heard that Martha has been keeping in touch with Sam Waksal's parents. Wasn't his father somehow involved in this selling off of shares? Even if he wasnt' what better way for Martha to get messages back and forth between her and Sam than through his parents.

[DeFault User]

Rearden realized the government had turned the law on its head--instead of protecting his rights, it denied them.

Waksal denied the rights of his employees to sell the stock. For that alone, he needs to be in jail.

[KarlInOhio]

If an employee of the company uses company property to for personal gain at the expense of the owners, he as failed in his duties to the owners and likely defrauded them also. This is just like if he used the company's labs and employees to develop drugs for him to patent and sell himself. He used the knowledge that the FDA was going to reject Erbitux (knowledge which belonged to the company and therefore to the shareholders) to profit at the shareholders' expense. The current insider trading laws may be a clumsy way of handling it, but he cheated his employers and should have to pay for it.

[ml/nj]

waskal, if guilty of the accused crme, is morally guilty as well. We all agree to play by certain rules when trading in the stock market. If these rules are not skirted by a few, many other people could get hurt financially and the long term effect will be that no one will particiate in the stock market.

What twaddle!

Almost everyone who buys stock is hoping that he knows something that other people are ignorant of.

ML/NJ

[KarlInOhio]

Waksal is more of a James Taggart than a Hank Reardon.

[squidly]

Atlas Shrugged was about as grounded in reality as Ken Kesey's bus. Why any writer would use it to make a point is beyond me.

[Sonny M]

Waksal denied the rights of his employees to sell the stock. For that alone, he needs to be in jail.

Thats true, sadly enough, he will probably be remembered for 2 things. Screwing his own people, and being the leading pioneer in the cure for cancer, he is a brillian scientist and his company will be at the forefront when the cure for cancer is found, sadly, he will always be known as a cheat.

[aynrandfreak]

I have tremendous respect for most posters on FR, but your statement represents ignorance. Objectivism presents a rational morality, derived from the requirements for human survival & prosperity. It is from that morality that the defense of "insider trading" comes from. You seem to have dismissed the ideas without ever reading them (probably because you heard she was an athiest), but don't say Objectivism lacks morality. That's just not true as any cursory study of the ideas would have shown you.

[lady lawyer]

Remind me what James Taggart did. It's been decades since I read Rand.

[kesg]

The problem is that in the novel Ayn Rand got to decide whether Rearden would be convicted, acquitted, or (as it turned out) essentially slapped on the wrist. In real life, had Waksal taken the type of stand that Rearden took, he would almost surely have been convicted and may have been punished even worse than he was.

[KarlInOhio]

James Taggart was the CEO of Taggart Transcontinental, the main railroad in the story. His sister, Dagny, really ran it. He was one of the bad CEOs in the book. I'm sure that there was a minor character who would better portray the screw the shareholder type CEO, but I don't have a copy of the book with me.