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The rats are fleeing the other rats. Now that so many ships are sinking, the rats are running away from one another. It's almost funny when scandal-ridden companies pretend they are taking the high road (WSJ, sub. req'd):

Halliburton Co. (HAL) dropped Putnam Investments in the last month as a money manager for its pension plan, a company spokeswoman told Dow Jones Newswires.

Zelma W. Branch, in the global public-relations office of Halliburton, said that Putnam was one of about 20 money managers. The decision to drop Putnam "had nothing to do (with) current allegations against Putnam," she wrote in an e-mail.

Putnam's former CEO was recently ousted in a wave of scandal.

Halliburton's former CEO now oversees the invasion of other countries and the award of no-bid multibillion dollar contracts to his recent employer, from whom he still draws six-figure deferred compensation. His stint in the White House was richly financed by another energy industry CEO whose criminal behavior is yet to be confronted.

But that's the United States, where CEOs wage war to promote and conceal corporate crime. In direct contrast, one country that has enough ethical backbone to indict, humiliate and jail energy industry CEOs who commit financial crimes is, oddly enough, France.

{ 8:37 AM }

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