The Fight Over The Redwoods Summary

Improved Essays
Throughout the compromises history, Drexel Burnham Lambert helped Charles Hurwitz take over Pacific Lumber for $900 million. In “The Fight over the Redwoods,” the author states, “Hurwitz had United Savings purchase huge amounts of risky bonds from Drexel. [Also, as a result of savings and loans failing], taxpayers were stuck with a bill for $1.6 billion dollars.” From this compromise the company gets money, and the trees don’t get cut down.The compromise itself started in 1999 between Charles Hurwitz, Senator Dianne Feinstein, and Deputy John Garamendi concerning the Headwater’s Grove purchase for $480 million dollars. In accordance with utilitarian ethical theories, many innocent people were impacted by this takeover. Individuals were now stakeholders that were dragged into the situation, held accountable for their actions, and as a result dealt with severe financial consequences. …show more content…
Other stakeholders include Pacific Lumber’s and Maxxam Inc employees and families. To get more specific, people within the taxpayer’s group are people and locals who participate in leisure activities within the forest, along with scientists who study the Redwoods forests. In the long run, karma caught up with Maxxam, because he ended up $900 million dollars in debt, which is the same amount he paid to take over Pacific Lumber. However, debt no concern to Maxxam. He continued down his unethical path when he fully replaced Pacific Lumber’s pension plans with annuities that were bought from an insurance company owned by Hurwitz. This brings up the need for ethics in business structures and financing, which is also important as minimizing

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Summary: Northwest Canadian Forest Products Limited owns and operates five sawmills in BC and Alberta. They produce high quality lumber for use in the manufacture of window frames, doors and moldings internationally and lower quality commodity type lumber for use in the Canadian construction industry. The president of the company is trying to decide whether or not to invest money into Jackson Sawmill for new plant and equipment, since it hasn’t been upgraded for twenty years. The alternative would be to reinvest and downsize by reducing production capacity and permanently laying off half of the 200 workforce and build a new mill in Alberta. To build the new plant would be more expensive but the president is also considering the fact that Jackson…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The San Joaquin River is known as the longest river in Central California in the U.S. There was a project that was going to be done and there were some people for it and some against it. Daniel Weintraub, an author, stated in an article found in The Sacramento Bee, that the San Joaquin River Rights project was a good idea, so he was giving a positive outlook on the project. However, Bill McEwen, an author, wrote an article in a newspaper called Fresno Bee, giving a negative outlook on the project. He did not think it was a good idea or worth the money.…

    • 1131 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    I would be much more persuaded by their argument if they provided more concrete evidence like data, literary analysis, or secondary scientific articles to support their point. Additionally, there will never be one alternative that does not offer some tradeoffs, but the authors neglect to mention any potential cons associated with their preferred alternative, and thus it is possible to argue that their alterative could negatively impact the local environment by altering the ecosystem from its natural function to timber production. Plus, for their plan to fully work as they intend it, they suggest changing the Multiple-Use-Sustained-Yield-Act to allow for greater acreage to be devote to timber, which would alter the law that seeks to ensure that for every acre devoted to private timber crops, there is another acre for recreation, wildlife, water, livestock and ect. Thus some public goods and land usage could be diminished for public and private use in addition to incurring ecological damage with the author’s proposed…

    • 1465 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    “Greed for the lack of better word is good” was one of the famous line from the 1987 movie “Wall Street”. Turns out not, nothing can presumably accentuate human greed more than corporate fraud. What happened with WorldCom Group, one of the world’s largest telecom giant, is a testament to how catastrophic human greed can be. With the failure of a multi-billion dollar telecom corporation, the world witnessed one of the largest accounting frauds in the history. What sets WorldCom’s case apart from Enron’s and other accounting fraud cases is that it didn’t fail just from accounting manipulations responsible for the overstatement of their earnings.…

    • 143 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Silent Voices of People from the Endangered Redwood Forests According to Woody Harrelson’s letter to the editor of the San Francisco Examiner, there was a protest on September 14, 1997, of people cutting down many redwood trees that occurred in Northern California. Thousands of people came together during this time to stop the horrible destruction. Charles Hurwitz was the main person who was involved in the logging of the trees and he was the chief executive in charge at the Pacific Lumber Company (PLC) (“Letters to the Editor”). This occurrence did not affect him at all.…

    • 1110 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Due to victories in the west during the war by Ulysses S. Grant, President Lincoln has given Grant control of the Union army. Many southern leaders believe that giving him total control over the union army by making him commander will be a grave mistake that Lincoln will regret in the future. Grant earned his place at the top of the army by doing whatever Lincoln said, and by the reckless captures of forts Henry and Donelson. Also by capturing the capital of Tennessee, and wouldn’t stop in any of the battles even if it meant killing most of his own forces. Lets not forget the time Grant had a siege on Vicksburg nothing went in or went out, because attacking the city, and killing plenty of innocent people wasn’t enough no he had to starve…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    S. 744 Case Study

    • 1282 Words
    • 6 Pages

    How does the interaction of stakeholders explain the passage of S. 744 and its aftermath? The interactions between these stakeholders played a large role in the passage of S.744, as well as the inability of comprehensive immigration reform, or any of the various piecemeal iterations brought up in the House of Representatives to become law. The House did not take up S.744 nor was a similarly comprehensive approach introduced, furthermore the tech industries who would have benefitted from one of the piecemeal approaches offered by the house (which consisted of an expansion of the H-1B visa program in conjunction with increased border protections) did not support the proposal. The reasoning behind this can be drawn from the heterogeneous group of stakeholders that was discussed earlier.…

    • 1282 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Transcontinental Railroad, first built in 1829, had a seemingly simple purpose. It provided jobs for over 200,000 people and allowed easy access to expansion westward. Looking at the construction of the railroad through the lense of ‘Manifest Destiny’, the Transcontinental Railroad was a great enterprise into maximizing profits. The negatives of the railroad however, outweigh the supposedly beneficial factors. The Transcontinental Railroad is detrimental to the American society and causes more harm than good.…

    • 952 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Belrose Summary Belrose is known locally as The Forest because of its lush greenery and proximity to two national parks and leafy landscape. The centre of Sydney is a mere 19 kilometres away, making the work or play commute easy by vehicle or bus. When the locals aren’t working in the city, they are spending time with their families in one of the lush parks or playgrounds. Local retirees love this pristine little paradise where they can relax, enjoy retirement, play golf, and watch the local children play and grow up. It’s not unusual to see the residents of Belrose at one of the two shopping centres or at the beach, especially on the weekends.…

    • 746 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In 1979, the Pacific Oil Company began its relationship with the Reliant Corporation, an association of immense consequence for both organizations. Lewicki chronicled this case in Lewicki, Saunders, and Barry (2010, pp. 582-609). Two multinational industrial giants, these companies had much to gain through a contract for the sale of vinyl chloride monomer from the Pacific Oil Company (or simply Pacific) to the Reliant Corporation (or simply Reliant). When representatives from the companies went to renegotiate the contract in 1984, a series of arduous deliberations started that would last for two years and culminated in an impasse for Pacific’s management.…

    • 1557 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Humans are constantly changing the world to facilitate our growing need of comfort. The burning of fossil fuels adding acidity to oceans and myriad carbon to the atmospheric layer to result in global warming. Elizabeth Kolbert interprets the idea of destruction through global warming in her article “The Forest and the Trees”. “Global warming is mostly seen as a threat to cold-loving species, and there are good reasons for this” (Kolbert 150). Mostly, global warming results in increased temperature which will cause the North and South Pole to melt.…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A fierce green fire coming from a wolf’s eyes. When I first read this piece by Aldo Leopold, I interpreted the “fierce green fire” as something that the wolf felt. I saw this fire as pain and anger. To me, the pain and anger was so strong, that it was felt and seen as a “fierce green fire.” However, when analyzing further into the reading, I understood the “fierce green fire” as a will to live.…

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    a) The stakeholder theory is a strategy that takes stakeholders into consideration when making decisions to achieve higher business performance. Stakeholders are people who affect and are affected by a business’ performance. Other than shareholders or owners, customers, government, employees, and suppliers are some examples of stakeholders. The theory provides an alternative to the shareholder theory, which states that companies must focus only on maximizing the market value of the equity of its existing shareholders. Edward Freeman, who was the first to completely express the theory in 1984, developed the theory to address that era’s business issues, most of which are related to external pressures (e.g. activism, foreign competition, government…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Hrm/531 Week 1

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages

    During week one the class reviewed chapter one which discussed the corporation and its stakeholders. One matter that I found interesting was that I never knew that there were two types of firms. I always thought that there was just one type of firm and the only difference was what type of services or products they sold. From this reading, I learned that there are two different types of firms. The first type of firm is the ownership theory of the firm which states that the owner doesn’t care how their actions might impact the firm.…

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I had not thought about the moral aspect of a stakeholder hurting the company. My take on the Leslie Cosmetics expanding, not moving the company, would add to the company’s global business. The part that I thought would hurt the company would be downsizing the company’s current social programs. You mention the consequences of moving the company would hurt the community because the community looks for the companies help. Agreeing with that statement, I also think downsizing would hurt not just the communities, but the company would also suffer.…

    • 238 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays