Amazon Gets Failing Grade for Political Transparency, Says Study
Question: What do Amazon and Disney have in common?
Answer: Both company's founders had/have a strange interest in cryogenics.
Oh, also both companies are apparently extremely secretive about how they spend money to influence national politics.
The latter revelation comes from a new study by the Center for Political Accountability and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School's Zicklin Center for Business Ethics.
The study rated all of the top S&P 100 companies on how transparent they have been in regard to political donations and expenditures. The companies were measured on aspects like whether they disclose their political spending to third parties, whether they set up oversight boards to track such expenditures, and whether they archive the contributions on their websites--none of which Amazon does.
Using these and 26 other factors, the companies were given a score of 0-100.
Amazon's score: "0."
As in worse than an F.
Also getting a "0": Issaquah-based Costco.
Not that these companies were alone. In total, 14 different companies received a "0" score:
1. Amazon.com Inc.
2. Baker Hughes, Inc.
3. Berkshire Hathaway
4. Cisco Systems, Inc.
5. Costco Wholesale Corp.
6. CVS Caremark Corp.
7. Devon Energy Group
8. Halliburton Co.
9. Lowe's Cos Inc.
10. MasterCard, Inc.
11. Nike Inc.
12. Sprint Nextel Corp.
13. Wal-Mart Stores
14. Walt Disney Corp.
On the flip side, companies that scored 100 were:
1. Colgate-Palmolive Co.
2. Exelon Corp.
3. Intl Business Machines Corp.
4. Merck & Co. Inc.
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