It has been a long time in coming, but today marks the day that the Dow Jones Industrial average finally peaks its head out from the sea of red to join us once again in the land of the positive. After gaining all of 28 points, or 0.3 percent, the Dow finished at 8,799.26, above its 2008 close of 8,776.39.
 
Furthermore, the past fourteen weeks have demonstrated the largest gain within a similar time span since March 1975, with the Dow having risen 33 percent. Also, in the last fourteen weeks, the Dow has risen twelve of these weeks, signaling a general upturn in the economy.
 
Today, selling was affected by the Iranian presidential race, whose outcome could have a dramatic turn on the economy. For example, if challenger Mir Hossein Moussavi is to actually unseat incumbent Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, the markets would probably move toward recovery.

(Image: Flickr)

We are an opinionated bunch here at the Business Channel so this month we’ve got some debates going on between blogs known as the Odd Blog Couple. Liz at Business and Blogging and I are tackling the question of how to handle companies which engage in potentially harmful behaviors.

Companies which engage in potentially harmful behaviors with results such as environmental dangers or distribution of unsafe products often simply pay a fine as damages and move on. Should the punishment for these behaviors include a public mea culpa?

My understanding of the term mea culpa is to take responsibility, to say it was my fault and no one else’s.

While many companies just pay up and move on, there is something missing from this process: acknowledgment of the suffering that the actions caused. Or, in other words, the human element. The case of Dole and Dow in Nicaragua comes to mind.

Dole and Dow were recently found liable in a pesticide exposure lawsuit that spanned international borders and decades of legal battle. An LA Superior Court jury ordered the companies to pay $3 million in damages to Nicaraguan banana workers who were made sterile by exposure to the chemical DBCP.

To date, I’ve not found any public mea culpa from either company. Instead, both tout their corporate social responsibility initiatives, their efforts for the environment and their commitment to the human element, which is the tag line of Dow’s recent ad campaign.

To me it seems that the families affected by the chemical exposure - which left many people sterile - would benefit as much from an acknowledgment of responsibility as they would from the monetary damages paid. Somewhere, in the millions of dollars of ad money spent by these two companies, it would make a difference if the victims were acknowledged - we poisoned you, we’re sorry and it will never happen again.

Check out Liz’s take at Business and Blogging