Bernie Madoff Revisited On November 18, 2010, two members of imprisoned financier Bernard Madoff's inner circle were arrested on charges of conspiring in the largest financial fraud in history and helping to conceal it. The indictments of former employees Jo Ann "Jodi" Crupi and Annette Bongiorno bring to eight the... Read more →
INSIDER TRADING AND FINANCIAL FRAUD Perhaps you have been reading about the massive effort by federal authorities to reign in the practice of insider trading. Insider trading is illegal when a person trades stocks in a public company on information that the public does not know. It is illegal to... Read more →
China's Economic Threat In my previous blog I wrote about the transition of the Chinese economic system from a state-owned and controlled model to a more western style free-market economy. In this blog I explore the implications of an ever-expanding Chinese economy for the U.S. In a sense the Chinese... Read more →
Capitalism According to the Chinese Can it be true? Has China become a capitalistic country? In this blog I look at the history of the transition of China's economic system. In the next blog I will explore how China uses its new-found economic power and wealth to exert influence over... Read more →
11/20/10 Ethics Sage Speaks Out on a Lack of Ethics in Business and Accounting The "Ethics Sage," aka Steven Mintz, has been writing, speaking out, and blogging about a lack of ethics in business and society by attacking the decline of moral values in society, a vanishing work ethic, pursuit... Read more →
HP and the FCPA As if HP didn't have enough ethics-related problems, the company recently disclosed in its 10-Q that the Justice Department and SEC have expanded an investigation of possible bribe payments in connection with contracts the company obtained in Russia. The payments may have violated the Foreign Corrupt... Read more →
Inside Job I just saw the movie Inside Job that dissects the financial meltdown of 2008 and I highly recommend it for both novices and those knowledgeable about the details of how the financial crisis occurred. Most of us know about the role of banks and financial institutions in making... Read more →
The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform You've undoubtedly heard about the draft recommendations to reduce the federal deficit that were issued by The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. The Commission has a December 1 deadline for submitting a final plan. Co-chairman Alan K. Simpson and Erskine... Read more →
Whistleblowing has been in the news quite a bit lately so that I decided to write two blogs on the topic. This is the first of the two. There are two kinds of whistleblowers. Internal whistleblowers who believe their superior might be engaged in wrongful conduct bring their concerns up... Read more →
You may have heard by now that GM, a company that received $49.5 billion in bailout funds, will receive a tax break on up to $45 billion of past operating losses. With the standard federal corporate tax rate at 35 percent, that tax break could save GM as much as... Read more →