Dr. Steven M. Mintz, aka Ethics Sage, Available for Interviews and Speaking Engagements Steven Mintz received his doctorate from The George Washington University. Dr. Mintz is a Professor of Accounting, specializing in ethics and international accounting, in the Orfalea College of Business at the California Polytechnic State University in San... Read more →
ZZZZ Best's Minkow at it Again I first posted this blog on March 18, but circumstances warrant that I update it to reflect recent events. Barry Minkow, who billed himself as a reformed con man, pleaded guilty on March 30 to a federal charge of conspiring to manipulate the stock... Read more →
Oxford English Dictionary New “Words” It’s finally here. What we’ve all been waiting to see for months – the Oxford English Dictionary’s (OED) New Words for 2010. The result is a lexicological nightmare. Chaucer and Shakespeare must be turning in their graves. Here is a sampling of new words: Staycation... Read more →
Villaraigosa Fails to Disclose Ethical Lapses in Judgment The L.A. City Ethics Commission approved fines on April 12, 2011 for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and four city councilmen for accepting gifts in violation of Section 49.5 of the L.A. Municipal Code. The commission fined Vallaraigosa $20,849 for failing to report free... Read more →
Exploitation of African Natural Resources by the U.S: Is China Following the Same Path? A moral imperative is something that must be done because it is right, regardless of opposition or difficulty. While we debate whether this exists as a justification for the U.S. and NATO involvement in Libya, the... Read more →
CA Can No Longer Afford Prop 13 Revenue Raising Constraints It's heresy. Throw the bum out. He's stepped on the third rail of politics in California. Am I an alarmist or realist? You make the call. It's become impossible to wake up every morning and not hear about the lingering... Read more →
It's Tax Time Again At this time of year I return to my roots as an accounting professor and look for the strangest tax deductions claimed. Have I got a story for you. On September 14, 2009, the United States Tax Court ruled that a New York tax lawyer could... Read more →
The Ethics of Insider Trading Two Wall Street Journal reporters broke the story last week of insider-trading by a long-time employee of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to the story by reporters Alicia Mundy and Brent Kendall, the SEC filed civil charges against Cheng Yi Lang, an FDA... Read more →
U.S. Companies Financially Affected By Fallout from Fukushima Thousands of articles and blog postings have come out since the Fukushima disaster. Virtually all deal with the human factor, failure of the controls to prevent the disaster, and the potential effects on the use of nuclear power as an energy source... Read more →
G.E. Earns $14.2 billion BUT Pays No US Taxes NY Times reporter David Kocieniewski reported on March 24 that G.E. reported worldwide profits for 2010 of $14.2 billion of which only $5.1 billion came from US operations. The company not only paid no US tax but it claimed a tax... Read more →