Is the Dodd-Frank Whistle-blower Program Successful? As someone who follows whistle-blowing in business and accounting carefully, because of the obvious implications for ethical behavior, I was drawn to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Annual Report on the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program for Fiscal Year 2012. The “Report” was released on November... Read more →
Where were the auditors? Lily Tomlin once famously said: No matter how cynical I get, I can’t keep up. I was reminded of how true this is on November 20 when I read about Hewlett-Packards’ disclosure that it had discovered an accounting fraud and has written down $8.8 billion of... Read more →
Cost of Multiple Duck Uniforms Raises Ethical Issues Saturday night I watched the football game between Oregon and Stanford. I’ve watched the Oregon Ducks before and noticed they seem to have a new uniform for each game. I was intrigued by the fact the University must spend thousands of dollars... Read more →
Cost considerations, Exonerations, and Finality for Victims Raise Concerns about Capital Punishment On November 6, California voters rejected the latest attempt to repeal California's death penalty ending the hopes, at least temporarily until the next proposition comes out, of activists who saw this election as their best chance in 35... Read more →
How should we Evaluate Patraeus’ accomplishments in light of his Affair? What is it about middle age men and their libidos? First it was Bill Clinton. Then, John Edwards followed by Eliot Spitzer. Fit Tiger Woods in there. I could go on but you get the picture. The latest to... Read more →
A CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE New charged filed on November 6 accusing three former Penn State administrators of engaging in a "conspiracy of silence" to cover up child sexual abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky raise questions about whether iconic football Coach Joe Paterno could have been charged if he were still... Read more →
Virtue and the Pursuit of Excellence The ancient Greeks believed that happiness is the end goal of life in the sense of well-being, resulting from achieving excellence in the fulfillment of one’s function. Virtue is the way in which the fulfillment of happiness occurs and excellence achieved. One’s character and... Read more →