What is the Public Interest? It’s been about 18 years since Congress created the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board in response to widespread fraud in the financial statements of the likes of Enron and WorldCom. Given the high rate of audit deficiencies identified in PCAOB inspections of public company audits,... Read more →

What are the Ethical Principles of AI Use? Ethical issues in artificial intelligence (AI) exist because rules of the road are needed to guide what is appropriate behavior in processing data against a set of algorithms to make decisions about individuals, communities and a society. Algorithms cannot think for themselves... Read more →

Professionalization versus Commercialization Last week I blogged about the new law in California that changes the rules of the game with respect to college athletes being able to earn money from the use of their names or likeness as well as through endorsement deals. The law, Fair Pay to Play,... Read more →

Did California Do the Right Thing? California is leading the nation in allowing student-athletes to promote products and companies, trading on their sports fame for the first time. On September 30, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill (SB 206) that will take effect in 2023 to allow players to strike... Read more →

Ethics and Civility Go Hand in Hand I was recently interviewed by both Authority and Thrive magazines about my views on ethics and social media. There is no doubt that social networking opens the door to improper behavior for a variety of reasons not the least of which is the... Read more →

An Historical Perspective on Professional Ethics MAX BLOCK DISTINGUISHED ARTICLE AWARD: The CPA Journal--March 2018 Issue In Brief The commitment to serve the public interest in accounting has eroded, as personal and business relationships with clients and client management increasingly create conflicts of interest. Many such relationships have created barriers... Read more →

Professor Claims Capitalism to Blame For Why Students Are Graded A New School professor is calling for the abolition of grades claiming it is unfair to students. Gee, I thought grades introduced fairness because students are evaluated on their work and given higher grades for better work. I guess this... Read more →

The Do’s and the Don’ts The ethics of being a responsible writer are the same as for any activity. In this post I deal with works of nonfiction. Basic Ethical Standards First, treat the readers the way you would wish to be treated. Most people want what they read to... Read more →

Regaining Civility in Society I have previously blogged about the decline of civility in society and rampant unethical behavior that has created conflicts everywhere we look. It seems we no longer know how to disagree with each other without being disagreeable. In short, we have lost our moral compass. One... Read more →

Going Beyond Happiness and Meaning in Life Two recent surveys suggest that Americans are becoming more unhappy with each passing year. The 2019 World Happiness Report says that the U.S. is ranked 19th in happiness, a decline from previous surveys. A General Social Survey ranks public opinion by country from... Read more →