Venting on Social Media The right to free speech is guaranteed in our Constitution. However, social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and others can limit, control, and censor speech. Federal law does not offer much recourse for social media users who object to whether and how these companies present... Read more →

It's Time to Allow Employees to Participate More Fully in Stock Ownership The disconnect between Wall Street and what we now call the “woke” culture is startling. During the week ended June 5, the stock market rose 1,985 points or about 20% on the Dow, the highest increase in value... Read more →

What Do Employers and Employees Need to Know? These day most work gets done remotely. The problem is many employers have not created a workforce around the ability to work remotely from home. Today’s blog provides advice for employers and employees while we are shuttered at home due to the... Read more →

Nurses are the Most Respected Profession Gallup conducts a poll each year of how Americans view the honesty and ethics in a variety of professions. The latest poll results for 2019 were issued on January 6, 2020. For the 18th year in a row, Americans rate the honesty and ethics... Read more →

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 →