Can a Conflict of Interest Be Avoided? Should members of Congress be prohibited from owning and trading in stocks? This question is receiving a lot of attention on Capitol Hill and in the press. The answer to the question seems to be a no-brainer – Yes! The simple reason is that members of Congress may be […]
It’s Time to Ban ALL Stock Trades for Members of Congress Read More »
Examining the POGO Report and Other Matters It’s been twenty years since the Public Company Oversight Board (PCAOB) was created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). This is a good time to evaluate the mandate given to the board, its work during that period, and whether it protects the public interest. One way to
Is the PCAOB Protecting the Public Interest? Read More »
Implications of the Supreme Court Decision After a long battle in the courts, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the NCAA rules that limit educational benefits for athletes are not reasonably necessary to distinguish between college and professional sports. Under current NCAA rules, athletes cannot be paid or profit from their name, image, or likeness. The
Implications of the Supreme Court Decision After a long battle in the courts, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the NCAA rules that limit educational benefits for athletes are not reasonably necessary to distinguish between college and professional sports. Under current NCAA rules, athletes cannot be paid or profit from their name, image, or likeness. The
Denying Free Speech or an Expression of Capitalism? Yesterday, I looked at the history of cancel culture. In today’s blog, I examine how social media impacts the cancel culture. Social media posts reflect the historical movement from offline to online cancel culture, including bullying behavior. When we think of the cancel culture, what comes to
Cancel Culture and Social Media Read More »
The Big Hustle Theranos was a privately held health corporation that was touted as a breakthrough technology company. It claimed to have devised blood tests that required only exceedingly small amounts of blood and could be performed very rapidly using small automated devices the company had developed. However, the claims later proved to be false. Here is their
What Happened to Theranos? Read More »
Analyzing Motives for Behavior What motivates a parent to bribe key people to get their kid admitted to a prestigious university? That is the ethical question of “Operation Varsity Blues.” In March 2019, the story broke of an alarming fraudulent scheme by parents to pay off middleman, William “Rick” Singer, and athletic coaches to give
Operation Varsity Blues Revisited Read More »
Kindness Breeds Civility We’ve heard it many times before. This person is kind. But what do we mean by kindness, and how can we tell if someone is kind? What are the characteristic traits of behavior? Kindness is generally thought of as the quality of being friendly, considerate, and generous. A kind person considers the
The Ethics of Kindness Read More »
Calling out the Cancel Culture I have previously blogged about the cancel culture and implications for free speech. The overall ethical question is: Is it right to target a person with whom you disagree, and use the Internet to express your outrage, get people fired, or push them out of certain circles? Canceling someone can lead
We Have Diversity in Society and the Workplace but Not in Thought 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 for some time. During the
Closing the Gap Between the Haves and Have Nots: A Call for Compassionate Capitalism Read More »