The story of David and Goliath is one most of us are familiar with. Goliath, the Bible character, as told in the Books of Samuel, is described as a giant Philistine warrior who was defeated by the young and small David, a shepherd and future king of the Israelites. No one would stand up to… [Read More]
Can Ethical Principles Become the New Norm?
Pick up a newspaper, read the headlines, turn on your TV set and the prevalent news relates to lying, cheating and stealing. Whether it regards our politicians, business professionals, or local leaders much of our daily input is negative. The trust we put in our elected officials, the media, bankers and business executives is at… [Read More]
ENRON Stands Unprecedented as the Poster Child of Blatant Corporate Fraud
In 2001, Enron, then the seventh largest company in the world and the most innovative company in America, whose stock prices doubled every three years, imploded. The American energy company based in Houston, Texas went from $100 billion in revenues and $1 billion in profit to bankrupt, leaving thousands out of work and with no… [Read More]
Speaking Out Has a Price… Are You Willing to Pay the Cost?
This week I had the opportunity to speak to the University of Nebraska at Omaha for their fifth annual Accounting Speaker Series. Close to two hundred accounting alumni as well as business school students taking ethics courses attended. Many of these young men and women would be auditing company books. Many would see red flags… [Read More]
Changing the World…One Student at a Time
The mission of the top ranked(#37 tied, U.S. News and World Report, 2017, #42 Bloomberg Businessweek, 2015) UT Dallas Jindal School full time MBA Program (FTMBA) is to develop cutting edge problem engineers who can think, plan and act strategically to solve complex business problems. My mission, as their speaker this last week was to instill the… [Read More]
Philosophy for Bankers…? How About Just Classes in Honesty and Ethics?
Several articles came across my desk this week. I found one especially intriguing, as it fits my frame of reference. It is a post by Ms. Yves Smith, commenting on an article “Can Philosophy Stop Bankers From Stealing?” by Lynn Parramore, a senior research analyst at the Institute for New Economic Thinking. Smith argues that the title might… [Read More]
Chicken Little was right – “the sky IS falling”!
Remember Chicken Little and her warning, the sky is falling? I sometimes feel like a Chicken Little, with my repeated warnings that the sky is indeed falling and here’s another example. Just last week I posted about my fellow Bank Whistlebowers United colleague Michael Winston’s interview with Gretchen Morgenson on the New York Times Facebook venue. I’m still… [Read More]
The DOJ Lemon Award – Go Directly to Jail!
William K. Black, a professor of Economics and Law, UMKC, a former financial regulator and author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank is To Own One, and one of our Bank Whistleblowers United (BWU) co-founders has decided we could “retire” our series of BWU Lemon Awards and permanently award “a Lemon” award to… [Read More]
Silence is Deadly. Lessons Learned.
The audience was primarily internal auditors at my presentation this week at the 11th Annual Fraud Summit, held at the University of Texas at Dallas, where I teach, sponsored by the Institute of Internal Auditors, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, and Information Systems Audit and Control Association. I talked about fraud and how as… [Read More]
The Goldman Sachs Takeover of the Fed!
With the Fed’s latest hiring of Neel Kashkari as President of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, Goldman Sach’s former executives will now hold 4 of the 5 Fed President’s seats on the very powerful Federal Open Markets Committee, which is responsible for the formulation of U.S. monetary policy. Before discussing concerns about these appointments, it would… [Read More]
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