What are the consequences of reading with the interactivity of the Internet? Researchers warn that people seem to be developing digital brains with new circuits for skimming through the torrent of information online and this is actually competing with our traditional deep reading circuitry. Questions: 1. How do you think that this could impact auditors… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Financial Accounting
Private Student Loan Changes
With over 90 percent of private loans being co-signed, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is urging private lenders to ease automatic default rules on student loans. Complaints have risen dramatically within the last five months concerning the trigger of a default when a co-signer of a student loan dies or declares bankruptcy, even if… Read more »
Antitrust Hiring Suit Settlement by Technology Companies
Approximately 64,000 engineers won a victory over their technology companies, but did not win much money. At issue, a class action suit claimed, was an agreement by the four technology giants – Google, Intel, Adobe and Apple – not to poach each others’ employees. The engineers argued that this private old boy’s network agreement caused… Read more »
The Fine Print of Reverse Mortgages
Children of elderly borrowers are now learning how their parents’ reverse mortgages are threatening their own inheritances. Questions: 1. Under federal rules for reverse mortgages, what options are survivors suppose to be offered when their parents die? 2. All reverse mortgages require the borrower to pay into a federal insurance fund each month. What is… Read more »
Here’s a Warning for Dog Lovers!
Over approximately the last seven years (or 2,643 days), at least 600 dogs have died and thousands of others have been sickened by jerky treats. However, while the FDA has warned against this apparent link, the culprit has remained largely a mystery. Questions: 1. Have the illnesses only affected dogs? Why is the FDA limited… Read more »
Oh, to get a hole-in-one!
Matt Ramsey’s joy of winning the $10,000 prize for sinking a hole in one was not dashed by his own skills, but the scamming of Kevin Kolenda. Like other hole-in-one winners around the country, Matt learned that he was the victim of a scam whereby Kolenda sold insurance without a license in several states to… Read more »
Can you beat Nate Silver?
ESPN’s Nate Silver went on Sportscenter this morning and revealed his favorites for the Final Four. The prediction: • Louisville (#4 seed, Midwest region) • Florida (#1 seed, South region) • Arizona (#1 seed, West region) • Michigan State (#4 seed, East region) These are the favorites in each region according to Silver’s statistical model…. Read more »
Justice goes after “Rigged” rates
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has sued 16 big banks that set a crucial global interest rate, accusing them of fraud and conspiring to keep the rate low to enrich themselves. Questions: 1. Which banks are included in the suit? 2. What was the rate and for how long are they accused of rigging it?… Read more »
Seventeen police officers to ticket Gator fans?
Only 1,260 feet of Route 301 runs through Hampton, Florida, a city with a population of under 500. Yet between 2011 and 2012, Hampton officers wrote 12,698 speeding tickets. Now Hampton, an 89-year-old city, is fighting the state legislature threatening to wipe the town off the map, after a state audit last month uncovered significant… Read more »
Chiquita’s Big Deal
Chiquita Brands International that it had agreed to acquire Fyffes, an Irish fruit and produce distributor, in an all-stock deal that valued Fyffes at about $526 million. The new firm will be called ChiquitaFyffes and will be the world’s largest producer and distributor of bananas. It is expected that the firm will have about $4.6… Read more »