Upside or downside?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Information Systems, Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Ethical Dilemma, Financial Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Uncategorized.

According to the Washington Post, Purdue has acquired the for-profit Kaplan University to extend its reach into online and adult education, which some see as an unusual move for a public institution. Questions: 1. What were the benefits to Purdue of acquiring Kaplan? 2. What are the potential downsides of this acquisition for Purdue? 3…. Read more »

Salary and Class Inequality at the World Bank?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Information Systems, Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Ethical Dilemma, Financial Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

As outsourcing has become more common, even the World Bank is seeing its share of employee discontent about contract employees. Roughly half of those that work for the World Bank are consultants, brought on for fixed contracts that often end up being renewed over and over again. Across the bank’s offices worldwide, there are currently… Read more »

A Model of Innovation or Intimidation?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Information Systems, Accounting Principles, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Ethical Dilemma, Financial Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Uncategorized.

According to the New York Times, white-collar workers at Amazon are encouraged to tear apart one another’s ideas in meetings, toil long and late (emails arrive past midnight, followed by text messages asking why they were not answered), and held to standards that the company boasts are “unreasonably high.” The internal phone directory instructs colleagues… Read more »

Team Disney – Its a Small World After All

Posted by & filed under Accounting Information Systems, Accounting Principles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Video Updates.

Nothing could be worse than losing your job, except maybe being required to train your replacement. That is what happened in the Magical Kingdom when cheaper H-1B workers from an India outsourcing firm replaced about 250 U.S. employees at the end of January this year. Questions: 1. What explanation did Disney executives give for this… Read more »

The World of Drones

Posted by & filed under Accounting Information Systems, Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Fraud Accounting, IFRS, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Video Updates.

At a farm in Dublin, Ireland, Paul Brennan took a video that has gone viral for its creativity in using drones – rounding up sheep. Questions: 1. Put on your thinking cap. Is there any task that a drone could do in the future to assist the accountant or auditor? 2. Besides Amazon, what other… Read more »

How many 112 year olds are taking new jobs?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Information Systems, Accounting Principles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Fraud Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, Video Updates.

A recent audit of the Social Security Administration revealed that thousands of workers over the age of 100 applied through the U.S. government to verify their employment eligibility in recent years. Questions: 1. About how many active Social Security numbers in the Administration’s master file belong to people who are at least 112 years old?… Read more »

Credit Unions for Pot?

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, All Articles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

Since medical marijuana was legalized in Colorado in 2001 and recreational marijuana was legalized a year ago, sellers have had limited, if any, access to banking services. As a result, a group of other entrepreneurs in Colorado want to start the first-ever financial institution established specifically to serve the pot industry. Questions: 1. What are… Read more »

That’s the Walmart Way!

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An Oklahoma City Walmart is asking employees to donate food to help their coworkers make ends meet during the holiday season. The company drew criticism for similar employee food drives a year ago. Besides incurring a total public assistance cost of $6.2 billion per year, Walmart has been criticized for running a corporate charity called… Read more »

Separation of Power

Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Auditing, Financial Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

Netflix shareholders will vote on at the company’s annual meeting on Monday is a proposal by two public pension funds to separate the roles of chairman and chief executive. Both are held by Reed Hastings, Netflix’s co-founder. Questions: 1. Who are the backers of this corporate governance issue and why do you think they are… Read more »