October 2011 archive

$16 muffins were never the full story

The Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice just issued its revised audit report 11-43 regarding conference spending. Last month, this report received substantial press attention. The revision is explained as follows: This revised report supersedes the original version of the Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) report, “Audit of Department …

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Wrong Solyndra Participants are Being Investigated

On Friday, the White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley said that they appointed Mr. Herb Allison to investigate the Department of Energy loans that included Solyndra. Mr. Allison is a former president of Merrill Lynch and former chief executive of the insurance company TIAA-CREF. He led Fannie Mae when it was forced into a …

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SEC slaps FINRA

On October 27, the SEC announced that: The Securities and Exchange Commission today ordered the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to hire an independent consultant and undertake other remedial measures to improve its policies, procedures, and training … The SEC’s order finds that on Aug. 7, 2008, the Director of FINRA’s Kansas City District Office …

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Unemployment in a Global Perspective

The problem of rising unemployment during and after the Great Recession has a global character, as confirmed by data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The OECD’s report “Society at a Glance 2011 – OECD Social Indicators” shows that unemployment rates overall have increased across the globe. Despite a few exceptions to …

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Practical Lessons from the Oracle vs. SAP Damages Case

In early September 2011, a trial court ordered a new trial involving a jury verdict in which Oracle obtained a $1.3 billion verdict from SAP. By all accounts, Oracle’s verdict is (or actually, was) the largest ever awarded for copyright infringement. The Court summarized copyright damages law as follows: The Copyright Act allows recovery of …

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California Passes Tough Independent Contractor Law

On October 9, 2011, Governor Brown signed into law Senate Bill 459 regarding independent contractors. The law significantly increases the risks and penalties for misclassifying workers as independent contractors by imposing significant penalties on employers found to have engaged in a misclassification, as well as on non-lawyer advisors (like accountants) who advise an employer to …

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Steve Jobs and the Great Man Theory

Xerox Star Screen

The Great Man Theory is a view that was popularized in the 19th century.  It says that history is the result of a limited number of spectacular individuals who, by reason of charisma, wisdom, inteligence, or zeal, remade the world.   One of its key proponents, Thomas Charlyle, wrote: The history of the world is but the biography of …

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IRS amnesty regarding independent contractors deserves analysis

Many small businesses attempt to save taxes and employee benefit costs by classifying their workers as independent contractors. When business owners classify workers as independent contractors they do not pay the employer’s share of Social Security and Medicare costs, state employer taxes, state unemployment insurance taxes, and workers’ compensation insurance premiums. Independent contractors also do …

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