MBAs get schooled in ethics

This article is about a professor being blamed “for not teaching morality to MBA students”. That failure was the cause of the global financial meltdown. Business schools now respond to the crisis by changing their curriculums. For example, at Dartmouth, the Tuck School of Business now has a mandatory ethics and social responsibility requirement, the New England College of Business and Finance, which offers an online master’s in “business ethics and compliance”, and New York University’s Stern School of Business has added a class on policy responses to the financial crisis.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/16/news/economy/mbas_ethics_classes.fortune/index.htm

A Jobs Sigh of Relief

This article explicates on news about the job market. While people have the feeling that the economy is worsening, the news are revealing results of economic expansions of job creation. Yet, private hiring remains week, at more than 28 weeks, the average duration of unemployment is now longer than it has ever been, and overall employment is still down some 7.2 million from its 2007 peak.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704342404574576203733082212.html

Blue Cross Blue Patients

People are still trying to understand what the new healthcare system would be like.The article reveals results of another study, where the new plans will increase the price of health insurance. The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association has found that premiums in the individual market will rise on average by 54% over the status quo, which translates into an extra $3,341 a year for families and $1,576 for singles. Yet, the White House called that a triumph because the higher costs will be offset by taxpayer subsidies that will be transferred to the federal balance sheet.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704007804574574170859847850.html

Some Courts Raise Bar on Reading Employee Email

This article talks about a message corporations routinely send their employees about using email: “Big Brother is watching”. The privacy invasion has also been a debatable issue of why is it that employers have rights that are otherwise forbidden by the Constitution. The article points a recent case where the federal appeals court in San Francisco came down on the side of employee privacy, ruling employers that contract with an outside business to transmit text messages can’t read them unless the worker agrees. I hope that this sets an example for future cases, as nobody likes to be monitored at work.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125859862658454923.html#articleTabs%3Darticle

On Women and Working

As we have discussed in class, most of the time women have been subject to prejudice behavior when it comes to the workplace. This article is a book review about the most common biases and how we should cope with them. It tries to explain what it is about women that sometimes hold them back in business. For example, women tend to take criticism personally, rather than use feedback about poor performance as a source of insight and an aid to getting ahead. Women’s fear of speaking up in meetings allows men to dominate conversations, and (as studies show) women aren’t as adept at negotiating their compensation. Another obstacle on career advancement, according to the authors, is the tendency to build relationships based on friendship with like-minded individuals.

 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107104574572222069313480.html

Drinking age of 21 doesn’t work

The drinking age has always been a debatable issue. I believe that if a person under 21 years has the right to vote or can go the army then he or she can certainly has the right to a social drink. In many cases just because something is forbidden, it becomes an inducement. The result is, as point in this article, that “for each year studied, a greater percentage of 21- to 24-year-olds [those who were of course once 18, 19 and 20] engaged in binge drinking and driving under the influence of alcohol”.

 http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/16/mccardell.lower.drinking.age/index.html

Privacy is dead, and social media hold smoking gun

This article is about one of the newest technology innovations, a camera to capture every moment of a person’s life. It explicates that the images will be publicly shared otherwise they would not have any value. In addition, it points how Twitter and Facebook bring value to our lives. With thousands of Twitter followers and hundreds of Facebook friends people are reaching audiences to build their personal brand that makes them valuable asset to employers.

As a person that have acomplished my goals so far in  life without any of these services I am a bit concerned to what extend sharing our private information to the public will affect our lives.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/10/28/cashmore.online.privacy/index.html

The Flip Side of Placebos: The Nocebo Effect

The article is about a placebo and a nocebo study and attempts to explain the effect of taking pills. While placebo causes people to experience positive effect of a simple sugar pill, the nocebo is exactly the opposite. The nocebo can cause serious pain caused only by your subconscious mind. The responses to the study are still similar to previous studies. However, researchers noticed that in recent years the drug advertisement has caused consumers to expect more from drugs. Those expectations have made people feel better just for popping a pill. This in turn can cause serious health harm.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1929869,00.html

FDA warning: Don’t buy swine flu drugs online

This article advises people to use more caution when purchasing the H1N1 vaccine. It is not surprising that while some are in a serious health risk others will try to take advantage and make some money. 150 million represents the most aggressive projection of the number of people who could be infected this fall and winter, according to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. The most conservative projection is 90 million. 3% is the boost in 2010 earnings per share that GlaxoSmithKline is expected to receive from worldwide sales of the vaccine to prevent H1N1, according to Citigroup projections. So be careful when someone tries to sell you the vaccine.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/16/fda.medication.warning/index.html

Child Bombers – Afghan War’s Latest Weapon

This is one really sad article. How is it possible that something so immoral and malicious is performed so effortless?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/15/eveningnews/main5386052.shtml?tag=cbsnewsSectionsArea;cbsnewsSectionsArea.1