Business Ethos with EMU College of Business Dean David Mielke

Thursdays at 8:10 AM

Latest Business Ethos Segment:

September 2, 2010: Dr. Mielke – “Cleaning Up the Mortgage Mess” - The “Home AFfordable Modification Program” was established with the goal of providing mortgage relief for 3-4 million homeowners facing foreclosure.  18 months after the Treasury rolled out the progray, the goal has not been met.  Worse yet, it may have caused homeowners additional problems.

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Each Thursday Lucy Ann and Dr. Mielke discuss business ethos as it pertains to current events. Dr. Mielke says, “Making ethics the backbone of teaching makes sense not only because it’s the right thing to do but also because ethics is good for business.”

Ethics education has long been an important component of Eastern Michigan University’s College of Business curriculum. Ethos however, pertains to a culture and environment that not only fosters ethics but is also is based on a strong set of professional and personal values. The students, faculty and staff of the College of Business want to encourage and foster a professional business environment to serve as the foundation for business education.

A gift by the Merlanti family in 2001 provided the impetus to raise awareness of ethics in all we do. The gift was first used to establish the Merlanti Ethics seminar for students . In March 2006, the faculty of the College of Business decided that they wanted to develop a strong statement of the ethics and values that represents the foundation of the college. The resulting Ethos Statement is the first adopted by any business school in the country. It lists six values as the core for the college and is attached to every syllabus for every course offered by the College of Business.

College of Business
Eastern Michigan University
300 W. Michigan Avenue
473 Gary M. Owen Building
Ypsilanti, MI 48197
734.487.4140

Previous Business Ethos segments:

August 26 2010: Dr. Mielke – “What Do They Know…About YOU?” – The largest U.S. websites are installing new and intrusive consume tracking technologies on the computers of people visiting their sites – in some cases more than 100 at a time.  Dr. Mielke discusses the lightly-regulated industry of data-gatherers.

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August 19 2010: Dr. Mielke – The Aftermath of the Gulf Oil Spill: Who Did The right Thing? – Determining the cause of the well blowout, why the safety measures failed, and who do we blame and require to pay for the mess?

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August 12 2010: Dr. Mielke – “Saving Our Schools!” Or is it “Saving Our Schools?” - This week the U.S. House passed a state “bailout” bill for education and Medicaid.  The cost is another $26 billion with $10 billion allocated to education.  The Senate passed the bill last week.  Will this save jobs?  Dr. Mielke examines the strings attached to the bill.

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August 5 2010: Dr. Mielke – Phony Social Network Profiles: Can public schools punish students for online activities off the school grounds without infringing on the constitutional right to free speech?  Are people free to develop phony profiles or make untrue accusations online?  Are there limitations on free speech?  Here’s what Dr. Mielke thinks:

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July 29, 2010: Dr. Mielke talks about whether or not the University of MIchigan is an unfair competitor.  Listen below:

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July 22, 2010:

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July 15, 2010: Dr. Mielke addresses the ethical issues involved in President Obama’s recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).  A recess appointment is when the President appoints a senior federal official while Congress is in recess.  Berwick is a controversial figure who is outspoken about his “romantic” feelings towards the United Kingdom’s healthcare system.

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July 8, 2010: Is the SEC playing Russian Roulette?  Dr. Mielke discusses the role of the SEC to regulate publicly traded companies and how oversight of public stock offerings has become lax.

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July 1, 2010:

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June 24, 2010: Keeping up with the Jones’ (Act) – Dr. Mielke discusses the controversy over President Barack Obama’s decision not to waive the Jones Act during the BP oil spill disaster.  Suspending the law, even temporarily, would have allowed foreign vessels to to move into U.S. waters and between ports, which could have lead to foreign aid in handling the ongoing  catastrophe.

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May 13 , 2010: Regulation of the internet:  For the past decade the internet has been classified as an “information service”, and thus more lightly regulated than traditional phone service.  This has led to an explosion of new investment and web innovations.  But the Democrats and some companies like Google want more leverage over internet service providers like Time Warner and Verizon.

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May 6, 2010: How do we define “environmentally friendly”?  In a rush to be Green, we have companies which are pushing the envelope to increase sales and profits.

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April 29 , 2010:

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April 22 , 2010: Unemployment Compensation – Are extended unemployment benefits an incentive not to work?  An examination of how we pay for these benefits and their impact on the economy.

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April 15, 2010: Tech Company Recruitment Practices – Are the hiring practices of tech companies like IBM, Intel, Google, & Apple anti-competitive, and are they violating anti-trust laws?

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April 8, 2010:  Government Pay Boom - There is a growing inequality in the US.  It’s a 45% premium that government workers receive over the people in comparable jobs in the wealth-creating private sector of the US economy.  And the gap is growing.  According to the Bureau of Labor statistics from 1998 to 2008 public employee compensation grew 28.6% compared to 19.3% for private workers .

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April 1, 2010:   Little Known Tax Break in the Stimulus Bill – Should we be borrowing to give corporate tax breaks, adding to the deficit outside of the $787 billion stimulus bill?

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March 25, 2010:  National Broadband Plan - Is this another example of government “takeover”, to be added to health care and possibly the financial industry and energy (Cap and Trade)?  Should the FCC be moving to regulate an industry that is working well expanding service and investment and doing so by circumventing the standard process of regulation?

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March 18, 2010:  Deathbed Bonds – The ghoulish incentive investment managers have in soliciting terminally ill people.

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March 11, 2010: The Real Cost of Obamacare – If we strip out the double counting offsets of social security taxes, long term insurance premiums and Medicare “savings”, the real first full ten year cost of the proposed Health Care legislation results in a $460 billion deficit.  And that’s just the beginning.

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March 4, 2010 –

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February 25, 2010 – Toyota & The Recalls - Whether Toyota has been  covering up or improperly dealing with problems with their vehicles, Dr. Mielke also questions the involvement of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, U.S. Transportation Sec. Ray LaHood, and the possible conflict of interest for the federal government to pursue penalties on Toyota.

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February 18, 2010 -

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February 11, 2010 -

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February 4, 2010 - Runaway Subsidy Train: President Obama is awarding $8 Billion of stimulus money to plan and build high-speed rail projects in Florida and California and other routine passenger rail projects that are supposedly high speed. This includes Michigan for the Detroit-Ann Arbor route. Supporters say it is cost-effective, a green solution to airport and highway congestion, and can be profitable.  But what are the strings attached to these subsidies?

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January 28, 2010 - The States and the Stimulus:  The $200 billion in stimulus was supposed to save the states.  The states may be in an even worse situation this year and into the future.  Did the stimulus “Do the Right Thing”?  The estimate by the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priuorites estimates that the conbined deficits for 2010 and 2011 for the states will be $260 billion. Dr. Mielke tells us why the stimulus has hurt the states.

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January 21, 2010 - Who’s doing the right thing?  Dean Mielke says it’s not Washington, but he does point to the recent election in Massachusetts as a great example of the people doing the right thing.  Health care, the economy, jobs, deficits, taxes, stimulus – Dr. Mielke says the people are rising up and telling lawmakers enough already.

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