Monday Feb 2 2015
Socionomics is he new predictive social science which focuses on social mood as the engine of change in society. These articles below reflect the attempt, at least the first one, to discern changes in social mood. The mood in Brazil is so rife with corruption that a complete top to bottom change would have to occur in both political and corporate leadership. Thinking a group this corrupt will change is naive. The same is true for El Salvador.
Regulators Focus on Culture Ihe front page headline in the WSJ today discusses the difficulty of defining culture. Is an organization ethical? Are there buzzwords like workaround that suggest employees are disregarding the rules?
We study corporate culture in ACCT 5308 as well as intermediate accounting. What does a firm do to establish the proper culture, monitor that and report results? Remember the tone starts at the top.
Petrobras Giant Spawns Colossal Mess Not long ago the acronym BRIC was coined to describe growth engines Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Today only India seems able to retain the mantel. As is so often the case, South American countries are rife with corruption and this article makes that clear. A photo in the actual WSJ shows a young lady displaying a sign outside Petrobras Headquarters
Petrobas, the Largest Corruption Scandal Ever
What is wrong, all the usual, bribes, pay offs, kickbacks, and of course a cozy monetary relationship with the ruling political party.
What to do now, no one knows.
Notably Russia's population has decreased from about 165 million when the Berlin Wall fell to about 135 million today. Life expectancy for males is a mere 59 years. the country is literally shrinking. I suspect in twenty years China will slowly assimilate Siberia and there will be nothing Russia can do about it.
China has had a huge run up in its stock markets, is that for real, or is Chinese future growth problematic with ghost cities and questionable accounting practices?
Speaking of Central America Mary O'Grady's column on Mondays highlights the latest usually depressing news from Central and South America. Today she notes America is funding repression of Americans in El Salvador.
In 1971 Woody Allen produced a spoof on South America he named his movie Bananas.. Back in the day this is the sort of film that would be shown on campus to stimulate discussion about such issues.
Allen's first three or four films back then were hilarious satires on the contemporary condition of the world. Since then he has done a series of movies that mean a lot to him but I don't now a soul that has seen one. Has anyone seen a recent Woody Allen movie?
You can not have the attitude,"do as I say not as I do". Corporate culture starts at the top and filters down from there. If the top is "working around" the rules, a lot of others will try to do the same...
Posted by: Luisa Adames | February 08, 2015 at 05:58 PM