Online Gambling, Leadership in Business vs. Politics and Corporate Accounting

1. NANNY STATE

The State of California is working to (partially) “legalize” online
gambling.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Policy Analyst Michelle Minton on how this
bill is the opposite of legalization – it actually decreases
the gambling sites to choose from.

“This type of restricted legalization is, not only offensive to defenders of
individual rights, open markets, or personal privacy, but also it just will not
work or do what [Sen. Rod] Wright and proponents hope it will.”

2. POLITICS

Former congressman Mickey Edwards writes on the
qualities of leadership necessary in business and politics.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: President Fred L. Smith compares and contrasts
the business
world with the political arena.

Business
cannot make utopian promises as government frequently does – social security,
universal health care, generous cost-of-living increases, a cure for cancer,
energy independence, zero pollution. And that lack of a metric can lead nations
– and certainly firms – to bankruptcy. The plights of Greece and Illinois, to
mention but two, are examples of the need for the ‘sustainability’ virtue that
business can offer to politics.”

3. LEGAL

The Supreme Court issues its ruling in
the case of Free Enterprise Fund v. Public
Company Accounting Oversight Board.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Episode 99 of the
LibertyWeek podcast hosted special guest Sam Kazman to discuss the
far reaching implications of the decision.

“Congress was in a huge hurry to show that it could proactively react to
Enron’s collapse, and so it enacted this sweeping regulatory law, one of whose
provisions was to set up a whole new agency overseeing accounting. And what
this agency, PCAOB, succeeded in doing was turning accounting from a minor
expense for most companies into an incredibly major expense….”