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see the attached files, for all the steps and the article, pick any business any article and summarize the article, single space one page
Current Event
“When Facebook’s Success is Bad for Society”, Mims, Jan. 7
1. What are your views of Mark Zuckerberg’s pledge to “fix” Facebook, and try to address the fact that it is “psychologically addictive and harmful to society”? Do you think he is correct to listen to investors and former executives? Do you think he is correct to address this directly?
2. Zuckerberg has said he will hire more content moderators to deal with fake news and Russian influence. Do you think Zuckerberg should go one step further to change algorithms on behalf of user’s mental health? Why or why not?
“Former KPMG Executives Charged with Conspiracy”, O’Brien, Michaels, and Rapoport, Jan 22
3. What steps would you recommend to prevent this conspiracy from happening in the future?
4. The author mentions this situation is similar to “stealing the exam”. How is this case similar to stealing the exam? Could you also argue this is similar to “Insider trading”, why or why not?
5. Find any current business article and summarize in 8 sentences or more. Please cite source, title, author and date.
CURRENT EVENT EXAMPLE (first article is assigned, second article is also assigned, last article you find on your own to summarize – do NOT use first or second article to summarize)
1. What is different about new iPhone? Apple is offering many upgrades in the new phone, such as battery life, better camera, more storage, and brighter screens. I believe that these enhancements are incremental versus revolutionary. This is one of the first times in recent history that the iPhone has not under gone a major design change.
2. How are pricing strategies of wireless carriers affecting sales? Pricing strategies of wireless carriers have resulted in declining iPhone sales recently. The strategy that affected this is that it is more expensive to upgrade your phone and people are keeping their old iPhones longer because they do not see big improvements in newer versions. This could have long lasting consequences on the industry.
3. What is WAZE? Google acquired WAZE in 2013. WAZE provides real time driving conditions from other drivers. Google is planning on having different drivers from the same companies communicate with each other regarding morning and after work commutes. They are able to share information relatively easily through WAZE.
4. Talk about role of driverless cars. The role of driverless cars at Google and Uber are attempting to revolutionize the way we use transportation. One of the main goals of driverless cars is safety. There still is much testing to be done until driverless cars are in the marketplace on a regular basis. Other companies who are pursuing this technology include GM, Ford, and Tesla.
5. Article summary – Wall Street Journal, “Global Air Travel Continues to Grow”, Cowan, Sept. 18, 2015.
According to many industry experts, air travel has grown tremendously in the last ten years. This makes sense as the economic times have been relatively good in most parts of the world. There are many new airlines in Asia which have increase the supply of flights. There are some areas of uncertainty in terms of growth of air travel. One such area is Europe where Britain’s vote to exit the European Union could decrease air travel between countries. Also, the rise of terrorist attacks around the world may keep more people closer to home. While this could cause some in the airline business to lower expectations, there are still plenty of growth opportunities in China where the number of people now able to afford air travel has increased. Oil prices also affect air travel, which has helped with keeping costs lower.
1/27/2018 Zuckerberg’s Dilemma: When Facebook’s Success Is Bad for Society – WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/will-facebook-sacrifice-billions-in-revenue-to-save-its-users-1515326401 1/8
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/willfacebooksacrificebillionsinrevenuetosaveitsusers1515326401
TECH KEYWORDS
Zuckerberg’s Dilemma: When Facebook’s
Success Is Bad for Society
Facebook’s chief has signaled he will do what it takes to curb the social network’s negative e�ects—but
how far will he go?
|
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with entrepreneurs and innovators at a round-table discussion in St. Louis on
Nov. 9. PHOTO: JEFF ROBERSON�ASSOCIATED PRESS
1/27/2018 Zuckerberg’s Dilemma: When Facebook’s Success Is Bad for Society – WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/will-facebook-sacrifice-billions-in-revenue-to-save-its-users-1515326401 2/8
When scientists started linking cigarettes to cancer, the tobacco industry silenced
them—only acknowledging the extent of the truth decades later, under legal duress.
Imagine if, instead, they had given these researchers license to publish papers, or even
taken the information to heart and crippled their own moneymaking machines for the
good of their addicted users.
No one has accused Facebook of causing cancer, but Mark Zuckerberg now
stands at a similar crossroads.
In the face of pressure brought by a growing roster of Facebook investors and former
executives, many of whom have publicly stated that Facebook is both psychologically
addictive and harmful to democracy, the Facebook founder and chief executive has
pledged to “fix” Facebook by doing several things, including “making sure that time
spent on Facebook is time well spent.”
Mr. Zuckerberg has also recently told investors he wants his company “to encourage
meaningful social interactions,” adding that “time spent is not a goal by itself.”
So here’s the multibillion-dollar question: Is he willing to sacrifice revenue for the well-
being of Facebook’s two-billion-plus users?
Mr. Zuckerberg has already said the company will hire so many content moderators to
deal with fake news and Russian interference that it will hurt profit, but whether he
will go further and change the basic fabric of Facebook’s algorithms in the name of
users’ mental health, he has yet to say.
Jan. 7, 2018 7�00 a.m. ET
By
Christopher Mims
FB 1.34% ▲
1/27/2018 Zuckerberg’s Dilemma: When Facebook’s Success Is Bad for Society – WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/will-facebook-sacrifice-billions-in-revenue-to-save-its-users-1515326401 3/8
Clearly, Facebook, a company Mr. Zuckerberg started when he was in college, has
changed so much that even its creator is playing catch-up to the reality of its globe-
spanning power.
In June, he changed the company’s mission from “connecting” the world to bringing
the world closer together. He said he used to think giving people a voice would make
the world better on its own, “but our society is still divided. Now I believe we have a
responsibility to do even more.”
In December, Facebook researchers surveyed the scientific literature and their own
work and publicly acknowledged that while direct communication and sharing
between individuals and small groups on Facebook can have positive effects, merely
lurking and scrolling through others’ status updates makes people unhappy.
In a survey conducted in early 2017, the U.K.-based Royal Society for Public Health
asked 1,500 young people to evaluate the five biggest social networks, to measure
whether they are good or bad for mental health. The results showed all but one service
Facebook researchers have acknowledged that while direct sharing between individuals and small groups on
Facebook can have positive e�ects, merely scrolling through others’ updates makes people unhappy. PHOTO:
ISTOCK
1/27/2018 Zuckerberg’s Dilemma: When Facebook’s Success Is Bad for Society – WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/will-facebook-sacrifice-billions-in-revenue-to-save-its-users-1515326401 4/8
had a negative effect on mental health. Facebook, Twitter , Snapchat and the Facebook-
owned Instagram all pushed survey participants to contrast their lives with others, a
phenomenon known as social comparison. The exception was YouTube, in part because
the dynamic is usually one-to-many communication, with person-to-person socializing
happening in comments.
Another study, conducted by researchers at Tel Aviv University, also established that
Facebook can cause people to feel their own lives don’t measure up to those of others.
Interestingly, the effect is especially pronounced in young people, but diminishes with
age: It was virtually nonexistent in those over age 30, says Ohad Barzilay, one of the
researchers.
Social networks can also make us miserable by convincing us that whenever we’re
away from our friends, we’re missing out on social bonding occurring among them,
says Jacqueline Ri�in, a Ph.D. candidate at Duke University who collaborated on a
Researchers in a survey of young people early last year found four of the �ive biggest social networks—Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat—prompted users to engage in social comparison, contrasting their own lives with
others’. Shown, Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel, in Cannes, France, in June 2015. PHOTO: ZUMA PRESS
1/27/2018 Zuckerberg’s Dilemma: When Facebook’s Success Is Bad for Society – WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/will-facebook-sacrifice-billions-in-revenue-to-save-its-users-1515326401 5/8
study of the fear of missing out, or FOMO. The misery can kick in even if what we are
experiencing—an awesome vacation, perhaps—is objectively better than what our
friends are up to.
Ms. Ri�in’s work indicates that FOMO isn’t about envy but something far more primal:
If our kith and kin are bonding without us, we might soon find ourselves left out of the
tribe.
Studies suggest that how much you use social media is at least as significant as how
you use it. This has been true of everything humans consume for all of history, so it is
hardly a surprise.
“Let’s pretend that one of the findings that comes out of this research is that the best
thing for people would be to batch their Facebook use and only look at it once a week,”
says Robert Kraut, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who has studied online
communities for more than 20 years and has collaborated with researchers at
Facebook, publishing work derived from Facebook’s own data. “What would be the
business consequence if the research came to that conclusion?”
We might soon find out. Facebook likely has the power to push us away from harmful
ways of using the service—if it wants to. Facebook already uses some of the most
sophisticated artificial intelligence known to humanity to stimulate us to “engage”
with its product and advertisements. Facebook’s public statements indicate it thinks it
can use those same tools to keep users from overindulging.
Facebook already is taking steps to change parts of its service—primarily the News
Feed, the beating heart of Facebook’s success since its introduction in 2006. As
outlined in a recent blog post by the company’s chief researcher, those steps include
things that Facebook itself believes will reduce engagement on the service, including
hiding clickbait and fake news and promoting posts from friends.
1/27/2018 Zuckerberg’s Dilemma: When Facebook’s Success Is Bad for Society – WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/will-facebook-sacrifice-billions-in-revenue-to-save-its-users-1515326401 6/8
1/27/2018 Zuckerberg’s Dilemma: When Facebook’s Success Is Bad for Society – WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/will-facebook-sacrifice-billions-in-revenue-to-save-its-users-1515326401 7/8
Conveniently, Facebook is now pushing the aspects of its services that it and others
argue are better for our mental health. As users continue to share less of their own lives
on Facebook, the social network is pushing them to join and use its Groups function.
The company is also showing more ads in its Messenger app, one of the places where
the person-to-person communication it suddenly favors takes place.
Facebook is built on the idea of bringing the world closer together, as its mission
statement so boldly pronounces. The irony that Mr. Zuckerberg must confront is that
the very means of that connection—what the company euphemistically calls
engagement, but which experts say is more accurately described as addiction—appears
to be detrimental to the humans whose thriving he seems earnestly to want to
promote. Unlike CEOs who in the past were confronted with the harms of their
products, Mr. Zuckerberg seems more ready to acknowledge them.
Facebook might well live up to Mr. Zuckerberg’s stated goals. Or, it could bow to
economic logic: In the first nine months of 2017 alone, the company’s “engaging” News
Feed algorithm helped drive revenue up 47%.
Write to Christopher Mims at christopher.mims@wsj.com
Can families learn to live in harmony with technology? Join the conversation in our new
Facebook group: Parenting in the Age of Tech
Appeared in the January 8, 2018, print edition as ‘Facebook’s Mr. Fix-It Confronts
Dilemma.’
Copyright ©;2017 Dow Jones &; Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
This copy is for your personal, noncommercial use only. To order presentationready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit
http://www.djreprints.com.
A screenshot of a vacation post on Instagram. PHOTO: INSTAGRAM
1/27/2018 Zuckerberg’s Dilemma: When Facebook’s Success Is Bad for Society – WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/will-facebook-sacrifice-billions-in-revenue-to-save-its-users-1515326401 8/8
1/27/2018 Former KPMG Executives Charged With Conspiracy – WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/former-kpmg-executives-charged-with-conspiracy-1516640050 1/6
At KPMG LLP, prosecutors say, the revolving door spun out of control.
Starting in 2015, the giant accounting firm wanted badly to improve its standing in the
eyes of its regulator. But when KPMG recruited employees from its overseer, a scandal
emerged over leaks of confidential information that resulted Monday in the
indictments of five people on fraud and conspiracy charges.
Authorities likened it to “stealing the exam”: Employees of the Public Company
Accounting Oversight Board, the main regulator of the audit industry, gave KPMG
DOW JONES, A NEWS CORP COMPANY
DJIA ▲ 26616.71 0.85% Nasdaq ▲ 7505.77 1.28% U.S. 10 Yr ▼ 0�32 Yield 2.662% Crude Oil ▲ 66.24 1.11% Euro ▲ 1.2427 0.24%
This copy is for your personal, noncommercial use only. To order presentationready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/formerkpmgexecutiveschargedwithconspiracy1516640050
MARKETS
Former KPMG Executives Charged With
Conspiracy
Six accountants were accused of arranging to obtain and misuse con�idential information about
regulator’s plans to inspect audits
Updated Jan. 22, 2018 8�10 p.m. ET
By Rebecca Davis O’Brien, Dave Michaels and Michael Rapoport
1/27/2018 Former KPMG Executives Charged With Conspiracy – WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/former-kpmg-executives-charged-with-conspiracy-1516640050 2/6
executives advance peeks at the secret lists of KPMG audits the PCAOB planned to
review during annual inspections of the firm, prosecutors alleged in an indictment
unsealed Monday.
That information would have enabled KPMG to better prepare for the inspections, an
important report card of the firm’s performance. As the scheme unraveled, accountants
deleted messages, and considered hiding their communications using prepaid
“burner” phones and codes over Instagram, prosecutors said.
David Middendorf, a former KPMG national managing partner, and Thomas Whittle
and David Britt, both former audit partners at KPMG, were charged with conspiracy
and wire fraud, according to Monday’s indictment. So were Cynthia Holder, who
inspected KPMG for the PCAOB before joining the firm in 2015, and Jeffrey Wada, a
former PCAOB inspector.
A sixth person charged in the scheme, Brian Sweet —who also inspected KPMG for
PCAOB before joining the firm—pleaded guilty earlier this month to conspiracy,
David Britt, left, leaves federal court after his arraignment in New York on Monday. PHOTO: MARK KAUZLARICH
FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
1/27/2018 Former KPMG Executives Charged With Conspiracy – WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/former-kpmg-executives-charged-with-conspiracy-1516640050 3/6
according to a
document unsealed
Monday.
According to court
filings, Mr. Sweet
took confidential
PCAOB documents with him when he went to work for KPMG in 2015, and continued to
acquire—with the help of at least two other board employees—and share PCAOB
information with KPMG executives through early 2017.
“In stepping up and cooperating with federal officials, Mr. Sweet has taken the first
step toward redressing his mistakes,” said Richard Morvillo, a lawyer for Mr. Sweet.
An attorney for Mr. Middendorf said his client would defend himself against the
charges. A lawyer for Mr. Britt said the former KPMG partner was innocent of any
criminal charges.
Lawyers for the other defendants couldn’t be reached for comment.
Ms. Holder and Messrs. Sweet, Middendorf, Whittle and Britt were all “separated
from” KPMG around March or April of 2017, according to the indictment. In addition,
Scott Marcello, who headed KPMG’s audit practice and isn’t among the defendants, was
also fired, the Journal reported last year. Mr. Marcello didn’t respond to requests for
comment Monday.
RELATED COVERAGE
Government Cleans House at Audit Regulator (Dec. 12)
How Did KPMG Audit Chief Scott Marcello Fall From Grace? (April 16)
KPMG Fires Partners Over Leak of Audit Regulator’s Confidential Plan (April 11)
READ THE UNSEALED FEDERAL INDICTMENT
United States of America v. David Middendorf, Thomas Whittle, David Britt, Cynthia Holder, and Jeffrey
Wada
United States of America v. Brian Sweet
1/27/2018 Former KPMG Executives Charged With Conspiracy – WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/former-kpmg-executives-charged-with-conspiracy-1516640050 4/6
Manuel Goncalves, a KPMG spokesman, said in a statement that the firm promptly
notified the authorities when it learned of the leaking and has been fully cooperating
with the investigation. The firm “took swift and decisive action,” he said, including
firing the individuals involved, and has since “taken remedial action to assure that such
conduct cannot happen again.”
According to the indictment, Mr. Sweet arrived at KPMG in May 2015 armed with inside
information from the PCAOB, and KPMG executives wasted no time asking him for it.
At a welcome lunch in Mr. Sweet’s first week of work, Mr. Middendorf asked Mr. Sweet
about upcoming KPMG inspections.
Later that week, Mr. Middendorf told Mr. Sweet to remember where his paycheck came
from, and urged him to be loyal to KPMG, according to the indictment. At around that
time, Mr. Whittle allegedly asked Mr. Sweet for a copy of the PCAOB list of inspections.
KPMG executives urged Mr. Sweet to help recruit others from the PCAOB,
including Ms. Holder, who according to the indictment lied to the board’s ethics
office about pursuing employment at the firm, allowing her to continue working on
KPMG-related matters. At Mr. Sweet’s request, Ms. Holder provided him with an
internal PCAOB report, among other confidential materials, according to the
indictment. She began working at KPMG in August 2015, according to SEC records.
Prosecutors say Ms. Holder soon drew Mr. Wada into the alleged scheme. In November
2015, Mr. Wada gave Ms. Holder the date of a PCAOB inspection of a KPMG matter in
Japan, according to the indictment. He also alerted her to a fraud risk in another
matter, which allowed KPMG to prepare an answer for why the firm hadn’t seen it.
Mr. Wada, too, hoped to leave the PCAOB, prosecutors say. In January 2017, according
to the indictment, he emailed Ms. Holder to lament that he hadn’t gotten a promotion.
“God this place sucks,” Mr. Wada wrote. “Please let me know what else you need from
me.”
1/27/2018 Former KPMG Executives Charged With Conspiracy – WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/former-kpmg-executives-charged-with-conspiracy-1516640050 5/6
He attached a copy of his résumé.
The PCAOB began investigating the leaks last year.
In February, as investigators began zeroing in, Ms. Holder and Messrs. Sweet and Wada
took steps to cover their tracks, according to the indictment. Among other measures,
Ms. Holder suggested she and Mr. Sweet obtain untraceable “burner” prepaid
cellphones to communicate, the indictment says. The two also agreed that either one
could signal that they wanted to communicate with the other by posting a photo on
Instagram related to a specific college football team, after which they would dial in to a
designated KPMG conference call number, according to the indictment.
William Duhnke, the PCAOB’s chairman, said in a statement that the board will conduct
an review of its information technology and security controls as well as its compliance
and ethics protocols.
The PCAOB inspects the biggest accounting firms each year, evaluating a sample of
each firm’s most challenging audits to assess their performance and their compliance
with auditing standards. The inspections are aimed at helping the firms improve their
own audits and don’t lead to any penalties, but the results are widely viewed as a
barometer of whether the quality of audits is getting better or worse.
The PCAOB’s 2016 report on the inspection of KPMG—one of the inspections for which
the clients’ identities was allegedly leaked—hasn’t been released by the PCAOB, though
the same year’s reports for the other three Big Four firms have been.
Messrs. Whittle and Britt appeared in magistrate court in Manhattan Monday and were
released on bond. The others made initial appearances in other states, according to a
spokesman for the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office.
The Securities and Exchange Commission also announced civil charges Monday
against the defendants. Mr. Sweet has already agreed to settle the SEC’s claims and
1/27/2018 Former KPMG Executives Charged With Conspiracy – WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/former-kpmg-executives-charged-with-conspiracy-1516640050 6/6
was permanently barred from auditing the financial statements of public companies,
according to an SEC order.
Write to Rebecca Davis O’Brien at rebecca.obrien@wsj.com, Dave Michaels at
dave.michaels@wsj.com and Michael Rapoport at Michael.Rapoport@wsj.com
Appeared in the January 23, 2018, print edition as ‘Former KPMG Executives Charged.’
Copyright ©;2017 Dow Jones &; Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
This copy is for your personal, noncommercial use only. To order presentationready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit
http://www.djreprints.com.
