Almost every day, the business sections of our newspapers and television news broadcasts carry some kind of story dealing with ethical issues in accounting. Yet these sensational news stories may be only the tip of the iceberg. The larger mass of ethical problems in accounting consists of the many incidents that are never reported.

It is particularly important to understand that unethical behavior is usually determined using hindsight. "Why did you do that?" is a very common question after an action has been deemed unethical or wrong. Most decision makers never consider beforehand the ethical ramifications of their decisions. Often, they simply select the action that is indicated by an analysis based on a conventional business decision-making model.

One of the major benefits of studying ethics within this course and as a discussion is to benefit from the great diversity of our students. Individuals of differing backgrounds will bring different approaches and different values to our discussions. Differing approaches are good and combining the best aspects of several approaches can often produce a superior solution. Please be sure to read the comments carefully so that you understand the positions of other students in order to support them or argue against them.

The AICPA regularly discusses accounting issues in its publication, The Journal of Accountancy. We will be referring to this publication frequently during this course. As part of our first discussion, review and complete the ethics quiz posted at the journal website. After you have completed the quiz, review your own responses with the AICPA's responses.

CODE of Professional ConductIts attached

Please submit a 100-150 word summary of what you learned about "independence" in the accounting profession as your initial discussion document. You should also respond to at least two other student postings.