Business in America has historically been dominated by males with a corporate attitude that is more about money and less about nurturing employees. Since World War II women have been of growing importance to businesses, but corporate policies and state and federal laws have not adequately reflected that working mothers face particularly troublesome trade-offs between work and family. This paper will survey some of the important legal areas affecting employees who are either pregnant or have small children. The author concludes that more should be done through legislation to protect female employees who are either pregnant or care for small children. Doing so will provide corporate America with a greater supply of experienced and qualified workers and make work life more palatable for working women.

Estate taxes have had a long history in the United States. Taxation of estates and gifts has long tried to meet three important fiscal, political, economic, and sociological goals, namely, to raise revenue, to redistribute the wealth, and to limit large concentrations of wealth. The Economic Growth and Taxpayers Relief and Reconciliation Act of 2001 drastically changed estate taxation in the U.S. by greatly increasing the estate tax exemption, lowering the top tax rate, and repealing the estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes in 2010. A sun setting provision in federal budgetary law revives both of these taxes in 2011 and applies the law as it stood before the 2001 Act. This situation is untenable. This paper discusses the history of estate taxation and the problems with the estate tax regime as it now exists and may or may not exist for the years 2009-2011, the issues from a policy perspective that should be addressed, and proposals, including the authors', for reforming the estate tax system in the U.S.

This paper describes the positions taken by the fifty-four state boards of accountancy, the NASBA, the AICPA, and the AACSB concerning the business law education of accounting graduates. It then compares the findings of a 1993 survey of business law professors with a 2005 survey of business law professors concerning their perceptions of business law curricula. The surveys included questions concerning the respondent’s perceptions of curricular content, importance of substantive law topics, integration of business law into accounting programs, and the quality of legal training accounting students receive. Finally, the paper compares the perceptions and actions of business law professors with those of the major accounting organizations. The study finds that the major accounting organizations treat business law as a field of general business knowledge with decreasing relative importance to accounting graduates. It finds that a large majority of business law professors feel a responsibility to prepare their accounting students for their careers in public accounting but have adopted business curricula more consistent with the goals and objectives of the AACSB. It recommends that business law professors join together with accounting professors in teaching and in scholarship to make the relevance of business law more transparent to both accounting graduates and practicing accountants.

This study reports the findings of a survey of accounting chairpersons concerning their perceptions of the purpose and content of law courses in the undergraduate business curriculum in the United States of America. It identifies the types of legal courses offered and required at their institutions. The respondents rank the importance of those legal topics most recently tested on the redesigned CPA examination and similarly rank the importance of those topics not currently covered by the new CPA examination. The study examines the extent to which accounting chairs believe that undergraduate business law curricula should prepare accounting students to pass the CPA examination. The study identifies the extent to which accounting chairpersons feel their business law curricula are successfully preparing their students for careers in public and nonpublic accounting. Finally, analysis is made of the significance of business law education to foreign accountants who desire to become CPAs.

Balanced scorecards became a popular strategic performance measurement and management tool in the 1990s by Robert Kaplan and David Norton. Mainline companies accepted balanced scorecards quickly, but health care organizations were slow to adopt them for use. A number of problems face the health care industry, including cost structure, payor limitations and constraints, and performance and quality issues that require changes in how health care organizations, both profit and nonprofit, manage operations. This article discusses balanced scorecards generally from theoretical and technical views, and why they should be used by health care organizations. The authors argue that balanced scorecards are particularly applicable to hospitals, clinics, and other health care companies. Finally, the authors perform a case study of the development, implementation, and use of balance scorecards by a regional Midwestern health care system. The positive and negative aspects of the subject’s balanced scorecard are discussed. Leaders in today’s health care industry are under great pressure to meet their financial goals. The industry is faced with financial pressures from consumers, insurers, and governments. Inflation in the industry is much higher than it is within the overall economy. Employers can no longer bear the burden of rising group health insurance costs for its employees. Too many large companies have used bankruptcy law as a shield to reduce or shift some of their legal obligations to provide health insurance coverage to present or retired employees. Stakeholders of health care providers are demanding greater control over costs. As the segment of un- or underinsured within the United States becomes larger as a percentage of the population, voters are seriously beginning to demand some form of national health insurance, which will drastically change the health care industry. Key words: balanced scorecard, performance measures, integrated delivery systems, financial goals.