Social responsibility is not just about handing out money, or establishing a charity or a fund, said Huaqing Wang, assistant chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission and director-general of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), Shanghai office.

Managers, markets, and the many players who must contract with a firm: all three groups need credible information about companies. The financial statement — which includes the income statement, balance sheet and statement of cash flows — tells a compelling story when read as a whole.

"In real estate, if you keep yourself in front of long-term demographic trends, you will prosper," observes Christopher Cole, founder and chief executive of the Cole Companies, who received the Distinguished Achievement Award at the W. P. Carey undergraduate convocation recently.

CEOs' home purchases, stock sales and subsequent company performance management

Tortillas, and the corn used to make them, have been a Mexican staple for thousands of years. So it's no surprise that tens of thousands packed into Mexico City's central Zocalo plaza to protest a spike in the price of tortillas and other staple goods.

Phoenix, now the fifth largest city in the United States, could be the poster child for metropolitan areas where a bursting residential housing bubble has created economic discord.

The attitudes judges hold toward auditors have eroded since the accounting debacles of Enron, WorldCom and others earlier in the decade. Not only do judges have lesser views of auditors, they also have conflicting views with auditors.

There are plenty of judgment calls associated with accrual accounting, giving managers some wiggle room in recognizing expenses and income. But can investors spot the wiggle? Do they identify and price that discretionary portion of earnings correctly?

Since the turn of the millennium, real estate has become one of the fastest growing investment sectors, not just in the United States but globally as well. But as much as we would like to think otherwise, there's considerable risk involved in real estate investing.