Professor Elam
Accounting & Investing Info for San Antonio A & M
about
Category: Financial Acct
-
Monday Oct 3, 2011 I used American Airlines AMR as an example of a weak balance sheet in class. I the ACCT 3301 TR class someone asked who would lend them money, good question! Surprisingly the demand for airline bonds is still strong. Selling bonds to finance the aircraft is about the same as signing the long…
-
Monday Oct 3, 2011 October is the worst month of the year for stocks. 1929, 1987, and 2008 all experienced October meltdowns. The 1974 low was delayed until December. Investors have fled the market no doubt fearing the worst. Is there worse to come? I have been commenting in class that this will be an interesting semester…
-
Tues Sept 27, 2011 We are studying merchandising companies in ACCT 3301. I mentioned that the Gross Margin percentage is closely watched by such companies. To see what I mean in class I will demonstrate the difference among different firms. But why wait, you can log into finance.yahoo.com and compare for your self. How does…
-
Tuesday Sept 27, 2011 Eastman Kodak used to be one of the Dow's Bluest Chips-no more. Monday EK shed a quarter of its diminishing stock value. Its bonds trade for 47 cents on the dollar. We are studying financial statements in class. You have heard me say that the cash flow statement is the most important of…
-
Monday Sept 19, 2011 UBS has responded that there is nothing one can do to stop someone with criminal intent. Please read this response posted on Business Insider. The comment that one should not put someone from the back office,the area that processes trades, into the front office, the area that executes trades. As noted this…
-
Sunday Sept 18, 2011 The Briscoe Western Art Museum is still a work in progress. As a college graduate you will no doubt become involved in some non-profit activities. Don't be afraid to ask the tough questions about accounting and budgets. Here is an example of what happens when no one asks. Costs have soared…
-
Sunday Sept 18, 2011 As one professor at Texas State observed to me, all schools want to be something they aren't. Accounting gives you the tools to consider and evaluate decisions. And so we look at a case in point, the desire for Incarnate Word to move from Division Two Athletic Status to Division One B.…
-
Thursday Sept15, 2011 UBS has reported a loss of some $2 Billion due to unauthorized ( and I might add unsuccessful) trades by someone in their London Office. So much for the security of Swiss banks! Please read this article as it details the recent international banking problems, as well as the concern of the…
-
Tuesday Sept 13, 2011 In Acct 3301 Monday I discussed the process of extending credit to customers. I mentioned that one has to do an aging of receivables to stay on top of this. Once an account is over 90 days delinquent it is hard to collect. In today's WSJ (have you subscribed yet?) the…
-
Monday Sept 12, 2011 An alert TAMU SA student brought this article on McGraw Hill to my attention. Please read it as we will discuss this in class. Why did the shareholders want it to split to four companies? Why did MH say two was the right number? How does splitting the company result in…
Professor Elam 