Here is an article hitting the panic button that the green shoots of recovery will be smothered by  ohmigosh, rising oil prices.  This has it exactly backwards. If the writer critically examined his or her own comments $35 oil in fact occurred amidst a smash in global equity prices and an economic meltdown. $145 oil…

The Hill brings us the Congressional Budget Office estimate  on the Health Care Bill. Now remember this is really not about providing anyone with a health care bill health care is fine it is the payment system that is under attack. This is about a Congressional grab for power over 18% of the economy.  Lasik…

Ed Whitacre becomes the new Chairman of GM. Interestingly he was CEO of SW  Bell that acquired ATT and a total of $285 B of companies along the way.  While he does not know the car industry he does not Washington DC which at the moment is a lot more important. And he is from Texas. …

The first part of this article explains what financial institutions have been doing in accounting for their supposed gains in various derivatives. We will be discussing derivatives in Intermed II, start reading. Essentially the companies are booking profits today, and borrowing to pay bonuses and dividends even though they have not received any cash. This…

the New Compensation Czar has been appointed. Expect teh government to meddle in all sorts of issues related to 'pay.' like where they guys and gals and live and certainly when they can fly if at all on the company plane. This is ridiculous, the company plane allows one to get to smaller cities where plants can be operated more economically and…

Here is a look at the latest version of Kindle. Amazon has its second electronic book out and it is selling. Why should you be interested?  The college textbook companies would like to eliminate the bookstore. After the publisher sells the book once, there is no more chance to make money on the used book…

Adam Dupnik made this suggestion you might have missed on the blog.  Dont forget Mania's,Panics,and Crashes by Charles P Kindleberger.This is a great book for anyone who wants to read about the history of financial crises. The book goes back as far as the dutch tulip bulb bubble back in 1636 along with other bubbles…

DeLoitte  offers a good webpage of IFRS resources, take a look, this is reality by 2012. 

I discuss the importance of Design on these pages. Here a Business Week article looks at  innovation.  It seems to me that the USA has frittered away a lot of opportunity. Money has been borrowed to build houses and more is being borrowed to keep people in those houses they cannot afford. This is hardly…

As one of my PhD professors observed, it is interesting to just go round the table and ask everyone what they have read lately. Students have reported on a number of interesting books including  Blue Ocean, Black Swan, Gladwell's recent best sellers, or the Panic of 1907. For ideas business and investing is a search…